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CENTENNIAL   HISTORY 

OF 

MISSOURI 

(THE  CENTER  STATE) 


One  Hundred  Years  in  the  Union 
I&20-ig2I 

By  WALTER  B.  STEVENS 


ILLUSTRATED 


VOLUME  I 


ST.  LOUIS— CHICAGO 

THE  S.  J.  CLARKE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1921 


Copyright,   lf"-^l, 

by 

THE    S.    J.    CLARKE    PUBLISHING    CO. 


TO  THE 

fenerations  of  iHiSKouri  Sfommliiti 

WHO   HAVE  WRITTEN   DAY   BY   DAY 

THE  HISTORY  OF  ONE  HUNDRED 

YEARS  OF  STATEHOOD 


The  State  Flag  of  Missoori 


Jefferson  on  the  Louisiana   Purchase 


"The  territory  acquired,  as  it  includes  all  the  waters  of  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi, 
has  more  than  doubled  the  area  of  the  United  States,  and  the  new  part  is  not  inferior  to 
the  old  in  soil,  climate,  productions  and  important  communications." — JeSerson  to  General 
Gates,  July  ijth,  1803. 

"On  this  important  acquisition,  so  favorable  to  the  immediate  interests  of  our  Western 
citizens,  so  auspicious  to  the  peace  and  security  of  the  nation  in  general,  which  adds  to  our 
country  territories  so  extensive  and  fertile,  and  to  our  citizens  new  brethren  to  partake  of 
the  blessings  of  freedom  and  self-government,  I  ofifer  to  Congress  and  our  country  my 
sincere   congratulations." — Jefferson  to  Congress,  January  i6th,  1S04. 

"Whilst  the  property  and  sovereignty  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  waters  secure  an  inde- 
pendent outlet  for  the  produce  of  the  Western  States,  and  an  uncontrolled  navigation 
through  their  whole  course,  free  from  collision  with  other  Powers,  and  the  dangers  to  our 
peace  from  that  source,  the  fertility  of  the  country,  its  climate  and  extent,  promise,  in  due 
season,  important  aids  to  our  Treasury,  an  ample  provision  for  our  posterity,  and  a  wide 
spread  for  the  blessings  of  freedom  and  equal  laws." — Jefferson  to  Congress,  October  17th, 
1803. 

"I  kiKiw  that  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  has  been  disapproved  by  some,  from  a  candid 
apprehension  that  the  enlargement  of  our  territory  would  endanger  our  Union.  But  can 
you  limit  the  extent  to  which  the  federative  principle  may  operate  effectively?  The  larger 
our  association,  the  less  will  it  be  shaken  by  local  passions ;  and  in  any  view,  is  it  not  bet- 
ter that  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Mississippi  should  be  settled  by  our  own  brethren  and 
children  than  by  strangers  of  another  family?  With  which  shall  we  be  most  likely  to  live 
in  harmony  and   friendly  intercourse?" — Jefferson's  Second  Inaugural  Address,  jSoj. 

"The  treaty  which  has  so  happily  sealed  the  friendship  of  our  two  countries  has  been 
received  here  with  general  acclamation.  Some  inflexible  federalists  have  still  ventured  to 
brave  the  public  opinion.  It  will  fix  their  character  with  the  world  and  with  posterity,  who, 
not  descending  to  the  other  points  of  difference  between  us,  will  judge  them  by  this  fact, 
so  palpable  as  to  speak  for  itself  in  all  times  and  places.  For  myself  and  my  country,  I 
thank  you  for  the  aids  you  have  given  in  it ;  and  I  congratulate  you  on  having  lived  to 
give  those  aids  in  a  transaction  replete  with  blessings  to  unborn  millions  of  men,  and  which 
will  mark  the  face  of  a  portion  on  the  globe  so  extensive  as  that  which  now  composes  the 
United  States  of  .\merica." — Jefferson  to  M.  Dupont  De  Nemours,  French  Minister,  Novem- 
ber 1st,  1803. 

"I  confess  I  look  to  this  duplication  of  area  for  the  extending  a  government  so  free 
and  economical  as  ours,  as  a  great  achievement  to  the  mass  of  happiness  which  is  to  ensue. 
Whether  we  remain  in  one  confederacy,  or  form  into  Atlantic  and  Mississippi  confed- 
eracies, I  believe  not  very  important  to  the  happiness  of  either  part.  Those  of  the  west- 
ern confederacy  will  be  as  much  our  children  and  descendants  as  those  of  the  eastern,  and 
I  feel  myself  as  much  identified  with  that  country,  in  future  time,  as  with  this:  and  did 
I  now   foresee  a  separation  at  some   future  day.  yet   I  should   feel  tlic  duty  and  the  desire 


viii  JEFFERSON  ON  THE  LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

to  promote  the  western  interests  as  zealously  as  the  eastern,  doing  all  the  good  for  both 
portions  of  our  future  family  which  should  fall  within  my  power." — Jefferson  to  Dr.  Priest- 
ley. January  Ji^lh,   iSt)4. 

JEFFERSON'S  LETTER   OF  CREDIT  TO   MERIWETHER  LEWIS 

Washington,  U.  S.  of  America,  July  4,   1803. 

Dear  Sir : 

In  the  journey  which  you  are  about  to  undertake  for  the  discovery  of  the  course  and 
source  of  the  Missouri,  and  of  the  most  convenient  water  communication  from  thence  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  your  party  being  small,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  you  will  encounter  con- 
siderable dangers  from  the  Indian  inhabitants.  Should  you  escape  those  dangers  and  reach 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  you  may  find  it  imprudent  to  hazard  a  return  the  same  way,  and  be 
forced  to  seek  a  passage  round  by  sea,  in  such  vessels  as  you  may  find  on  the  Western 
coast.  But  you  will  be  without  money,  without  clothes  and  other  necessaries ;  as  a  suffi- 
cient supply  cannot  be  carried  with  you  from  hence.  Your  resource  in  that  case  can  only 
be  in  the  credit  of  the  U.  S.,  for  which  purpose  I  hereby  authorize  you  to  draw  on  the 
Secretaries  of  State,  of  the  Treasury,  of  War  and  of  the  Navy  of  the  U.  S.,  according 
as  you  may  find  your  draughts  most  negotiable,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  money  or 
necessaries  for  yourself  and  your  men  And  I  solemnly  pledge  the  faith  of  the  United 
States  that  these  draughts  shall  be  paid  punctually  at  the  date  they  are  made  payable.  I 
also  ask  of  the  consuls,  agents,  merchants  and  citizens  of  any  nation  with  which  we  have 
intercourse  or  amity  to  furnish  you  with  those  supplies  which  your  necessities  may  call 
for,  assuring  them  of  honorable  and  prompt  retribution.  And  our  own  Consuls  in  foreign 
parts  where  you  may  happen  to  be,  are  hereby  instructed  and  required  to  be  aiding  and 
assisting  to  you  in  whatsoever  may  be  necessary  for  procuring  your  return  back  to  the 
United  States.  And  to  give  more  entire  satisfaction  and  confidence  to  those  who  may  be 
disposed  to  aid  you,  I,  Thomas  Jefferson,  President  of  the  United  States  o£  America,  have 
written  this  letter  of  general  credit  for  you  with  my  own  hand,  and  signed  it  with  my  name. 

Th.  Jeffkrso.v. 
To  Capt.  M erhvether  Lewis. 


'•     .JSi. 


■■^' 


STATUp;  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

The  work  of  Karl  Bitter.     Placed   in  the  arch  of  the  Jefferson  Memorial,  Forest  Park,  St. 

Louis,  by  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition 


One  Hundred  Years  of  Statehood 


When  Amos  Stoddard,  "the  American  Captain"  raised  the  flag  of  the 
United  States  at  St.  Louis  in  March,  1804,  the  population  of  Upper  Louisiana, 
as  it  was  then  called,  was  6,982  by  the  most  recent  census  of  the  Spanish 
governor,  Delassus.  This  included  all  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  north  of 
Louisiana.  Such  was  the  rush  of  settlers  to  the  new  acquisition  that  in  eight 
years  the  government  at  Washington  recognized  a  jxilitical  territory,  estab- 
lished I  capital  at  St.  Louis  and  organized  five  counties  with  a  legislature  and 
territorial  courts.  Six  years  later  the  Territory  of  Missouri,  growing  as  have 
few  other  subdivisions  of  the  United  States,  was  asking  statehood  and  admis- 
sion to  the  Union. 

Missouri's  travail  of  statehood  began  Jackson  Day,  1818.  On  the  anniver- 
sarj-  of  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans,  January  8th,  Congress  received  "petitions 
from  sundry  inhabitants  of  the  Territory  of  Missouri,  praying  that  the  said 
Territory  of  Missouri  may  be  erected  into  a  state,  and  admitted  into  the  Union, 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  states.  Three  years,  seven  months  and 
two  days  later  President  James  Monroe  issued  a  brief,  formal  proclamation 
announcing  that  "the  admission  of  the  said  state  of  Missouri  into  this  Union 
is  declared  to  be  complete."  Within  that  period  Missouri  framed  and  adopted 
a  constitution,  elected  and  organized  a  state  government. — executive,  legisla- 
tive and  judicial.  The  territorial  government  ceased  to  function  in  1820. 
United  States  senators  and  a  representative  were  elected  in  1820  and  presented 
their  credentials  to  Congress.  Presidential  electors  were  chosen  and  the  returns 
from  Missouri  were  given  quasi  recognition  when  the  electoral  returns  were 
canvassed  in  joint  session  of  Congress.  Statutes  were  enacted  and  became 
the  laws  of  the  State  of  Missouri.  And  yet  the  admission  into  the  Union  was 
not  "complete"  until  August  10,  of  1821.  In  this  condition,  anomalous  of  new 
states',  the  first  governor,  McNair.  justly  congratulated  70.647  Missourians  on 
their  capacity  for  self-government  while  Missouri  was  an  "American  repubh'c 
on  the  confines  of  the  Federal  Union." 

Mis.souri  became  the  Center  State  of  the  L'nion.  Two  states  south  is  the 
Gulf.  Two  states  north  is  the  Canadian  line.  Five  states  east  is  the  .\tlantic. 
By  the  same  count  of  commonwealths  westward  is  the  Pacific.  Missouri  is 
the  geographical  heart  of  the  Union.  But  more  than  in  geography  has  Mis- 
souri been  the  Center  State.  In  the  garb  of  a  national  issue  Missouri  entered 
the  Union.  The  Missouri  Compromise  was  a  political  shibboleth  of  two  gen- 
erations  of   .\mericans.     Forty   years   this   state  was   the   moral   and   jwlitical 


xii  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  STATEHOOD 

storm  center,  with  the  issue  of  slavery  growing  into  an  impending  crisis.  Mis- 
souri, in  the  language  of  the  last  governor  before  Civil  war,  Robert  M.  Stewart, 
was  "a  peninsula  of  slavery  running  out  into  a  sea  of  freedom." 

Forty  years  Missouri's  growth  in  population,  in  trade,  in  development  of 
natural  resources,  in  culture,  was  wonderful.  Then  came  Civil  war, — Mis- 
sourian  against  Missourian.  A  battle  according  to  Civil  war  definition,  was 
an  engagement  in  which  ten  or  more  soldiers  were  killed  or  wounded.  Of  the 
2,261  battles  so  classified,  more  than  one-tenth  were  on  Missouri  soil.  The 
140,000  Missourians  who  went  into  the  Civil  war,  on  one  side  _or  the  other, 
were  14  per  cent  of  the  population,  or  60  per  cent  of  all  within  military  age. 

The  incidents,  the  details  of  the  war  in  Missouri  from  1861  to  1865,  are 
almost  incredible.  But  the  recalling  of  them  in  history  is  justifiable,  and 
especially  so  in  view  of  what  followed.  Almost  as  quickly  as  the  storm  of  war 
burst  in  1861  came  the  calm  of  peace  in  1865, — the  restoration  of  law  and 
order  by  the  popular  will.  Nowhere  else  on  the  border  were  wounds  healed, 
were  scars  removed,  so  rapidly  as  in  Missouri.  Missourians.  in  the  fullest 
sense,  accepted  the  result  of  arms.  Standing  beside  the  statues  of  the  great 
unionists,  Benton  and  Blair,  in  statuary  hall  at  the  national  capital,  \'esL  who 
had  been  on  the  opposite  side  in  the  issue  of  states'  rights,  a  Confederate  sen- 
ator, said : 

"These  men  sleep  together  in  Missouri  soil,  almost  side  by  side,  and  so  long 
as  this  capitol  shall  stand,  their  statues  will  be  eloquent,  though  silent,  pledges 
of  Missouri's  eternal  allegiance  to  an  eternal   Union." 

Ten  years  after  the  Civil  war,  Missouri  had  recovered  from  the  strife  and 
desolation.  The  state  was  in  a  fair  way  to  prosper  as  never  before.  Then 
came  another  crisis.  Missouri  faced  a  revolution,  economic,  not  political.  The 
splendid  system  of  water  transportation,  in  relation  to  which  Missouri  held  the 
central  advantage  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  was  supplanted  by  rails.  What  other 
commonwealth  has  been  called  upon  to  adapt  itself  in  such  short  time  to  such 
radical  changes ! 

The  center  of  population  of  the  United  States  is  moving  with  singular  regu- 
larity toward  Missouri.  Unless  there  should  be  a  radical  change  in  the  growth 
of  the  country  the  center  will  be  in  this  state,  a  short  distance  north  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Missouri  river.  For  more  than  one  hundred  years  this  center  has  moved 
in  a  narrow  path.  In  1790  it  was  east  of  Baltimore  about  twenty-three  miles. 
In  iQio  it  was  very  close  to  the  Illinois  line  in  the  western  part  of  the  city  of 
Bloomington,  Indiana.  It  was  in  approximately  the  same  latitude  as  it  was  120 
years  before.  The  center  has  moved  westward  each  decade,  varying  distances 
from  a  minimum  of  thirty-six  miles  to  a  maximum  of  eighty-one  miles.  From 
1900  to  1910  the  movement  was  thirty-nine  miles.  World  war  influences,  draw- 
ing upon  the  West  for  emergency  industries  in  the  East,  temporarily  checked 
the  movement  somewhat. 

In  population  when  admitted,  Missouri  was  twenty-third  of  the  twenty-six 
states.  In  ten  years,  Missouri  had  become  the  twenty-first;  in  twenty  years,  the 
sixteenth;  in  thirty  years,  the  thirteenth.  In  1870,  Missouri  was  fifth  in  census 
rank.  But  more  significant  than  numbers  is  nativity.  Fifty  years  ago  one  Mis- 
sourian in  seven  was  alien-born.     In  this  centennial  period  the  foreign-born  Mis- 


ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  STATEHOOD  xiii 

sourian  is  one  in  fourteen.  Where  else  shall  he  found  the  truer  type  of  the 
American  I 

Missouri  has  been  a  mother  of  states.  From  the  original  Territory  of  Mis- 
souri have  been  organized  twelve  states.  The  Louisiana  Purchase  has  added 
to  the  Union  the  same  number  of  states  as  formed  the  original  thirteen.  From 
the  territory  which  lay  beyond  the  Louisiana  Purchase  have  been  erected  eight 
states.  In  this  winning  for  the  West,  Missourians  have  been  the  vanguard. 
Missourians  have  founded  a  hundred  cities  and  towns  beyond  the  borders  of 
the  state  from  which  they  went  forth  as  pioneers.  And  yet  the  native  stock- 
has  not  been  depleted.     Three  of  four  Missourians  are  Missouri-born. 

As  Missouri  was  rounding  out  the  century  of  statehood,  came  the  supreme 
test  of  her  manhood  and  womanhood.  In  the  World  war  for  humanity,  the 
response  to  every  call  was  given  with  a  state-wide  demonstration  of  American 
sentiment  and  efficiency.  The  time  is  opportune  for  Missourians  to  review  the 
evolution  of  their  state  and  to  do  honor  to  the  generations  which  have  made  it. 

W.  B.  S. 


List  of  Illustrations 


Official   Flag  of   Missouri o])]).  vi 

Marble  Statue  of  Thomas  Jefferson x 

St.  Louis  in  1870,  at  End  of  St.  Ange  Government 2 

Boat  with  Cordelle,  Sail  and   Poles 2 

Old  Franklin,  Only  Building  Left 11 

President  Thomas  JefTerson 11 

President  James  Monroe 11 

General  William  Henry  Harrison,  Governor  Northwest  Territory 21 

Don  Carlos  DeHault  Delassus,  Last  Spanish  Governor 21 

First  Government  House  at  St.  Louis 21 

Signing  the  Treaty  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  at  Paris 28 

First  News  of  Louisiana  Purchase  Reaches   St.  Louis 36 

General   Daniel   Bissell,   Commander   Ft.    Belief ontaine 45 

Governor  Alexander  McNair's  House 45 

The  Bougenou  Home,  Where  First  Marriage  Took  Place 45 

Joseph  Robidou.x,   Founder  of   St.   Joseph 53 

St.  Joseph  in  1857 53 

Map  of  Missouri,  The  Center  State 62 

Auguste  Chouteau,  Leader  of  First  Thirty  to  St.  Louis .  69 

Government  House  as  Remodeled  by  Auguste  Chouteau 69 

Map  of   St.  Louis,  March   10,   1804 79 

A  Pioneer  Missouri  Home  When  Settlers  Chose  the  Creeks 91 

First  Catholic  Church  in  Missouri,  1770 91 

Map  Showing  Boundaries  of  St.  Louis  from  Beginning loi 

Old  Gillis  House,  Kansas  City in 

The  Sorghum  Mill,  One  Time  Missouri  Industry 123 

The  Missouri  Blacksmith's  Busy  Day 123 

The   Old  Tavern   at   Arrow   Rock '.  .  .  133 

Fritz  Tavern  on  Bowling  Green  Turnpike 133 

Old  County  Jail  of  St.  Louis 133 

An  Ozark  Tavern    1 43 

"Dad,"  an  Old  Time  Tavernkeeper  of  Missouri 143 

McGee  Hotel,  Early  Tavern  of  Kansas  City 143 

Signers  of  Agreement  to  Build  the  First  Church 151 

Worship  in  the  Woods,  Pioneers  Going  to  Church 159 

Old  Freedom  Baptist  Church  in  Jasper  County 159 

I'lldt'r  Moses  E.  Lard,  Pioneer  Christian  Preacher 165 

Elder  .Vllen  Wright,  Pioneer  Christian   Preacher 165 

.XV 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Temple  of  the   Pioneer  Missouriaiis i6S 

First  Congregational  Church,  St.  Louis,  1861 177 

First  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,   1861 177 

Mansion  House  Where  First  Constitutional  Convention   Met 185 

William  G.  Pettus,  Secretary  First  Constitutional  Convention 185 

David   Barton,   President    First   Constitutional   Convention 185 

Alexander  McNair,  Governor,   1820-1824 193 

Frederick  Bates,  Governor,  1824-1826 - 193 

John  Miller,  Governor,    1826-1832 193 

Daniel   Dunklin,  Governor,    1832-1836 193 

Lilburn  W.  Boggs,  Governor,   1836-1840 193 

Thomas  Reynolds,  Governor,   1840-1844 193 

Henry  Clay,  Author  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 201 

Daniel  Boone,  Statue  by  Enid  Yandell 201 

Residence  of  Thomas  F.  Riddick,  St.  Louis,  1818 201 

Charles  Gratiot,  Who  Led  Cheering  When  Flag  W'as  Raised 207 

Town  House  of  Charles  Gratiot 207 

Courthouse,  St.  Louis,  1840 217 

Courthouse  at   Its  Best,  About   1870 217 

Charles  P.  Johnson,  Author  of  Anti-Gambling  Statute 225 

Judge  Elmer  B.  Adams,  Author  of  the  Man  Higher  Up 225 

Oiief  Justice  of  Supreme  Court  Henry  W.  Bond 225 

Oldest   House   in   Lexington,   Pioneer  Courthouse 231 

Judge  John  W.  Henry 231 

Judge   Henry  Clay  McDougal,  Author  of  "Recollections" 231 

Roger  North  Todd,  First  Circuit  Clerk  of  Boone  County 22,"] 

Boone  County  Courthouses  in  1847  and  1909 243 

Melvin  L.  Gray 247 

Alexander  Kayser 247 

First  Two  Courthouses  of  Buchanan  County 253 

Judge  David  Todd,  Territorial  and  First  Circuit  Judge 261 

Major  Thomas  Biddle,  Principal  in  Fatal  Duel  With  Pettis 267 

Thomas  H.  Benton 267 

The  Roy  Windmill  Tower  Opposite  Bloody  Island  Dueling  Ground 267 

J.  B.  C.  Lucas,  JetTerson's  Commissioner 277 

Luke  E.  Lawless,  One  of  the  Early  Judges  of  Missouri 277 

Bowling  Green  Courthouse 277 

Madame  Chouteau,  the  Mother  of  St.  Louis 287 

Friedrich  Muench,  Leader  of  the  Latiniers 303 

Dr.  George  J.   Engelman,   Missouri's  Foremost   Scientist 303 

General  Franz  Sigel,  Civil  War  Leader 303 

General  P.  J.  Osterhaus,  of  Civil  War  Fame 303 

Dr.  George  Hillgaertner,  Prominent  German  Journalist  of  the  Sixties 313 

Henry  Boernstein,  Editor  of  the  Anzeiger  in  the  Fifties 313 

Carl  Daenzer,  Leading  German  Editor  After  the  Civil  War 313 

Emil  Preetorius,  Upbuilder  of  the  Westliche  Post 313 

Pioneer  .Steamboat  of   the  Missouri 325 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

Keelboat  on  the  Osage  River 325 

Captain  Daniel  G.  Taylor,  Civil  War  Mayor  of  St.  Louis 333 

A  Scene  on  the  St.  Louis  Levee,  1850 ^^^ 

Water  Power  in  the  Ozarks 339 

The  Great  Republic,  When  River  Travel  Was  Popular 339 

Early  Transportation  on  the   Missouri   River 339 

Forty-six  Trainloads  of  Coal  in  One  Tow  of  Barges 345 

Eighty  Trainloads  of  Lumber  on  One  Barge 345 

Captain  William  Wallace   Greene 351 

Captain  John  N.  Bofinger 351 

The  Harp  of  a  Thousand  Strings,  Captain  Eads'  Invention 351 

Six  Trainloads  of  Cotton  on  a  St.  Louis  Steamboat 357 

Crossing  White  River  in  the  Ozarks 357 

One  of  Missouri's  Countless   Springs 363 

Missouri's  Bethesdas   363 

Captain  John  F.  McCune,  Organizer  of  Keokuk  Packet  Line 369 

Captain  John  Simonds,  One  of  the  Early  Commodores 369 

A  Missouri  River  Scene  Near  Lexington 369 

Map  of  the  Old  Santa  Fe  Trail 375 

Staging  in  the  Ozarks 385 

First  Locomotive  in  Missouri,  Built  in  St.  Loiiis 385 

Overland  Train  Leaving   Missouri    for   California 383 

Missouri  Pack  Train  to  Santa  Fe,   1820 395 

Terminus  of  Old  Santa  Fe  Trail 395 

Charles  G.  Warner,  Railroad  Manager 405 

S.  H.  H.  Clark,  Railroad  Manager 405 

D.  R.  Garrison,  Railroad  Builder  and  Manager 405 

A.  A-  Talmage,  Railroad   ^lanager 403 

Kansas  City's  Union  Passenger  Station  Completed  1914 413 

Bull  Boats  on  Which  Furs  Were  Transported  Down  the  Missouri 417 

Wilson  Price  Hunt,  Chosen  to  Head  Expedition  to  Astoria 417 

Antoine  Soulard,  Author  of  "Riches  Along  the  Missouri" 417 

Fourth  Street,   St.  Louis  in   1840 421 

Major  William  Christy,  Founder  of   North  St.  Louis 425 

Residence  of  Major  William  Qiristy,  1818 425 

Colonel  Thornton  Grimsley    431 

Market  House  and  Levee  at  St.  Louis,  1840 431 

St.  Louis  Municipal  Bridge  and  Approach 437 

The  Old  Merchants'  Exchange  of  St.  Louis 437 

Municipal  Bridge  of  St.  Louis  Opened  January  20,   1917 443 

First  Train  of  Coal  Over  Municipal  Bridge.  St.  Louis 443 

St.  Louis  Municipal  Bridge 443 

Tablet  to  Pontiac  Erected  by  Daughters  of  American  Revolution 451 

Indian  Alarm  of  Missouri  Overland  Train 43 1 

Pontiac,  Buried  in  St.  Louis 461 

Type  of  the  Shawnees  Invited  to  Settle  in  Missouri 461 

An  Indian  Camp,  from  an  Old  Woodcut 461 


xviii  LIST  OF  ILIX'STRATIONS 

Twin  Osage  Papooses a 471 

Ke-o-kuk,  the  Watchful  Fox  471 

Wah-pah-sho-sah,  Osage  Chief   471 

Major  Benjamin  O'Fallon,  Investigator  of   British   Intrigues 477 

Robert  Forsyth,  Many  Years  Influential  Indian  Agent 477 

Old  Fort  and  Stockade  on  the  Hill  at  St.  Louis 477 

Captain  Stephen  Cole's  Fight  on  Spencer  Creek 487 

The  Town  Crier,  a  St.  Louis  Character  of   1840 497 

Father  P.  J.  DeSmet.  S.  ].,  "Black  Gown,"  of  the  Indians 509 

A  Typical  Scene  in  tlie  Ozarks  of  Missouri 515 

Life  in  the  Ozarks,  1870 .- 523 

Life  in  the  Ozarks,  1920 523 

Navigation  in  the  Ozarks 531 

An  Ozark  Bungalow  Living   Room 53 1 

In  Southeast  Missouri 539 

Palisades  of  Big  River   539 

Mayor  John  F.  Darby 548 

Mayor  John  M.  Wimer 548 

Mayor  Peter  G.  Camden 548 

Mayor  Bernard  Pratte 548 

Mayor  Luther  M.  Kennett 548 

Mastodon  Skeletons  Excavated  at  Kimmswick 553 

Museum  of  Mastodon  Relics  Excavated  Near  .St.  Louis. 561 

The  Big  Mound,  St.  Louis,  1850 561 

Devil's  Tollgate,  Near  Arcadia 569 

Opening  an  Indian  Mound  in  \Mcinity  of  St.  Louis 569 

A  Freak  of  the  Ozarks 577 

An  Ozark  Cave  Entrance 577 

Entrance  to  Forest  Park,  Statue  of  Francis  P.  Blair 585 

St.  Louis  in  i860,  the  Year  Before  the  Civil  War 593 

Shopping  District  of  St.  Louis  in  1857 601 

M.  M.  Marmaduke,  Governor,  1844 610 

John  C.  Edwards,  Governor,   1844-1848 610 

Austin  King,   Governor,    1848-1852 610 

Sterling  Price,  Governor,   1853-1857 610 

Trusten  Polk,  Governor,  1857 610 

Robert  M.  Stewart.  Governor,  1 857-1861 610 

Mayor  Washington  King    619 

Mayor  Nathan  Cole 619 

Mayor  Henry  Overstolz   619 

Mayor  John  M.  Krum   619 

Mayor  John  D.  Daggett  619 

Wholesale  District  of  St.  Louis,   i860 627 

Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  He  Kept  Missouri  in  the  Union 637 

John  Richard  Barret,  "Missouri  Dick" 637 

Volunteer  Fire  Department,  St.  Louis,   1842 645 

Tom  Thumb  in  St.  Louis  in  1848 645 


LIST  OF  ILI.lSTUA'noXS  xix 

Residence  of  John  P.  Cabanne,  Built  in  iSiy 657 

St.  Louis  Catliedral  in  1840 657 

Miss  Ann,  Historic  Negro  Character  of  Central  Missouri 669 

Dred  Scott,  Whose  Case  Nullified  Missouri   Compromise 669 

Broadway  and  French  Market,  1872 689 

James  O.  Broadhead,  Member  Committee  of  Safety  in    iSf)i 707 

Oliver  D.  Filley,  Chairman,  Committee  of  Safety 707 

Mercantile  Library  Where  State  Convention  Met  in  uSOi 707 

General  W.  S.  Harney,  in  Command  at  St.  Louis,  1861 723 

General  Sterling  Price,  Commander  of  Missouri  Troops,  C.  S.  A 725 

St.  Louis  in  1861,  Scene  of  Seventh  Street  Tragedy 725 

General  D.  M.  Frost,  in  Command  of  Camp  Jackson  in  i86r 735 

General   Nathaniel   Lyon,   Who   Fell   at   Wilson's   Creek 735 

Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  St.  Louis  in  1840,  Scene  of  Tragedy,  1861  .  .  .  735 

General  Emmett  McDonald,  Leader  of  St.  Louis  Minute  Men,  1861 751 

General  Monroe  AL  Parsons,  One  of  Organizers  of  State  Guard,  1861 ....  751 

Berthold  Mansion,  Broadway  and  Pine.  Minute  Men  Headquarters 751 

Rear  View  of  Log  House  Built  by  (jeneral  Grant 761 

Gen.  Fred  Dent  Grant  in  Front  of  Father's  Log  House 761 

Brant  Residence,  Fremont's  Headquarters,  1861 771 

Mrs.  Jessie  Benton  Fremont,  Daughter  of  Benton 771 

Gen.  John  C.  Fremont,  Called  "The  Woolly  Horse"  in  1856 771 

C.  S.  Greeley,  of  Western  Sanitary  Commission 775 

James  E.  Yeatman,  Head  of  Western  Sanitary  Commission 775 

Dr.  John  T.  Hodgen,  Surgeon  of  Western  Sanitary  Commission 775 

George  Partridge  of  Western  Sanitary  Commission 775 

General  A.  J.  Smith 795 

General  W.  T.  Sherman 795 

fronton  and  Arcadia  \'alley,  the  Thermo])ylae  of  the  West 795 

Isaac  H.  Sturgeon,  C.  S.  Assistant  Treasurer,  1861 803 

liattle  of  Lexington,  Known  as  "Battle  of  the  Hemp  Bales" 803 

( iratiot  Street  Prison,  St.  Louis,  in  Civil  War 811 

McCausland  Home  at  Lexington,  Hospital  in  Civil  War 81 1 

Fox  Hounds  from  a  Missouri  Kennel 865 

Pioneer  Life  in  Missouri,  1820 865 

Meyer  Monument  on  the  Kansas  City  Paseo 886 

McGee  Home,  First  Brick  House  in  Jackson  County 891 

Kansas  City  in  1852 891 

Kansas  City  at  an  Early  Day.     \'iew  I'Vum  the  River 897 

Main  Street,  Kansas  City,  in  1867 897 

Kansas  City  Paseo,   Before  the  Renaissance 903 

West  Blufif,  Kansas  City,  as  It  Is  Today 912 

West  Bluff,  Kansas  City,  as  It  Was  Before  the  Renaissance 913 

Swope  Park,  the  Great  Recreation  Park  of  Kansas  City 921 

General  Sterling  Price  Leading  Missouri  Confederates 929 

Judge  John  F.  Philips,  Grand  Old  Man  of  Missouri 939 

Judge  Thomas  T.  Gantt 939 


XX  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Judge  Samuel  Treat 039 

Statue  of  St.  Louis,  Presented  by  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition 947 

Centenary  Methodist  Church,  Broadway  and  Pine  Streets,  1859 961 

Rev.  Dr.  D.  R.  Mc.Vnally,  Methodist  Preacher  and   Publisher 961 

Rev.   H.  B.  McPheeters,  Presb}'terian 961 

Bishop  P.  J.  Ryan,  Orator  and  Wit 969 

Archbishop    P.   R.    Kenrick,    Roman    Catlutlic 969 

Bishoj)  L.  W.  \  .  Dubourg,  Roman  Catholic 969 

Bishop  Rosati,  Roman  Catholic 969 

Bisho])  C.   F.   Robertson,   E])iscii])al,   Historian 977 

Bishop  Cicero   Stephen   Hawks,  Episcopal,  Noted  Author 977 

Christ  Church,  in  1840,  Broadway  and  Chestnut  Street 977 

First  Presbyterian  Church,  Fourteenth  and  Locust,   1865 98_^ 

Rev.  William  Potts,  Presbyterian 983 

Rev.  Artemas  Bullard,  Presbyterian 983 

Church  of  the  Messiah,  Unitarian,  Olive  and  Ninth  Streets,  1865 991 

Union  Methodist  Church,  Eleventh  and  Locust  Streets.  1870 991 

Second  Baptist  Church,  Sixth  and  Locust  Streets,  1870 991 

Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Finney.  Methodist 999 

Rev.  Dr.   Samuel  J-  Niccolls.   Presbyterian 999 

Bishop  Enoch  Mather  Marvin,  Methodist 999 

Rev.  Dr.  Truman  M.  Post.  Congregationalist 999 


Contents 


CHAPTER  I 

ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO 

Missouri,  1818-1821 — An  Ultimatum  to  Congress — Statehood  or  a  Republic — Public  Senti- 
ment Measured  by  Cheers — No  Compromise — An  International  Treaty  Right — The 
Warnings  to  the  East — Jesse  Walker,  Stalwart  Methodist — The  First  Business  Direc- 
tory— Population  and  Morals — Franklin,  the  Interior  Metropolis — The  Westernmost 
Settlement — Land  Speculation — A  Barrel  for  a  Bank— The  Rush,  of  Immigration — 
Franklin  at  Its  Best — The  Knous  Axe — Judge  Tucker's  Shibboleth — Blind  Justice  on 
the  Bench — Duff  Green,  a  Force — Muster  Day — A  Stump  Speech — Rapid  Americaniza- 
tion of  the  French — Fourth,  of  July  at  Murphy's  Settlement — The  First  Political  Speech 
— Dancing  by  the  Light  of  Slubs^A  Commercial  Review — What  Missouri  Had  and 
Had  Not — Colonel  Charless'  Editorial  Frankness — John  F.  Darby's  Boyhood  Impres- 
sions— The  Shozv  Places  of  St.  Louis — Auguste  Chouteau's  Castle — The  Years  of  the 
Ferries — Coming  of  the  McKnights  and  Bradys — Organization  of  Erin  Benevolent 
Society — An  Experience  zvith  the  Mexicans — Weather  Records  of  1820 — Mrs.  Matthews' 
Diary — Christening  of  Lincoln  County — Shooting  Matches  the  Popular  Sport — Hodden 
Gray — Current  News  a  Century  Ago — Benton  Changed  His  Mind — The  Census  in  1S21 — 
Textbooks  and  Goose  Quill  Pens—Town  Rivalry — Stage  Fares 3 


CHAPTER  n 

THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD 

Masterful  Petition  for  Statehood — Barton's  Work — Slavery's  Balance  of  Power — Thf 
Free  States'  Restriction — Gradual  Emancipation  Proposed — Missourians'  Indignant  Pro- 
tests— Memorial  of  the  Baptist  Churches — Grand  Jurors  in  All  of  the  Counties  Appeal 
for  Constitutional  Rights — New  Boundaries  Rejected — Immigration  Not  Stopped — Dis- 
union Threatened — Thomas  Jefferson's  Forebodings — Maine  and  Missouri — Henry 
Clay's  Championship  of  Missouri — The  Compromise — Randolph's  Opposition — The 
"Doughfaces" — Legislative  Legerdemain — President  Monroe's  Cabinet  Advice — North- 
ern Congressmen  Denounced  by  Anti-Slaz'cry  Constituents — A  Hitherto  Unpublished 
Letter  Explains  the  Compromise — Jefferson  on  Diffusion  of  Slavery — Missouri's  First 
"Extra" — The  Formal  Ratification — Salutes  Fired  and  Houses  Illuminated — "Gross  and 
Barefaced  Usurpation"  Resented — Statehood  De  Facto  in  September,  1820 — Fourth  of 
July  Defiance — Another  Hold  Up  Foreshadozvcd — The  Clause  to  Exclude  Free  Negroes 
— Benton  Advises  Watchful  Waiting — Missouri's  Electoral  Vote — An  Unsuccessful 
Scheme  to  Dodge  the  Missouri  Question — Randolph  Shut  Out  Again — Senator  Cock- 
rell's'Search  of  the  Records — The  "Clay  Formula" — .4  Ridiculous  "Solemn  Public  Act" 
— Frederick  W.  Lehmann's  Forceful  Comments — Recognition  of  Statehood  in  1820 — 
Territorial  Government  Suspended — Governor  McNair  on  Self  Government — President 
.Monroe's  Proclamation  Declaring  Admission   to  the   Union  "Complete." 29 

xxi 


xxii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  III 

MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY 

The  Center  State — A  Stormy  Petrel  on  the  Sea  of  National  Politics — Original  Boundaries — 
Material  Gains  South  and  PVest — The  Long  Controversy  on  the  North — Honey  War 
in  Rhyme — Resetting  the  Iowa  Mileposls — Billy  McLaughlin's  Field — Ama::ing  Bee 
Tree  Stories — The  Platte  Purchase — Thrifty  Trading  with  the  Indians — Neal  Gilliam's 
Map — Peter  Burnett's  Ride — That  Arkansas  Jog — The  First  St.  Louis  County — Early 
Reservation  of  School  Lands — Making  of  Counties — Hozv  Lillard  Lost  Fame — Military 
Heroes  Remembered — The  State  of  Pike — Some  First  Families  of  Missouri — Kingdom 
of  Callaway — A  Mother  of  Counties — When  Liberty  zvas  a  Metropolis — Moving  Days 
for  County  Seals — Arroiv  Rock  Traditions — Steelvillc's  Famous  People — Osage  Semi- 
nary on  Paper — When  Chariton  Rivaled  St.  Louis — First  Days  of  County  Government — 
Salt  River  Tigers — Audrain  Was  "Little  Sis" — A  Turkey  Dinner  and  a  Town  Christen- 
ing— William  Muldrow,  Optimist  Extraordinary — Marion  City,  Dickens'  Eden — Where 
Mark  Tivain  Discovered  Mulberry  Sellers — The  First  Railroad — Missouri's  "Phila- 
delphia" and  "New  York" — Eastern  Investments  Submerged — A  Wholesale  Educational 
Plan — Lost  Towns — Boom  in  Noiu  Forgotten  Sites — Fascinating  Arguments  of  the 
Promoters — Tozvn,  River  and  Prairie  Nomenclature — City,  Nc  Plus  Ultra — Spring- 
field's Beginning — Kickapoo,  the  Beautiful — Neosho,  Clear  Cold  Water — Climate 
CItarmed — Great  American  Desert  Discovered — Missouri.   Then  and  Now 63 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN 

Entertainment  for  Man  and  Beast — The  Cradle  of  Statehood — Hotel  Environment  Elected 
Benton — Setting  for  the  First  Law  Making — Nature's  Hostelry — Van  Bibber's  Phi- 
losophy— Startling  Phenomena  at  Loutre  Creek — First  Bill  of  Fare  on  the  European 
Plan — "Gourd  Head"  Prescoti— Taking  Care  of  a  Governor — Old  Alexie — A  Land- 
lord's Wife  Befriended  Little  Mark  Twain — John  Graves'  Etiquette — Washington  Irv- 
ing Charmed — Audubon  on  Cost  of  Hotel  Living — Charles  Dickens'  Compliments — 
Judge  Quartcs  and  the  Towel  Criticism — Uncle  John  Mimms,  Peacemaker  of  the  Bor- 
der— When  Benton  Was  Shocked — Barnum's  Famous  Ragout — How  Guests  Were 
Identified — A  Duel  Averted  by  Tavern  Hospitality — Jefferson  City  Lodging — A  Dance 
and  a  Church  Trial — The  Hotel  Raffle — History  on  a  Register — Where  Old  Bullion 
Drew  the  Line — Liberty's  Tavern  the  Outpost  of  Civilisation — Thrift  and  Horse  Feed 
— Kcnner  of  Paudingvillc — Court  Day  with  Robidoux — The  Montesquieu  Tragedy — 
When  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon  Thwarted  a  Mob — St.  Louis  Hotels  the  Undoing  of  a  Presi- 
'  dent — The  Gillis  House  Made  National  History — "McCarty  of  the  McCartys" — .Mon- 
roe's County  Seat  Contest — The  Praises  of  English  Travelers — Lafayette's  Experi- 
ences— An  Ozark  Menu — Missouri  Tavern  Etiquette — Some  Survivors  of  the  Stage 
Coach — Arrow  Rock  and  the  Patriotic  Women — Good  Roads  and  Tourist  Motors  Mean 
Renaissance  of  the  Tavern 1 13 


CHAPTER  V 

WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS 

The    Campmeeting    in    Missouri    History— When    McKendree    Became    a    Bishop — Jesse 
Walker,  the  Pioneer— Thrilling  Scenes  at  Three  Springs— Bush  Arbors  and  Egg  Shell 


CONTENTS  xxiii 

Lamps — Tilt  Ministerial  Attire — Old  Antioch — "Devil's  Camp  Ground" — A  Sermon 
a  Day  for  a  Year — The  Programme — Old  Time  Hymns — "God  Greater  Than  Tom 
Benton" — Sni  Grove's  Vast  Assemblages — Old  Freedom — Physical  Manifestations  of 
Conviction — "The  Jerks" — Law  and  Order  Regulations — Pioneer  Church  Discipline — 
Rucker  Tanner — A  First  Covenant  in  Boone — Perils  of  the  Itinerants — "Meeting 
House"  Architecture — Theology  of  the  Pioneers — Rev.  Moses  E.  Lard's  Recollections — 
Shackleford  on  the  Wave  of  Infidelity — The  Saving  Influence  of  Good  Women- 
Marvin's  First  Sermon — The  Bishop  on  the  Early  Settlers — A  Colaborer  ivith  Cart- 
zvright — Matrimonial  Fees — Militant  Men  of  the  Church — A  Dry  Land  Baptist — "Snag- 
boat"  Williams — Baptism  at  Old  Nebo — Bonnet  Show  Day  in  Clay  County — Immersions 
in  Midvmntcr — The  First  Communion  at  Zumwalt's — Conversion  at  Hen-egg  Revival — 
Services  in  a  Pike  County  Cabin — Eccentric  Henry  Clay  Dean — An  Ozark  Preacher's 
Prayer  for  Rattlesnakes — Fanatical  Pilgrims — The  Millerite  "Last  Day" — Champ 
Clark  on  the  Chaplain — Beginnings  of  the  Christian  Church — "Brush  College"  Train- 
ing—The Missouri  "Marthas" — Stribling's  Gift — Mr.  Barger's  Astonishing  Text — First 
Meeting  on  Ba.rter  Ground — Saving  Grace  of  Humor  in  the  Pulpit — Preachers' 
Nicknames    147 


CHAPTER  VI 

THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS 

Missouri's  Constitutions — The  Framers  in  l8zo — Three  Bartons  and  Two  Bates  Brothers — 
Their  Effective  Activities  in  State  Making — Personal  Characteristics — "Little  Red" — 
David  Barton's  Marriage  Ceremony — "Yankee"  Smith — Missouri  Follows  Kentucky 
— The  Cloth  Ineligible  for  Office — An  "Immortal  Instrument" — Benton  Turned  Down — 
Caucus  and  Cudgel — Fathers  of  the  State — "Missouriopolis" — Distinctive  Provisions — 
Judge  Tucker's  "Armorial  Achievement" — George  D.  Reynold's  Interpretation — The 
Rights  of  Congress — The  Second  Constitutional  Conz'cntion — The  Framers  in  1845 — 
Their  Work  Rejected  by  a  Decisive  Vote — Proposition  to  Make  St.  Louis  the  Na- 
tional Capital — "A  Ridiculous  Blunder" — First  Plan  of  Constitutional  Emancipation 
— Too  Slow  for  the  Radicals — Convention  of  1S65 — Slavery  Abolished — Dr.  Eliot's 
Prayer  of  Thanksgiving — The  "Oath  of  Loyalty" — Charles  D.  Drake — Wholesale  Dis- 
franchisement of  Southern  Sympalhicers — Educational  Test  of  Suffrage — "Girondists" 
and  "Jacobins"— Senator  Vest's  Description — Blair's  Denunciation — Supreme  Court  De- 
cision— The  Test  Oath  Unconstitutional — Rapid  Reaction  from  the  Policy  of  Proscrip- 
tion— Political  Downfall  of  Drake  Planned — How  Schurz  Became  a  Candidate — "The 
Feeler"  Worked — An  Oratorical  Trap  Which  Settled  a  Senatorship — Convention  of 
lS75—An  Able  Body— William  F.  Switslcr's  Distinction— The  "Strait  Jacket  Constitu- 
tion"— Judge  Woodson  on  the  Supreme  Court's  Construction — Harm  Done  by  Judicial 
Legislation — Judge  Norton's  Pride  in  the  Results — An  Octogenarian's  Recollections — 
The   New   Constitution   Association 183 


CHAPTER  Vir 

LAW  AND  LAWYERS 

The  Golden  Thread  of  Civilization's  Fabric — Hempstead's  Advice  to  His  Brother — When 
Bench  Split  and  Jury  Hung — The  Peck  Impeachment  Trial — Ethics  in  the  Thirties — 
Judge  Carr's  Public  Spirit — Court  Days  in  Saline — Sheriff  Bill  Job's  Sense  of  Humor — 
The  Missouri  Echo  of  a  Royal  Scandal — Public  Morals  from  the  Bench — The  Chariton 
County  Calf  Case — Journalism,  Law  and  Medicine — Neiv  Madrid  Titles — Mullanphy 
on  Court  Proprieties — The  Story  That  Beat  Uriel  Wright's  Oratory — Torrey  on  the 
Evolution    of    the    Judicial    System — Missouri's    Odd    Cases — Judge    Barclay's    Remi- 


xxiv  CONTENTS 

niscences — Thomas  T.  Gantt's  Learning — Groundhog  Day — From  Printer  to  Supreme 
Court  Bench — Tompkins'  Plain  Speech — Court  Days  in  Newton — Lamm  on  the  Lavtfs 
Delays — IVhen  Vest  found  a  Needed  Friend — Writers  of  Law  Books — The  Dred  Scott 
Judge  Who  Was  Right — Lawyers  of  the  Platte  Country — Four  Governors  from  the 
Bar — Missouri  Lawyers  Abroad — Pike  County  Cases — Missouri's  Legal  Classics — Hozv 
Femme  Sole  Gained  Her  Rights — Judge,  Witness  and  Counsel  in  One — Burckharlt's 
Solomonic  Decision — Jackson  County's  Bar  and  Bench — When  a  King  Brought  Suit — 
Early  Laxity  on  Admission — Krekel's  Definition  of  Law — Missouri  and  the  United 
States   Supreme   Court — Missouri   in   the   American    Bar  .Issociation 221 


CHAPTER   VIII 

DUELING  IN  MISSOURI 

Benton  and  the  Code — Bloody  Island — A  Crewsome  Record — Farrar  and  Graham — A 
Friend's  Responsibility — Fenwick  and  Crittenden — Aaron  Burr's  Nephew  Killed — Bar- 
ton and  Hempstead — Code  Forms  Drawn  by  Benton  and  Bates — A  Fearless  Editor — 
John  Scott's  Wholesale  Challenge — Lucas  and  Benton — The  Election  Controversy — 
"An  Insolent  Puppy" — What  Benton  Told  ll'ashburne — Lucas  on  "Origin  of  Differ- 
ences"— A  Farewell  Message — The  1  crms — Lucas  Badly  Wounded — Mediation  by  Judge 
Lazvless — Benton  Repudiates  the  Agreement — The  Second  Meeting — Lucas  Killed — A 
Father's  Lament — Benton's  Promise  to  His  Wife — Geyer  and  Kcnnerly — Army  Duels — 
Rector  and  Barton — The  "Philo"  Charges — Senator  Barton's  Scorching  Letter — Public 
Sentiment  Aroused — The  Belleville  Tragedy — Benton  for  the  Defense — Rev.  Timothy 
Flint's  Letter — Shields  and  Lincoln  on  the  Island — Legislation  Against  Dueling — Senator 
Linn's  Comments — Leonard  and  Berry — Pettis  and  Biddle — A  Double  Fatality — Benton 
Again  the  Adviser — Edward  Dobyn's  Manuscript  Recollection — Dodging  the  Statute — 
Rev.  Dr.  Eliot's  Protest — Hudson  and  Chambers — "Old  Bustamente's"  Experience — 
Blair  and  Pickering — Newspaper  Reorganization — The  Blair-Price  Feud — Judge  Fagg's 
Reminiscence — Edwards  and  Foster — Bowman  and  Glover — Vest  on  the  Duello ...  .265 


CHAPTER    IX 

A   LAND   OF   PROMISE 

Gottfried  Duden's  Vision — A  Center  of  German  Culture — The  Book  Which  Fascinated 
.  Europe — Teutonic  Infusion  Planned  to  Assimilate  Anglo-Saxon — The  Giessen  Society 
— Father  Muench — A  Missouri  Mecca — The  Critics  to  Blame — Goebel's  Story  of 
the  Fcatherbeds — Duden's  Vivid  Local  Color — Cash  Needed  Only  for  Taxes — An 
Apology  for  Slavery — Akademikers  and  Latiniers—Why  Gustavus  Koerner  Chose 
Illinois — The  Hermann  Colony — A  Hard  Winter — Herman  Steines'  Diary — Dr.  Bek's 
Valuable  Contributions — Engelmann's  Investigation — Missouri's  Foremost  Scientist — 
Wisli::enus'  Explorations — Enno  Sander  and  Franc  Sigcl,  Revolutionists — Missouri, 
Land  of  Religious  Freedom — The  Lutherans — Constructive  Work  of  the  Walthers — 
Concordia  College  Founded — Pure  Lutheran  Theology- — Pioneer  German  Journalism — 
The  Anseiger  and  the  Know  Nothings — Germanism  Fades  Into  Americanism — 
The  Mallinckrodts  and  the  Kaysers — What  Defeated  Secession  of  Missouri — Polish 
and  Hungarian  Exiles — Emigres  of  Guadeloupe — Dr.  Adam  Hammer — German  Family 
Influence  for  Good — Dr.  Niccolls'  Tribute  to  German  Churches — Unselfish  Devotion  to 
Public  Education — The  Icarians — Etienne  Cabet  and  the  Communists — Various  Colony 
Experiments— William  Keil's  Bethel — Socialism  in  Dallas  County — The  Town  of  Liberal 
— Prosperity  of  the  Memwmtcs   301 


CONTENTS  XXV 

CHAPTER  X 

THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI 

Bootable,  Potable,  Powerful,  Medicinal — Robert  Fulton's  Proposition — Navigation  by  Pirogue 
— Arrival  of  the  Pike — The  Missouri  Mastered — Trip  of  the  Independence  to  Franklin — 
A  Great  Celebration — Ncivspapcr  Congratulations — Captain  Joseph  Brown's  Reminis- 
cences—Primitive Construction  and  No  Schedules — Firing  a  Salute — Famous  Missouri 
Pilots — The  Record  of  Disasters — The  Edna,  the  Bedford  and  the  Saluda — Search  for 
Sunken  Treasure — Lost  Cargoes  of  Whiskey — Captain  Hunter  Ben  Jenkins — The  Shift- 
ing Channel — The  Missouri  Belle  and  the  Buttermilk — Up  Grand  River — The  First 
Steamboat  on  the  Upper  Osage — Uncle  John  Whitley's  Hunt  for  a  Mysterious  Monster — 
Some  Notable  Captains — Rise  and  Decline  of  Missouri  River  Traffic— Seventy-one 
Steamers  in  the  Trade — The  Rush  of  the  Forty-niners — Jonathan  Bryan's  Water  Mill — 
Possibilities  of  Power  Ignored — An  Expert's  Facts — Mammotli,  Springs — The  White 
River  Plant — Beginnings  of  Hydro-Electric  Development — Lebanon's  Magnetic  Water — 
Benton's  Bethesda — Monegait/s  One  Hundred  Mineral  Waters — Meanderings  of  the 
White — Navigation  at  Forsyth — Lines  on  "Tivo   Ancient  Misses" 329 

CHAPTER   XI 
TRAILS   AND   TRACKS 

The  Old  Wilderness — Ghost  Pond — Train  Transportation— Tactics  of  Freighting — A  Tem- 
perance Pledge — The  Day's  Routine — Recollections  of  a  Veteran  Trader — The  Fast 
Mail  Stage  Line — The  Trail's  Tragedies — Amateur  Surgery — Pony  Express — The  Old 
Stage  Driver — The  First  Iron  Horse — When  Missourians  Invaded  Illinois — Beginning 
of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi — Railroad  Convention  of  1849 — -4  Chapter  of  Secret  His- 
tory— Benton's  Change  of  Mind  on  Internal  Improvements — Missouri's  First  Formal 
Railroad  Movement — Promotion  of  the  Missouri  Pacific — Ground  Broken  on  the  Fourth 
of  July — A  Great  Day  on  the  Edge  of  Chouteau's  Pond — Railroad  Celebrations — 
Official  Openings — Transcontinental  Mail  by  Stage  and  Rail — A  Rapid  Change  of 
Gauge — Primitii'e  Construction — The  First  Train  Out  of  St.  Joe — Beginnings  of  Big 
Systems — Origin  of  the  Wabash — Paramorc's  Narrow  Gauge — A  Missourian  Originated 
Raihvay  Mail  Service — An  Historical  Mistake — State  Bonds  at  Heavy  Discount — 
Missouri  the  Pioneer  in  Rale  Regulation-^GOvernor  Fletcher's  Recommendation — 
Profit  Sharing  Was  Possible — Liens  Gave  Stale  Control — Railroad  Companies  Accepted 
the  Regulation  Condition — State  Operation  of  the  Southwest  Branch — Receipts  Greater 
than  Operating  Expenses — The  Bond  Burden — Gould's  Purchase  of  the  Missouri 
Pacific — Deals  with  the  Garrisons  and  Thomas  Allen — Missourians  and  the  Transconti- 
nental  Rizvlry    373 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY 

"The  First  Thirty" — The  Landing — Auguste  Chouteau's  Journal — When  "the  Spirit"  Was 
Born — Vain  Projects  to  Rival — De  Treget's  Daughters — Rise  and  Falh  of  Fort  St. 
Charles — No  Favors  to  RoyciJty — British  Trade  Competition  Thwarted — Ambitious 
North  St.  Louis — French  Habitants  Builded  Well — From  Forty-fourth  City — Labor, 
Capital — Labor  and  "the  Spirit" — .4  Series  of  Crises — Fire,  Flood  and  Pestilence — The 
Decade  of  Disasters — Financial  Honor  Demonstrated — Civil  War's  Paralysis  of  Com- 
merce— The  Oldest  Trading  Body  in  the  United  Slates — From  Rivers  to  Rails — The 
After-War  Handicap — Political  Favor  for  Northern  Routes — The  Vital  Test  Well  Mel 
— Americanization  of  the  Comntunity — Relations  with  Trade  Territory — A  National 
Financial  Recognition — Renaissance  of  the  Gallery — Architectural  Misfits — The  Climate 


xxvi  CONTENTS 

Libel — A  Record  of  Cheerful  Giving — Some  Factors  in  the  Creation  of  "the  Spirit" — 
The  First  Agricultural  Society  Formed  in  1822 — "A  St.  Louis  Manufactured  Stove" 
— The  St.  Louis  Fair — Pioneer  Exhibits — The  St.  Louis  Exposition — How  thf  Way  to 
the  World's  Fair  Was  Paved — Aftermath  of  the  Universal  Exposition — When  St. 
Louis  Dealt  with  Graft — Solidarity  a  Characteristic  through  the  Century — Wisdom  of 
the   Founders    Vindicated 419 

CHAPTER  XIII 

ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS 

Archaeologists  Disagree — Puzzling  Stone  Implements — Broadhead's  Theory--Missouri,  a 
Rich  Field — Bcckwith's  50,000  Indian  Relics — The  Mounds — A  Geological  Theory — In- 
vestigations of  Douglas,  Whelpley  and  Fowke — A  Prehistoric  City — Amazing  Fortifica- 
tions— Adobe  Brick — Cave  Dwellers  on  the  Gasconade — Dr.  Peterson  on  the  Mound 
Builders— Evidences  of  a  Numerous  Population — Laclede  and  the  Missouris — A  Far- 
reaching  Indian  Policy — The  Nudarches — Friends  of  the  French — Massacre  of  a  Span- 
ish Expedition  in  Missouri — .4ttempts  at  Civilization — The  Murder  of  Pontiac — Chou- 
teau Springs — The  Osagc.^'  Gift  to  the  Son  of  Laclede — .4  Spanish  Governor's  Narrow 
Escape — Gratifications — The  Shawnee  Experiment — How  Peace  Was  Made — The  Exe- 
cution of  Tewanaye — Good  Will  Transferred  with  Sovereignty — The  Advice  of  Delassus 
— Pike's  Diplomatic  Mission — British  Influence  Checkmated — Wisdom  of  William  Clark 
— Activities  of  Manuel  Lisa — "One-eyed  Sioux" — The  Treaty  of  1812 — Elihu  H.  Shep- 
ard's  Tribute — "Red  Head"  the  Friend  of  the  Indian — The  Council  Chamber — Gov- 
ernor Clark's  Museum — Ceremonial  Calls — The  Freedom  of  the  City — Indian  Coffee — 
Home  Coming  of  the  Osagrs — Migrations  of  the  Dclait'arcs — Th.e  Rise  of  Colonel 
Splitlog — An   Indian  Capitalist 447 

CHAPTER  XI\" 
MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS 

Raids  from  the  North— A  Grand  Jury  Warning^Thc  Battle  of  Sweet  Lick — "Big  Hands" 
Clark — Lincoln  County  Forts— "General"  Black  Hawk — The  Zuniwalt  Sisters — An 
Indian's  Courting — How  Black  Hawk  Repaid  Hospitality— Farming  and  Fighting — 
The  Battle  of  the  Sink  Hole — Raid  on  Loutre  Island — Stephen  Cole's  Desperate 
Encounter- — Montgomery  County's  Tragedies — Jacob  Groom's  Heroic  Act — Captain 
James  Callaway  Ambushed — Battle  of  Prairie  Fork  Crossing — The  Pettis  County 
Mystery — A  British  Officer's  Tomb — Fort  Cooper — Captain  Sarshall  Cooper's  Defiance — 
When  Settlers  "Ported  Up" — The  Seven  Widows  of  Fort  Hempstead — Kilting  of 
Jonathan  Todd  and  Thomas  Smith — Fort  Cole — A  Long  Chase — Braxton  Cooper's 
Fight  for  Life — Stephen  Cooper's  Charge — Christmas  Eve  Mourning — Good  Old  Hannah 
Cole — The  Northzvest  Pivot  Man — Major  Ashby's  Footrace  with  a  Chief — The  Panic 
in  Bluff  Settlement — Ringtail  Painter's  Bloody  Combats — The  Pottawattamie  War — 
Council  at  Portage  des  Siou.r — Augusle  Chouteau's  Diplomacy — Death  of  Black  Buffalo 
— Big  Elk's  Peace  Oration — Intrigues  of  British  Fur  Traders — Captain  O'Fallon's 
Scathing  Report — Reminiscences  of  John  B.  Clark — The  Big  Neck  War — Cabins  of 
the  White  Folks- — The  Battle  with  the  lowas — A  Remorseful  Chief — Father  De  Smct — 
The  Life  Work  of  "Black gown"— Walk  In  Rain,  the  Letter  Jl'riter 475 

CHAPTER  XV 
THE  OZARKS 

Discovered  by  the  Pioneers — Overlooked  by  the  Railroads — Edmund  Jennings — The  Six 
Boils — A  Family  that  Hated  Andreiv  Jackson — The  First  Settler — Good  Old  Times — 


CONTENTS  xxvii 

Diary  of  a  IVinter's  Journey — The  Spring  House — frimitive  Life  and  Death — The 
Switzerland  of  America — An  Acquittal  Face — Feuds  that  Were  Not  Fatal — Geology  of 
the  Ozark  Uplift, — Ridge  Roads — A  Journey  over  the  Hog  Backs — Thrift  in  the  Osage 
Hills — Captain  Owen's  Narrative  of  the  Hunt  for  Gold — Parson  Keithley — A  Secret 
Sub-Treasury — Nature's  Burial  Vault— Jay  Linn  Torrey — From  Rough  Rider  to  Model 
Farmer — The  Air  Drainage  of  the  Ozarks — Exit  the  Squatter — The  "Horse"  Apple — 
Fence  Corner  Peach  Orchards — Seedlings  and  Elbertas — From  Seven  and  One-ltalf 
Cents  to  Four  Dollars  a  Bushel — The  Drying  Season — Home  Made  Evaporators — Sep- 
tember Scenes  at  the  Crop  Centers- — Dried  Apples  by  Machinery — No  Bottom  Orchards 
— Rocks  or  No  Rocks — No  Demand  for  the  Pick-me-up — The  Theory  of  Heat  and 
Moisture  in  Stones — Apples  and  Altitude — Where  Fruit  is  Currency — Historian  Has- 
well's  Ozark  Stories— A  Macadamized  Bed  of  Strawberries — Flint  for  Mulch — A 
Yield  of  $500  on  Three-quarters  of  an  Acre — Peach  Trees  Planted  with  a  Crowbar 
— Not  a  Crop  Failure  in  Twenty-five  Years — The  Secret  of  the  Soil 517 

CHAPTER  XVI 

LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS 

Elephas  Amcricanus  in  the  Ozarks — A  Whole  Pine  Tree  Top  for  a  Meal — The  Discovery 
at  Carl  Junction— Dr.  Hambach's  Conclusions — Zinc  in  Solution — Miners  and  Mineral- 
ogists Disagree — The  Missourium  Teristocolodon — Dr.  Koch,  Scientist — A  Trade  with 
The  British  Museum — The  Market  for  Zuglodons — Star  Curiosity  of  Wyman's  Museum 
in  1842 — Mastodon  Beds  at  Kimmswick — An  Amazed  Professor — Tom  Sauk  Falls — 
Allen  Hinchey's  Indian  Legend — The  Footprints  Which  Laclede  Found — Lilliput  on 
the  Meramcc — .4  Scientific  Investigation — Gerard  Fowke  on  "The  Clayton  Ax" — Beck- 
with's  Discoveries  in  Southeast  Missouri — Eugene  Field's  Folk  Lore  Study — Alex- 
ander, King  of  the  Missouri  Voodoos — Mary  Alicia  Owen — The  Initiation — Some 
Philosophic  Conclusions — The  Mamelles — .4  Variety  of  Topographical  Eccentricities — 
Freak  Work  by  the  Water  Courses — Murder  Rocks — The  Granite  Potato  Patch — Shut 
In  and  Stone  Battery — The  Pinnacles — Knob  Noster — Cedar  Pyramid — Tower  Rock 
and  Tower  Hill — The  Pictured  Rocks — Treasure  Traditions — The  Springfield  Chart — 
A  Dying  Sailor's  Secret — The  Michigan  Man's  Unsatisfactory  Experience — Three 
Turkey  Tracks  and  Three  Arrows — Mystery  of  Garrison  Cave — A  Tradition  of  the 
Dclanarc  Indians — Woody   Cave  in   Taney 549 

CHAPTER  XYH 
MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD 

Roark  Peak — The  Devil's  Den — Fate  of  the  Guerrilla — The  Sentence  of  tin  Home  Guards 
— Nature's  Ammonia  Completes  the  Work — Henry  T.  Blow's  Exploration — Tradition 
of  Spanish  Treasure — A  Visit  with  Truman  S.  Powell — The  Shepherd  of  the  Hills — 
Descent  into  the  Amphitheater — Great  White  Throne — Through  Registry  Room  to  the 
Gulf  of  Doom — Lost  River  iVhich  Makes  Onyx — Fat  Man's  .Misery — Rest  Room — 1 
Mystic  Lake  and  Mystic  River — Blondy's  Throne — Mother  Hubbard — The  Dungeons — 
Sentinel  Rock  and  Shower  Bath  Room — Thirty  Miles  of  Passages — Tales  of  Marvel 
Cave — Wonders  of  Hahatonka — Bishop  Mclntyrc's  Lecture — .-/  Pretty  Stretch  of  Boone's 
Lick  Road — The  Caves  and  Bottomless  Pit  of  Warren — Grandeur  of  the  Canyon  at 
Greer — Old  Monegav/s  Self  Chosen  Sepulchre — Devil's  Lake — Fishing  Spring — The 
Lost  Rivers — Senator  Vest's  Experience — Cave  Decorations  by  the  Indians — Persim- 
mon Gap — Mark  Twain's  Cave — Dr.  McDowell's  Greivsome  Experiment — Tragedy  of 
Labaddie's  Cave — Perry  County's  Subterranean  JVorld — Missouri's  Long  and  Varied 
List  of  Underground  Wonders — Morgan  County's  Variety — Looking  for  the  Prehis- 
toric Man   573 


xxviii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  X\III 
MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS 

The  Days  of  Political  Songs — A  Cartoon  at  Rocheport — Isaac  Martin's  Winning  Speech — 
How  Prozndcnce  Elected  a  Congressman — Bingham's  County  Election — An  Incident  at 
Old  Chariton — The  Man  Who  Broke  a  Tie — When  Abraham  Lincoln  Shocked  Missouri 
Whigs — The  Actor  in  Politics — The  Jackson  Resolutions — Benton's  Defiance — John 
Scott's  Letter — Benton's  Campaign  in  1849 — The  Climax  at  Fayette — When  Norton 
Averted  Bloodshed — Missourians  in  Kansas — Price  and  the  Governorship — Good  Stories 
from  Walter  Williams — How  Rollins  Got  the  Best  of  Henderson — Senator  Schurz  and 
Eugene  Field — The  Know  Nothing  Days — St.  Louis  Riots — Boernslein  and  the  Forty- 
eighters — A  Reporter's  Impressions  of  Polk,  Rollins  and  Stewart — Missouri's  Longest 
Campaign — Claiborne  F.  Jackson's  Opportunity — A  Newspaper  Ultimatum — William 
Hyde's  Graphic  Narrative — One  of  Fayette's  Greatest  Days — John  B.  Clark,  the  Politi- 
cal Adviser — Sample  Orr,  the  Unknown — A  Moonlight  Conference — Douglas  or  Breck- 
inridge?— Jackson  Declares  His  Position — A  Campaign  of  Oratory — Blair's  First 
Speech  After  the  War — A  Thrilling  Scene  at  the  Pike  County  Forum — Blair  at  Mexico 
— The  Republican  Split  of  1870 — Birth  of  the  Possum  Policy — Holding  the  Wire — 
Freedom  of  Suffrage — Judson  on  the  Liberal  Movement — New  Parties  in  Missouri^ 
Greenbackers  and  Wheelers — Campaign  Stories — How  Telegrams  Saved  an  Election- 
Vest  on  Parly  Loyalty — Champ  Clark  on  Politics  and  Oratory — The  Barber  Shop 
Barometer    611 

CHAPTER  XIX 

SLAVERY  AND  AFTER 

Immigration  Influenced — Illinois  Envious  of  Missouri  Prosperity — The  Secret  Emancipa- 
tion Movement — Benton's  Participation — Coming  of  Lovejoy — Wrecking  of  the  St. 
Louis  Observer — The  Alton  Tragedy — Treatment  of  Missouri  Slaves — What  Kossuth 
Saw — A  Problem  of  Colonial  Days — Marion  College  Troubles — Rev.  Dr.  Nelson's 
Expulsion — Theological  Students  Sent  to  the  Penitentiary — Shackleford's  Reminiscences 
— Dred  Scott — Five  Years  of  Litigation — The  Missouri  Compromise  Unconstitutional 
— The  Case  Judge  Dyer  Defended — Blair  Slaves  Set  Free — Lincoln  and  Blair  Confer- 
ences— Slavery  Issue  in  i860 — Auctions  in  St.  Louis  made  Odious — Lincoln's  Plan  to 
Pay  Missouri  Slaveholders — John  B.  Henderson's  Recollections — Norton's  Effective 
Opposition — Charcoals  and  Claybanks — First  and  Second  Plans  of  Freedom — The  Elec- 
tion of  1862 — Negro  Education — Lincoln  Institute — Jesse  James"  Contribution — Manual 
Training — Samuel  Cupples'  Interest — Vest  on  the  ex-Slave — Negro  Farming  in  Mis- 
souri— Record  Breaking  Results  at  the  Dalton  School — Calvin  M.  Woodward's  Monu- 
ment— Slavery  in  Missouri  an  Economic  Mistake — Profitable  in  Only  Four  Hemp  Grow- 
ing Counties^An  After-ttu-War  Investigation 655 

CHAPTER  XX 

LAST  OF  THE  BENTON  DUELS 

Thomas  C.  Reynolds  and  B.  Grats  Brown — Two  Challenges  and  Two  Acceptances — Tlie 
First  Offending  Editorial— Benton's  Championship  of  Settlers—The  District  Attorney 
Protests — Brown  Declares  Authorship — Reynolds  Satisfied — Friends  in  the  Controversy 
— A  Year  Later — The  Combination  Against  Benton — "Is  It  Perjury  or  Is  It  Not?" — 
Reynolds  Asks  "the  Proper  Atonement"— Rifles  at  Eighty  Yards— A  Question  of  Short- 
sightedness—The Meeting  Off— Benton  the  Issue  Again— Reynolds'  German  Speech— 
"Germans  and  Irish  on  an  Equality  with  Negroes" — "An  Unmitigated  Lie" — The  Editor 
Posted — A   Peremptory   Challenge— Acceptance   in    Two   Lines — Friends,  Advisers  and 


CONTEXTS  xxix 

Surgeons— Selma  Hall — A  Graphic  Story  of  the  Meeting — Duello  Etiquette — Kennetfs 
Arrangements — Interchanges  of  the  Seconds — Bearing  of  the  Principals — The  Pistols — 
"Fire!" — Reynolds'  Quickness — Brown  IVounded — The  Return  to  St.  Louis — No  Prose- 
cution— In  Later  Years — Political  and  Personal  Friends — Brown's  Career  Not  Satisfy- 
ing— Reynolds'  Fate   687 

CHAPTER  XXI 

MISSOURI   IN    1861 

"Vou  Can't  Coerce  a  Sovereign  State"— An  Extraordinary  Vote— Advice  from  Two  Gover- 
nors—The Secession  Program— Three  Kinds  of  Democrats— The  Contest  for  the 
Arsenal— General  Frost's  Report— Archbishop  Kenrick  Applies  Scriptures— The  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safely — General  Farrar's  Reminiscences — Some  Aggressive  Journal- 
ism—Home Guards  and  Minute  Men— Isaac  H.  Sturgeon's  Warning— An  Insult  to 
Missouri— Harney  Restores  Quiet— The  Testing  of  Sweeny— A  Commissioner  Before 
the  Legislature — John  D.  Stevenson  Interrogates  Lieutenant-Governor  Reynolds — A 
Loaded  Military  Bill— General  Lyon  Arrives — The  State  Convention— Election  of 
Delegates— Missouri  Goes  Union  by  80,000  Majority — Dismay  of  the  Southern  Rights 
Democrats— Blair's  Appeal  to  Lincoln— John  F.  Philips  on  the  Delegates— Sterling  Price 
Elected  President — Minute  Men  Raise  a  Secession  Flag — Riotous  Scenes  in  Front  of 
Headquarters — The  Legislature  Refuses  to  Pass  the  Military  Bill — Prompt  Action  by 
the  Convention — Secession  "Is  Annihilation  for  Missouri" — Colonel  Broadhead's  Pre- 
diction— Price  to  Shacklcford^The  Convention  Denounced  in  the  Legislature — Police 
Control  Taken  from  St.  Louis — Lyon  Promises  Arms  to  Home  Guards — The  April 
Election  70i 

CHAPTER  XXII 
CAMP  TACKSOX 

Warlike  Preparations — William  Selby  Harney — Plans  to  Capture  the  Arsenal — Lyon  Patrols 
Streets — Muskets  "to  Arm  Loyal  Citizens" — Four  Regiments  of  Home  Guards  Brigaded 
— Lincoln's  Call  for  Soldiers — Governor  Jackson's  Defiance — Blair  Grasps  a  'Great 
Opportunity — State  Militia  Seice  Liberty  Arsenal— Washington  Warned — The  Com- 
missioners to  Montgomery — General  Frost's  Suggestion — Jefferson  Davis  Sends  Siege 
Guns — Midnight   Trip   of   the   City    of   Alton — Lyon's   Ruse   with   the   Flintlocks — Gov- 

•  ernor  Jackson  Buys  Ammunition — "Armed  Neutrality" — Editorial  Strategy — Champ 
Clark's  Comments — A  Pike  County  Mass  Meeting — Confidential  Letter  from  Jackson 
— Washington  Recognises  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety— Police  Assert  State  Sover- 
eignty— Camp  Jackson — Forms  of  Loyalty — Arrival  of  Confederate  Siege  Guns — 
"Tamaroa  Marble" — Lyon  in  Disguise — Night  Session  of  the  Committee — General  Frost 
Protests — March  on  the  Camp— The  Surrender — Baptism  of  Blood — Mob  Demonstra- 
tions— More  Loss  of  Life — Sunday's  Panic — The  Legislature  Acts — Passage  of  Military 
Bill — Peace  Agreement — Harney  Removed — President  Lincoln's  Doubt  of  the  Pro- 
priety— A  Pathetic  Letter— What  Capture  of  Camp  Jackson  Meant — Frank  Blair's 
Foresight — Vest,  Rassieur  and   Broadheod   on   the   Consequences 7-^ 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  STATE  THE  STAKE 

Missourians  Against  Missourians — A  Final  Effort  for  Peace — Lyon's'  Ultimatum — "This 
Means   War" — Jackson's  Proclamation — The  State   Guard  Called   Out^An   Expedition 


X  CONTENTS 

Soulhzvest — The  State  Capital  Abandoned — Battle  of  Boonville — Its  far-reacliiiui  Sig- 
nificance— A  Week's  Important  Events — Richmond's  Early  Missouri  Policy — The  March 
Southiiard — Home-made  Ammunition- — Historic  Buck  and  Ball — Character  of  the  State 
Guard — Battle  of  Carthage — The  Honors  with  3,ooo  Unarmed  Missourians — Siget's 
Masterly  Retreat — Lyon  Reaches  Springfield — Polk  and  the  .Irmy  of  Liberation — 
Richmond  at  Last  Heeds  Missouri's  Appeal — McCulloch  Joins  Forces  with  Price — 
Lyon  Outnumbered — Fremont's  Costly  Delay — The  Battle  of  IVilson's  Creek — McCul- 
loch's  Attack  Anticipated — How  the  Missourians  Fought— Death  of  Lyon — The  State 
Won  for  the  Union — Fremont's  Failure  to  Support — A  Secret  Chapter  of  the  War — 
Jeff  Thompson's  Dash  for  St.  Louis — Grant  Checks  the  Army  of  Liberation — The  Battle 
of  Lexington — A  Great  Victory  for  the  State  Guard — Ruse  of  the  Hemp  Bales — Fre- 
mont's Army  of  the  West — The  Marching  Legislature  at  Neosho — Ordinance  of  Seces- 
sion Passed — "A  Solemn  Agreement" — Fremont  Removed — The  Anti-Slavery  Protest — 
President  Lincoln  on  the  Fremont  Fiasco — Border  States  Policy  Endangered — ^frs.  Fre- 
mont's Midnight  Visit — The  Browning  Letter — When  Washington  Discovered  Grant — 
The  Grant  Family  in  Missouri — Kansas  City  Saved — First  hon-Clads  in  Naval  History 
—  The  Cii'il  War  Kindergarten 749 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI 

Great  Emergency — The  Man  of  the  Hour — "Old  Sanitary"^Organizing  the  Plan  of  Relief 
— Merciful  Missourians  Behind  the  Firing  Lines — Major  Hodges'  Narrative — James 
E.  Yeatman — The  Sanitary  Fair — Assessment  of  Southern  Sympathisers — Dr.  Eliot's 
Protest  to  President  Lincoln — Desperate  Character  of  the  Conflict — JVomen  Took  Sides 
— The  Spirit  of  Jael — -.4  Wooden  Leg  Shot  Off — How  Ben  Prentiss  Assessed— Secret 
Lodges — The  Missouri  Chaos  "Stampeded"  Sherman — .4  Leave  of  .jbsencc — The  Story 
of  Insanity — .4  Long  Hidden  Confidential  Letter — Halleck  Called  Upon  to  E.rplain — 
Missouri  in  the  War  Records — The  Policy  of  Extermination — "War  Is  Butchery  on  a 
Grand  Scale" — Guerrillas  "Should  Not  Be  Brought  in  as  Prisoners" — "Forty-one  Guer- 
rillas Mustered  Out  by  Our  Boys  in  the  Brush" — William  F.  Switsler  on  "The  Reign 
of  Terror" — Missouri  Warfare  as  John  F.  Philips  Saw  It — Graphic  Story  of  the  Charge 
on  a  Church — Retaliation  by  Order  of  General  Brozvn — Bill  Anderson  and  the  "Kansas 
First  Guerrilla" — A  Defiant  Proclamation — The  Death  of  Anderson — Depopulation 
Suggested  for  Boone  County — A  Man  Hunt  in  the  Loivlands  of  the'  Southeast — "We 
Killed  in  All  Forty-seven" — The  Paw  Paw  Militia  Controversy — Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fisk's 
Reports — .4  Brush  Expedition  in  Western  Missouri — The  War  on  Smugglers — Gen. 
John  McNeil's  Order  to  Burn—Fisk  Said,  "Pursue  and  Kill." 783 

CHAPTER  XXV 
RECONSTRUCTION  THROES 

State  ll'ithout  a  Government — Secret  Conference  in  a  Nezcspaper  Office — Midsummer 
Session  of  the  Convention — Stale  Offices  Vaca)it — Provisional  Authority  Established — 
Witlard  P.  Hall's  Keynote — Judge  Philips  on  Anomalous  Conditions — Erratic  Course  of 
Uriel  Wright — Governor  Gamble's  Death — The  Enrolled  Militia — Lincoln's  Advice  to 
Schoficid — Missouri  Problems  in  Washington — .4  Baby  Christened  "Sterling  Price" — 
The  President's  Plain  Words — Sei'cnty  "Radical  Union  Men" — Encouragement  from 
the  .Abolitionists — Reception  at  the  IVhite  House — Drake  and  the  Address — A  Prayer 
to  Send  Ben  Butler — Enos  Clarke's  Vivid  Recollections — Lincoln's  Long  Letter — The 
Matter  with  Missouri — "Every  Foul  Bird  Comes  Abroad  and  Every  Dirty  Reptile  Rises 
Up" — Election  of  1864 — Blair  on  the  Permit  Iniquities — Constitutional  Convention — 
Immediate  Emancipation,  Test  Oath  and  "Ousting  Ordinance" — .4  Revolutionary  Proposi- 


CONTENTS  xxxi 

Iwn— Removal  of  One  Thousand  Judges  and  Court  Officers — Judge  Clover's  Frank  Re- 
port— Ousting  Vital  to  Reconstruction  Policy — Supreme  Court  Removed  by  Force  from 
the  Bench — A  Military  Demonstration— Thomas  K.  Skinker's  Valuable  Contribution  to 
History — Lincoln  and  Blair  in  Accord — The  President's  Plans  for  the  South — Restora- 
tion. Xot  Reconstruction — furcurll  Message  to  Missourians — Plea  to  Get.  Together .  .S17 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

-MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY 

Secrets  of  State — The  Unpublished  Memoirs  of  Thomas  C.  Reynolds — Missouri  "A  Sov- 
ereign, Free  and  Independent  Republic" — Democratic  Differences  at  Jefferson  City — The 
Lieutenant-Governor's  Animus — Price's  Hesitation  to  Take  Command — The  Secret  Plan 
of  Campaign — Reynolds  Starts  for  Richmond — The  Harney-Price  Agreement — Major 
Cabell  Commissioned  by  Governor  Jackson — The  First  Interview  with  Jefferson  Davis — 
Refusal  to  Send  an  Army  to  Missouri — Price's  Call  for  50,000  Men — McElroy's  Analysis 
of  Price's  Leadership — A  Great  Name  to  Conjure  With — Admission  of  Missouri  into  the 
Confederacy — The  Meeting  at  Neosho — First  Congressional  Delegation — The  Movement 
against  Davis — A  Proposed  Northivest  Confederacy — Price's  Disclaimer — The  Alleged 
Quarrel  with  Davis— Shelby's  Promotion — Qitantrell  and  Laurence — Recollections  of  a 
Participant  in  the  Attack — The  Palmyra  Affair — An  Account  IVritten  at  the  Time — 
Jefferson  Davis'  Demand  for  the  Surrender  of  McNeil — Execution  of  Ten  Federal  Offi- 
cers Threatened — Gen.  Curtis'  Reply — Narrow  Escape  of  General  Cockrell — A  Letter 
from  John  B.  Clark — The  Days  of  Rapid  Reconciliation — Shelby  and  the  United  States 
Marshalship — Frost  and  Davis  on  the  Confederate  Policy 841 

CHAPTER   XXVH 

MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI 

Strategy  in  Elk  Stampedes — Turkey  Slaughter  in  the  Osarks — "Shining  Their  Eyes" — Game 
Tallies  Along  the  lozua  Border — Wild  Turkey  Sausage — Bear  Homes  in  the  Grass — 
Abner  Smith's  Sled  Load  from  One  Shot — A  Missouri  Esau — Millions  of  Pigeons — A 
Suit  of  Panther  Skins — Squirrels  by  the  Bushel — Coonce  and  "Old  Betsy" — Sam  Cole's 
Recollections — The  Bandana  Ruse—When  Fish  Clogged  the  Mill — David  Bowles'  Win- 
ter Record — Three  Deer  at  One  Fire — Dr.  Graham's  Nerve — Boys  Chased  by  Angry 
Deer — Major  Daniel  Ashby — A  Record  of  Official  Integrity — Stories  of  Three  Expedi- 
tions— When  Game  Abounded  along  Grand  River — Bee  Trails  at  "The  Forks" — The 
Annual  Harvests  of  Sweetness— Honey  by  Wagon  Loads — Law  of  Bee  Tree  Titles — 
How  Morrow  Saved  a  Szvarm — Madame  Chouteau  and  the  First  Hive — "Yellow  Boys" 
in  Pioneer  Commerce — The  Talloiv  Fork  of  Beeswax — Barter  at  Glasgow,  Richmond 
and  Brunswick — Poor  Tom's  Creek — An  Expert  on  Honey  Hunting — Amos  Burdine, 
the  Missouri  Munchausen — Eccentric  Customs  and  Amacing  Stories — "Jimps"  Dysart's 
'Tcniplolion — Norman  J.  Colman  and  Charles  G.  Gonter 863 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY 

Wcstport  Landing — Pioneer  McCoy's  Recollections — ./  Germination  That  Was  Unique — 
Kansas  City  Just  Sixty-five  Years  Ago — The  First  Business  Revieu'— Wonderful  Stride 
of  a  Four-Y car-Old— As  a  Woman  Saw  the  Bluffs— The  Year  of  the  Boom— Specula- 
tive Conditions  Without  Precedent— And  Then  the  Days  of  Depression— After  that 
Rational  Philosophy — Two   Pillars   of   Lasting   Prosperity — Packing   House   and   Park 


xxxii  ^    CONTENTS 

System — Ama~ing  Sights  in  the  Boltoin — lutsciiialing  Scenes  on  the  Bluffs — ./  Remi- 
niscence of  "P.  D." — Beginning  of  Boulevards — Topographical  Eccentricities — "Little 
Hyde  Park,  a  Primary  Lesson" — Policy  of  Maximum  Frontage — The  Financial  Plan 
— Years  of  Legislation  and  Litigation — Defeat  of  the  First  Project — The  Taxpayer 
Converted — Penn  Valley  and  Roanoke  Park — The  Problem  of  Cliff  Drive — Gillham 
Road  and  the  Kessler  Idea — Natural  Grades  Disturbed  as  Little  as  Possible — Effect 
on  Population  and  Values — The  Kansas  City  Principle  of  Assessments — Cost  and  Profit 
— Congestion  Banished — Development  of  the  Playgrounds — What  Recreation  Centers 
Have  Done  for  Neighborhoods — Effect  of  the  System  on  Expansion — A  Gridiron  of 
Boulevards — Kansas  City  by  Night — Standard  of  Residential  Architecture  Raised — 
1  he  Local  Nomenclattire — Ambassador  Bryce  on  Swope  Park — Thomas  H.  Benton's 
Prophecy — Kessler  on  the  Ideal  City  Plan — The  Community  United — Kansas  City  Still 
in  the  Making — Epics  in  Prose  and  Rhyme 88" 

CHAPTER  XXIX 

A  GRAND  OLD   MAN   OF   MISSOURI 

John  Finis  Philips — Eighty-five  Years  of  the  Century  of  Statehood — Vivid  Recollections  of 
the  Legal  Giants — The  Big  Four  after  the  Civil  War — At  the  Gettysburg  of  the  West — 
The  Frank  James  Case — Abiel  Leonard's  Early  Fee — Legislative  Pardon  for  a  Duel — 
Leonard's  Last  and  Vest's  First  Notable  Case — JVashington  Adams'  Misquotation — 
Gardcnhire's  Peroration  Spoiled — John  B.  Clark's  Fountain  of  Tears — Barton,  the  Fore- 
most Citisen — Edivard  Bates'  Appeal  for  Sacred  Personal  Rights — "Old  Sarcasm"  Hay- 
den — Four  Supreme  Court  Judges  at  the  Bar — Two  Views  of  the  Bench — Judge 
Ryland's  Classic  Lore — Vest's  Missouri  Version  of  Latin — Judge  Napton's  Search  for 
Law — A  Good  Turn  and  Lifelong  Friendship — Farmer  Hicks  and  Lawyer  Hicks — The 
Railsplitter — Lynch  Law  Rebuked — A  Practical  Joke  that  Dissolved  a  Partnership — 
Primitive  Practice  Along  the  Osage — Judge  Emmerson's  Free-for-All  Court — John  S. 
Phelps  on  Nunc  Pro  Tunc — Waldo  P.  Johnson's  Thick-Headed  Client — Duke  Draff  en's 
Mastery  of  Law — The  Defense  of  Justice  Cross — What  Became  of  a  Fee — Missouri's 
Best  Story  Teller — Speeches  that  Live  Only  in  Tradition — Passing  of  the  Old  Breed — 
Modern  Conditions — Ethics  of  the  Shyster — A  Tribute  to  the  Pioneers  of  the  Profes- 
sion   937 

CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

Colonial  Theology— The  Coming  of  John  Clark— Church  Bells  Barred— First  Protestant 
Churches  Built  in  Missouri— Presbyterianism's  Foothold — Dr.  Niccolls'  Centennial  Ser- 
mon— First  Protestant  Church  in  St.  Louis  a  Public  Enterprise — Catholic  Diocese  of 
St.  Louis — Coming  of  Bishop  Dubourg — Culture  One  Hundred  Years  Ago — Rosati's 
Constructive  Career— The  First  Cathedral— A  Catholic  Census— When  Rev.  Mr.  Potts 
Was  "the  Rage"— Archbishop  Kenrick—"The  Rome  of  America"— Baptist  Church 
Building  and  City  Planning— The  Pulpit  and  Liternture—Religious  Journalism— Ante- 
bellum Church  Architecture— St.  Louis  an  Archdiocese— The  Prayerbook  Church— Dr. 
Montgomery  Schuyler's  Career— Some  Notable  Pastorates— A  Hero  of  the  Cholera — 
Dr.  Hutchinson  on  David  and  Uriah— The  Tallest  Steeple— Far-reaching  Influence  of 
Dr.  Eliot — Dr.  Post  and  Congregationalism — Judge  Philips  on  Presbyterianism  in  Cen- 
tral Missouri — War  Experiences — The  Kenrick  Lectures  and  The  Newsletter — Mc- 
Cullagh's  "Great  Controversy" — Father  Ryan,  Orator  and  Wit — Religious  Intolerance 
Exceptional — Dr.  Niccolls  on  Progressive  Catholicism — Bishop  Tuttle — The  New  Cathe- 
dral— Religion  and  Good  Works — The  Y.  M.  C.  A. — The  Provident  Association — .4 
Layman's  Monument — Missouri's  Moral  Standards 959 


Vol.  l-l 


Krom    ihv    IMerre   »'huulcau   collection 

ST.  LOUIS   IN   1770,   AT   THE   END   OF   THE   ST.    ANGE   GOVERNMENT 


BOAT    WITH    fORUELLE,    SAIL    AND    POLES    USED    BV    PIONEER    MISSOUBIANS 


Centennial  History  of  Missouri 


CHAPTER  1 

ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO 

Missouri,  1818-1821 — An  Ultimatum  to  Congress — Statehood  or  a  Republic — Public  Senti- 
ment Measured  by  Cheers — No  Compromise — An  International  Treaty  Right — The 
Warnings  to  .the  East — Jesse  Walker,  Stalwart  Methodist — The  First  Business  Direc- 
tory— Population  and  Morals — Franklin,  the  Interior  Metropolis — The  Westernmost 
Settlement — Land  Speculation — A  Barrel  for  a  Bank — The  Rush,  of  Immigration — 
Franklin  at  Its  Best — The  Knous  Axe — Judge  Tucker's  Shibboleth — Blind  Justice  on 
the  Bench — Duff  Green,  a  Force — Muster  Day — A  Stump  Speech — Rapid  Americaniza- 
tion of  the  French — Fourth,  of  July  at  Murphy's  Settlement — The  First  Political  Speech 
— Dancing  by  the  Light  of  Stubs — A  Commercial  Rei'icu- — What  Missouri  Had  and 
Had  Not — Colonel  Charless'  Editorial  Frankness — John  F.  Darby's  Boyhood  Impres- 
sions— The  Show  Places  of  St.  Louis — .-iuguste  Chouteau's  Castle — The  Years  of  the 
Ferries — Coming  of  the  McKnights  and  Bradys — Organization  of  Erin  Benevolent 
Society — .-in  E.vperience  with  the  Mexicans — Weather  Records  of  iSjo — Mrs.  Matthews' 
Diary — Christening  of  Lincoln  County — Shooting  Matches  the  Popular  Sport — Hodden 
Cray — Current  News  a  Century  Ago — Benton  Changed  His  Mind — The  Census  in  iS^i — 
Textbooks  and  Goose  Quill  Pens — Town  Rivalry — Stage  Fares. 

The  Missouri  Question  is  the  most  portentous  which  ever  threatened  our  Union.  In  the  gloomiest 
clays  of  the  Revolutionary  war  I  never  had  apprehensions  equal  to  what  I  feci  from  this  source. — Thom*i 
Jefferson   to  Hugh  Nelson,  February,  1S20. 

,  One  hundred  years  ago  Missouri  was  divided  into  seven  counties  The 
grand  jury  of  every  county  went  on  record  in  most  formal  protest  against  the 
attitude  of  Congress  toward  Missouri.  From  April,  1819,  to  December,  of  the 
same  year,  wherever  Missourians  assembled,  resolutions  were  adopted  or  toasts 
were  drunk  in  defiance  of  the  dictation  of  Congress  as  to  what,  on  the  subject 
of  sla\ery,  should  be  put  in  the  state  constitution.  And  these  sentiments  were 
indorsed  with  many  cheers. 

In  these  later  days  people  applaud  by  the  watch.  The  cheering  is  timed. 
Newspapers  and  partisans  gauge  popular  approval  by  the  duration  of  the 
applause.  One  hundred  years  ago  the  successive  cheers  were  counted.  After 
drinking  fervently  to  a  sentiment,  the  people  "hip  hip  hurrahed."  Their  enthu- 
siasm was  estimated  by  the  number  of  these  cheers.  There  was  no  fictitious 
swelling  of  the  volume  of  sound  by  the  blowing  of  horns,  by  the  ringing  of  bells, 
l)y  the  beating  of  drums,  by  the  stamping  of  feet.  It  was  all  vociferous.  And. 
when  the  tumult  and  the  shouting  died,  everybody  knew  that  the  sentiment  or 
the  candidate  had  been  indorsed  by  one,  or  ten,  or  twenty,  or  whatever  the  count 
might  be,  cheers.  Thus,  at  a  meeting  in  St.  Louis,  over  which  Auguste  Chouteau 
presided,  the  Missouri  Gazette  reported  that  these  two  toasts  "received  the 
largest  number  of  cheers." 

3 


4  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"The  next  Congress — A  sacred  regard  for  the  Constitution,  in  preference  to  measures 
of  supposed  expediency,  will  insure  to  them  tlie  confidence  of  the  American  people.  Nine- 
teen cheers.     Yankee  Doodle   (music). 

"The  Territory  of  Missouri — With  a  population  of  near  100,000,  demands  her  right  to 
he  admitted  into  the  Union,  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  states.  Nineteen  cheers. 
'Scotts  o'er  the  Border.' " 

The  Warning  to  Congress. 

Probably  the  most  significant  and  effective  of  these  protesting  meetings  was 
one  at  which  Thomas  H.  Benton  presented  the  resolutions.  These  resolutions 
took  the  form  of  what  might  be  called  an  ultimatum  to  Congress.  They  were 
passed  upon  by  such  foremost  Missourians  as  William  C.  Carr,  Henry  S. 
Geyer,  Edward  Bates  and  Joshua  Barton  before  being  adopted  unanimously  by 
the  meeting.  Alexander  McNair  presided.  David  Barton  was  secretary.  This, 
then,  was  the  action  of  the  men  who  were  to  be  the  first  governor  and  the  first 
two  United  States  senators  and  other  acknowledged  leaders  of  the  new  state. 
The  resolutions  declared  in  no  uncertain  words  "that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  have  no  right  to  control  the  provisions  of  a  state  constitution,  except  to 
preserve  its  republican  character."  They  denounced  the  action  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  as  "an  outrage  on  the  American  Constitution."  But  the  conclud- 
ing resolution  presented  to  Congress  and  the  rest  of  the  country  a  new  if  not 
startling  situation : 

"That  the  people  of  this  territory  have  a  right  to  meet  in  convention  by  their 
own  authority,  and  to  form  a  constitution  and  state  gfovernment,  whenever  they 
shall  deem  it  expedient  to  do  so,  and  that  a  second  determination  on  the  part 
of  Congress  to  refuse  them  admission,  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  original 
states,  will  make  it  expedient  to  exercise  that  right." 

There  might  be  Missouri  compromises  in  Congress.  There  was  to  be  no 
Missouri  compromise  in  Missouri.  The  threats  were  not  few  that  if  Congress 
persisted  in  tying  strings  to  Missouri's  admission,  the  people  of  the  territory 
might  reject  the  terms  and  set  up  independent  government  for  themselves. 

A  meeting  at  St.  Ferdinand,  in  what  is  now  St.  Louis  county,  where,  accord- 
ing to  tradition,  was  the  earliest  settlement  of  Americans  in  Missouri,  by  two 
or  three  families  from  North  Carolina,  adopted  this  sentiment : 

"The  Territory  of  Missouri — May  she  be  admitted  into  the  Union  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  original  states,  or  not  received  in  any  other  way." 

This  toast,  the  reporter  of  1819  tells,  was  "drank  standing  up — twenty-two 
cheers." 

The  Treaty  Guarantee. 

No  wonder,  Thomas  Jefferson,  growing  old  and,  perhaps,  somewhat  pessi- 
mistic, viewed  the  deadlock  in  Congress  and  the  defiance  of  the  territory  with 
dismal  forebodings.  Jefferson  knew  and  remembered  what  the  Congress  of  1819- 
20  seemed  to  have  forgotten,  that  Missouri  had  a  claim  to  statehood,  beyond 
that  of  Illinois,  or  Alabama  or  Maine,  all  of  which  were  being  given  precedence. 
It  was  a  claim  based  on  international  treaty.  When  the  United  States  acquired 
the  great  Louisiana  Purchase,  it  was  solemnly  stipulated  with  France  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  vast  region  west  of  the  Mississippi  "shall  be  incorporated  in 


ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  5- 

the  Union  of  the  United  States  and  admitted,  as  soon  as  possible,  according  to 
the  principles  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights, 
advantages  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States."  Sixteen  years  had 
elapsed  since  the  United  States  had  given  that  pledge  by  treaty  to  France,  and 
Missourians  were  still  waiting.  Two  years  and  two  months  after  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  petition  for  statehood,  supported  with  the  facts  and  argument  justify- 
ing admission,  Congress,  in  March,  1820,  passed  the  bill  permitting  Missouri  to 
frame  a  state  constitution  without  restriction  as  to  slavery,  but  providing  that 
slavery  should  be  excluded  from  the  rest  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  territory 
west  and  north  of  Missouri.  That  was  the  "Missouri  Compromise"  which 
vexed  American  politics  for  thirty-seven  years  only  to  be  declared  unconstitu- 
tional by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  March,  1857. 

Admission  Celebrated. 

When  the  news  of  this  Missouri  Compromise  reached  Missouri  on  the  25th 
of  March,  1820,  Missourians  celebrated  what  they  firmly  believed  was  the  birth 
of  statehood.  Candles  burned  in  all  of  the  windows  in  St.  Louis  on  the  night 
chosen  for  the  formal  ratification.  The  cartoonist  of  one  hundred  years  ago 
was  equal  to  the  occasion.  He  executed  a  transparency  showing  a  negro  dancing 
joyously  because  "Congress  had  voted  to  permit  the  slaves  to  come  and  live  in 
such  a  fine  country  as  Missouri."  As  the  news  traveled  slowly  up  the  rivers, 
bonfires  burned  on  the  hilltops  at  night  and  jollifications  were  held  in  the  day 
time.  Charles  J.  Cabell  told  an  old  settlers'  reunion  at  Keytesville,  in  1877,  that 
he  could  not  remember  another  day  like  that  in  his  long  Missouri  life  time. 

But  one  note  of  comment  showed  how  determined  were  the  Missourians  that 
Congress  should  not  continue  to  trifle  with  their  rights,  and  that  the  memorial 
adopted  by  the'  St.  Louis  meeting  a  few  weeks  before  was  not  an  idle  threat. 
In  the  St.  Louis  Enquirer,  the  paper  for  which  Benton  wrote,  there  appeared 
a  paragraph  on  the  31st  of  March,  1820,  which  recalled  the  action  of  the  meeting 
and  told  what  would  have  been  done  by  the  Missourians  if  the  passage  of  the 
compromise  bill  had  been  longer  delayed : 

"The  people  of  the  United  States  would  have  witnessed  a  specimen  of  Mis- 
souri feeling  in  the  indignant  contempt  with  which  they  would  have  trampled 
the  odious  restriction  under  their  feet  and  proceeded  to  the  formation  of  a  re- 
publican constitution  in  the   fullness  of  the  peoffle's  power." 

If  Benton  gauged  the  strength  and  extent  of  the  Missouri  sentiment  at  that 
time,  Missouri  may  have  been  nearer  the  formation  of  an  independent  republic, 
to  come  into  the  L^nion  later,  as  Texas  did,  than  the  historians  have  told.  Pos- 
sibly Jeft'erson  was  correct  in  his  judgment  that  the  course  of  Congress  threat- 
ened the  loss  of  "the  Missouri  country  and  what  more  God  only  knows." 

Scattered  in  the  Missouri  settlements  were  men,  not  many  in  number,  who 
were  not  willing  to  trust  the  majority  to  make  the  constitution.  They  were 
against  statehood  unless  it  came  ^vith  a  constitution  which  would,  in  time, 
abolish  slavery.  They  did  not  hold  meetings.  They  did  not  propose  toasts. 
They  wrote  confidential  letters  to  northern  Congressmen  urging  them  to  keep 
up  the  fight  against  admission.  The  effect  was  to  encourage  the  deadlock  at 
Washington,  to  embitter  public   sentiment  in  the  territory,  and  to  insure  the 


fi  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOIRI 

election  of  delegates  to  frame  a  constitution,  when  the  time  came  to  choose  them, 
who  were  strongly  committed  to  slavery  in  Missouri. 

Jesse  Walker  Planted  Methodism. 

Jesse  Walker,  with  two  young  ministers,  arrived  in  St.  Louis  in  1820  to 
establish  the  Methodism  in  Missouri.  The  outlook  was  discouraging.  The 
struggle  for  statehood  was  at  its  climax.  The  legislature  was  in  session.  Poli- 
tics was  boiling.  Immigrants  were  coming  in  caravans.  Not  only  was  the 
])ioneer  preacher  unable  to  find  a  stopping  place,  but  he  was  told  by  some  who 
had  been  Methodists  that  it  was  no  use  to  start  religious  services ;  people  were 
too  busy  with  worldly  affairs.  The  good  man  was  sorely  disappointed.  He  shook 
the  dust  from  off  his  feet  and  departed,  intending  to  go  to  Mississippi  in  the 
expectation  of  finding  a  more  promising  field.  After  going  eighteen  miles  he 
stopped  and  looked  back. 

"Was  I  ever  defeated  before  in  this  blessed  work?"  he  communed  with 
himself.     "Never.     By  the  grace  of  God  I  will  go  back  and  take  St.  Louis." 

He  returned  to  the  city  and  continued  his  search  until  he  found  a  place  to 
stop.  As  he  went  out  on  the  street  he  met  one  of  the  citizens  who  had  pre- 
viously advised  him  against  trying  to  do  anything  in  the  booming  town. 

"Father  Walker,"  said  this  St.  Louisan  of  one  hundred  years  ago,  "what 
brought  you  back?" 

"I  have  come  to  take  St.  Louis,"  said  the  stout-hearted  preacher.  "I  have 
come  in  the  name  of  Christ  to  take  St.  Louis,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  I  will 
do  it." 

There  was  no  use  advising  such  a  man  against  his  purposes.  Father  Walker 
found  a  small  unfurnished  building  the  use  of  which  for  ten  dollars  a  month 
was  obtained.  He  saw  .some  old  benches  which  had  been  discarded,  lying  at  the 
end  of  the  court  house.  These  he  bought  for  a  trifle,  and  moved  them  into  the 
ten  dollar  house.  He  started  preaching  twice  on  Sundays  and  teaching  children 
five  days  in  the  week.  M  the  end  of  a  year  he  had  a  church  with  75  members. 
St.  Louis  was  not  such  a  bad  field  for  Methodism  as  St.  Louisans  had  thought. 

Jesse  Walker  didn't  announce  a  Sunday  school  at  first  but,  at  the  close  of  his 
sermon,  he  said  that  "at  nine  o'clock  on  the  next  Sabbath  morning  he  would 
open  a  school  to  teach  young  people  to  read.  He  would  furnish  the  books  and 
give  the  instruction  free  to  all  that  would  come."  The  next  Sunday  morning 
ten  boys  were  present.  One  of  them  was  Robert  D.  Sutton  who  left  this  recol- 
lection : 

"The  school  was  opened  by  singing  a  verse  of  'Children  of  the  Heavenly  King;'  then 
a  short  prayer.  Father  Walker  examined  each  scholar  to  see  how  much  they  knew  in 
letters.  He  found  five  who  did  not  know  their  .\  B  C's ;  the  other  five  could  read  a  little. 
Father  Walker  then  gave  to  each  boy  who  could  read  one  who  could  not,  thus  forming 
them  into  classes,  one  teaching  the  other  his  .\  B  C's.  While  they  were  thus  engaged 
Father  Walker  called  first  one  and  then  another  of  those  who  could  read  and  gave  to  eacli 
of  them  a  short  lesson  of  instruction  and  advice  on  religious  subjects.  This  course  was 
pursued  for  one  hour  and  a  half,  when  Father  Walker  informed  them  that  the  school  must 
close  for  the  present.  But  it  would  open  again  on  next  Sunday  morning,  and  he  invited 
them  all  to  come  again  and  bring  as  many  new  scholars  as  they  could  along  with  them. 
He  then  made  them  a  short  address  on  religious  subjects,  sang  a  verse  of  'Jesus  my  all 
to  Heaven  has  gone."     Then  a  short  prayer  and  we  were  dismissed   with  the  benediction." 


C).\l-:   HLXDRKL)  ^•l•:AkS  A(i()  7 

The  First  Directory. 

In  May,  1821.  St.  1-oui.s  arrived  at  the  distiiictiun  uf  having  a  city  directory. 
The  publisher,  John  A.  Paxton,  called  it  the  "St.  Louis  Directory  and  Register. 
Containing  the  Xanies,  Professions,  and  Residences  of  all  the  Heads  of  Families 
and  Persons  in  Business."  In  his  introductory,  Mr.  Paxton  set  forth  this  com- 
prehensive review  of  the  business  of  St.  Louis  a  century  ago: 

"46  mercantile  establishments,  which  carry  on  an  e.xtensive  trade  with  tlie  most 
distant  parts  of  the  Republic,  in  merchandise,  produce,  furs  and  peltries;  3  auctioneers 
who  do  considerable  business ;  each  pays  $200  per  annum  to  the  state  for  a  license  to  sell, 
and  on  all  property  sold  is  a  state  duty  of  3  per  cent,  on  real  estate  I  and  Yi  per  cent,  and 
their  commission  of  5  per  cent;  3  weekly  newspapers,  viz:  The  St.  Louis  'Enquirer,' 
'Missouri   Gazette,'  and   'St.   Louis   Register,'   and  as  many  Printing   Offices,   I   Book   Store. 

2  Binderies,  3  large  Inns,  with  a  number  of  smaller  Taverns  and  boarding  houses : 
6  Livery  Stables ;  57  Grocers  and  Bottlers ;  27  Attorneys  and  Counselors  at  Law ;  13 
Physicians.  3  Druggists  and  Apothecaries;  3  Midwives;  I  Portrait  Painter,  who  would 
do  credit  to  any  country ;  5  Clock  and  Watchmakers,  Silversmiths  and  Jewelers :  i  Silver 
Plater,  i  Engraver;  i  Brewery,  where  is  manufactured  Beer.  Ale  and  Porter  of  a  quality 
equal  to  any  in  the  Western  country ;  I  Tannery ;  3  Soap  and  Candle  factories ;  2  Brick 
Yards;   3    .Stone   Cutters:    14    Bricklayers    and    Plasterers;    28   Carpenters;    9    Blacksmiths; 

3  Gunsmiths;  2  Copper  and  Tinware  manufacturers;  6  Cabinet  makers;  4  Coach  makers 
and  Wheelwrights;  7  Turners  and  Chairmakers ;  3  Saddle  and  Harness  manufacturers; 
3  Hatters;  12  Tailors;  13  Boot  and  Shoe  manufacturers;  lo  Ornamental,  S'gn  and  House 
Painters  and  Glaziers;  1  Nail  Factory;  4  Hair  Dressers  and  Perfumers;  2  Confectioners 
and  Cordial  Distillers ;  4  Coopers,  Block,  Pump  and  Mast  makers ;  4  Bakers ;  i  Comb 
Factory:  i  Bell-man;  5  Billiard  Tables,  which  pav  an  annual  ta.\  of  $100  each  to  the 
state,  and  the  same  sum  to  the  corporation ;  several  Hacks  or  Pleasure  Carriages,  and  a 
considerable  number  of  Drays  and  Carts;  several  professional  Musicians,  who  play  at 
the  Balls  which  are  very  frequent  and  well  attended  by  the  inhabitants,  more  particularly 
the  French,  who,  in  general,  ar,-  remarkably  graceful  performers,  and  much  attached  to  so 
ratioi;al.  healthy  and  imnroving  an  amusement;  2  Potteries  are  within  a  few  miles,  and 
tliere  are  several  promising  gardens  in  and  around  the  town." 

Population  of  Town  and  State. 

The  population  of  St.  Louis,  the  town,  in  1821 — incorporation  as  a  city  came 
two  years  later— was  5,50x5  according  to  this  first  directory.  St.  Louis  town  and 
county  had  9,732  by  the  same  authority.  In  Missouri,  on  August  i,  1820,  there 
were,  by  the  returns  of  the  United  States  marshal,  66,607  people.  Mr.  Paxton 
said,  "the  class  who  compose  the  respectable  part  of  the  community  are  hospi- 
table, polite  and  well  informed."    He  added: 

"And  here  I  must  take  occasion,  in  justice  to  the  town,  to  protest  against  many 
calumnies  circulated  abroad  to  the  prejudice  of  St.  Louis,  respecting  the  manners  and  dis- 
position of  the  inhabitants.  Persons  meet  here,  with  dissimilar  habits,  of  a  different 
education,  and  possessing  various  localities.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising,  that,  in  a 
place  composed  of  such  discordant  materials  there  should  be  occasional  differences  and 
difficulties.  But  the  reader  may  be  assured  that  old-established  inhabitants  have  little 
participation   in  transactions   which  have   so   far   injured   the   town." 

By  "transactions"  Mr.  Paxton  probably  had  reference  to  the  duels  on  Bloody 
Island,  "opposite  Roy's  tower,"  which  had  been  quite  frequent  in  the  half  decade 
preceding  the  issue  of  this  first  directory. 

Mr.  Paxton  enumerated  "154  dwelling  houses  of   Brick  and  Stone,  and   iq6 


8  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  Wood  in  the  north  part  of  town,  and  78  of  Brick  and  Stone  and  223  of  Wood 
in  the  south  part."  From  his  review,  he  felt  justified  in  the  prediction  that  St. 
Louis  "was  destined  to  become  much  the  largest  town  on  this  side  of  the  East- 
ern mountains." 

The  Moral  Point  of  View. 

A  century  ago,  St.  Louis,  unjustly,  perhaps,  had  something  of  a  wild  west 
reputation.  Not  only  the  maker  of  the  first  city  directory  in  1821  felt' called 
upon  to  protest  against  the  opinion  of  St.  Louisans  held  in  the  East,  but  the 
first  mayor,  William  Carr  Lane,  addressing  the  new  board  of  aldermen,  in  1824, 
said: 

"Our  town  is  changing  its  physical  and  moral  character  for  a  better  one 
daily.  In  a  commercial  point  of  view  it  is  rapidly  becoming  what  it  must  inevi- 
tably become — an  entrepot  for  the  seaboard  and  the  vast  and  fertile  country 
around  us,  affording  a  market  for  the  importer  and  exporter  and  the  country 
merchant  and  the  planter  so  advantageous  as  to  forbid  their  seeking  elsewhere 
for  a  better.  The  amount  of  raw  material  is  increasing  and  the  cost  of  provi- 
sions and  labor  is  diminishing  in  such  ratio  as  to  create  the  hope  that  manu- 
facturing establishments  must  spring  up  among  us.  In  a  moral  point  of  view 
we  can  put  to  shame  many  of  these  who  ignorantly  vilify  (us)  in  the  East. 
There  is  as  little  crime  here  as  in  any  town  of  equal  population  and  commerce 
in  the  Union,  and  the  people  are  as  sober,  as  obedient  to  laws,  as  orderly  and  as 
decent  in  their  deportment,  particularly  in  their  public  assemblies,  as  anywhere. 
Hitherto,  east  of  the  Ohio,  disease,  vice  and  violence  have  been  associated  with 
the  very  name  of  St.  Louis,  whereas  the  town  is  very  healthy  three-fourths  of 
the  vear.  Riot,  broils  and  wounds  are  as  rare  with  us  as  they  are  amongst 
them." 

Exploration  by  Major  Elijah  lies. 

Major  Elijah  lies,  who  came  to  Missouri  in  the  spnng  of  1819,  exploring 
the  interior  to  determine  whether  he  should  make  his  home  here,  said : 

"At  that  time  there  was  only  one  town  on  the  Mississippi  above  St.  Loiiis, 
— Louisiana.  There  was  a  town  at  Alton,  one  mile  and  a  half  back  from  the 
river.  There  were  but  two  towns  on  the  Missouri, — St.  Charles,  twenty  miles; 
and  Franklin.  160  miles  west  of  St.  Louis.  After  leaving  St.  Louis,  the  trail 
led  for  about  80  miles  through  a  district  in  which  there  was  scarely  an  inhabitant 
other  than  a  few  settled  on  the  road  to  accommodate  travelers." 

He  went  on  to  Franklin,  where  the  sales  of  land  by  the  government  were 
about  to  take  place.  Here  he  found  the  town  full  of  land  speculators.  The 
country  round  about  was  "pretty  well  filled  with  squatters  who  had  made  small 
improvements  and  were  awaiting  the  sale  of  public  land.  These  settlers  were 
mostly  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  " 

Sales  of  these  lands  averaged  over  $50,000  a  month.  Lots  in  Franklin  were 
as  valuable  as  those  in  St.  Louis. 

Major  lies  rode  horseback  up  the  Missouri  valley  until  he  found  "the  most 
extreme  western  cabin  in  the  United  States,  which  was  only  about  thirty  miles 
above  Franklin,  not  far  above  the  mouth  of  the  Chariton  river."     On  his  way 


ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  9 

back  to  Franklin  he  found  "a  colony  of  about  a  dozen  Tennesseans,  who  had 
enclosed  in  one  common  field  more  than  i,ooo  acres  of  prairie  bottom — govern- 
ment land,  designated  by  turning  rows  for  each  one  to  till.  This  was  a  grand 
sight.  I  had  never  seen  such  an  immense  field  and  such  large  ears  of  com. 
Where  I  was  raised  the  corn  was  small,  the  soil  being  thin.  Here  you  could 
have  a  corn  row  to  plow  more  than  a  mile  long,  without  stones,  roots  or  stumps 
to  interfere." 

At  Franklin  young  lies  found  employment  in  a  store  kept  by  the  clerk  of 
the  receiver  of  the  land  office.  The  land  sales  were  coming  on.  lies  was  engaged 
for  three  years  at  Franklin.  In  his  "Early  Life  and  Times"  he  tells  of  that  period 
of  land  speculation  in  Missouri,  one  hundred  years  ago. 

Land  Speculation. 

"The  receiver's  office  was  in  a  room  over  the  store,  and  as  he  had  no  safe,  and  nothing 
but  a  trunk  to  keep  the  money  in,  it  was  done  up  in  packages  and  handed  to  me.  I  did 
not  like  to  take  the  responsibility;  but  he  said  he  knew  what  he  was  about,  and  wished 
me  to  take  care  of  it.  My  'safe'  was  a  barrel  filled  with  scraps  of  paper  and  set  under 
the  counter,  in  the  bottom  of  which  the  packages  were  placed.  In  my  safe  I  would  have 
more  than  $100,000  at  a  time.  Lands  at  that  day  were  sold  at  two  dollars  per  acre — one- 
fourth  cash,  and  one-fourth  in  two,  three  and  four  years.  Hard  times  stopped  us  from 
making  money,  and  unless  the  payments  were  promptly  made  the  land  was  forfeited  to 
the  general  government.  But  when  we  thought  we  were  all  swamped.  Congress  passed 
an  act  allowing  us  to  relinquish.  For  instance,  if  a  man  bought  a  section,  he  was  allowed 
to  give  up  three-fourths  and  apply  the  payment  made   to  save  the   one-fourth." 

Before  Major  lies  left  Missouri  to  establish  the  first  store  on  what  was  to 
become  the  site  of  Springfield,  the  capital  of  Illinois,  he  traveled  about  the  brand 
new  state  looking  at  the  prospects,  not  being  able  to  satisfy  himself  as  to  a  per- 
manent location. 

"A  young  man  named  Evans,  from  Kentucky,  joined  me  in  this  e.xploring  trip.  We 
prepared  ourselves  for  camping,  with  some  bread  in  our  wallets,  corn  meal  for  making 
corn  bread,  and  salt.  For  meat  we  depended  on  game,  such  as  deer,  turkey,  and  prairie 
chicken,  and  as  we  were  both  good  marksmen,  there  was  no  danger  of   suffering. 

"About  100  miles  above  the  settled  part  of  Missouri  a  colony  had  just  been  started, 
mostly  yet  in  camps.  The  men  had  gone  up  in  the  spring  and  had  raised  small  patches 
of  corn  without  fencing,  and  had  just  moved  their  families  and  were  helping  each  other 
to  erect  their  cabins,  some  of  which  were  already  built.  This  colony  was  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Missouri  river,  opposite  and  below  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas.  The  settlement 
was  in  a  string  nearly  twenty  miles  long.  The  land  was  well  watered,  sightly  and  none 
better." 

Heroic  Treatment  for  Fever. 

lies  might  have  settled  permanently  in  Missouri  at  this  time,  1821,  but  for  an 
experience  at  this  settlement  in  the  river  bottoms  opposite  what  is  now  Kansas 
City.  Sprngfield  might  have  lost  its  first  citizen  who  secured  for  it  the  location 
of  the  county  seat  of  Sangamon,  who  commanded  the  company  in  which  Lincoln 
was  a  private  in  the  Blackhawk  war,  and  who  was  largely  instrumental  in  the 
removal  of  the  Illinois  capital  from  Vandalia  to  Springfield. 

"We  stopped  at  the  outermost  house  of  this  settlement,  near  the  Indian  border  line. 
Here  a  young  man   joined  us  and  we  extended  our  trip   into  the  then   Indian  Territory, 


10  CI'-XI  I'.XMAI.  MISIOKV  ()!•    MISS<U'RI 

traveling  several  days  1)ey<>iul  the  border,  wliere  we  found  still  a  sightly  country  and 
fertile  land.  On  our  return,  before  we  got  back  to  the  cabin,  I  was  taken  sick  with  a 
most  violent  fever.  .\s  it  was  more  than  loo  miles  to  a  doctor,  and  my  suffering  excruciat- 
ing, it  was  supposed  I  must  die.  Whilst  I  lay  in  great  agony  at  the  cabin,  where  I  was 
cared  for  by  the  woman,  the  young  men,  who  were  waiting  until  I  should  die,  amused 
themselves  in  killing  beaver,  otter  and  deer.  After  I  had  been  sick  four  or  five  days.  I 
remembered  a  spring  of  ice-cold  water  that  I  had  passed  on  an  Indian  trail  a  half  a  mile 
uff,  and  as  I  had  not  lost  much  strength,  I  put  out  to  the  spring,  where  I  lay  down  with 
my  face  over  the  water  and  drank  until  1  could  not  swallow  another  drop.  As  soon 
as  the  water  warmed  in  my  stomach,  I  cast  it  up.  This  I  did  a  number  of  times  until  my 
thirsi  was  allayed  and  the  perspiration  began  to  flow.  About  this  time  a  clap  of  thunder, 
accompanied  by  lightning,  warned  me  that  I  had  better  not  have  it  rain  on  me  while  in 
a  perspiration :  and  although  I  did  not  crave  more  water,  I  drank  as  much  as  I  possibly 
could  swallow,  and  started  for  the  cabin.  The  perspiration  ran  in  streams  from  my 
body  and  limbs,  every  finger  dripping  with  it,  and  my  shoes  were  almost  filled  with  per- 
spiration. You  could  have  tracked  me  on  the  trail.  When  I  reached  the  cabin  tlie  fever 
had  left  me,  and   I  had  no  more.     Next  morning  I  was  able  to  travel. 

The  Days  of  Pioneer  Privationa. 

"Our  aim  now  was  to  cross  the  Missouri  river  and  go  down  on  the  south  side. 
There  were  no  settlements  on  the  south  side  for  more  than  roc  miles  below,  to  the 
vicinity  of  where  Boonville  is  now  located.  We  knew  there  was  a  fort  on  the  south 
side,  below  the  Kansas  river,  called  Fort  Osage,  commanded  by  Colonel  Sibley,  where  we 
could  cross.  We  intended  to  strike  the  Missouri  below  the  Kansas  and  meander  down 
until  we  found  the  fort,  but  before  reaching  the  river  we  found  a  family  living  in  a 
tent;  they  had  not  yet  erected  their  cabin.  We  stopped  with  them  for  the  night.  The 
father,  mother  and  three  children  were  all  sick  with  the  chills,  and  the  next  morning  the 
young  man  with  me  had  a  crick  in  his  back.  He  seemed  to  suffer  intensely, — most  as 
bad  as  I  did  with  the  fever.  Of  course  we  had  to  stay  for  a  time,  and  I  had  my  com- 
panion and  the  family  to  care  and  provide  for.  There  was  nothing  to  begin  with  except 
some  milk  and  honey ;  but  I  soon  killed  some  squirrels  and  prairie  chickens.  Quail  had 
not  yet  enrigrated  that  far.  The  corn  in  his  corn  patch  was  just  ripe  enough  to  pound 
into  meal,  for  which  I  had  a  mortar  with  a  pestle  and  sweep.  The  first  batch  I  pounded. 
I  blistered  my  hands,  and  I  was  then  in  a  bad  fix  to  pound  more ;  but  the  woman  made 
me  some  pads  to  go  on  my  hands,  which  answered  a  good  purpose.  I  had  to  stop  here 
a  week  until  my  companion  was  able  to  travel.  The  day  before  we  left,  I  went  twenty 
miles  to  a  trader's  who  had  some  flour,  corn  meal,  and  a  few  groceries  and  patent  medi- 
cines. Here  I  bought  some  flour,  tea  and  medicine,  anr".  also  saw  a  friend  who  promised 
to  go  up  and  wait  on  the  family.  I  had  an  Indian  trail  to  travel,  and  when  within  a 
half  mile  of  the  camp,  on  my  return,  a  deer  jumped  across  my  path  which  I  shot  from 
my  horse.  It  was  only  crippled.  Leaping  from  my  horse,  I  laid  the  gun  down  and  ran 
to  it,  cut  its  throat,  cut  out  the  entrails,  and  packed  it  to  camp.  There  I  dressed  it.  and 
next  morning  left  the   family  well   provided  with   eatables. 

Well  Entertained  at  Fort  Osage. 

"From  here  we  followed  the  windings  of  the  Missouri  and  found  the  fort  about 
twenty  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  river.  The  officers  sent  soldiers  with  a 
barge  to  ferry  us  and  our  horses  over.  We  were  made  welcome,  and  our  horses  as  well 
as  ourselves  were  well  cared  for.  The  wives  of  the  oflicers  seemed  ovcrjoj-ed  to  see 
some  one,  besides  their  husbands  and  the  soldiers,  that  they  could  make  inquiries  of  as 
to  what  was  going  on  in  the  settled  and  civilized  parts  of  the  United  States.  Whilst  they 
were  located  on  the  frontier  and  in  forts,  they  saw  no  one  aside  from  their  husbands  and 
soldiers,  with  occasionally  a  few  trappers  and  fur  traders  passing  up  and  down  the  Mis- 
souri river.  My  companion  was  a  fluent  talker  and  kept  them  well  entertained  in  answer- 
ing their  questions  and  relating  matters  that  had  been  or  were  transpiring  in  the  to  them 
outside  world.     They  did  everything  they  could   to  entertain  and  make  it  pleasant   for  us. 


Courtesy  Missouri  Historical  Soclelj 

OLD    FRANKLIN' 

The  only  building  left  of  what  was  onec 
the  nietr()]>olis  of  interior  Missouri,  washed 
away  by  the  Missouri  river.  The  huililiiig 
was   Franklin   Academy. 


PRESIDENT  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


PRESIDENT    JAMES    MONROE 
On  the  inth  of  August,  1821,  he  issued  the 
proclamation    deelaring    Missouri's    admission 
to  the  Union  to  be  "  complete. " 


Jt: 


ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  13 

Our  clothes  were  washed  and  well  done  up,  the  buttons  sewed  on  and  the  rips  mended, 
and  our  socks  darned.  We  stopped  with  them  a  week,  and  enjoyed  our  visit  at  the  fort 
very  much." 

Iks  accounted  for  his  decision  to  settle  in  Illinois,  "as  I  thought  Missouri 
would  remain  a  frontier  state  during  my  life  time."  When  he  took  his  departure 
"the  stores  in  Franklin  were  mostly  branches  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  houses.  At 
that  day  the  merchants  went  east  in  December  and  rode  on  horseback  to  Phila- 
delphia to  buy  their  goods.  These  were  hauled  over  the  mountains  and  sent 
by  water  to  St.  Louis,  and  again  carried  by  wagons  i6o  miles  to  Franklin.  There 
were  no  banks  in  that  part  of  the  state,  and  the  merchants  carried  the  money  in 
belts  around  their  bodies  or  in  saddlebags.  I  was  employed  by  the  merchants 
to  remain  until  January  and  bring  to  Lexington  what  money  might  be  taken  in 
the  stores." 

The  Rising  Tide  of  Immigration. 

The  Frankhn  Intelligencer  in  an  issue  of  November,  1817,  told  of  prosperity 
in  the  Boone's  Lick  country : 

"Immigration  to  this  territory,  and  particularly  to  this  county,  during  the  present 
season,  exceeds  almost  belief.  Those  who  have  arrived  in  this  quarter  are  principally 
from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Immense  numbers  of  wagons,  carriages,  carts,  etc.,  with 
families  have  for  some  time  past  been  arriving  daily.  During  October  it  is  stated  that 
no  less  than  271  wagons  and  four-wheeled  carriages  and  55  two-wheeled  carriages  and 
carts  passed  near  St.  Charles  bound  principally  for  Boone's  Lick.  It  is  calculated  that  the 
number  of  persons  accompanying  these  wagons  could  not  be  less  than  3,000.  It  is  stated 
in  the  St.  Louis  Enquirer  of  the  loth  inst.  that  about  twenty  wagons,  etc.,  per  week  had 
passed  through  St.  Charles  for  the  past  nine  or  ten  weeks  with  wealthy,  respectable  immi- 
grants from  various  states  whose  united  numbers  are  supposed  to  amount  to  12.000.  The 
county  of  Howard,  already  respectable  in  numbers,  will  soon  possess  a  vast  population 
and  no  section  of  our  country  presents  a   fairer  prospect  to  the  immigrant." 

Rev.  Timothy  Flint  described  one  of  these  caravans  going  into  camp  for  the 
night  at  a  spring  or  creek:  "The  pack  of  dogs  sets  up  a  cheerful  barking.  The 
cattle  lie  down  and  ruminate.  The  huge  wagons  are  covered  so  that  the  roof 
completely  excludes  the  rain.  The  cooking  utensils  are  brought  out.  The  blacks 
prepare  a  supper  which  the  toils  of  the  day  render  delicious ;  and  they  talk 
over  the  adventures  of  the  past  day,  and  the  prospects  of  the  next." 

Franklin  at  Its  Best. 

The  best  description  of  Franklin  in  the  days  of  its  greatest  prosperity  is 
given  in  the  report  of  the  Long  Expedition  which  stopped  there  in  1819: 

"This  town,  at  present  increasing  more  rapidly  than  any  other  on  the  Missouri,  had 
been  commenced  but  two  years  and  a  half  before  the  time  of  our  landing.  It  then  con- 
tained about  120  log  houses  of  one  story,  several  frame  dwellings  of  two  stories  and 
two  brick,  thirteen  shops  for  selling  merchandise,  four  taverns,  two  smith's  shops,  two 
large  steam  mills,  two  billiard  rooms,  a  court  house,  a  log  prison  of  two  stories,  a  post 
office  and  a  printing  press  issuing  a  weekly  paper.  At  this  time  bricks  were  sold  at  ten 
dollars  per  thousand,  corn  at  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel,  wheat  at  one  dollar,  bacon  at 
twelve  and  one-half  cents  a  pound,  uncleared  lands  at  two  to  ten  or  fifteen  dollars  an 
acre.    The  price  of  labor  was  seventy-five  cents  a  day.     The  bottoms  about  Franklin  are 


14  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

wide  and  have  the  same  prolific  ami  iiu-xliaustilili'  soil  as  those  hflovv.  The  lahor  of 
one  slave  is  reckoned  sufficient  for  the  cultivation  of  twenty  acres  of  Indian  corn  which 
produces  ordinarily  ahout  sixty  bushels  per  acre  at  a  single  crop." 

Kranklin  had  an  axe  factory  conducted  by  Henry  Knous.  The  "knous  axe" 
was  in  general  nse  among  the  Missouri  settlements.  One  of  the  leading  mer- 
chants advertised  that  he  had  "a  large  assortment  of  firstrate  Hats  of  Castors, 
Rorams  and  Wool  which  he  will  sell  low  for  cash,  nr  barter  for  furs." 

Missouri  Individuality  in  Early  Days. 

Strong  and  sometimes  eccentric  individuality  characterized  the  Missourians 
of  one  hundred  years  ago.  One  of  the  early  judges  of  the  court  in  St.  Louis 
was  Nathaniel  Beverly  Tucker.  He  was  a  half  brother  of  John  Randolph 
of  Virginia,  a  fine  lawyer,  but  somewhat  peculiar.  On  his  country  place  in  the 
Florissant  valley,  Judge  Tucker  found  a  great  hollow  sycamore  tree  when  he 
bought  the  farm.  He  had  the  tree  cut  off  ten  feet  from  the  ground,  put  on  a 
roof,  inserted  a  door  and  a  window,  moved  in  his  desk  and  law  books  and  made 
the  hollf)w  tree  his  law  office.  Judge  Tucker  loved  solitude.  He  was  especially 
ayerse  to  mingling  with  the  "Universal  Yankee  Nation,"  as  he  called  the  north- 
erners. When  the  first  Missouri  constitution  was  in  process  of  formation,  in 
1820,  Judge  Tucker  told  the  framers  they  ought  to  put  in  a  provision  to  prohibit 
Yankees  crossing  the  Mississippi  river.  Edward  Bates  wante(l  to  know  Judge 
Tucker's  idea  of  the  kind  of  phrasing  which  would  accomplish  that.  The  judge 
replied  that  every  immigrant  presenting  himself  at  the  ferry  on  the  Illinois  side 
should  be  asked  to  pronounce  the  word  "cow."  If  the  traveler  said  "keow," 
he  should  be  turned  back. 

Judge  IV-ck  was  a  man  of  eccentricities.  He  was  from  the  mountains  of 
East  Tennessee.  While  he  stood  six  feet  and  was  of  fine  physique,  he  had 
brothers  who  towered  from  six  inches  to  a  foot  above  him.  The  story  followed 
Peck  to  .St.  Louis  that  because  he  was  smaller  than  the  other  inembers  of  the 
family  and  unable  to  do  as  much  work  as  they  could  on  the  farm,  he  was  sent 
to  school  to  become  a  lawyer.  Peck  came  to  St.  Louis  in  1818.  His  ap]X3intment 
to  the  Federal  bench  occurred  just  after  Missouri  was  admitted  as  a  state.  One 
of  the  judge's  customs  was  to  apjiear  in  court  with  a  large  white  handkerchief 
bound  aroiuid  his  head,  covering  the  eyes.  The  handkerchief  was  put  on  before 
the  judge  left  his  home.  A  servant  conducted  him  from  his  carriage  into  the 
court  r(X)ni  and  to  the  bench.  The  judge  sat  through  the  session  blindfolded. 
Whenever  it  was  necessary  to  present  a  paper  to  him,  the  contents  were  read 
aloud  by  the  clerk  or  the  counsel.  The  explanation  given  for  this  singular 
procedure  was  that  the  judge  believed  his  eyes  were  affected  and  that  he  would 
go  blind  if  he  exposed  them  to  the  light.  Judge  Peck  was  a  bachelor.  He  had 
at  one  time  paid  devoted  attentions  to  a  lady  of  St.  Louis.  There  was  another 
man  in  the  case.  Peck  and  his  rival  met  in  the  street  and  fought  about  the  lady. 
The  rival  was  accepted. 

When  Duff  Green  was  a  Force  in  Missouri. 

Contractor  for  survey  of  public  lands,  merchant  with  stores  in  Franklin  and 
Chariton,    member   of   the   first    constitutional    convention,   member   of   the    first 


O.Xl'".   IlL'XDKl-.l)   Nl-.ARS  A( ;(  )  15 

legislature,  state  senator,  cohinel  of  militia,  owner  of  ilie  St.  Louis  Enquirer, 
one  of  the  largest  holders  of  real  estate  in  St.  Louis,  operator  of  a  stage  line 
westward,  Duff  ('•retn  was  a  force  to  he  reckoned  with  in  Missouri  from  1817 
to  1823.  He  came  from  Kentucky  vvitli  a  long  line  of  ancestral  families  in  that 
state  and  Virginia,  lie  was  a  young  man  when  he  came  to  tlic  Boone's  Lick 
country.  The  territorial  governor,  William  Clark,  appointed  Dufif  (ireen  colonel 
of  the  militia  xegiment  enrolled  in  the  region  around  F-ranklin.  Thereupon  a 
storm  of  public  opposition  was  aroused.  Clovenior  Clark  was  accused  of  im- 
porting a  colonel  from  Kentucky  and  of  having  thereby  done  injustice  to  the 
former  colonel,  Cooper,  an  old  settler  and  famous  Indian  fighter.  In  his  "Per- 
sonal Narrative,"  preserved  by  the  Missouri  Historical  Society,  Duff  Green  has 
told  how  he  gained  his  foothold  in  Missouri.  Governor  Clark  had  told  him  that 
he  was  apprehensive  the  old  settlers  in  the  Boone's  Lick  section,  whose  propertv 
had  been  destroyed  and  whose  relatives  had  been  killed,  would  provoke  an  Indian 
war;  that  he  wished  to  appoint  some  one  who  would  have  the  nerve  to  preserve 
the  peace ;  that  "from  what  he  had  heard  of  my  character  he  wished  to  appoint 
me."  Green  had  gone  to  Philadelphia  to  buy  goods  for  his  stores  at  Franklin 
and  Chariton.  He  was  caught  by  the  ice  at  St.  Charles  and  had  to  stay  there 
during  the  winter.  While  he  was  away  the  op{X>sition  to  his  appointment  as 
c-olonel  reached  a  climax  in  181 7. 

"My  name,  actions  and  character  were  made  the  sulijects  iil  nnkinil  eiiinment.  and 
so  great  a  prejudice  was  excited  against  me  that  my  agent  in  Franklin  closed  my  store 
and  wrote  to  ine  in  Chariton  most  despondin.gly.  I  resolved  to  meet  the  crisis.  The  bat- 
talion muster  was  to  take  place  at  Franklin,  the  seat  of  the  excitement,  the  day  after 
the  next.  I  put  on  my  uniform  and  rode  to  Franklin,  in  full  dress.  The  next  morning 
a  Mr.  Tompkins,  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  movement  against  me.  mad.-  an  eflfort  to  pro- 
voke a  personal  quarrel.  I  told  him  that  my  purpose  was  to  reply  to  their  ])rotest  before 
the  parade  that  day  and  that  I  would  meet  him  there.  Some  one  whispered  to  me  that 
the  lieutenant-colonel  was  parading  the  battalion  at  Fort  Hempstead.  1  immediately 
mounted  my  horse  and  rode  to  the  parade  ground.  I  directed  the  lieutenant-colonel  to 
perform  some  evolution.  He  could  not  give  the  word.  I  said,  'If  you  will  permit  me  I 
will  take  the  command.'  I  looked  along  the  line  and  did  not  see  a  single  |)erson  whom 
I  knew  save  a  lieutenant  whom  I  had  known  in  Kentucky.  I  called  to  him  and  said, 
'Can  I  rely  on  you?'  He  replied,  'You  can,  sir.'  I  said,  'Can  you  detail  a  guard  of 
twelve  men  on  whom  you  can  rely?'  He  said,  'I  can.'  I  then  said,  'Detail  them.'  He  did 
so  and  marched  them  in  front  of  the  parade.  I  said,  'Load  your  guns  with  liall.'  They 
did  so.  I  then  said  to  the  lieutenant,  'Detail  a  good  fugueman.'  He  did  so  I  then  said. 
'.Attention  the  parade!  I  am  told  that  many  persons  in  this  battalion  have  united  in  a 
protest  against  my  appointment  as  your  colonel  and  that  some  have  pledged  tliemselves 
not  to  obey  my  orders  as  such.  The  governor,  in  the  exercise  of  his  legitimate  authority, 
has  given  me  the  appointment,  I  do  not  come  before  you  now  to  apologize  or  explain, 
but  to  discbarge  my  duty  as  your  commanding  officer,  and  to  enforce  obedience,  and 
therefore  if  any  one  in  the  ranks  dares  to  disobey  my  orders  I  will  put  him  under  guard.' 
i  then,  after  takiu"  tb  ^m  through  the  manual  exorcise,  gave  the  word  for  several  evolu- 
tions, when,  a  shower  coming  up.  I  banded  over  the  command  to  Colonel  Hickman  who 
dismissed  the  parade. 

On  the  Stump, 

".'\fter  the  rain  I  got  upon  a  larye  stump  and  called  tin-  attention  of  the  battalion. 
They  all  collected  before  me,  1  took  the  printed  remonstrance:  I  read  it.  and  replied 
to,  and   commented   upon   it.      I    proved   that   my   appointment   had   been   made  by  the  gov- 


16  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ernor  in  the  proper  exercise  of  his  official  duty.  To  the  charge  that  I  had  been  imported 
for  the  purpose  and  appointed  to  the  exclusion  of  other  aspirants,  I  showed  that  while 
most  of  the  many  aspirants  were  in  their  forts,  or  elsewhere  in  Kentucky,  I  had  surveyed 
the  country  which  was  then  occupied  by  Indian  hunting  parties,  and  that  I  had  resolved 
to  move  to  the  county  and  was  on  my  way  for  my  family  when  the  appointment  was 
tendered  to  me,  and  explained  the  cause  of  my  delay  in  coming.  In  reply  to  the  personal 
remarks  which  had  been  made  against  me,  I  pointed  to  the  motives  and  conduct  of  my 
accusers,  one  of  whom,  a.  Mr.  Benson,  had  threatened  that  if  I  used  his  name  he  would 
drag  me  from  the  stump  and  cowhide  me.  He  had  been  an  aspirant,  and  when  I  came 
to  speak  of  him,  he  came  rushing  through  the  crowd  with  a  whip  in  his  hand.  I  saw 
him  coming;  I  drew  my  sword,  poised  myself  on  the  stump,  and  would,  if  he  had  come 
near  enough,  have  endeavored  to  cut  off  his  head.     He  threw  up  both  hands  and  retreated. 

"When  I  came  to  speak  of  Colonel  Cooper  and  his  letter,  he  came  before  me  much 
excited  and  said,  'Do  not  use  my  name,  for  if  you  do,  I  will  drag  you  from  that  stump.' 
I  stopped  speaking,  looked  him  sternly  in  the  eye  until  I  saw  that  he  faltered,  and  then 
I  said,  'Colonel  Cooper,  you  are  the  patriarch  of  this  settlement.  You  have  grown  gray 
in  the  confidence  and  respect  of  those  who  know  you.  You  are  here  surrounded  by 
your  friends  and  my  enemies,  who,  to  flatter  your  vanity,  and  use  your  name  and  in- 
fluence to  my  injury,  have  tendered  you  a  nomination  to  the  senate,  and  you  have  no 
opposition.  I  am  a  young  man  just  entering  into  life — my  character  ha6  been  assailed  by 
a  wicked  combination,  and  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  use  your  name  in  my  defense. 
You  know  that  what  I  am  going  to  say  is  true,  and  no  threats  or  violence  shall  prevent 
my  using  your  name  and  stating  the  facts  as  they  are.'  A  Mr.  Hancock,  Colonel  Cooper's 
brother-in-law,  here  said,  'Go  on,  sir,  I  will  stand  by  you.'  I  continued,  addressing  the 
colonel,  'It  has  been  charged  that  you  did  not  request  me  to  write  your  letter  of  resigna- 
tion. You  know  that  you  did  come  to  me  and  request  me  to  write,  and  that  I  wrote 
precisely  the  words  which  you  wished  to  be  written.'  He  quietly  took  a  seat  outside  of 
the  crowd  and  did  not  speak  in  reply. 

"Two  of  the  committee  who  had  published  the  remonstrance  replied  to  me.  I  then 
said,  'Gentlemen,  you  have  now  heard  me  in  reply  to  my  accusers.  You  have  heard  their 
response  to  my  reply.  Under  the  circumstances  you  cannot  expect  me  to  resign  the 
command,  and  I  would  not  resign  if  every  one  in  the  regiment  were  to  request  me  to  do 
so.  But  I  claim  that  an  expression  of  your  opinion  is  no  less  due  to  yourselves  than  to 
me,  and  it  is  therefore  my  wish  that  you  should  say  whether  you  are  willing  that  I 
should  continue  in  the  command  of  this  regiment.  Therefore,  all  of  you  who  wish  me 
to  command  will  please  move  to  the  right,  while  those  who  are  opposed,  if  there  are 
any,  will  please  go  to  the  left.' 

"The  men  threw  up  their  hats,  and  moving  in  a  body  to  the  right,  shouted,  'Hurra! 
hurra,  for  our  colonel !'  Even  Benson  went  with  them.  Seeing  him,  I  said,  'Mr.  Benson, 
you  don't  belong  to  that  crowd,  please  go  to  the  left.'  He  said,  'The  men  do  not  under- 
stand you.'  I  replied,  'Gentlemen,  Mr.  Benson  thinks  you  do  not  know  which  is  to  the 
right  and  which  is  to  the  left.  To  satisfy  him  that  it  is  he  who  is  in  the  wrong,  I 
renew  the  proposition,  and  respectfully  request  all  those  who  wish  me  to  command  this 
regiment  to  move  to  my  left,  leaving  Mr.  Benson  where  he  is.'  With  a  shout  for  'Our 
Colonel !'  the  whole  mass  moved  to  the  left.  My  triumph  was  complete — all  opposition 
to  me  ceased — my  popularity  and  influence  were  established,  as  indicated  by  my  election 
as  a  member  of  the  convention  which  made  t'he  state  constitution,  and  then  as  a  member 
of  the  house  of  representatives  and  of  the  state  senate." 

Cooper  was  asked  afterwards  why  he  stopped  as  he  was  advancing  toward 
Duflf  Green.  The  answer  of  the  sturdy  old  pioneer  was,  "I  saw  something  in 
Green's  eyes  that  warned  me  to  keep  hands  off." 

The  French  Missouriajis. 

Brackenridge  told  of  the  social  conditions  as  he  found  them  in  St.  Louis. 
Of  the  French  he  said : 


ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  17 

"Their  amusements  were  cards,  billiards,  and  dancing;  this  last,  of  course,  the  favorite. 
The  dances  were  cotillions  and  sometimes  the  minuet.  Children  have  also  their  balls  and 
are  taught  a  decorum  and  propriety  of  behavior  which  is  preserved  through  life.  They 
have  a  certain  ease  and  freedom  of  address,  and  are  taught  the  secret  of  real  politeness — 
self-denial. 

"Their  language,  everjthing  considered,  is  more  pure  than  might  be  expected.  Their 
manner  of  lengthening  the  sounds  of  words,  although  languid  and  without  the  animation 
which  the  French  generally  possess,  is  by  no  means  disagreeable.  They  have  some  new 
words  and  others  are  in  use  which  in  France  have  become  obsolete. 

"In  their  persons  they  are  well  formed,  of  an  agreeable,  pleasant  countenance,  indi- 
cating cheerfulness  and  serenity. 

"The  dress  of  the  females  was  generally  simple  and  the  variations  of  fashion  few; 
though  they  were  dressed  in  much  better  taste  than  the  other  sex.  Tiie  .'\merican  costume 
is  generally  introduced  into  the  best  families  and  among  the  young  girls  and  young  men 
universall}'.     I  never  saw  anywhere  greater  elegance  than  at  the  balls  in  St.  Louis." 

Fourth  of  July  at  Murphy's  Settlement. 

"Murphy's  Settlement"  was  the  first  name  of  a  pioneer  community  which 
later  became  Farmington.  Uncle  George  Murphy  preserved  the  story  of  the 
first  dance  held  in  the  settlement.  The  "Farmington  Times"  resurrected  the 
narrative  from  an  old  scrapbook : 

"It  was  on  the  4th  of  July,  1822.  Some  brought  bread  and  some  brought  a  whole 
hog  and  a  number  of  them  brought  a  quarter  of  beef  and  lots  of  good  corn.  All  meat 
was  barbecued  over  a  furnace  by  an  old  colored  man.  Now  comes  Halbert's  Major,  a 
man  of  color,  with  his  fiddle,  an  entirely  new  sight  to  most  of  the  youngsters  of  Murphy's 
Settlement.  Having  tuned  his  fiddle,  he  spoke  as  follows:  'Xow  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
I  am  going  to  do  my  very  best  for  you.  I  have  never  drawn  this  bow  across  these  strings 
for  any  one  to  dance  since  I  left  Old  Carolina.  Now  draw  your  partners.'  Major  began 
the  old  tune ; 

"'Joe  cut  off  the  pig's  toe,  hung  it  up  to  dry; 

The  gals  begin  to  laugh  at  Joe  and  Joe  begin  to  cry.' 

"I.  myself  was  in  a  perfect  ecstacy  of  joy  and  delight.  I  forgot  to  mention  that  one 
gentleman  had  bullet  .buttons  on  his  coat  and  epaulettes  on  his  shoulders  and  they  rattled 
while  he  danced.  Another  danced  with  his  spurs  on.  After  a  reasonable  time  dinner 
was  put  on  the  table,  but  before  partaking  of  it,  John  D.  Peers  read  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  made  a  speech  appropriate  to  the  occasion.  Now  comes  the  dinner, 
good  enough  for  a  rail  mauler.  Captain  Bashe  was  there.  He  was  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress and  made  the  first  political  speech  ever  made  in  the  Murphy  Settlement.  He  was 
dressed  in  full  uniform  with  sword  by  his  side,  epaulettes  on  his  shoulders  and  a  blue 
scarf  girdled  around  him.  The  country  tarheels  were  perfectly  amazed  to  behold  him. 
His  speech  was  said  to  be  very  fine  by  those  who  had  sense  enough  to  comprehend  it. 
Just  in  the  middle  of  the  speech,  old  man  Shumate  applauded  him  and  Neely  Stewart 
said  to  him,  'Shut  your  old  fool  mouth.'  Upon  which  Shumate  replied,  'Who  is  Neely 
Stewart?  Because  you  married  a  Poston  in  a  big  family,  and  a  brother-in-law  to  Isaac 
Baker,  you  think  you  are  somebody  and  you  ain't  no  account,  nohow.'  At  which  Neely 
Stewart  knocked  Shumate  down  with  a  shoulder  of  beef. 

"The  first  raisin  that  was  ever  brought  to  Murphy's  Settlement  was  brought  by  Hagan 
from  Yankeetown,  and  while  Captain  Bashe  was  in  a  big  way  of  speaking,  there  was  a 
lad  remarked,  'Oh,  Lord !  There  is  a  box  of  things  in  that  cart  yonder  they  call  sweetened 
grapes."  The  young  chap  went  to  try  them.  He  got  his  hand  in  the  box  and  as  he  did 
so,  Hagan  looked  around.  The  boy  jumped  from  the  cart,  upset  the  raisins  and  skedad- 
dled as  hard  as  he  could. 
Vol.  1—2 


18  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Now  the  question  was  where  can  we  dance  at  night.  Aleck  Younger  was  living 
right  close  to  the  place  in  Granny  Murphy's  house.  They  asked  permission  of  him.  But 
Younger  being  an  excellent  man,  he  said.  'No.  you  can't  dance  there,  for  in  that  house 
the  first  sermon  was  preached,  and  you  shan't  dance  the  first  reel  in  it.  Besides  poor  old 
Uncle  Davy  is  mad  enough  that  you  had  the  dance  in  the  neighborhood.  I  won't  mortify 
him  by  letting  you  dance  in  his  mammy's  house.' 

"But  George  Robinson,  who  lived  in  Tommy  George's  house,  was  there  and  he  gave 
them  leave  to  dance  there.  The  next  thing  was  what  to  do  for  a  light.  Adam  Younger, 
a  colored  man,  said  if  they  would  give  him  three  picayunes,  and  could  get  Amy,  a  colored 
woman,  to  spin  him  some  wick,  he  would  make  them  five  slubs  which  would  last  all  night. 
Now  you  that  have  coal  oil  and  sperm  candles  may  not  know  what  a  slub  is,  so  I  had  bet- 
ter explain.  It  is  a  string  like  that  for  a  candle  mould,  and  instead  of  moulding,  you 
soften  the  tallow  and  squeeze  it  around  the  string. 

"After  the  slubs  were  made,  all  repaired  to  George  Robinson's  and  the  dancing  again 
commenced.  About  ten  o'clock  refreshments  were  handed  around.  There  was  a  lady 
there  with  a  pretty,  changeable  silk  on,  and  a  young  chap  undertook  to  be  very  polite ;  he 
says  to  the  young  lady,  'Madam,  won't  you  have  a  piece  of  ham?'  Then  some  chap  ran 
against  him  and  the  contents  of  the  dish  were  spilled  in  her  lap.  At  that  he  asked  pardon 
and  she  said,  'It  is  all  granted  for  I  am  not  going  to  get  mad;  for  I  will  go  and  put  on 
Betsey's  calico  dress  if  my  changeable  silk  is  spoiled.  I  am  not  going  to  have  my  fun 
spoiled,  for  I  am  going  to  dance  all  night  if  Major's  strings  don't  wear  out.'" 

A  Commercial  Review  of  the  Metropolis. 

What  the  metropoHs  of  Missouri  had  and  had  not,  from  the  commercial 
and  industrial  view,  Colonel  Charless  set  forth  in  the  Missouri  Gazette: 

"The  opulent  town  of  St.  Louis  may  boast  of  a  capital  of  nearly  one  million,  and  has 
few  manufactories,  no  respectable  seminary,  no  place  of  worship  for  dissenters,  no  pub- 
lic edifices,  no  steam  mill  or  boat,  no  bank,  and,  I  was  going  to  say,  no  effective  police. 
Mr.  Philipson  has  lately  established  an  excellent  brewery,  where  excellent  beer  and  porter 
are  made.  Mr.  Wilt  erected  a  red  and  white  lead  manufactory  and  threw  into  the  mar- 
ket several  tons  of  that  useful  article;  his  red  lead  has  been  admired  as  superior  to  that 
imported.  Mr.  Hunt's  tanning  establishment  is  of  primary  importance.  Mr.  Henderson's 
soap  manufactory  would  be  of  great  utility  if  it  only  received  that  patronage  the  proprietor 
so  richly  merits. 

"I  have  no  doubt  that  brickmakers  and  bricklayers,  carpenters  who  could  be  satisfied 
with  a  moderate  compensation  for  their  labor,  black-  and  whitesmiths,  silversmiths,  woolen 
and  cotton  carding  and  spinning  machines  and  managers,  tobacconists,  nailers,  gunsmiths, 
coopers,  pump-makers,  stocking  weavers,  wagon-makers,  stone-cutters,  boat-,  barge-  and 
ship-builders,  rope-makers,  cutlers  and  tool-makers,  skin-dressers  and  many  other  em- 
ployments would  do  well  here.  A  man  of  capital  and  enterprise  would  soon  accumulate 
a  large  fortune  by  erecting  a  steam  flour-  and  saw-mill  in  this  place;  wheat  sells  here  at 
one  dollar  per  bushel  (abundance  raised  in  the  country),  and  good  merchantable  flour  is 
sure  to  command  from  eight  to  ten  dollars  per  barrel.  Corn  generally  rates  at  from 
twenty-five  to  fifty  cents  and  will  bring  in  meal  from  fifty  to  eighty-seven  and  one-half 
cents  a  bushel.  Pine  boards  sell  at  four  dollars  and  oak  and  ash  at  two  and  three  dollars 
per  hundred  feet.  Saw-logs  could  be  brought  to  town  at  one  dollar  each.  Five  thousand 
barrels  of  whisljey  are  annually  received  here  from  the  Ohio  and  sold  at  seventy-five  cents 
a  gallon,  while  thousands  of  bushels  of  grain  are  ofl^ered  at  a  low  price  to  any  enterprising 
man  who  will  commence  a.  distillery." 

St.  Louis  as  John  F.  Darby  Found  It. 

John  F.  Darby  left  his  recollection  of  St.  Louis  as  he  saw  it  for  the  first 
lime  in  1818.  He  was  a  small  boy,  the  family  coming  from  North  Carolina  that 
year: 


(A'E  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  19 

"The  town  of  St.  Louis,  at  that  time,  contained  about  two  thousand  inhabitants,  two- 
thirds  of  whom  were  French  and  one-third  Americans.  The  prevailing  language  of  the 
white  persons  on  the  street  was  French;  the  negroes  of  the  town  all  spoke  French.  All 
the  inhabitants  used  French  to  the  negroes,  their  horses  and  dogs ;  and  used  the  same 
tongue  in  driving  their  ox-teams.  They  used  no  ox-yokes  and  bows,  as  the  Americans 
did,  in  hitching  their  oxen  to  wagons  and  carts ;  but  instead  had  a  light  piece  of  wood 
about  two  or  three  inches  thick  and  about  five  feet  long,  laid  on  the  necks  of  the  oxen, 
close  up  to  the  horns  of  the  animals,  and  this  piece  of  wood  was  fastened  to  the  horns 
by  leather  straps,  making  them  pull  by  the  head  instead  of  the  neck  and  shoulders.  In 
driving  their  horses  and  cattle  they  used  the  words  'chuck  1'  and  'see!'  'marchdeau!'  which 
the  animals  all  perfectly  understood. 

"Colonel  Auguste  Chouteau  had  an  elegant  domicile  fronting  on  Main  street.  His 
dwelling  and  houses  for  his  servants  occupied  the  whole  square  bounded  north  by  Market 
street,  east  by  Main  street,  south  by  what  is  now  known  as  Walnut  street,  and  on  the 
west  by  Second  street.  The  whole  square  was  enclosed  by  a  solid  stone  wall  two  feet 
thick  and  ten  feet  high,  with  port  holes  about  every  ten  feet  apart,  through  which  to  shoot 
Indians  in  case  of  attack.  The  walls  of  Colonel  Chouteau's  mansion  were  two  and  a  half 
feet  thick,  of  solid  stone  work;  two  stories  high,  and  surrounded  by  a  large  piazza  or 
portico  about  fourteen  feet  wide,  supported  by  pillars  in  front  and  at  the  two  ends.  The 
house  was  elegantly  furnished,  but  at  that  time  not  one  of  the  rooms  was  carpeted.  In 
fact,  no  carpets  were  then  used  in  St.  Louis.  The  floors  of  the  house  were  made  of  black 
walnut,  and  were  polished  so  finely  that  they  reflected  like  a  mirror.  He  had  a  train 
of  servants,  and  every  morning  after  breakfast  some  of  those  inmates  of  his  house- 
hold were  down  on  their  knees  for  hours,  with  brushes  and  wax,  keeping  the  floors  pol- 
ished.   The  splendid  abode  with  its  surroundings  had  indeed  the  appearance  of  a  castle. 

"Major  Pierre  Chouteau  also  had  an  elegant  domicile  built  after  the  same  manner  and 
of  the  same  materials.  He,  too,  occupied  a  whole  square  with  his  mansion,  bounded  on 
the  east  by  Main  street,  on  the  south  by  what  is  known  as  Vine  street,  on  the  west  by 
Second  street,  and  on  the  north  by  what  is  now  known  as  Washington  avenue,  the  whole 
square  being  surrounded  by  high  solid  stone  walls  and  having  port  holes,  in  like  man- 
ner as  his  brother's." 

The  Years  of  the  Ferry. 

In  1817  St.  Louis  had  attained  the  degree  of  importance  which  demanded 
two  ferry  landings.  Boats  continued  to  bring  travelers  from  the  east  side  to  the 
place  where  Auguste  Chouteau  had  made  the  first  landing  near  the  foot  of 
Market  street.  But  another  line  ran  to  the  other  depression  in  the  rocky  front 
near  the  foot  of  Morgan  street.  The  service,  under  competition,  being  regular, 
it  continued  to  be  primitive.  Two  kinds  of  boats  were  used.  The  slow-moving 
flat-bottomed  craft  without  covering  was  employed  to  cross  over  horses  and 
wagons.  A  keel  boat  with  four  oars  made  quicker  passage.  Ferry  transporta- 
tion at  St.  Louis  became  progressive  when  John  Day  fixed  up  a  boat  with  a  stern 
wheel  which  was  turned  by  a  horse  in  a  treadmill.  As  the  patient  animal 
climbed,  the  paddle  wheel  went  round  and  the  ferry  churned  its  way  across 
the  Mississippi.  In  those  days,  when  rivalry  did  not  lead  to  cut  rates,  the  tolls 
for  ferriage  were  twenty-five  cents  for  a  human  being;  fifty  cents  a  head  for 
cattle  and  horses ;  fifty  cents  for  a  wagon  or  other  vehicle ;  twelve  and  one- 
half  cents  a  hundred  for  lumber  and  other  heavy  freight. 

With  1818  came  a  new  era  in  ferrying.  Samuel  Wiggins  with  his  family 
arrived  from  Charleston.  South  Carolina.  He  had  some  means.  He  connected 
himself  with  the  ferry  business.  He  bought  John  Day's  horse-power  stern- 
wheeler.  He  acquired  the  interest  of  the  Piggot  heirs  in  another  line.  Gradu- 
ally he  consolidated  and  improved  the  service.     He  did  not  come  too  soon.     In 


20  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

1816  one  of  these  frail  ferry  boats  was  upset  by  bad  handling  in  the  middle 
of  the  river.  Dubay,  the  ferryman,  two  assistants  and  two  passengers  were 
drowned.  As  soon  as  the  steamboat  navigation  demonstrated  its  value,  Captain 
Wiggins  put  into  service  a  steam  ferry.  Other  boats  were  added  as  the  business 
grew.  The  "Wiggins  Ferry"  became  an  institution  of  the  city.  It  met  public 
needs.  If  it  had  not  been  so  well  conducted  St.  Louis  would  not  have  waited 
until   1874  for  the  first  bridge. 

' '  The  Irish  Crowd. ' ' 

The  coming  of  the  McKnights  and  the  Bradys  was  an  event.  John  McKnight 
and  Thomas  Brady  were  the  leading  spirits  in  this  lively  crowd.  Of  the  Mc- 
Knights there  were  John,  Thomas,  James,  Robert  and  William.  The  McKnights 
and  the  Bradys  bought  a  boat  at  Pittsburg.  They  rowed  down  the  Ohio  and 
up  the  Mississippi  to  St.  Louis.  The  boat  carried  a  stock  of  goods  as  well  as 
the  two  families.  The  store  of  McKnight  &  Brady  was  opened.  For  a  short 
time  after  their  arrival,  the  McKnights  and  Bradys  were  spoken  of  as  "the  Irish 
crowd."  Before  the  second  year  was  out  the  McKnights  and  Bradys  were  a 
power  in  the  community. 

The  second  season  after  their  arrival  they  were  able  to  buy  a  lot  sixty  feet 
front  on  the  corner  of  Main  and  Pine  streets,  in  the  business  heart  of  the  city. 
Here  they  did  business  successfully  until  they  were  able  to  erect  in  1816,  an 
imposing  structure  of  brick,  the  first  in  St.  Louis  for  a  public  house.  There 
were  stores  downstairs,  a  hotel  upstairs  where  was  held  in  1817  the  first  cele- 
bration, west  of  the  Mississippi,  of  Washington's  birthday.  McKnight  and 
Brady  amassed  enough  money  at  trade  to  go  into  real  estate.  They  laid  out 
part  of  what  is  now  East  St.  Louis  and  called  it  Illinoistown.  McKnight  served 
on  the  grand  jury.  Brady  presided  at  the  first  meeting  of  Irishmen  to  organ- 
ize the  Erin  Benevolent  Society.  Thomas  Brady  married  a  daughter  of  John 
Rice  Jones,  who  became  one  of  the  first  three  justices  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Missouri.  One  of  Thomas  Brady's  daughters  married  Ferdinand  Rozier,  the 
Second.  The  standing  which  the  McKnights  and  Bradys  quickly  obtained  in 
the  community  was  shown  by  the  selection  of  Thomas  Brady  to  be  one  of  the 
commissioners  to  obtain  subscriptions  to  the  first  bank  established  under  charter 
from  the  territorial  legislature.  John  McKnight  was  a  commissioner  to  receive 
subscriptions  to  the  second  bank  chartered,  and  Thomas  Brady  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  first  board  of  directors  of  the  bank.  St.  Louis  never  had  occa- 
sion to  regret  the  coming  of  the  McKnights  and  Bradys. 

The  McKnights  were  enterprising  in  many  directions.  Robert,  one  of  the 
four  brothers,  in  181 7  went  on  a  trading  expedition  to  Sante  Fe  and  Chihuahua. 
This  was  at  the  same  time  that  Jules  DeMun  and  Auguste  P.  Chouteau  went 
out  with  a  stock  of  goods  to  do  business  with  the  Mexicans.  The  three  young 
men  from  St.  Louis  were  robbed  of  their  goods  and  thrown  into  jail.  There  they 
remained  two  years.  Their  treatment  was  made  the  basis  of  a  claim  against 
Mexico  by  the  United  States.  An  indemnity  of  about  $100,000  was  paid  by 
Mexico.  Another  of  the  McKnights,  John,  a  nephew  of  Robert,  went  out  to 
Chihuahua  in  1826  and  accumulated  a  fortune  in  trade  there.  When  he  returned 
to  make  his  home  near  St.  Louis  he  brought  with  him  ten  thousand  dollars  which 


Courtesy  Missouri  Ul^torical  Sodetr 

GEX.  WILLIA>[   HENRV   HARRISON"  DON    CARLOS   DE   HAULT   DELASSUS 

Governor  of  Xorthwestein   Territory   in   1803  Last  Spanish  Governor 


FIRST  GOVERNMENT  HOUSE  AT  ST.  LOUIS 
With  jail  at  the  end.     The  site  is  marked  by  tablet  on  Main  Street  between  Market  and 

Walnut  streets 


ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  23 

(jovernor  Armijo  had  given  him  to  place  to  his  credit.  As  the  Mexican  handed 
the  money,  he  declined  a  receipt,  saying  "All  that  I  want  is  your  word."  The 
McKnight  road,  one  of  the  thoroughfares  in  the  western  suburbs  of  St.  Louis, 
was  named  in  honor  of  this  family. 

The  Weather  of  1819,  1820  and  1821. 

Jacob  Matthews  was  of  the  innumerable  caravan  which  came  out  of  Ken- 
tucky and  into  Missouri  in  i8i8.  He  settled  in  the  vicinity  of  Hannibal,  bring- 
ing the  first  wagon  that  crossed  North  river.  His  son,  George  W.  Matthews, 
was  the  first  white  child  born  north  of  North  river.  But  what  is  especially 
interesting  to  this  generation  is  that  Mrs.  Matthews  kept  a  diarj'  of  that  which 
impressed  her  about  Missouri  one  hundred  years  ago.  In  the  years  of  1819,  1820 
and  1 82 1,  Mrs.  Matthews  made  this  record: 

"During  the  past  summer  there  was  more  sickness  and  deaths  in  proportion  to  the 
population  than  I  ever  knew.  At  Louisiana  there  was  eleven  out  of  si.xty  inhabitants  died. 
At  St.  Louis  for  awhile  there  died  from  si.x  to  ten  a  day,  and  sickness  was  very  general 
throughout  the  country. 

"December  19,  i8ig. — The  past  season  has  been  fine  and  warm.  There  was  fine  crops 
raised  this  season.  To  day  there  fell  a  snow  twelve  inches  deep,  and  it  is  cold  in  the 
extreme." 

"January  i,  J820. — It  continues  very  cold.  The  snow  is  from  twelve  to  fourteen 
inches  deep. 

"February  28.^The  winter  has  commenced  breaking  up ;  the  snow  has  disappeared 
and  we  have  the  appearance  of  fine  spring  weather. 

"July  I. — We  have  had  a  fine  warm  spring  and  very  good  crops  this  season,  and  it  is 
not  as  sickly  as  last  year.  The  fever  and  ague  is  very  common,  but  not  as  many  deaths 
as  in  the  previous  season.  I  didn't  hear  of  more  than  five  or  six  deaths  this  side  of 
Salt  river. 

"September  i. — We  had  the  warmest  weather  I  ever  felt  in  the  last  two  months,  July 
and  August. 

"November  9. — We  have  had  frost  from  the  last  of  September  until  today,  when 
there  fell  a  snow  twelve  inches  deep,  and  it  is  very  cold. 

"January  I,  1821. — It  still  continues  very  cold  and  the  snow  continues  on  the  ground. 

"March  30.— Still  cold  and  w^et. 

"April  15. — Very  little  more  sign  of  vegetation  than  there  was  in  the  middle  of  the 
winter.     Snow  on   the  ground  twelve  or  thirteen  inches  deep. 

"April  25. — Still  cold  and  no  sign  of  a  bud  on  the  trees. 

"May  15. — Fine  spring  weather.  The  trees  begin  to  look  green  and  the  grass  grows 
fine.     The  farmers  are  all  engaged  in   planting  corn." 

The  Christening  of  a  County. 

The  creation  of  Lincoln  county  was  one  of  the  acts  of  the  Missouri  territorial 
legislature  in  1818.  The  first  settler  of  that  part  of  Missouri.  Major  Christopher 
Clark,  was  a  member  of  that  territorial  legislature.  He  was  a  fine  pioneer  but 
not  much  given  to  public  speech.  According  to  the  late  Joseph  A.  Mudd,  the 
historian  of  Lincoln  county,  Major  Clark  put  through  his  bill  with  this  unanswer- 
able argument,  which  not  only  establishes  the  origin  of  the  name  of  the  countv 
but  corrects  the  impression  held  by  some  people  outside  of  Missouri  that  this 
state  honored  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  title  of  a  county: 

"Mr.  Speaker:  I  was  the  first  man  to  drive  a  wagon  across  Big  Creek, 
the  boundary  of  the  proposed  new  county,  and  the  first  permanent  white  settler 


24  •   CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

within  its  limits.  I  was  born,  sir,  in  Link-horn  county.  North  Carolina.  I  lived 
for  many  years  in  Link-horn  county  in  old  Kaintuck.  I  wish  to  live  the  remain- 
der of  my  days  in  Link-horn  county,  in  Missouri,  and  I  move,  therefore,  that 
the  blank  in  the  bill  be  filled  with  the  name  Link-horn." 

The  motion  was  carried  without  a  dissenting  vote,  and  the  clerk  wrote  in  the 
blank  space,  "L-i-n-c-o-l-n." 

The  Most  Popular  Sport. 

Tlie  shooting  match,  according  to  the  Franklin  Intelligencer,  held  first  place 
among  Missouri  sports.  It  was  extolled  as  more  than  sport.  "In  a  republic 
where  regular  soldiers  are  held  in  such  indifferent  estimation  that  they  abandon 
the  hope  of  uniform  good  treatment,  it  is  important  that  every  citizen  prepare 
himself  for  the  high  destiny  of  self  defense."    The  Intelligencer  continued: 

"Shooting  matches  on  almost  every  Saturday  evening  tend  to  perfect  our  riflemen  in 
the  use  of  their  hair-splitting  weapons.  Many  of  these  guns  are  so  unpromising  in  ap- 
pearance that  one  of  them  might  be  mistaken  for  a  crowbar  tied  to  a  handspike;  but  when 
in  the  hands  of  a  marksman,  its  value  is  ascertained.  .\t  our  shooting  match  a  beef  is 
divided  in  five  parts,  and  the  hide  and  tallow  is  termed  the  fifth  quarter.  This  last  is  the 
most  valuable  and  it  is  for  the  fifth  quarter  that  the  most  skillful  marksmen  contend. 
The  shots  are  generally  so  thickly  planted  about  the  centre  of  the  target  as  to  require 
great  scrutiny  in  determining  the  conquerors, — the  'fifth  quarter  winner,'  'second  choice,' 
etc.  When  this  is  known  great  exultation  is  not  unusual,  but  the  winners  sometimes 
betray  a  little  vanity  in  bestowing  encomiums  on  their  rifles ;  and  there  are  few  who  are 
not  polite  enough  to  attribute  their  success  to  the  excellence  of  arms.  If  the  gunsmith  be 
present,  he  is  not  a  little  flattered  by  the  acknowledgment  of  his  skill.  Many  of  the 
most  distinguished  guns  acquire  names  of  the  most  fearful  import,  by  which  they  are 
known  in  sporting  circles  and  small  bets  are  sometimes  made  on  'Blacksnake,'  'Cross 
Bunter,'  'Hair  Splitter,'  'Blood  Letter,'  and  'Panther  Cooler.'  In  short  there  are  very  few 
of  our  rifles  that  would  not  put  to  shame  the  arrow  that  sent  a  messenger  'to  Philip's 
eye.'  I  am  likewise  disposed  to  believe  that  if  'Natty  Bumpo'  himself  were  to  attend 
one  of  our  shooting  matches  'for  beef  he  might  stake  his  last  ninepence  to  no  purpose." 

Current  Events,  One  Himdred  Years  Ago. 

One  hundred  years  ago  Missourians  made  cloth  from  wild  nettles  and  called 
it  hodden  gray.  They  made  their  own  gunpowder.  They  boiled  their  salt  and 
sold  it  in  St.  Louis  and  other  towns  for  one  dollar  a  bushel.  A  large  pot  heaping 
full  of  hard  boiled  eggs  was  the  most  prominent  dish  on  the  table  at  a  wedding 
supper.  A  bridegroom  was  so  everjoyed  at  the  conclusion  of  his  marriage  cere- 
mony, that,  before  anybody  could  kiss  the  bride,  he  gathered  her  in  his  arms  and 
whirled  her  around  and  around,  shouting,  "I've  got  her!  I've  got  her!" 

In  the  summer  of  1820,  Daniel  Boone,  who  had  braved  the  perils  of  the 
border  for  four  score  years  had  a  "spell  of  fever"  at  Flanders  Callaway's.  When 
he  was  able  to  travel  he  went  to  Nathan  Boone's,  on  Femme  Osage.  One  day 
there  was  a  dish  of  sweet  potatoes  on  the  table.  The  hero  of  a  thousand  encoun- 
ters with  "injuns  and  varmints"  ate  too  heartily.  The  fever  came  back.  Daniel 
Boone  died  on  the  26th  of  September,  in  his  86th  year. 

In  1821,  Missouri  had  70,647  people.  Of  these  59,092  were  white,  sixty  of 
them  being  bound;  ii,555,  negroes,  of  whom  321  were  free. 

Textbooks   in   Missouri   schools  of  this   period   were   "Introduction  to  the 


OXE  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO  25 

English  Reader,"  "The  EngHsh  Reader,"  "The  Moral  Instructor,"  "Walker's 
Dictionary,"  "Smiley's  Arithmetic."  The  Instructor  abounded  in  the  sayings 
of  Benjamin  Franklin.  Ink  was  made  from  maple  bark  and  copperas.  Quills 
from  the  goose  furnished  the  pens  which  were  made  by  the  schoolmaster.  The 
teaching  of  manners  was  considered  one  of  the  most  important  branches,  par- 
ticularly by  the  settlers  who  had  come  from  Virginia. 

Kentuckians  could  be  distinguished  from  Tennesseans  by  their  clothes.  The 
latter  wore  brown  jeans  coats  and  striped  cotton  trousers,  while  the  Kentuckians 
had  full  blue  jeans  suits. 

The  trouble  with  the  buckskin  clothing  which  some  men  wore  was  that  when 
wet  it  would  shrink.  Many  a  Missouri  settler,  who  had  been  wading  or  who 
had  been  caught  in  a  rain  storm,  found  it  necessary  to  slip  out  of  the  cabin 
door  before  daylight  and,  tying  the  bottoms  of  his  trousers  to  the  side  of  the 
house  or  to  a  sapling,  to  get  a  tight  hold  of  the  breeches  end  and  pull  until  he  had 
stretched  the  legs  to  normal  length. 

Four-horse  stages  were  put  on  the  road  from  St.  Louis  to  Franklin  in  1820. 
The  fare  was  $10.50.  Before  that  introduction  of  modern  transportation  the 
travel  had  been  by  horseback. 

Rivalry  between  the  new  towns  of  the  Missouri  valley  became  acute.  A 
writer  in  the  Intelligencer  comparing  Columbia  and  Boonville  to  the  advantage 
of  the  former  said :  "Has  Boonville,  the  seat  of  justice  of  Cooper,  more  inhabi- 
tants? It  has  but  116,  and  Columbia,  the  permanent  seat  of  justice  for  Boone, 
has  130.'' 

Even  Thomas  H.  Benton  had  to  change  his  early  conception  of  Missouri. 
When  he  was  a  newspaper  man,  in  1820,  he  wrote  for  his  Enquirer:  "After  you 
get  forty  or  fifty  miles  from  the  Mississippi,  arid  plains  set  in,  and  the  country 
is  uninhabitable  except  upon  the  borders  of  the  rivers  and  creeks." 


SIGNING  THE  TREATY 
Monroe,  Marbois  and  Livingston  executing  at  Paris  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  April  30, 
1803.     A  life  size  bronze  grouii  by  Karl  Bitter  in  the  arch  of  the  Jefferson  Memorial. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD 


A  Masterful  Petition  for  Statehood — Barton's  IVork — Slavery's  Balance  of  Power — The 
Free  States'  Restriction— Gradual  Emancipation  Proposed — Missourians'  Indignant  Pro- 
tests— Memorial  of  the  Baptist  Churches — Grand  Jurors  in  All  of  the  Counties  Appeal 
for  Constitutional  Rights — New  Boundaries  Rejected — Immigration  Not  Stopped — Dis- 
union Threatened — Thomas  Jefferson's  Forebodings — Maine  and  Missouri — Henry 
Clay's  Championship  of  Missouri — The  Compromise — Randolph's  Opposition — The 
"Doughfaces" — Legislatife  Legerdemain — President  Monroe's  Cabinet  Advice — North- 
ern Congressmen  Denounced  by  Anti-Slavery  Constituents — A  Hitherto  Unpublished 
Letter  Explains  the  Compromise — Jefferson  on  Diffusion  of  Slavery — Missouri's  First 
"Extra" — The  Formal  Ratification — Salutes  Fired  and  Houses  Illuminated — "Gross  and 
Barefaced  Usurpation"  Resented — Statehood  De  Facto  in  September,  1820 — Fourth  of 
July  Defiance — Another  Hold  Up  Foreshadoived — The  Clause  to  Exclude  Free  Negroes 
— Benton  Advises  Watchful  Waiting — Missouri's  Electoral  Vote — An  Unsuccessful 
Scheme  to  Dodge  the  Missouri  Question — Randolph  Shut  Out  Again — Setuitor  Cock- 
rell's  Search  of  the  Records — The  "Clay  Formula" — A  Ridiculous  "Solemn  Public  Act" 
— Frederick  IV.  Lehmann's  Forceful  Comments — Recognition  nf  Statehood  in  iSiO — 
Territorial  Government  Suspended — Governor  McNair  on  Self  Government — President 
Monroe's  Proclamation  Declaring  Admission  to   the   Union  "Complete." 

That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  have  no  right  to  control  the  pt'ovisions  of  a  state  constitution, 
except  to  preserve  its  republican  character. 

That  the  people  of  this  territory  have  a  right  to  meet  in  convention  by  their  own  authority,  and  to 
form  a  constitution  and  slate  government,  whenever  they  shall  deem  it  expedient  to  do  so,  and  that  a 
second  determination  on  the  part  of  Congress  to  refuse  them  admission,  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  states,  will  make  it  expedient  to  exercise  that  right. — -Benton  resolutions  adopted  unanimously  at 
mass  meeting  of  Missourians  in  St.  Louis,  1819,  Alexander  McNair  presiding;  Daz-id  Barton,  secretary. 

Bear  in  mind,  fellow  citizens,  that  the  question  now  before  you  is  not  whether  slavery  shall  be  per- 
mitted or  prohibited  in  the  future  State  of  Missouri,  but  whether  we  will  meanly  abandon  our  rights  and 
suffer  any  earthly   power   to  dictate   the   terms  of  our   constitution. — The  Missouri   Gazette   in   iStg. 

But  the  agony  is  over  and  Missouri  is  born  into  the  Union,  not  a  seven  months'  baby  but  a  man  child; 
his  birth  no  secret  in  the  family,  but  a  proud  and  glorious  e-vent,  proclaimed  to  the  nation  with  the  firing 
of  cannon,  the  ringing  of  bells  and  illumination  of  towns  and  cities. — 5"*.  Louis  Enquirer,  March  ^,  l8^0. 
Benton  uns  the  editorial  writer. 

The  admission  of  the  said  State  of  Missouri  into  this  Union  is  declared  to  be  complete. — Proclamation 
of  President  Monroe,   August   10,   iS^I. 

In  the  fall  of  1817,  men  of  weight  in  St.  Louis  went  up  and  down  Rue  Prin- 
cipal and  American  street  with  a  paper.  There  was  no  lack  of  signatures.  The 
paper  was  "a  petition  from  sundry  inhabitants  of  the  Territor)'  of  Missouri 
praying  that  said  Territory  may  be  admitted  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing 
with  the  original  states."  Old  Franklin,  St.  Charles,  Herculaneum,  Ste,  Gene- 
vieve, Cape  Girardeau,  all  of  the  population  centers,  added  names. 

It  was  high  time  for  Missourians  to  act.     Across  the  river,  Illinois,  some 

29 


30  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

thousands  less  in  popwlation,  was  seeking  statehood.  Seven  states  had  been 
added  to  the  Thirteen.  Missouri  was  growing  faster  than  any  of  them.  Rev. 
Dr.  John  Mason  Peck  came  with  that  wonderful  flow  of  immigration  across  the 
Mississippi.    He  wrote  of  it  in  his  Memoir: 

"The  'new  comers,'  like  a  mountain  torrent,  poured  into  the  country  faster  than  it 
was  possible  to  provide  corn  for  bread  stuff.  Some  families  came  in  the  spring  of  1815; 
but  in  the  winter,  spring,  summer  and  autumn  of  1816,  they  came  like  an  avalanche.  It 
seemed  as  though  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  breaking  up  and  moving  to  the  'Far 
West.'  Caravan  after  caravan  passed  over  the  prairies  of  Illinois,  crossing  the  'great 
river'  at  St.  Louis,  all  bound  to  the  Boone's  Lick.  The  stream  of  immigration  had  not 
lessened  in  1817.  Many  families  came  from  Virginia,  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia,  and  not 
a  few  from  the  Middle  states,  while  a  sprinkling  found  their  way  to  the  extreme  West 
from  Yankeedom  and  Yorkdom.  Following  in  the  wake  of  this  exodus  to  the  middle 
section  of  Missouri  was  a  terrific  excitement  about  getting  land.  My  first  visit  in  1818 
was  at  this  crisis ;  and  I  could  not  call  at  a  cabin  in  the  country  without  being  accosted : 
'Got  a  New  Madrid  claim?'     'Are  you  one  of  these  land  speculators,  stranger?'" 

Petitions  for  Statehood. 

On  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  January  8,  1818,  the  peti- 
tions of  the  "sundry  inhabitants  of  the  Territory  of  Missouri"  were  presented 
to  Congress.  The  Annals  of  Congress  make  but  brief  mention  of  this  act,  mo- 
mentous in  the  history  of  Missouri.  A  copy  of  the  petitions,  which  were  identi- 
cal, is  given,  in  entirety,  by  Shoemaker,  the  painstaking  author  of  "Missouri's 
Struggle  for  .Statehood."  The  memorial  was  a  masterly  composition,  dignified, 
concise,  forceful.  It  is  well  worth  reading  by  this  generation  of  Missourians. 
Tt  set  forth: 

"That  your  petit-oners  live  within  that  part  of  the  Territory  of  Missouri  which  lies 
between  the  latitude  36  degrees,  30  minutes  south  and  40  degrees  north,  and  between  the 
Mississippi  river  to  the  East  and  the  Osage  boundary  line  to  the  West.  They  pray  that 
they  may  be  admitted  to  the  Union  of  the  states  within  these  limits. 

"They  conceive  that  their  numbers  entitle  them  to  the  benefits  and  the  rank  of  state 
government.  Taking  the  progressive  increase  during  former  years,  as  a  basis  of  the  cal- 
culation, they  estimate  their  present  numbers  at  upwards  of  40,000  souls.  Tennessee, 
Ohio,  and  the  Mississippi  state  were  admitted  with  smaller  numbers,  and  the  Treaty  of 
Cession  guarantees  this  great  privilege  to  your  petitioners  as  soon  as  it  can  be  granted 
under  the  principles  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  They  have  passed  eight  years  in  the 
first  grade  of  territorial  government,  five  in  the  second ;  they  have  evinced  their  attach- 
ment to  the  honour  and  integrity  of  the  Union  during  the  late  war,  and  they,  with  deference, 
urge  their  right  to  become  a  member  of  the  great  Republic. 

"They  forbear  to  dilate  upon  the  evils  of  the  territorial  government,  but  will  barely 
name,  among  the  grievances  of   this   condition — 

"l.  That  they  have  no  vote  in  your  honorable  body,  and  yet  are  subject  to  the  in- 
direct taxes  imposed  by  you. 

"2.  That  the  veto  of  the  territorial  executive  is  absolute  upon  the  acts  of  the  ter- 
ritorial legislature. 

"3.  That  the  superior  court  is  constructed  on  principles  unheard  of  in  any  other 
system  of  jurisprudence,  having  primary  cognizance  of  almost  every  controversy,  civil 
and  criminal,  and  subject  to  correction  by  no  other  tribunal. 

"4.  That  the  powers  of  the  territorial  legislature  are  limited  in  the  passage  of  laws 
of  local  nature,  owing  to  the  paramount  authority  of  Congress  to  legislate  upon  the  same 
subject. 

"The  boundaries   which  they  solicit   for  the   future   state,   they  believe   to  be  the  most 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  31 

reasonable  and  proper  that  can  be  devised.  The  southern  limit  will  be  an  extension  of 
the  line  that  divides  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  The  northern 
will  correspond  nearly  with  the  north  limit  of  the  territory  of  Illinois  and  with  the  Indian 
boundary  line,  near  the  mouth  of  the  River  Des  Moines.  A  front  of  three  and  one-half 
degrees  upon  the  Mississippi  will  be  left  to  the  South,  to  form  the  territory  of  Arkansas, 
with  the  River  Arkansas  traversing  its  center.  A  front  three  and  one-half  degrees  more, 
upon  a  medium  depth  of  two  hundred  miles,  with  the  Missouri  River  in  the  center,  will 
form  the  State  of  Missouri.  Another  front  of  equal  extent,  embracing  the  great  River 
St.  Pierre,  will  remain  above,  to  form  another  state,  at  some  future  day. 

"The  boundaries,  as  solicited,  will  include  all  the  country  to  the  north  and  west  to 
which  the  Indian  title  has  been  extinguished. 

"They  will  include  the  body  of  the  population. 

"They  will  make  the  Missouri  River  the  center,  and  not  the  boundary  of  the  state. 

"Your  petitioners  deprecate  the  idea  of  making  the  civil  divisions  of  the  states  to 
correspond  with  the  natural  divisions  of  the  country.  Such  divisions  will  promote  that 
tendency  to  separate,  which  it  is  the  policy  of  the  Union  to  counteract. 

"The  above  described  boundaries  are  adapted  to  the  localities  of  the  country. 

"The  woodland  districts  are  found  towards  the  great  rivers.  The  interior  is  com- 
posed of  vast  regions  of  naked  and  sterile  plains,  stretching  to  the  Shining  Mountains. 
The  states  must  have  large  fronts  upon  the  Mississippi,  to  prevent  themselves  from  being 
carried  into  these  deserts — 

"Besides,  the  country  north  and  south  of  the  Missouri  is  necessary  each  to  the  other, 
the  former  possessing  a  rich  soil  destitute  of  minerals,  the  latter  abounding  in  mines  of 
lead  and  iron,  and  thinly  sprinkled  with  spots  of  ground  fit  for  cultivation. 

"Your  petitioners  hope  that  their  voice  may  have  some  weight  in  the  division  of  their 
own  country,  and  in  the  formation  of  their  state  boundaries ;  and  that  statesmen,  ignorant 
of  its  localities,  may  not  undertake  to  cut  up  their  territory  with  fanciful  divisions  which 
may  look  handsome  on  paper,  but  must  be  ruinous  in  effect. 

"And  your  petitioners  will  pray,  &c." 

The  Bartons  had  much  to  do  with  this  statehood  movement.  It  is  a  good 
guess  that  the  admirable  form  of  the  petition  was  the  handiwork  of  David  Barton. 

The  Balance  of  Slavery  Power. 

That  same  month,  January,  1818,  a  petition  was  received  from  Illinois. 
Before  the  end  of  the  year  Congress  had  passed  the  necessary  legislation,  the 
convention  had  met  at  Kaskaskia  to  frame  a  constitution  and  Illinois  was,  in 
December,  1818,  a  state.  But  Missouri  waited, — waited  from  January  8,  1818. 
to  March  6,  1820.  for  the  first  formal  answer  to  her  prayer.  In  the  meantime 
a  game  of  national  politics  went  on.  Alabama  put  in  a  plea  for  admission.  It 
was  granted. 

When  the  Union  was  formed  there  were  seven  free  and  six  slave  states. 
After  that  the  policy  was  to  admit  a  slave  state  and  a  free  state  alternately. 
Thus  was  preserved  a  kind  of  balance  of  power.  Missouri's  petition  upset  it. 
Senate  and  House  wrangled  long. 

Representative  Tallniadge  of  New  York  offered  a  resolution  to  make  Mis- 
souri a  free  state.  The  provisions  were  that  no  more  slaves  should  be  taken 
into  Missouri :  that  all  children  born  of  slaves  then  in  Missouri  should  be  free 
at  twenty-five  years  of  age.  This  would  gradually  abolish  slavery  in  Missouri 
and  make  a  free  state.  The  House  adopted  the  resolution.  The  Senate  refused 
to  concur.  Arkansas  Territor\-  was  created,  but  nothing  more  was  done.  The 
session  ended  with  Missouri  still  waiting. 


32  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Tallmadge  and  Taylor  were  two  northern  members  of  Congress  who  led 
the  fight  to  make  Missouri  come  in  as  a  free  state.  At  the  Fourth  of  July 
celebration  in  St.  Louis,  Missourians  paid  their  respects  to  these  two  statesmen 
in  this  toast : 

"Messrs.  Tallmadge  and  Taylor — Politically  insane, — May  the  next  Con- 
gress appoint  them  a  dark  room,  a  straight  waistcoat  and  a  thin  water  gruel 
diet." 

The  toast  was  drunk  and  the  newspaper  report  says  it  was  "followed  by 
nineteen  cheers  and  the  band  played  Yankee  Doodle." 

Week  after  week  the  one-horse  mail  brought  the  news  of  the  heated  debate 
and  the  deadlock.  Along  the  Mississippi  and  up  the  Missouri  resentment  spread. 
The  prominent  men  of  the  Boone's  Lick  countrj'  gathered  at  Franklin  when  the 
first  steamboat  arrived.  To  celebrate  the  event  a  banquet  was  given.  It  was 
turned  into  an  indignation  meeting.  One  after  another  the  speakers  arose  and 
proposed  sentiments  in  condemnation  of  Congress.  DufT  Green,  who  later 
became  the  editor  of  the  administration  organ  at  Washington,  led  off  with: 
"The  Union — it  is  dear  to  us  but  liberty  is  dearer." 

Others  followed,  the  expressions  encouraged  by  the  vigorous  applause  which 
greeted  them: 

By  Dr.  James  H.  Benson — "The  Territory  of  Missouri — May  she  emerge 
from  her  present  degraded  condition." 

By  Stephen  Rector — "May  the  Missourians  defend  their  rights,  if  necessary, 
even  at  the  expense  of  blood,  against  the  unprecedented  restriction  which  was 
attempted  to  be  imposed  on  them  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States." 

By  Dr.  Dawson — "The  next  Congress — May  they  be  men  consistent  in  their 
construction  of  the  Constitution ;  and  when  they  admit  new  states  into  the  Union, 
be  actuated  less  by  a  spirit  of  compromise,  than  the  just  rights  of  the  people." 

By  N.  Patton,  Jr. — "The  Missouri  Territory — Its  future  prosperity  and 
greatness  cannot  be  checked  by  the  caprice  of  a  few  men  in  Congress,  while  it 
possesses  a  soil  of  inexhaustible  fertility,  abundant  resources,  and  a  body  of 
intelligent,  enterprising,  independent   freemen." 

By  Maj.  J.  D.  Wilcox — "The  citizens  of  Missouri — May  they  never  become 
a  member  of  the  Union,  under  the  restriction  relative  to  slavery." 

Missourians'  Protests. 

The  St.  Louis  grand  jur}-  put  forth  a  declaration  "that  the  late  attempt  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  restrict  us  in  the  free  exercise  of  rights  in 
the  formation  of  a  constitution  and  form  of  state  government  for  ourselves  is 
an  unconstitutional  and  unwarrantable  usurpation  of  power  over  our  inalienable 
rights  and  privileges  as  a  free  people." 

The  Missouri  Gazette,  which  had  inclined  to  the  emancipation  side,  was  out- 
spoken in  condemning  Congress :  "It  has  been  reserved  for  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  present  Congress  to  commit  the  most  gross  and  barefaced 
usurpation  that  has  yet  been  committed.  They  have  engrafted  on  the  bill  for 
our  admission  into  the  Union  a  provision  that  'the  state  constitution  shall  pro- 
hibit the  further  introducing  of  slavery;  and  that  all  children  bom  of  slaves 
shall  be  free  at  the  age  of  five  and  twenty  years.'  Bear  in  mind,  fellow  citizens, 
that  the  question  now  before  you  is  not  whether  slavery  shall  be  permitted  or 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  33 

prohibited  in  the  future  State  of  Missouri,  but  whether  we  will  meanly  abandon 
our  rights  and  suffer  any  earthly  power  to  dictate  the  terms  of  our  constitu- 
tion." 

The  grand  jury  of  Jefferson  county  returned  to  the  court  a  protest  against 
the  action  of  Congress  which  said :  "We  have  beheld  with  equal  surprise  and 
regret  the  attempt  made  in  the  last  Congress  to  dictate  to  the  people  of  Missouri 
an  article  in  their  constitution  i)rohibiting  further  introduction  of  slavery  into 
their  state,  or  debar  them  from  the  rights  of  state  sovereigffty  if  they  would  not 
submit  to  such  restriction.  That  slavery  is  an  evil  we  do  not  pretend  to  deny, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  would  most  cheerfully  join  in  any  measure  to  abolish  it, 
provided  those  means  were  not  likely  to  produce  greater  evils  to  the  people  than 
the  one  complained  of;  but  we  hold  the  power  of  regulating  this,  or  applying  a 
remedy  to  this  evil,  to  belong  to  the  states  and  not  to  Congress.  The  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  which  creates  Congress  gives  to  it  all  its  powers,  and  limits 
those  of  the  states;  and  although  that  Constitution  empowers  Congress  to  admit 
new  states  into  the  Union,  yet  it  neither  does,  by  express  grant  nor  necessary' 
implication,  authorize  that  body  to  make  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  constitution 
of  such  state." 

The  Baptists'  Memorial. 

One  of  the  most  notable  protests  against  the  action  of  Congress  came  from 
delegates  of  "the  several  Baptist  churches  of  Christ,  composing  the  Mount 
Pleasant  Association."  These  delegates  addressed  a  long  memorial  to  Congress 
which  was  printed  in  eastern  newspapers.  The  memorial  was  signed  by  Ed- 
ward Turner,  moderator,  and  George  Stapleton,  clerk.     The  memorial  set  forth : 

"That,  as  a  people,  the  Baptists  have  alwajs  been  republican,  they  have  been  among 
the  first  to  mark,  and  to  raise  their  voice  against  oppression,  and  ever  ready  to  defend 
their  rights,  with  their  fortunes  and  their  lives ;  in  this  they  are  supported  as  well  by  the 
principles  which  organized  the  revolution,  and  secured  our  independence  as  a  nation,  as 
by  those  recognized  in  our  bill  of  rights,  and  that  Constitution  which  as  citizens  we  are" 
bound  to  support. 

"Viewing  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  the  result  of  the  united  experience 
of  statesmen  and  patriots  of  the  revolution,  and  as  the  sacred  palladium  of  our  religious 
as  well  as  civil  liberty,  we  cannot  without  the  most  awful  apprehensions  look  on  any  at- 
tempt to  violate  its  provisions,  and  believing  that  a  vote  of  a  majority  of  the  last  Congress 
restricting  the  good  people  of  this  territory  in  the  formation  of  their  constitution  for  a 
state  government  to  be  in  direct  opposition  thereto ;  we  would  enter  our  most  solemn 
protest   against  the  principle  endeavored  to  be  supported   thereby." 

The  twenty-one  members  of  the  grand  jurj'  of  Montgomery  county  signed 
their  names  to  their  protest,  at  the  July.  1819,  term  against  the  action  of  Con- 
gress : 

"They  believe  the  restrictions  attempted  to  be  imposed  upon  the  people  of 
Missouri  territory  in  the  formation  of  a  state  constitution  unlawful,  unconsti- 
tutional and  oppressive.  They  cannot  admit  the  right  of  any  power  whatever  to 
impose  restrictions  on  them  in  the  form  or  substance  of  a  state  constitution. 

"They  hope  those  restrictions  will  never  more  be  attempted:  and  if  they 
should  they  hope  by  the  assistance  of  the  genius  of  '76,  and  the  interposition 
of  Divine  Providence,  to  find   means  to  protect   their  rights." 


34  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Voice  of  St.  Charles. 

The  grand  jurors  of  St.  Charles  county  returned  this  extraordinary  docu- 
ment to  court : 

"We,  the  undersigned  grand  jurors,  from  the  body  of  the  county  of  St.  Charles, 
Missouri  Territory,  and  summoned  to  attend  the  sitting  of  the  circuit  court  for  the 
county  aforesaid,  beg  leave  to  present  to  the  honorable  court,  that  we  deem  it  our  privi- 
lege and  duty  to  take  notice  of  all  the  grievances  of  a  public  nature ;  that  amongst  the 
various  duties  assigned  us,  we  do  present  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  at  the 
last  session,  in  attempting  to  restrict  the  people  of  Missouri,  in  the  exercise  and  enjoy- 
ment of  their  rights  as  American  freemen,  in  the  formation  of  their  state  constitution, 
assumed  an  unconstitutional  power,  having  the  direct  tendency  to  usurp  the  privileges  of 
our  state  sovereignties;  privileges  guaranteed  by  the  declaration  of  American  rights,  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  treaty  of  cession  and  the  blood  of  our  fathers  who 
achieved  our  independence.  That  it  is  a  restriction  heretofore  without  precedent  or 
parallel,  as  it  regards  the  admission  of  territories  into  the  Union  of  the  states,  and  if 
persisted  in  by  those  members  of  Congress,  who  at  the  last  session  proved  themselves 
opposed  to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  our  happy  land  and  luxuriant  country,  will  be. 
in  our  opinion,  a  direct  attack  and  infringement  on  the  sacred  rights  of  state  sovereignty 
and  independence,  and  the  tocsin  of  alarm  to  all  friends  of  tlie  Union  under  our  repub- 
lican form  of  government.  Although  we  much  deplore  any  existing  political  differences 
of  opinion  with  the  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  last  Congress,  who 
introduced  and  supported  the  restriction,  yet  we  consider  it  our  bounden  duty  as  freemen, 
and  as  republican  members  of  the  great  American  family,  to  take  a  dignified  stand  against 
any  assumption  or  usurpation  of  our  rights  from  whatever  quarter  it  may  come  and  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States   as  the  anchor  of  our  political  hope." 

This  was  signed  by  Thomas  Dozier,  William  S.  Burch,  William  Keithley, 
Randall  Biggs.  James  Baldridge,  Francis  Howell,  James  Smith,  Antoine  Raynal, 
^\'arren  Cottle,  James  Clay,  Samuel  Wells,  N.  Howell,  T.  D.  Stephenson,  David 
Lancaster,  Edward  Hinds,  Joseph  Sumner,  Antoine  Derocher,  Armstrong 
Kennedy,  Charles  Parmer,  Joseph  D.  Beauchamp. 

New  Boundaries  Suggested. 

In  the  summer  of  181Q,  a  movement  to  go  before  Congress  with  new 
petitions  for  statehood  was  started  in  the  southern  part  of  the  territory.  These 
petitions  proposed  that  the  new  state  should  be  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
Missouri  river  and  on  the  south  by  the  White  river.  They  received  some  signa- 
tures, the  argument  being  that  if  the  territory  north  of  the  Missouri  was  left 
out  for  later  consideration.  Congress  would  be  less  likely  to  impose  slavery 
restrictions  on  the  new  state.  The  movement  was  scarcely  well  underway  when 
indignant  remonstrances  were  made.  St.  Louis  voiced  urgent  objections  to  a 
state  leaving  out  the  country  north  of  the  Missouri.  The  Enquirer,  for  which 
Benton  wrote,  led  in  the  campaign  against  the  new  boundaries.     It  said: 

"We  are  particularly  opposed  to  a  division  by  the  Missouri  river.  We  should  consider 
such  a  division  as  a  deathblow  to  the  grandeur  and  importance  of  the  State  of  Missouri. 
We  deprecate  the  idea  of  making  the  civil  divisions  of  the  states  to  correspond  with  the 
natural  boundaries  of  the  country.  Such  divisions  would  promote  that  tendency  to  sep- 
arate which   it   is   the  business  of  all  statesmen  to  counteract." 


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THE  LOUISIANA  PUBCHASE 

ST.  Loris 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  39 

The  Flow  of  Immigration. 

In  the  late  autumn  of  1819,  The  St.  Louis  Enquirer  told  of  the  rapid  growth 
of  population: 

"Notwithstanding  the  great  number  of  persons  who  are  held  in  check  by  the  agitation 
of  the  slave  question  in  Congress,  the  emigration  to  Missouri  is  astonishing.  Probably 
from  thirty  to  fifty  wagons  daily  cross  the  Mississippi  at  the  different  ferries,  and  bring 
in  an  average  of  four  to  five  hundred  souls  a  day.  The  emigrants  are  principally  from 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Virginia  and  the  states  further  south.  They  bring  great  numbers 
of  slaves,  knowing  that  Congress  has  no  power  to  impose  the  agitated  restriction,  and 
that  the  people  of  Missouri  will  never  adopt  it." 

More  than  slavery  was  involved,  Missourians  thought,  in  the  attempt  of 
Congress  to  dictate  the  constitution  of  the  new  state.  Joseph  Charless  said,  in  his 
Missouri  Gazette,  of  March  24,  1819,  "But  the  question  before  Congress  is  a 
question  of  more  vital  importance.  It  is,  in  fact,  whether  the  inhabitants  of 
this  territory  shall  themselves  be  slaves  to  the  other  states."  And  this  was 
from  the  newspaper  which  printed  the  views  of  the  restrictionist  and  which 
was  not  pro-slavery. 

The  grand  jury  of  the  circuit  court  for  the  northern  district  of  the  territory 
of  Missouri,  in  a  pronouncement,  hinted  at  dire  possibilities  if  Congress  con- 
tinued to  dictate  the  constitution  to  be  framed  by  Alissouri :  "Altho'  we  deprecate 
anything  like  an  idea  of  disunion,  which,  next  to  our  personal  liberty  and 
security  of  property,  is  our  dearest  right  and  privilege,  and  cannot  entertain 
for  a  moment  the  most  distant  probability  of  such  an  event,  yet  we  feel  it  our 
duty  to  take  a  manly  and  dignified  stand  for  our  rights  and  privileges,  as  far 
as  is  warranted  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  act  of  cession, 
and  from  which  we  will  not  depart." 

The  grand  jurors  of  the  supreme  court  for  the  territory  of  Missouri  uttered 
their  protest,  concluding,  "And  they  believe  it  the  duty  of  the  people  of  Missouri 
to  make  it  known  in  the  most  public  manner  that  they  are  acquainted  with  their 
own  rights  and  are  determined  to  maintain  them."  The  grand  jurors  declared 
that  the  "action  of  Congress  is  a  gross  violation  of  those  rights." 

There  were  anti-slavery  men  in  Missouri,  quite  a  number  of  them.  "Emanci- 
pationists," they  called  themselves,  but  more  frequently  "restrictionists."  But 
with  few  exceptions  these  opponents  of  slavery  were  for  the  settlement  of  the 
question  by  the  new  state,  not  by  Congress. 

Jefferson's  Apprehensions. 

Very  seriously  this  issue  over  the  admission  of  Missouri  was  taken  by  the 

whole  country.  In  December,  1819,  Thomas  Jefferson  wrote  to  John  Adams: 
"The  banks,  bankrupt  law,  manufacturers,  Spanish  treaty,  are  nothing.  These 
are  occurrences  which,  like  waves  in  a  storm,  will  pass  under  a  ship.  But  the 
Missouri  question  is  a  breaker  on  which  we  lose  the  Missouri  country  by  revolt 
and  what  more  God  only  knows.  From  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  to  the  treaty 
of  Paris,  we  never  had  so  ominous  a  question." 

Two  months  later,  in  February,  1820,  while  Congress  was  still  wrestling  with 
the  problem,  Mr.  Jefferson  in  a  letter  to  Hugh  Nelson,  said :  "The  Missouri  ques- 
tion is  the  most  portentous  one  which  ever  yet  threatened  our  Union.     In  the 


40  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

gloomiest  moment  of  the  Revolutionary  war  I  never  had  any  apprehensions  equal 
to  what  I  feel  from  this  source." 

Missouri  and  Maine. 

When  Congress  reassembled  in  December,  18I9,  the  Territory  of  Maine  was 
there  asking  admission  as  a  free  state.  The  Senate  offered  to  pair  Maine  and 
Missouri  and  admit  them  together.  In  the  House  the  determination  that  Mis- 
souri should  be  a  free  state  had  grown  stronger.  Northern  men  outnumbered 
Southern  men  in  the  House.  The  sectional  line  had  become  sharply  marked. 
Missouri  was  not  in  the  cotton-growing  region  the  Northern  Congressmen  urged. 
While  the  early  settlers  were  largely  from  slave  states,  there  were  comparatively 
few  slaves  in  the  territory, — not  one-sixth  of  the  population.  The  Senate 
argued  that  Congress  could  not  impose  conditions  on  admission  to  statehood ; 
that  the  House  resolution  would  violate  the  treaty  of  purchase  of  Louisiana.  In 
Alarch,  1820,  the  first  Missouri  Compromise  was  reached.  It  was  the  proposition 
of  Senator  Thomas  of  Illinois.  Maine  was  admitted  as  a  free  state.  Missouri 
was  given  permission  to  frame  a  state  constitution  without  restriction  as  to 
slavery.  But  the  compromise  provided  that  from  all  of  the  rest  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  north  of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes,  which  was  the  western 
extension  of  the  southern  boundary  of  Missouri,  slavery  was  forever  excluded. 

In  the  course  of  the  discussion  Henry  Clay  took  a  position  which  Missourians 
never  forgot:  "A  state,  in  the  quarter  of  the  country  from  which  I  come,  asks 
to  be  admitted  into  the  Union.  What  say  the  gentlemen  who  ask  for  the  admis- 
sion of  Maine?  Why,  they  will  not  admit  Missouri  without  a  condition  which 
strips  her  of  one  essential  attribute  of  sovereignty.  What,  then,  do  I  say  to 
them?  That  justice  is  due  to  all  parts  of  the  Union.  Equality  is  equality,  and 
if  it  is  right  to  make  the  restriction  of  slavery  the  condition  for  the  admission 
of  Missouri,  it  is  equally  just  to  make  the  admission  of  Missouri  the  condition 
for  that  of   Maine." 

Legislative  Legerdemain. 

The  vote  on  the  compromise  was  taken  in  the  House  on  the  2nd  of  March, 
1820.  It  was  ninety  to  eighty-seven.  Passage  was  made  possible  by  three  mem- 
bers absenting  themselves  and  four  changing  their  votes.  Frederick  W.  Leh- 
mann,  late  solicitor-general  of  the  United  States,  addressing  the  Missouri  His- 
torical .Society  in  19 14,  said  the  compromise  "did  not  draw  all  of  the  Representa- 
tives of  the  South  to  the  support  of  the  measure,  and  it  was  bitterly  antagonized 
by  the  radical  element,  among  whom  was  Randolph,  who  characterized  the  eigh- 
teen Northern  members  svipporting  it,  and  without  whose  votes  it  must  have 
failed,  as  'doughfaces,'  a  name  from  that  time  apphed  in  our  politics  to  Northern 
men  with  pro-slavery  principles.  On  the  morning  following  the  adoption  of  the 
report  of  the  conference  committee,  Randolph  moved  a  reconsideration  of  the 
vote  on  the  Missouri  bill,  but  was  held  by  the  Speaker,  Clay,  to  be  out  of  order 
until  the  regular  morning  business  was  disposed  of.  While  the  morning  business 
was  on.  Clay  signed  the  bill,  and  the  clerk  took  it  at  once  to  the  Senate.  When  at 
the  close  of  the  morning  hour,  Randolph  again  rose  and  moved  a  reconsideration 
he  was  told  that  he  was  too  late  as  the  bill  was  no  longer  in  the  possession  of  the 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  41 

House.  The  relations  between  Randolph  and  Clay  were  already  strained  and 
what  Randolph  felt  was  a  trick  on  Clay's  part  did  not  serve  to  improve  them." 

The  enmity  between  the  two  statesmen  grew  until  it  led  to  a  duel  of  which 
Benton  was  a  spectator  and  of  which  he  wrote  a  fascinating  description.  North- 
ern Congressmen  who  voted  for  the  bill  were  denounced  and  burned  in  effigy 
by  their  angry  constituents.  President  Monroe  had  his  doubts  about  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  measure.  Much  had  been  brought  out  in  the  debate  on  that 
point.  Mr.  Lehmann  said,  "When  the  bill  came  to  President  Monroe  for  signa- 
ture, he  submitted  to  his  cabinet  the  question  whether  Congress  had  constitution- 
al authority  to  prohibit  slavery  in  a  territory.  And  they  all,  Adams,  Crawford, 
Calhoun  and  Wirt,  answered  yes.  He  asked  further  whether  the  provision  inter- 
dicting slavery  'forever'  applied  to  the  territorial  status  alone  or  was  binding  as 
well  on  the  state  formed  out  of  the  territory.  The  southern  members,  Craw- 
ford, Calhoun  and  Wirt,  held  that  it  applied  only  to  the  territorial  status,  while 
Adams  held  it  was  binding  on  the  state.  To  preserve  the  appearance  of  unanim- 
ity, the  question  was  changed  to,  'Is  the  eighth  section  of  the  Missouri  bill  con- 
sistent with  the  Constitution?'  Each  of  the  secretaries  having  in  mind  his  own 
construction  of  the  bill  answered  yes."     Monroe  decided  to  sign. 

Acceptance  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  came  about  in  the  early  days  of 
March,  1820,  through  the  action  of  eight  senators  and  fifteen  representatives 
from  the  North  in  voting  with  the  South  to  leave  with  the  new  .state  the  settle- 
ment of  the  slavery  question.  Some  of  these  northerners  who  yielded  were 
denounced  at  mass  meetings  of  their  anti-slavery  constituents.  One  of  the  sen- 
ators, Lanman  of  Connecticut,  was  burned  in  effigy  at  Hartford.  Benton's 
paper,  the  St.  Louis  Enquirer,  commenting  on  the  course  of  these  northerners, 
used  language  intimating  that  their  votes  had  farreaching  effect  in  the  direction 
of  pteventing  disunion  : 

"In  all  eight  senators  and  fifteen  representatives  who  have  offered  themselves  as 
sacrifices  upon  the  altar  of  public  good  to  save  the  states  and  to  prevent  the  degredation 
of  Missouri.  Their  generous  conduct  deserves  .a  nation's  gratitude,  and  let  a  grateful 
nation  deliver  it  to  them.  Let  public  honors  wait  upon  their  steps,  and  public  blessings 
thicken  round  their  heads.  Let  fame  with  her  brazen  trumpet,  from  the  summit  of  the 
Alleghany,  proclaim  their  honored  names  thro'  out  the  vast  regions  of  the  South  and 
West." 

The  Motive  of  the  Compromise. 

In  the  manuscript  collection  of  John  11.  Gundlach,  of  St.  Louis,  is  a  letter 
from  Congressman  Stokes,  of  North  Carolina,  written  to  John  Branch,  the 
governor  of  that  state.  The  date  of  the  letter,  February  27,  1820,  shows  that  it 
was  sent  just  at  the  time  when  a  majority  of  Congress  was  deciding  to  accept 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  letter  is  far  more  enlightening  upon  the  action 
of  Congress  than  the  scores  of  speeches  and  pages  of  newspaper  editorials  which 
attempted  to  deal  with  the  Missouri  Question  during  the  months  it  was  upper- 
most in  the  public  mind. 

"The  question  of  compelling  the  people  of  Missouri  to  form  their  constitution  so  as 
to  forever  prevent  the  introduction  of  slavery  in  that  state,  has  occupied  both  houses  of 
Congress  for  some  weeks,  and  has  not  yet  been  settled.  You  have  seen,  and  will  here- 
after see,  volumes   of   speeches   on   the   subject,   most   of   which    fnot   having  been   listened 


42  CENTEWIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

to  in  either  house),  are  intended  for  home  consumption.  As  I  have  differed  from  my 
honorable  colleagues  upon  some  propositions  for  accommodating  and  settling,  for  years 
to  come,  this  all  important  contest,  which  is  agitating  the  people  of  the  United  States 
in  a  great  degree  everywhere;  but  which,  in  some  of  the  Northern  states,  has  produced 
a  delirium  and  phrensy  approaching  to  madness ;  I  have  thought  it  proper  to  state  the 
grounds  upon  which  my  conduct  has  been,  and  probably  will  be,  maintained  and  de- 
fended. Those  who  are  opposed  to  this  unconstitutional  restriction  upon  the  people  of 
Missouri  cannot  and  do  not  expect  that  Missouri  will  be  admitted  into  the  Union  without 
the  restriction,  unless  some  concession  or  agreement  shall  take  place  excluding  slavery 
from  a  portion  of  the  west  territory  beyond  the  Mississippi.  This  is  not  mere  opinion ; 
it  has  been  ascertained  by  several  votes  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  that  a  consid- 
erable majority  of  that  body  are  in  favor  of  restriction  as  to  all  the  country  purchased 
from  France  under  the  name  of  Louisiana.  It  is  useless  to  examine  at  this  time,  whether 
this  is  a  correct  principle  or  not.  The  majority  have  satisfied  their  own  minds  upon  the 
subject,  and  are  determined  to  enforce  the  restraint.  All  that  we  from  the  slave  holding 
states  can  do  at  present,  is  to  rescue  from  the  rapacious  grasp  of  those  conscientious 
fanatics,  a  considerable  portion  of  Louisiana,  including  all  the  inhabited  parts  of  that 
extensive  country.  I  can  see  no  means,  either  now  or  hereafter,  of  accomplishing  this 
object  but  by  consenting  that  slavery  may  be  prohibited  in  the  northern  portion  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase.  By  agreeing  to  this  conception,  I  believe  we  may  secure  the  remain- 
ing portion  of  that  Purchase  as  an  asylum  for  slaves  already  too  numerous  to  be  com- 
fortably supported  in  some  of  the  southern  states.  With  this  view  I  have  consented  that 
slavery  may  be  excluded  by  an  act  of  Congress,  from  the  territory  lying  west  of  the 
contemplated  state  of  Missouri,  and  north  of  the  parallel  of  thirty-six  degrees,  thirty  min- 
utes of  North  Latitude;  nor  do  I  think  the  Constitution  violated  by  this  act  in  as  much  as 
Congress  are  only  legislating  upon  a  territory,  in  which  there  is  not  one  citizen  of  the 
United  States  settled  at  this  time.  By  this  prudent  and  proper  concession  we  shall  quiet 
the  minds  of  many  people  who  have  already  been  excited  by  bad  men  to  commit  daring 
acts  of  injustice  and  outrage.  And  although  I  cannot  respect  Members  of  Congress  who, 
in  violation  of  their  obligations  to  the  Constitution,  are  endeavoring  to  enforce  this  re- 
striction upon  the  free  people  of  Missouri;  yet  I  do  and  always  shall  have  a  charitable 
and  respectful  regard  for  the  feelings  and  even  the  prejudices  of  that  great  portion  of 
the  people  of  the  northern  states  who  are  averse  to  slavery  in  any  shape;  and  who  would 
join  with  me  in  pursuing  and  promoting  any  constitutional  measure  to  get  rid  of  the 
evil.  These  are  my  views  and  the  motives  which  have  influenced  my  conduct  upon  this 
very  important  subject;  and  I  can  safely  appeal  to  my  conscience  and  to  my  God  to  justify 
the  purity  of  my  intentions. 

"I  have  thus  taken  the  liberty,  my  dear  sir,  of  writing  to  you,  that  it  may  be  recorded 
as  my  deliberate  opinion  and  referred  to  in  case  of  misrepresentation  hereafter." 

Jefferson's  Argnment  for  the  Compromise. 

One  of  the  arguments  advanced  in  favor  of  allowing  Missouri  to  settle  the 
slavery  question  for  herself  wras  that,  as  the  national  government  had  stopped 
the  importation  of  slaves,  a  scattering  of  the  slaves  already  in  the  country  would 
help  toward  the  gradual  abolition  rather  than  toward  the  increase.  Six  days 
after  President  Monroe  signed  the  Missouri  Compromise,  Jefferson  wrote  a 
letter  upholding  this  argument.  His  letter  of  March  12,  1820,  was  to  Hugh 
Nelson : 

"Of  one  thing  I  am  certain,  that  as  the  passage  of  slaves  from  one  state  to  another 
would  not  make  a  slave  of  a  single  human  being  who  would  not  be  so  without  it,  so  their 
diffusion  over  a  greater  surface  would  make  them  individually  happier,  and  proportionately 
facilitate  the  accomplishment  of  their  emancipation,  by  dividing  the  burden  on  a  greater 
number  of  coadjutors." 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  43 

Missouri's  First  "Extra." 

The  first  newspaper  "Extra"  issued  in  Missouri  appeared  on  the  streets  of 
St.  Louis  March  25,  1820.  It  announced  "the  happy  intelligence"  that  the 
Missouri  State  bill  had  passed  Congress  "without  restrictions."  The  St.  Louis 
Enquirer  told,  in  its  next  regular  number,  how  the  news  was  obtained  from 
Washington  and  how  the  extra  was  received  by  the  Missourians.  It  used  head- 
lines for  perhaps  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Missouri  journalism. 

"GRATIFYING  NEWS  FROM  WASHINGTON— KING  AND  CLINTON  DE- 
FEATED—THE SENATE  TRIUMPHANT— FINAL  PASSAGE  OF  THE  MIS- 
SOURI STATE  BILL  WITHOUT  RESTRICTIONS." 

"A  traveler  from  Cincinnati  arrived  in  tovtrn  Saturday  evening  (25th  March),  bring- 
ing with  him  a  copy  of  the  National  Intelligencer  of  the  4th  of  March,  containing  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Congress  to  the  3rd.  A  handbill  announcing  the  happy  intelligence  con- 
tained in  the  paper  was  immediately  issued  from  this  office  amidst  the  ringing  of  the 
bells,  the  firing  of  cannon  and  the  joyful  congratulations  of  the  citizens." 

Congress  had  acted  but  the  bill  did  not  receive  the  President's  signature  until 
March  6th.  The  news  was  three  weeks  in  reaching  St.  Louis.  Not  satisfied 
with  the  impromptu  celebration,  St.  Louis  proceeded  in  a  more  formal  manner. 
The  two  papers  contained  this  "Notice." 

"Upon  the  request  of  many  citizens  of  the  town  of  St.  Louis,  it  is  resolved  by  the 
Board  of  Trustees  that  an  illumination  of  the  town  be  recommended  to  the  citizens  on 
Thursday  night,  30th  inst.,  to  commence  precisely  at  8  o'clock  p.  m.  in  consequence  of 
the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  states. 

"A  national  salute  under  the  direction  of  the  Trustees  will  be  fired  precisely  at 
8  o'clock. 

"Pierre    Chouteau. 

"Chairman." 

St.  Louis  at  that  time  was  incorporated  as  a  town,  governed  by  a  board  of 
trustees.    The  incorporation  as  a  city  came  three  years  later. 

Congratulation  and  Ratification. 

In  the  issue  of  the  29th,  which  told  of  the  Enquirer's  enterprise  in  getting 
out  the  extra,  was  this  congratulatory  editorial  in  the  best  style  of  Benton: 

"But  the  agony  is  over  and  Missouri  is  bom  into  the  Union,  not  a  seven- 
months  baby  but  a  man  child ;  his  birth  no  secret  in  the  family,  but  a  proud  and 
glorious  event,  proclaimed  to  the  nation  with  the  firing  of  cannon,  the  ringing 
of  bells  and  illumination  of  towns  and  cities." 

In  the  Enquirer  of  April  i,  1820,  the  celebration  of  the  30th  of  March  was 
described : 

'"The  town  was  illuminated  on  Thursday  evening  according  to  the  notice  given  by 
the  Board  of  Trustees.  It  was  entirely  general,  the  whole  town  not  presenting  above 
four  or  five  instances  of  exception.  To  these  no  sort  of  molestation  was  offered,  and 
the  evening  passed  off  without  a  single  occurrence  to  interrupt  the  harmony  of  the  town, 
or  to  mar  the  festivitj'  of  the  scene.  Among  the  names  which  appeared  in  transparencies 
were  those  of  the  'eight  senators'  and  'fifteen  representatives'  from  the  non-slaveholding 
states,  who  supported  the  rights  of  Missouri  at  the  risk  of  their  own  personal  popularity-. 
Mr.  Lanman's  name  occurred  most  frequently.  Some  were  in  favor  of  burning  the 
effigy  of   an   adversarj'   senator    (Mr.   Kintj)    in   retaliation    for   the   indignity   offered   him 


44  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

(Mr.  Lanmaii)  at  Hartford;  but  the  idea  was  discouraged  and  it  was  not  done.  'Our 
faithful  delegate,'  Mr.  Scott,  was  duly  noticed.  To  enumerate  all  our  friends  from  the 
South  and  West  who  deserve  the  gratitude  of  Missouri  would  be  to  repeat  the  list  of 
their  names  as  published  last  week. 

"Among  the  transparencies  was  noticed  at  Dr.  Heely's  a  beautiful  representation  of 
the  American  Eagle,  from  the  beak  the  words  'Missouri  and  no  Restrictions.'  Under- 
neath was  the  Irish  harp  and  the  motto  'Erin  go  Bragh.' " 

The  Missouri  Gazette's  account  of  the  celebration  was  in  like  spirit:  "On 
Thursday  last  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis  expressed  their  satisfaction  at  the  ad- 
mission of  Missouri  into  the  Union.  The  town  was  generally  and  splendidly 
illuminated  :  several  transparencies  were  displayed.  Among  others  a  very  hand- 
some one  displaying  the  American  Eagle  surmounting  the  Irish  Harp.  We 
were  diverted  by  another,  representing  a  slave  in  great  spirits,  rejoicing  at  the 
permission  granted  by  Congress  to  bring  slaves  into  so  fine  a  country  as 
Missouri." 

That  Congress  had  no  right  to  impose  upon  Missouri  any  restrictions  as  to 
slavery  seems  to  have  been  the  conviction  of  Missourians  generally.  All  through 
1819,  while  the  deadlock  prevailed  in  Congress,  there  were  expressions  of 
this  conviction  in  a  variety  of  forms.  The  Gazette,  which  was  much  more 
conservative  than  the  En(|uirer  for  which  Benton  wrote,  declared  its  position 
in  these  words : 

"Our  fellow  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  assured  that  the  people  of 
Missouri  understand  the  extent  of  the  powers  of  Congress  over  this  country, 
and  their  own  rights  to  self  government  as  will  be  shown  hereafter." 

In  September,  1820,  when  the  state  government  was  about  to  be  organized. 
Joseph  Charless.  retiring  from  the  ownership  of  the  Gazette,  which  he  had 
established  and  kept  going  twelve  years,  said,  in  his  valedictory: 

"Missouri  has  become  a  free  and  independent  state,  and  the  people,  assuming 
the  government  themselves,  have  taught  aristocrats  a  plain  lesson  of  truth  and 
have  placed  in  the  government  of  this  state,  'th'e  men  of  the  people.'  " 

Mr.  Charless.  at  the  same  time,  took  occasion  to  vindicate  the  position  of  the 
Gazette  throughout  the  travail  of  statehood : 

"Tt  has  been  said  that  the  Gazette  advocated  the  restriction  of  Missouri  by 
Congress.  The  base  fabricator  of  this  charge  is  defied  to  prove  it.  Examine 
the  files  and  they  will  be  found  to  pursue  the  uniform  course.  Open  to  all 
decent  communications,  the  editor  has  never  hesitated  to  state  his  opposition 
to  the  interference  of  Congress,  but  still  felt  desirous  that  some  limitation 
should  be  put  by  the  people  to  the  importation  of  slaves." 

When  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  nearing  final  action  in  the  early  days 
of  March,  1820,  the  House,  which  had  yielded  only  after  prolonged  debate 
and  delay,  deliberately  voted  down  the  proposition,  the  last  stand  of  the  free 
state  members,  to  require  the  Missouri  constitution,  when  framed,  to  be  reported 
to  Congress  for  approval.  This  action  seemed  to  sustain  the  contention  of 
Missourians  that  when  the  constitution  was  framed  and  the  state  government 
was  formed,  Missouri  was  a  state  in  the  Union.  The  official  record  of  the 
House  read: 

"Mr.  Taylor  then  renewed  the  motion  which  he  had  made  unsuccessfully  in 
the  committee,  to  amend  the  last  section  of  the  bill,  by  striking  out  the  words 


Courtesy  Mlssuuri  Uislurical  Society 

GEN.  DANIEL  BISSELL 
Commander  of  Fort  Bellefontaine 


GOVERXOK   ALEXANDER  McNAIR 'S 
HOUSE 


THE  BOtTGENOU  HOME 
Where  first  marriage  in  St.  Louis  was  celebrated 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  47 

'and  the  state,  when  formed,  shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  looting 
with  the  original  states,'  and  inserting  in  lieu  thereof  the  following:  'And  if 
the  same  (the  constitution)  shall  be  approved  by  Congress,  the  said  territory 
shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  state,  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  states.'  The  question  was  briefly  supported  by  the  mover,  and  was 
opposed  by  Messrs.  Scott,  Lowndes,  Mercer,  Floyd  and  Hendricks ;  and,  the 
question  being  taken  thereon,  it  was  decided  in  the  negative,  by  Yeas  49,  and 
Nays  125." 

"The  State  of  Missouri." 

There  was  no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  Missourians  that  statehood  began  in 
the  summer  of  1820.  The  constitution  was  signed  on  the  19th  of  July.  It 
opened  with: 

"We,  the  people  of  Missouri,  inhabiting  the  limits  hereinafter  designated, 
by  our  representatives  in  convention  assembled  at  St.  Louis  on  Monday,  the 
1 2th  day  of  June,  1820,  do  mutually  agree  to  form  and  establish  a  free  and 
independent  republick,  by  the  name  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  and  for  the  gov- 
ernment thereof  do  ordain  and  establish  this  constitution." 

According  to  the  Enquirer,  the  promulgation  of  the  constitution  was  made 
an  impressive  public  event. 

"The  constitution  of  the  State  of  Missouri  was  signed  at  noonday  on 
Wednesday,  the  19th  instant,  amidst  a  great  concourse  of  citizens,  and  under  a 
national  salute  of  twenty-four  guns,  fired  by  the  St.  Louis  Guards. 

"The  entire  instrument  is  published  in  this  day's  paper,  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  matter,  and  we  trust  will  be  joyfully  received  by  the  people  as  the  proof 
that  Missouri  is  a  sovereign  state  and  as  a  pledge  that  she  will  remain  so." 

A  few  days  later,  McNair,  in  announcing  himself  as  candidate  for  governor, 
addressed  his,  "Fellow  Citizens  of  the  new  State  of  Missouri." 

Fourth  of  July  Defiance. 

According  to  a  report  in  the  Enquirer,  these  toasts  were  approved  at  the  celebration 
of  the  Fourth  of  July,  1820,  in  St.  Louis : 

"The  State  of  Missouri — the  last  created  member  of  the  Federal  Compact— may  she, 
like  the  after-piece  of  universal  creation,  be  the  acknowledged  Head  of  the  Union !  By 
the  vice-president." 

"The  People  of  Missouri— Willing  to  contend  for  their  just  rights  with  moderation, 
ready  to  defend  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet!" 

"The  State  of  Missouri — A  bright  link  in  the  chain  of  the  Union — her  laws  are  mild, 
her  sons  brave ;   if  any  doubt  it  let  them  come  and  try." 

These  toasts  were  printed  in  the  East  and  prompted  some  criticism.  Niles' 
Register  said : 

"Persons  warmed  by  a  luscious  feast  of  good  things  ofttimes  express  them- 
selves imprudently,  and  what  they  say  is  forgiven  or  forgotten  as  the  ebulition 
of  a  moment — but  when  sentiments  like  the  following  are  reduced  to  writing  and 
deliberately  printed  in  a  public  newspaper,  they  should  not  be  passed  over  so 
lightly." 

Under  the   caption,   "Imprudence — or  Worse,"   Xiles'   Register  took  up   the 


48  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

intimations  that  Missourians  proposed  to  stand  on  their  rights  and  commented 
in  the  issue  of  August  26,  1820 : 

"The  St.  Louis  Enquirer,  intimating  that  the  restrictionists  intend  to  renew  their  de- 
signs at  the  next  session  of  Congress,  says — Missouri  will  then  appear  'as  a  sovereign 
state,  according  to  the  law  of  Congress,  and  not  as  a  territorial  orphan' ;  that  her  people 
will,  in  that  case,  'give  fresh  proof  to  the  world  that  they  know  their  rights  and  are  able 
to  defend  them.'  What  signifies  such  language  as  this?  All  things  considered,  we  wish 
that  the  Missouri  question  may  be  suffered  to  rest  where  it  is,  as  the  lesser  evil,  but,  if 
Congress  wishes  to  take  it  up  again,  and  refuses  to  admit  the  territory  under  the  con- 
stitution which  its  convention  has  formed  and  is  without  power  to  enforce  its  determina- 
tion, it  is  high  time,  indeed,  that  a  new  organization  of  affairs  .<;houId  take  place." 

State  Government  Established  in  1820. 

McNair  was  elected  governor  Ijy  6,576  votes  against  2,656  for  Clark.  Tiie 
governor  appeared  before  the  general  assembly  September  19,  1820,  and  deliv- 
ered his  inaugural.     In  the  course  of  it  he  said: 

"I  congratulate  you,  gentlemen,  in  the  happy  change  which  has  just  taken 
place  in  our  political  affairs.  From  the  dependent  condition  of  a  territorial 
government,  we  have  passed  into  a  sovereign  and  independent  state.  We  have 
formed  for  ourselves  a  constitution,  which,  though  perhaps  not  free  from  the 
imperfections  incident  to  all  human  institutions,  does  honor  to  the  character 
and  intelligence  of  our  infant  state,  and  gives  us  every  reason  to  expect  that 
we  shall,  without   further  difficulty,  be  admitted  into  the  federal  Union." 

So  well  satisfied  was  the  governor  that  Missouri  had  become  a  state  and 
would  be  immediately  recognized  as  in  the  Union,  that  his  principal  recom- 
mendation in  this  address  was  that  the  general  assembly  proceed  to  pass  the 
legislation  necessary  for  participation  in  the  presidential  election.     He  said: 

"It  is  deemed  advisable  to  remind  you  that  the  election  of  president  and 
vice-president  is  approaching,  and  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  provision 
as  soon  as  possible  for  the  election  of  three  electors  in  this  state,  in  order  that 
we  may  have  a  voice  in  filling  those  highly  important  offices." 

One  of  the  earliest  laws  passed  by  the  general  assembly  provided  that  the 
electors  should  be  chosen  by  the  assembly. 

A  Veto  Overruled. 

The  general  assembly  of  the  new  state  proceeded  promptly  with  the  enact- 
ment of  statutes.  The  first  law,  passed  September  28,  1820,  prescribed  the 
manner  of  electing  United  States  senators.  The  second  law  set  forth  the  duties 
of  sheriffs,  and  the  third  incorporated  an  academy  for  Jackson.  With  the 
fourth  law,  the  general  assembly  struck  the  veto  snag.  This  statute  fixed  the 
compensation  of  members  of  the  legislature  at  four  dollars  a  day  with  mileage 
at  the  rate  of  three  dollars  for  every  twenty-five  miles  traveled.  An  extra 
dollar  a  day  was  allowed  the  president  of  the  senate  and  speaker  of  the  house. 
Governor  McNair  refused  to  approve  and  sent  in  his  objection,  which  was  that 
the  amount  was  excessive.  The  lawmakers  passed  the  bill  over  the  governor's 
veto  and  it  became  a  law  on  the  19th  of  October,  1820. 

Missourians  held  sturdily  to  the  belief  that  statehood  had  been  fully  estab- 
lished in   1820.     When  he   returned  to  Washington,  in   the   fall  of   that   year, 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  49 

John  Scott,  who  had  been  a  territorial  delegate  in  the  previous  session  of  Con- 
gress, insisted  on  being  addressed  as  a  representative  in  Congress,  by  virtue 
of  the  election  which  Missouri  had  held  under  the  new  state  constitution.  The 
Missouri  Gazette  which  had  been  conservative,  much  more  so  than  the  En- 
quirer for  which  Benton  wrote  the  editorials,  made  this  comment  in  January, 
iSar,  on  the  action  of  the  House  of  Representatives  which  was  delaying  the 
proclamation  of  admission: 

"Congress  may  look  out  of  the  window,  if  they  choose,  and  say  to  a  territory,  'If  you 
wish  to  become  a  member  of  the  Union  put  on  the  garments  you  would  wear,  and  if  we 
like  them,  we  will  open  the  door  of  the  Union  and  admit  you.'  By  this  overture  Congress 
have  reserved  to  themselves  the  power  of  further  act  as  necessary  to  admission. 

"But  if  they  should  say,  as  they  have  to  Missouri,  'The  door  is  open  to  you ;  if  you 
wish  to  become  one  of  the  sisterhood  of  states,  put  on  your  garments  and  enter'- — Missouri 
having  done  so  she  is  installed  with  the  rights  of  a  member  of  the  sisterhood.  Their 
Constitution  embraces  her.  Congress  cannot  expel  her.  If  her  garments  have  any  flounces 
or  furbelows  which  the  Constitution  of  the  sisterhood  does  not  permit,  -the  only  conse- 
quence is  that  she  is  not  allowed  to  use  them. 

"That  'this  is  the  true  construction  of  the  act  of  Congress  and  the  act  of  our  state 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  Missouri  is  a  state  of  the  Union  equal  in  sovereignty  to  her  sister 
states;  the  denial  of  any  of  the.  rights  of  sovereignty,  and  especially  a  participation  in 
the  councils  of  the  nation  is  a  violation  of  the  Constitution." 

The  Only  Condition  in  the  Enabling  Act. 

The  first  section  of  the  act  approved  March  6,  1820,  for  the  admission  of 
Missouri  provided  "that  the  inhabitants  of  that  portion  of  Missouri  included 
within  the  boundaries  hereinafter  designated,  be,  and  they  are  hereby,  author- 
ized to  form  for  themselves  a  Constitution  and  State  Government,  and  to 
assume  such  name  as  they  shall  deem  proper ;  and  the  said  State,  when  formed, 
shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  states 
in  all  respects  whatsoever." 

The  act  set  forth  the  boundaries  of  the  state,  the  representation  of  the 
several  counties  in  a  constitutional  convention  and  the  time  of  holding  such 
convention.  It  further  declared :  "That,  in  case  a  constitution  and  state  gov- 
ernment shall  be  fonned  for  the  people  of  the  said  territory  of  Missouri,  the 
said  convention,  or  representatives,  as  soon  thereafter  as  may  be,  shall  cause 
a  true  and  attested  copy  of  said  constitution,  or  frame  of  state  government, 
as  shall  be  formed  or  provided,  to  be  transmitted  to  Congress." 

There  was  one  slight  condition  imposed  on  the  action  of  Missouri  and  that 
was,  "Provided  that  the  same,  whenever  formed  shall  be  Republican,  and  not 
repugnant  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Before  the  constitution  of  Missouri  reached  Congress,  Niles'  Register 
pointed  out  that  the  clause  directing  the  legislature  to  pass  laws  "to  prevent 
free  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  coming  into  and  settling  in  the  state,  on  any 
pretence  whatever"  would  block  admission  into  the  Union.  The  Register  cited 
the  provision  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  "that  the  citizens  of 
each  state  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the 
several   states."     The  Register  contintied: 

"This  is  a  very  plain,  simple  and  imperative  sentence.  Free  blacks  and 
mulattoes  are  'citizens'  in  all  the  states,  I  believe,  east  of  the  state  of  Delaware. 

Vol.  1—4 


50  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

as  well  as  in  the  states  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio,  and  they  cannot  be  dis- 
possessed of  their  right  to  locate  where  they  please." 

The  Register  said  that  if  Missouri  did  pass  such  laws  as  its  constitution 
demanded,  they  would  be  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court,  and  thus  disposed  of.  But  it  made  the  point  that  Congress  could 
not  now  consistently  approve  a  state  constitution  which  contained  a  provision 
"in  evident  opposition  to  a  striking  provision  in  the  Constitution  under  which 
they,  themselves,  directly  act."  The  Register's  prediction  was  verified  by  the 
course  of  Congress  in  insisting  upon  the  so-called  "solemn  public  act." 

Senator  Benton  Becomes  Conservative. 

After  Benton  had  been  elected  to  the  Senate,  the  editorials  of  the  St.  Louis 
Enquirer  underwent  some  change.  While  the  two  houses  of  Congress  were 
still  divided  on  the  question  of  admission  because  of  the  clauses  in  the  Mis- 
souri constitution  prohibiting  the  admission  of  free  negroes  into  Missouri, 
and  while  Benton  was  waiting  to  take  his  seat,  in  the  winter  of  1821,  the  En- 
quirer gave  Missourians  conservative  advice: 

"This  paper  has  labored  for  a  long  time  to  awaken  the  people  to  the  criminal  designs 
of  the  men  who  wish  to  expel  Missouri  from  the  Union.  This  audacious  undertaking  is 
now  verging  to  a  crisis.  What  shall  Missouri  do  if  rejected?  Fall  back  into  the  terri- 
torial grade?  We  hope  not.  Set  up  for  herself?  We  hope  not.  The  former  would  be 
to  succumb  to  the  Catalines  of  the  North;  the  latter  would  be  to  promote  their  views. 
The  restrictionists  wish  to  divide  the  Union;  and  if  Missouri  would  attempt  to  break  off, 
it  would  be  into  their  hand;  their  object  would  be  accomplished  and  the  blame  thrown 
upon  her.  But  let  Missouri  continue  her  efforts  to  enter  the  Union,  preserve  all  her  rela- 
tions with  the  general  government  as  far  as  her  amphibious  condition  will  permit  it  to  be 
done;  be  calm  and  dignified  in  asserting  her  rights,  and  a  reaction  may  be  produced  which 
will  prostrate  those  Hartford  convention  men  who  now  predominate  in  the  North,  and 
give  the  victory  to  the  friends  of  the  Union  and  to  the  republicans  of  the  Jeffersonian 
school.  Eventually,  Missouri  must  succeed,  and  good  may  grow  out  of  evil ;  the  men  who 
have  raised  this  portentous  storm  may  yet  perish  in  it.  Let  Missouri  preserve  all  her 
friends;  do  nothing  to  mortify  them,  or  to  please  her  enemies,  and  the  sober  reason  of 
the  people  must  ultimately  resume  its  empire  and  consign  to  infamy,  the  men  who  have 
sought   their  own  aggrandizement   upon  the   ruins   of   their  country." 

In  Other,  fewer  and  modern  words,  what  Senator  Benton  advised  for  Mis- 
souri, in  its  anomalous  condition  of  statehood  outside  of  the  Union,  was  "watch- 
ful waiting." 

Notwithstanding  the  hitch  at  Washington  over  admission,  Missouri  con- 
tinued to  assert  statehood.  The  circuit  court  for  the  county  of  St.  Louis  began 
its  first  session  on  the  i8th  of  December,  1820.  The  lawyers  presented  and  dis- 
cussed various  questions  of  law  raised  by  the  strange  situation.  The  court 
decided  that — 

"The  state  government  was  not  only  theoretically  formed,  but  in  full  and 
constitutional  operation,  as  regarded  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and 
that  of  the  St^e  of  Missouri." 

Missouri's  Electoral  Vote. 

All  of  the  winter  of  182 1  the  controversy  over  Missouri's  status  went  on  at 
Washington.     There  were  Congressmen  who  insisted  that  Missouri  was  in  the 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  51 

Union.  There  were  others  who  argued  that  the  constitution  which  had  been 
put  into  force  by  the  new  state  must  be  annulled  and  another  organic  act  must 
be  framed.  And  there  were  still  others  who  took  ground  between  these 
extremes.  The  Senate  was  satisfied  and  marked  time  on  the  Missouri  Ques- 
tion, while  the  House  talked  and  talked  on  the  various  propositions  which  Mr. 
Qay  brought  forward.  The  17th  of  February  approached,  when  the  electoral 
votes  must  be  counted.  To  avoid  bringing  the  Missouri  Question  into  the  joint 
session,  the  Senate  passed  this  resolution: 

"That  if  any  objection  be  made  to  the  votes  of  Missouri,  and  the  counting,  or  omit- 
ting to  count  which  shall  not  essentially  change  the  result  of  the  election;  in  that  case 
they  shall  be  reported  by  the  president  of  the  Senate  in  the  following  manner:  Were  the 
votes  of  Missouri  to  be  counted,  the  result  would  be  for  A.  B.  for  President  of  the 
United  States— votes ;  if  not  counted,  for  A.  B.  for  President  of  the  United  States- 
votes;  but  in  either  event  A.  B.  is  elected  President  of  the  United  Slates;  and  in  the  same 
manner  for  Vice-President." 

When  Mr.  Clay  tried  to  get  the  House  to  agree  to  this  compromise,  he  en- 
countered strenuous  opposition,  the  extremists  on  one  side  insisting  against  any 
recognition  of  Missouri's  votes;  those  on  the  other  side  demanding  full  recogni- 
tion of  Missouri  as  a  state  in  the  Union.  But  a  few  minutes  before  the  time 
set  for  the  joint  session,  the  form  was  agreed  to  by  the  House. 

The  House  voted  to  "receive  the  Senate  standing  and  uncovered."  So  the 
resolution  read.  The  joint  session  opened  and  the  reading  of  the  electoral 
returns  went  on  according  to  routine  until  Missouri  was  reached.  Then  Mr. 
Livermore,  of  New  Hampshire,  arose  and  said:  "Mr.  President  and  Mr. 
Speaker,  I  object  to  receiving  any  votes  for  President  and  Vice-President  from 
Missouri,  because  Missouri  is  not  a  state  in  the  Union."  That  started  trouble. 
The  Senate,  with  dignity,  retired.  Mr.  Floyd,  of  Virginia  offered  a  resolution, 
"that  Missouri  is  one  of  the  states  of  this  Union,  and  her  votes  for  President 
and  Vice-President  ought  to  be  received." 

The  wrangle  went  on  for  an  hour.  Niles'  Register  said  of  the  turmoil: 
"It  is  impossible  to  give  such  an  account  as  ought  to  be  given.  Mr.  Clay  at 
last  got  the  upper  hand  of  the  warring  factions  and  the  Senate  was  invited  to 
come  back.     The  official  proceedings  were: 

Randolph  Caught  Again. 

'The  votes  of  Missouri  were  read,  and  the  result  of  all  the  votes  having  been  read — 

"The  president  of  the  Senate  announced  that  the  total  number  of  votes  for  James 
Monroe,  as  President  of  the  United  States,  was  231,  and,  if  the  votes  of  Missouri  were 
not  counted,  was  228;  that  in  either  event  James  Monroe  had  a  majority  of  the  whole 
number  of  votes  given;  and  in  the  same  form  announced  that  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  had 
a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  votes  for  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 

"The  president  then  proclaimed  that  James  Monroe  is  elected  President  of  the  United 
States  for  four  years,  commencing  on  the  fourth  day  of  March  next,  and  that  Daniel  D. 
Tompkins  is  elected  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  for  four  years  from  the  fourth 
day  of  March  next. 

"While  this  proclamation  was  making,  two  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
claimed  the  floor,  to  enquire  whether  the  votes  of  Missouri  were  or  were  not  counted, 
apparently  with  a  view  of  founding  some  proposition  on  the  answer. 


52  CENTENNIAL-HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Here  arose  a  scene  of  some  confusion,  which  resulted  in  the  gentlemen  being  de- 
clared out  of  order,  and  required  by  the  Speaker  of  the  House  to  resume  their  seats. 

"The  president  of  the  Senate  having  finished  the  annunciation,  the  Senate  retired, 
leaving  Mr.  Randolph  on  the  floor  attempting  to  be  heard  by  the  chair. 

"The  House  being  called  to  order — 

"Mr.  Randolph,  after  a  few  remarks,  suggested  a  motion  respecting  the  votes  frorri 
Missouri,  which  he  reduced  to  writing,  as  follows : 

"l.  Resolved,  That  the  electoral  votes  of  the  state  of  Missouri  have  this  day  been 
counted,  and  do  constitute  a  part  of  the  majority  of  231  votes  given  for  President,  and 
of  218  votes  given   for  Vice-President. 

"2.  Resolved,  That  the  whole  number  of  electors  appointed,  and  of  votes  given  for 
President  and  Vice-President,  has  not  been  announced  by  the  presiding  officers  of  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  agreeably  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  therefore  the  proceeding  has  been  irregular  and   illegal. 

"Whilst  writing  these  resolves — 

"A  motion  for  adjournment  was  made. 

"Here  arose  another  scene  of  unusual  character,  a  gentleman  claiming  to  have  pos- 
session of  the  floor  before  the  motion   for  adjournment  was  made. 

"The  Speaker  decided  to  the  contrary  however,  and  the  question  on  adjournment  was 
decided,  by  yeas,  and  nays. 

'Tor  the  adjournment,  95 

"Against,  60. 

"So  the  yeas  had  it;  and 

"the  House  adjourned." 

Senator  Cockrell's  Researches. 

Two  years  and  two  months  after  Missouri's  petition  for  statehood  was  pre- 
sented to  Congress  the  Missouri  Coinpromise  was  passed.  It  was  greeted  by 
Missourians  as  the  birth  of  statehood.  But  a  year  and  four  months  was  to 
pass  before  admission  to  the  Union  was  "complete,"  to  quote  the  word  used 
by  President  Monroe  in  his  proclamation  of  August  10,  1821.  Francis  M. 
Cockrell  traced  the  devious  legislative  way  of  Missouri's  admission  to  the 
Union, — devious  even  after  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  supposed  to  have 
disposed  finally  of  the  Missouri  Question.  Senator  Cockrell  went  to  original 
sources  for  his  information.  He  did  it  in  the  thorough,  careful  manner  which 
characterized  him  throughout  the  thirty  years  of  his  United  States  senatorship. 
Thereby  he  rendered  signal  service  to  Missouri  history: 

"Congress,  by  act  of  March  6,  1820,  authorized  the  inhabitants  of  that  portion  of  the 
Missouri  Territory  therein  described  'to  form  for  themselves  a  constitution  and  state 
government,  and  to  assume  such  name  as  they  shall  deem  proper,'  for  admission  into  the 
Union  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  states,  fixed  the  first  Monday  of  May,  1820, 
and  the  two  next  succeeding  days  for  the  election  of  representatives  to  form  a  convention, 
and  the  second  Monday  of  June,  1820,  for  the  meeting  of  the  convention,  and  by  section 
8  prohibited  slavery  in  all  the  rest  of  that  territory  north  of  36  degrees,  30  minutes  north 
latitude,  which  was  called  the  'Missouri  Compromise'  and  adopted  after  a  prolonged  and 
bitter  controversy. 

"The  representatives  to  the  convention  were  elected  on  the  first  Monday  of  May  and 
the  two  succeeding  daj's,  being  the  first,  second  and  third  days,  and  met  in  St.  Louis  on  the 
second  Monday  in  June,  being  the  twelfth  day  of  June,  1820,  and  completed  their  labors 
on  July  19,  1820,  and  passed  an  ordinance  declaring  the  assent  of  Missouri  to  the  five  con- 
ditions of  the  enabling  act  of  March  6,  1820,  contained  in  the  sixth  rection  of  said  act,  and 
transmitted  to  Congress  a  true  and  attested  copy  of  such  constitution. 

"The  constitution  so  adopted  on  July  19.  1820.  required  the  president  of  tlie  convention 


JOSEPH  ROBIDOUX 
Founder  of  St.  Joseph 


^y^^^ 


ST.  JOSEPH  IX  1807 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  55 

to  issue  writs  of  election  to  the  sheriffs  directing  elections  to  be  held  on  the  fourth  Mon- 
day— the  28th  day — of  August,  1820,  for  the  election  of  a  governor,  lieutenant-governor, 
representative   in   Congress,   state   senators   and   representatives,   and  county  officers. 

"It  required  the  general  assembly  to  meet  in  St.  Louis  on  the  third  Monday — the  i8th 
day — of  September,  1820,  and  on  the  first  Monday  in  November,  1821,  and  on  the  first 
Monday   in   November,   1822,  and  thereafter  every  two  years. 

"Section  26  of  the  constitution,  referring  to  the  general  assembly,  declared :  'It  shall 
be  their  duty  as  soon  a?  may  be  to  pass  such  laws  as  may  be  necessarj'  to  prevent  free 
negroes  and  mulattoes  from  coming  to  and  settling  in  this  state  under  any  pretext  what- 
ever.' 

"The  election  for  state  and  other  ofiicers  was  held  in  .\ugust  and  the  first  general 
assembly  met  in  St.  Louis  September  18,  1820,  and  the  governor  and  lieutenant-governor 
elected  were  duly  inaugurated  and  entered  upon  their  duties,  and  the  senate  and  house  of 
representatives  were  duly  organized  and  proceeded  with  their  business,  and  on  October  2, 
1820,  elected  David  Barton  and  Thomas  H.  Benton  senators  from  that  state,  Benton  being 
elected  by  one  majority.  The  whole  machinerj'  of  state  and  county  governments  was 
completed  and  put  in  operation  before  the  state  was  admitted  into  the  Union. 

"On  November  14,  1820,  the  day  after  Congress  convened,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  sent  to  the  Senate  a  copy  of  the  constitution  so  adopted. 

"On  motion  of  Senator  Smith,  it  was  ordered  that  'a  committee  be  appointed  to 
inquire  if  any,  and  if  any  what,  legislative  measure  may  be  necessary  for  admitting  the 
State  of  Missouri  into  the  Union.'  And  a  committee  of  three  was  appointed,  and  the  copy 
of  the  constitution  was  referred  to  the  committee  and  ordered  printed.  On  November  16, 
1820,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Mr.  Scott,  who  was  the  delegate  in  Congress  from 
the  Territory  of  Missouri  elected  to  the  Sixteenth  Congress  and  who  had  been  elected  the 
representative  to  the  Seventeenth  Congress  beginning  March  4,  1821,  presented  a  manu- 
script attested  copy  of  the  constitution  to  the  House,  and  it  was  referred  to  a  select  com- 
mittee of  three. 

"A  long  and  heated  controversy  arose  in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate  over  the  clause 
in  the  constitution  which  I  have  quoted. 

"Many  measures  were  proposed  and  discussed  from  time  to  time. 

"Finally  on  the  22nd  day  of  February.  1821,  Mr.  Clay  moved  the  adoption  by  the  House 
of  a  resolution  as  follows : 

"  'Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  on  the  part  of  this  House,  jointly  with 
such  committee  as  may  be  appointed  on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  to  consider  and  report  to 
the  Senate  and  House,  respectively,  whether  it  be  expedient  or  not  to  make  provision  for 
the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the  L^nion  on  the  same  footing  as  the  original  states,  and 
for  the  due  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  within  Missouri;  and  if  not, 
whether  any  other,  and  what,  provision  adapted  to  her  actual  condition  ought  to  be 
made  by  law.' 

"This  resolution  was  passed  by  the  House  on  the  same  day  by  yeas  loi  and  nays  55. 

"Mr.  Clay  moved  that  the  committee  consist  of  23  members,  to  be  elected  by  ballot, 
which   was  agreed   to. 

"On  February  23  a  ballot  was  had,  and  17  members  were  elected  on  the  first  ballot. 
Mr.  Clay  then  moved  the  rescinding  of  the  order  as  to  the  selection  of  the  remaining  si.x 
members,  which  was  agreed  to.  and  the  six  remaining  members  were  appointed  by  the 
Speaker. 

"On  February  24  the  resolution  of  the  House  was  reported  to  the  Senate,  taken  up, 
and  passed  by  yeas  29,  nays  7,  and  a  committee  of  seven  appointed  on  the  part  of  the 
Senate. 

"On  February  26  Mr.  Clay,  from  the  joint  committee,  reported  to  the  House  a  joint 
resolution,  which  was  read  the  first  and  second  times  and  laid  on  the  table ;  and  after- 
wards, on  same  day,  considered  and  passed  by  yeas.  log;  nays,  50. 

"On  February  27  the  resolution  was  reported  to  the  Senate  and  read  twice  by  unanimous 
consent,  and  was  ordered  read  a  third  time  by  yeas  26,  nays  15. 

"On  Februarj'  28  the  resolution  was  read  the  third  time  in  the  Senate,  and  passed  by 
yeas  28,  nays  14,  and  was  approved  by  the  President,  March  2,  1821.  as  follows: 


56  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"'Resolution  providing  for  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Missouri  into  the  Union  on  a 
certain  condition. 

'"Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  Missouri  shall  be  admitted  into  this  Union  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  original  states  in  all  respects  whatever  upon  the  fundamental  condi- 
tion that  the  fourth  clause  of  the  twenty-sixth  section  of  the  third  article  of  the  constitu- 
tion, submitted  on  the  part  of  said  state  to  Congress,  shall  never  be  construed  to  authorize 
the  passage  of  any  law,  and  that  no  law  shall  be  passed  in  conformity  thereto,  by  which 
any  citizen  of  either  of  the  states  in  this  Union  shall  be  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of 
any  of  the  privileges  and  immunities  to  which  such  citizen  is  entitled  under  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Urrited  States : 

"A  Solemn  Public  Act"  Demanded. 

"  'Provided,  That  the  legislature  of  said  state,  by  a  solemn  public  act,  shall  declare 
the  assent  of  the  said  state  to  the  said  fundamental  condition,  and  shall  transmit  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States  on  or  before  the  fourth  Monday  in  November  next  an 
authentic  copy  of  the  said  act;  upon  the  receipt  whereof  the  President,  by  proclamation, 
shall  announce  the  fact ;  whereupon,  and  without  any  further  proceeding  on  the  part  of 
Congress,  the  admission  of  the  said  state  into  this  Union  shall  be  considered  as  complete.' 

"The  governor  of  Missouri  called  the  general  assembly  in  special  session  on  June  4, 
1821,  which  passed  'a  solemn  public  act  declaring  the  assent  of  this  state  to  the  funda- 
mental condition  contained  in  a  resolution  passed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
providing  for  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Missouri  into  the  Union  on  a  certain  condi- 
tion,' which  was  approved  June  26,  1821,  and  transmitted  to  the  President. 

"On  August  10,  1821,  President  Monroe  issued  his  proclamation  announcing  the  fact, 
and  Missouri  was  on  that  day  a  state  in  the  Union. 

"The  credentials  of  Barton  and  Benton  were  dated  October  p,  1820,  certified  their 
election  on  October  2,  and  were  for  the  first  time  presented  to  the  Senate — Barton's  on 
December  3,  1821,  and  Benton's  on  December  6,  1821 — were  read,  and  the  oath  administered 
to  each  on   said  days,   respectively,  when  each  took  his   seat. 

"While  they  were  elected  October  2,  1820,  before  the  state  was  admitted  to  the  Union, 
on  August  10,  1821,  and  their  credentials  never  presented  to  the  Senate  till  December  3 
and  6,  1821,  and  no  oath  previously  administered  to  them,  and  no  record  made  in  the 
journals  of  the  Senate  of  their  names  or  presence,  the  records  of  the  secretary  of  the 
Senate,  dated  March  3,  1821,  and  signed  by  John  Gaillard,  president  pro  tempore,  show 
that  they  were  certified  to  have  attended.  Barton  from  November  14,  1820,  and  Benton 
from  November  18,  1820,  each,  to  March  3,  1821,  and  they  were  paid  their  regular  per 
diem  salary  and  mileage,  just  as  other  senators  were." 

Territorial  Government  Suspended. 

Dating  back  the  salaries  of  the  senators  to  1820,  was  only  one  of  several 
ways  in  which  the  government  at  Washington  recognized  Missouri  as  having 
the  status  of  statehood  in  1820.  WiUiam  Clark  had  been  governor  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  Missouri  by  appointment.  His  salary  was  stopped  promptly  upon  the 
formation  of  the  state  government  in  1820  and  the  territorial  government  was 
suspended  with  such  informality  that  John  Scott,  who  had  been  territorial  dele- 
gate and  who  was  elected  representative,  addressed  this  inquiry  to  John  Quincy 
Adams,  secretary  of  state. 

"Governor  William  Clark  of  Missouri  desires  to  know  what  eye  of  the  general 
government  he  now  occupies.  The  law  authorizing  the  people  of  Missouri,  within  certain 
lines  specified  in  the  then  Missouri  territory,  to  form  a  constitution  and  state  govern- 
ment, made  no  disposition  as  to  the  remainder  of  the  territory.  He  advises  me  that  he 
is  still  possessed  of  the  public  acts  and  documents,  and  that  an  immense  tract  of  country 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  57 

remains  unprovided  for,  in  which  there  are  several  large  tracts  of  land  to  which  the 
Indian  title  has  been  extinguished.  He  drew  for  his  pay  as  governor,  but  his  drafts  were 
only  paid  up  to  the  20th  of  September,  the  time  when  the  state  government  went  into 
operation.  It  is  now  necessary  for  him  to  know  whether  the  government  still  considers 
him  in  office,  within  the  State  of  Missouri,  or  whether  in  office  as  to  that  portion  of 
the  country  out  of  the  lines  of  the  state.  And  also  that  he  have  some  discretion  as  to 
the  disposition  he  is  to  make  of  the  public  acts,  records,  and  documents  which  would 
properly  belong  to  the  state.  An  early  reply  will  oblige  him  and  your  obedient,  respect-  ' 
ful  servant." 

The  Absurd  Solemn  Public  Act. 

Notwithstanding  the  organization  of  the  state  government  and  the  election 
of  senators,  admission  to  the  Union  was  hung  up  by  Congress  until  the  passage 
of  the  "Clay  Formula"  in  1821.  This  required  Missouri,  as  a  further  condition 
to  admission  to  pass  "a  solemn  act,"  that  the  "restrictive  clause"  excluding 
free  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  settling  in  the  state  should  not  be  construed 
to  affect  any  citizen  of  any  other  state,  in  the  rights  guaranteed  under  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.     Missourians  thought  this  was  ridiculous. 

Frederick  W.  Lehmann  said  the  legislature  "passed  what  it  called  a  solemn 
public  act  by  which  it  declared  in  effect  that  the  fundamental  condition  was  con- 
tained in  the  constitution  of  the  state;  that  it  was  a  piece  of  impertinence  on  the 
part  of  Congress  to  require  this  express  assent ;  that  it  made  no  difference 
whether  the  assent  was  given  or  withheld  and  so  the  state  solemnly  gave  it. 
The  state  observed  the  condition  in  the  spirit  in  which  the  assent  was  given. 
Free  persons  of  color,  citizens  of  other  states  were  not  forbidden  entry  into 
Missouri.  But  stich  conditions  were  impMDsed  upon  their  living  here,  that  few, 
if   any,   cared   to   come." 

The  preamble  of  the  "solemn  act"  in  its  entirety  was  a  wonderful  document 
charged  with  satire.     Mark  Twain  could  not  have  done  better. 

"Forasmuch  as  the  good  people  of  this  state  have,  by  the  most  solemn  and  public  act 
in  their  power,  virtually  assented  to  the  said  fundamental  condition,  when  their  repre- 
sentatives in  full  and  free  convention  assembled,  they  adopted  the  constitution  of  this 
state,  and  consented  to  be  incorporated  into  the  federal  Union,  and  governed  by  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  which  among  other  things  provides  that  the  said  Constitu- 
tion and  laws  of  the  United  States,  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  all  treaties  made  or 
which  shall  be  made  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land;  and  the  judges  in  every  state  shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything  to  the  con- 
trary, or  the  law  of  any  state  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  And  although  this  general 
assembly  do  most  solemnly  declare  that  the  United  States  have  no  power  to  change  the 
operation  of  the  constitution  of  this  state,  except  in  the  mode  prescribed  in  the  constitu- 
tion itself,  nevertheless,  as  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  desired  this  general 
assembly  to  declare  the  assent  of  this  state  to  said  fundamental  condition,  and  forasmuch 
as  no  such  declaration  will  neither  restrain  nor  enlarge,  limit  nor  extend,  the  operation 
of  the  operation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  or  of  this  state ;  but  the  said 
constitution  will  in  all  respects  remain  the  same  as  if  the  said  resolution  had  never  been 
passed,  and  the  desired  declaration  was  never  made ;  and  because  such  declaration  will 
not  divest  any  power  or  change  the  duties  of  any  of  the  constitutional  authorities  of  this 
state  or  of  the  United  States,  nor  impair  the  rights  of  the  people  of  this  state,  or  impose 
any  additional  obligation  upon  them,  but  may  promote  an  earlier  enjo>Tnent  of  their 
vested  federal  rights,  and  this  state  being,  moreover,  determined  to  give  to  her  sister 
states  and  to  the  world  the  most  unequivocal  proof  of  her  desire  to  promote  the  peace 
and  harmony  of  the  Union,  therefore, —  * 


58  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Be  it  enacted  and  declared  that  the  general  assembly  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  and 
it  is  hereby  solemnly  and  publicly  enacted  and  declared,  that  this  state  has  assented  and 
does  assent  that  the  fourth  clause  of  the  twenty-sixth  section  of  the  third  article  of  the 
constitution  of  this  state  shall  never  be  construed  to  authorize  the  passage  of  any  law, 
and  that  no  law  shall  be  passed  in  conformity  thereto,  by  which  any  citizen,  of  either  of 
the  United  States,  shall  be  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  the  privileges  and 
immunities  to  which  such  citizens  are  entitled  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

The  "fundamental  condition"  applied  to  "the  fourth  clause  of  the  twenty- 
sixth  section  of  the  third  article."  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  clause  to  which 
Congress  objected  is  the  first  clause  of  the  third  division  of  the  section  according 
to  the  printed  copy  of  the  constitution.  The  explanation  of  this  apparent  mis- 
take is  that  a  manuscript  copy  was  sent  to  Congress  and  that  the  printer  who 
subsequently  published  the  constitution  for  use  in  Missouri  made  a  different 
subdivision  of  the  text. 

Ad  Interim  Statehood. 

Governor  McNair  was  not  a  man  to  be  disturbed  by  the  anomalous  condi- 
tion of  the  state  that  was  not  yet  a  state  in  the  Union.  He  was  at  college  in 
Philadelphia  when  his  father  died.  On  his  return  home  an  issue  arose  between 
a  younger  brother  and  himself  as  to  the  head  of  the  family  and  the  control  of 
the  estate.  The  Spartan  mother  decided  to  leave  it  to  a  test  of  physical  superior- 
ity. The  younger  won.  Alexander  McNair  went  into  the  army,  served  a  short 
time  and  came  west  to  grow  up  with  the  country. 

When,  after  the  three  and  one-half  years  of  waiting,  Missouri  became  a 
state  in  the  Union,  Governor  McNair  congratulated  Missourians  on  the  capacity 
for  self-government  they  had  shown  in  the  interim.  "Since  the  organization  of 
this  government,"  the  governor  said  in  his  message  to  the  legislature,  "we  have 
exhibited  to  the  American  people  a  spectacle  novel  and  peculiar — an  American 
republic  on  the  confines  of  the  federal  Union,  exercising  all  the  powers  of 
sovereign  government,  with  no  actual  political  connection  with  the  United 
States,  and  nothing  to  bind  us  to  them  but  a  reverence  for  the  same  principles 
and  an  habitual  attachment  to  them  and  their  government." 

Goveriunent  Recognition  of  Statehood. 

In  a  variety  of  official  acts,  the  national  government  recognized  Missouri  as 
a  state  from  September,  1820,  but  in  a  condition  of  transit  into  the  Union. 
Before  the  action  of  Congress  on  the  constitution  of  Missouri,  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced "to  provide  for  the  due  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  in  the 
State  of  Missouri."  Missouri  was  referred  to  as  a  "state"  even  in  the  resolu- 
tion making  admission  dependent  on  the  passage  of  "a  solemn  public  act  which 
shall  declare  the  assent  of  the  said  state  to  the  said  fundamental  condition." 
No  fewer  than  four  times  in  the  resolution  which  paved  the  way  for  admission, 
was  Missouri  referred  to  as  "said  state." 

While  the  resolution  calling  for  the  "solemn  public  act"  was  pending  in 
the  House,  Mr.  Adams  of  Massachusetts  opposed  it  "on  the  ground  of  the 
defect  of  power  of  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  authorize  or  require  the 
legislature  of  a  state,  once  admitted  to  the  Union,  to  do  the  act  proposed 
by  this  resolution  to  be  demanded  of  the  legislature  of  Missouri."    The  resolu- 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  STATEHOOD  59 

tion  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  87  to  81.  It  went  through  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of 
28  to  14. 

John  Quincy  Adams,  secretary  of  state,  transmitted  the  resohjtion  to  "His 
Excellency,  Alexander  McNair,  Governor  of  Missouri,"  and  referred  to  it  as 
"the  resolution  of  Congress  for  admitting  the  State  of  Missouri  into  the 
Union."  The  department  of  state  had  cut  off  the  territorial  government  of  Mis- 
souri in  September,  1820. 

When  President  Monroe  issued  his  proclamation  of  the  loth  of  August, 
1821,  he  concluded  with  these  words:  "The  admission  of  the  said  State  of  Mis- 
souri into  this  Union  is  declared  to  be  complete." 


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CHAPTER  III 

MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY 

The  Center  State — A  Stormy  Petrel  on  the  Sea  of  National  Politics — Original  Boundaries — 
Material  Gains  South  and  West — The  Long  Controversy  on  the  North — Honey  War 
in  Rhyme — Resetting  the  Iowa  Mileposls — Billy  McLaughlin's  Field — Atnasing  Bee 
Tree  Stories — The  Platte  Purchase — Thrifty  Trading  with  the  Indians — Neal  Gilliam's 
Map — Peter  Burnett's  Ride — That  Arkansas  Jog — The  first  St.  Louis  County — Early 
Reservation  of  School  Lands — Making  of  Counties — How  Lillard  Lost  Fame — Military 
Heroes  Remembered — The  State  of  Pike — Some  First  Families  of  Missouri — Kingdom 
of  Callaway — A  Mother  of  Counties — When  Liberty  was  a  Metropolis — Moving  Days 
for  County  Seats — Arrow  Rock  Traditions — SteelviUe's  Famous  People — Osage  Semi- 
nary on  Paper — When  Chariton  Rivaled  St.  Louis — First  Days  of  County  Government — 
Salt  River  Tigers — Audrain  Was  "Little  Sis" — A  Turkey  Dinner  and  a  Town  Christen- 
ing— William  Muldrow,  Optimist  E.xtraordinary — Marion  City,  Dickens'  Eden — Where 
Mark  Twain  Discovered  Mulberry  Sellers — The  First  Railroad — .Missouri's  "Phila- 
delphia" and  "New  York" — Eastern  Investments  Submerged — A  Wholesale  Educational 
Plan — Lost  Towns — Boom  in  Now  Forgotten  Sites — Fascinating  Arguments  of  the 
Promoters — Tomn,  River  and  Prairie  Nomenclature — City,  Ne  Plus  Ultra — Spring- 
field's Beginning— Kickapoo.  the  Beautiful— Neosho,  Clear  Cold  Water — Climate 
Charmed — Great  American  Desert  Discovered — Missouri,  Then  and  Now. 

I  came  from  the  center  of  the  earth.- — Bishop  Thomas  Bowman,  of  Missouri. 

From  the  first.  Missouri  has  been  the  stormy  petrel  of  American  politics,  the  richest,  the  most  imperial 
commonwealth  in  the  Union.  Her  geographical  position  always  placed  her  in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  She 
was  a  slave  peninsula  jutting  out  into  a  free-soil  sea.  The  first  serious  trouble  on  the  slavery  question 
came  with  her  admission  into  the  Union,  and  the  second  over  the  admission  of  California, — a  Missouri 
colony.  Most  people  date  hostilities  from  Sumter,  April,  1861.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Missouri  and  Kansas 
had  been  carrying  on  a  Civil  war  on  their  own  hook  for  five  or  six  years  before  the  first  gun  was  fired  in 
Charleston  harbor. 

If  Sir  Walter  Scott  had  lived  in  that  day,  he  could  have  found  material  for  fifty  novels  descriptive  of 
border  warfare  in  the  forays  and  exploits  of  the  Missourians  and  Kansans  before  the  first  soldier  was 
legally  mustered  into  the  service  of  either  army. — Champ  Clark,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  boundaries  of  Missouri,  as  defined  by  Congress  in  the  act  of  March  6, 
1820,  underwent  several  notable  changes.  On  the  west,  the  original  line  was 
changed  to  the  material  advantage  of  the  state.  On  the  north  the  boundary 
between  Missouri  and  what  became  Iowa  led  to  controversy  which  broke  out 
at  long  intervals  and  was  not  settled  finally  until  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  several  governors  and  a  commission  had  had  their  flings  at  it. 
The  end  was  in  1895.  What  did  Congress  mean  by  "the  rapids  of  the  River  Des 
Momes?"  Where  was  "the  Indian  boundary  line?"  These  were  the  issues. 
The  original  boundary  not  changed  by  man  was  "the  middle  of  the  main  channel 
of  the  Mississippi  River,"  where  nature  took  its  shifting  course  for  one  hundred 
years.     The  boundaries,  as  defined  by  Congress,  were : 

63 


64  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Beginning  in  the  middle  of  the  Mississippi  river,  on  the  parallel  of  thirty-six  degrees 
of  north  latitude;  thence  west  along  that  parallel  of  latitude  to  the  St.  Francis  river; 
thence  up  and  following  the. course  of  that  river,  in  the  middle  of  the  main  channel  thereof, 
^to  the  parallel  of  latitude  of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes;  thence  west  along  the 
same  to  a  point  where  said  parallel  is  intersected  by  a  meridian  line  passing  through  the 
middle  of  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  river  where  the  same  empties  into  the  Missouri  river; 
thence  from  the  point  aforesaid,  north  along  the  said  meridian  line  to  the  intersection 
of  the  parallel  of  latitude  which  passed  through  the  rapids  of  the  river  Des  Moines, 
making  the  same  line  to  correspond  with  the  Indian  boundary  line ;  thence  east,  from  the 
point  of  intersection  last  aforesaid,  along  the  said  parallel  of  latitude,  to  the  middle  of 
the  channel  of  the  main  fork  of  the  said  river  Des  Moines ;  to  the  mouth  of  the  same 
where  it  enters  into  the  Mississippi  river ;  thence  due  east  to  the  middle  of  the  main 
channel  of  the  Mississippi  river ;  thence  down  and  following  the  course  of  said  river,  in 
the  middle  of  the  main  channel  thereof,  to  the  place  of  beginning." 

The  questions  about  the  northern  boundary  were  not  answered  until  there 
had  been  clashes  of  authority  between  local  officials  on  the  line.  Some  arrests 
were  made.  Threats  were  exchanged.  The  militia  was  ordered  to  be  in  readi- 
ness. The  government  ruled  on  what  Congress  meant.  "The  boundary  war" 
passed  without  serious  trouble.  Missouri  grave  up  a  narrow  strip  that  had  been 
claimed.  At  the  time,  the  loss  of  the  land  was  not  felt  so  much  as  that  of  the 
bee  trees  which  were  numerous  in  the  disputed  territory. 

The  Iowa  Line. 

Overt  acts  which  brought  on  the  "Iowa  war"  were  the  invasion  of  the  dis- 
puted strip  by  a  Missouri  farmer  who  cut  down  three  bee  trees,  and  by  the 
sheriff  of  Clark  county  who  went  on  the  strip  and  tried  to  collect  taxes.  The 
farmer  was  not  caught  but  the  lowan  who  owned  the  land  got  a  judgment 
against  the  Missourian  for  $1.50.  The  sheriff  was  arrested  and  charged  with 
"usurpation  of  authority."  He  was  taken  to  Burlington,  the  capital  of  Iowa 
territory  and  soon  turned  loose.  Indignation  meetings  were  held  in  Lewis, 
Clark  and  Marion  counties  and  Missourians  in  long  resolutions  demanded  that 
Missouri  laws  be  enforced  against  the  lowans.  Under  orders  from  Governor 
Boggs,  Major  General  Willock  called  out  200  men.  About  600  Missourians 
went  into  camp  on  Fox  river  near  Waterloo.  The  snow  was  deep  and  the  Mis- 
sourians had  no  blankets  except  those  they  had  taken  from  a  store  at  LaGrange. 
The  Iowa  militia  to  the  number  of  300  came  down  and  camped  on  their  side 
near  Farmington.  Governor  Lucas  came  with  them  and  had  as  one  of  his  cap- 
tains James  W.  Grimes,  afterwards  United  States  senator  from  Iowa.  It 
was  proposed  that  the  sherifif  of  Clark  County,  accompanied  by  militia,  make 
another  attempt  to  collect  taxes,  and  it  was  expected  this  would  bring  on  the 
crisis  of  force.  But  before  this  step  was  taken,  sober  second  thought  got  in 
its  work,  and  Marion  county  started  a  movement  to  have  a  commission  appKDinted 
by  Missouri  and  Iowa  to  eflfect  a  peaceable  settlement.  Iowa  fell  in  with  this 
and  the  determination  of  the  boundary  was  effected.  A  grand  oratorical  effort 
by  Thomas  L.  Anderson  of  Palmyra  had  niuch  to  do  with  bringing  this  about. 
Anderson  pictured  the  horrors  of  war  between  neighbors ;  described  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  militia  shivering  along  Fox  river,  with  the  mercury  below  zero ; 
pointed  out  that  if  there  was  actual  fighting,  the  general  government  w-ould 
interfere,   and   that   the  bloodshed   would   accoiriplish   nothing.      He   concluded : 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  65 

"Send  them  home  to  their  families.  Send  them  to  those  who  at  this  inclement 
season  need  them,  and  who  are  watching  anxiously  for  them,  and  praying  for 
their  safe  and  speedy  return.  And  in  the  name  of  the  God  of  Mercy  and  Jus- 
tice, gentlemen,  let  this  monumental  piece  of  absurdity,  this  phenomenal  but 
cruel  blundering  have  an  end." 

When  peace  was  declared  the  militia  who  had  saved  themselves  from  freez- 
ing by  keeping  up  big  fires,  around  which  they  huddled,  there  being  no  tents, 
celebrated.  They  held  the  governors  of  Missouri  and  Iowa  responsible  for  the 
warlike  preparations,  and  to  show  their  resentment  they  cut  a  quarter  of  venison 
in  two  parts,  labeled  one  of  them  Boggs  and  the  other  Lucas,  hung  them  in  a 
tree,  fired  volleys  into  them,  took  them  down  and  buried  them  with  pretended 
solemnity.  On  the  way  home,  some  of  these  soldiers  marched  with  their  coats 
wrongside  out,  in  celebration  of  the  participation  in  the  "honey  war."  This 
"war"  cost  Missouri  about  $20,000. 

The  Honey  War  in  Rhyme. 

Missourians  of  the  early  days  dropped  into  rhyme  on  every  occasion  of 
interest.  The  Palmyra  Whig  of  October  26,  1839,  thus  characterized  the  trouble 
with  Iowa  over  the  boundary.  A  strip  of  about  twelve  miles  width  was  in 
dispute.  Some  of  the  settlers  on  the  strip  owned  slaves  which  they  could  do  if 
they  were  Missourians  but  not,  according  to. the  Missouri  compromise,  if  they 
were  lowans.  But  popularly  the  Iowa  war  was  supposed  to  hinge  on  the  ques- 
tion of  which  state  could  claim  possession  of  the  bee  trees  on  the  strip.  So  the 
Whig  satirized  the  lloncy  war  in  verse,  to  the  tune  of  Yankee  Doodle : 

Ve  freeman  of  the  happy  land 
Which  flows  with  milk  and  honey, 
.\rise  !    To  arms  !    Your  ponies  mount ! 
Regard  not  blood  nor  money. 
Old   Governor  Lucas,  tiger-like. 
Is  prowling  round  our  borders. 
But  Governor  Boggs  is  wide  awake — 
Just  listen  to  his  orders. 

Three  bee  trees  stand  about  the  b'ne 
Between  our  State  and  Lucas. 
Be  ready  all  these  trees  to  fall 
And  bring  things  to  a  focus. 
We'll  show  old  Lucas  how  to  brag 
And  seize  our  precious  honey. 
He  also  claims,  I  understand, 
Of  us  three  bits  in  money. 

Now,  if  the  governors  want  to  tight. 

Just  let  them  meet  in  person. 

And  when  noble  Boggs  old  Lucas  flogs, 

'Twill  teach  the  scamp  a  lesson. 

Then  let  the  victor  cut  the  trees, 

And  have  three  bits  in  money. 

And  wear  a  crown  frnm  town  to  town. 

Anointed   with   pure  honey. 


66  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Sequel  to  the  Honey  War. 

Forty  years  after  the  "Honey  war,"  when  the  boundary  between  Missouri 
and  Iowa  was  supposed  to  have  been  settled  for  all  time  by  the  stone  posts  set 
ten  miles  apart  in  185 1,  there  arose  a  curious  controversy  where  Mercer  county 
bordered  on   the   line.     Some  of  the  stones  had   disappeared.      Mercer,   at   the 
time  of  the  marking,  was  not  much  settled.     Traditions  as  to  where  the  true 
line  ran  differed.    William  Howard  Moore  of  Mercer  county  had  a  dispute  with 
neighbors.     Decatur  was  across  the  line  in  Iowa.     Charges  were  made  against 
Moore.     An  indictment  was  returned  by  the  Decatur  grand  jury.     Iowa  officers 
watching  their  opportunity  arrested  Moore  after  a  struggle,  on  what  they  claimed 
was  the  Iowa  side  and  took  him  to  Leon.     Bail  was  given,  Moore  insisted  that 
he  was  on  the  Missouri  side  at  the  time  and  that  it  was  a  case  of  kidnapping. 
Formal  complaint  was  made  and  the  papers  were  put  in  the  hands  of  a  Missouri 
deputy  sheriff.     The  sheriff  of  the  Iowa  county  was  found  on  the   Missouri 
side  and  arrested.    An  Iowa  man  appeared  on  the  scene  with  two  drawn  revol- 
vers comijelling  the  release  of  the  sheriff,  who  ran  across  the  line  into  Iowa. 
There  was  much  talk  and  excitement  but  no  bloodshed.     Then  the  governors  of 
Missouri  and  Iowa  came  together  in  St.  Louis  to  take  up  the  controversy.    This 
was  in    1895.     Stone  was  governor  of   Missouri.     Moore   made  his  statement, 
testifying  that  his  arrest  had  been  made  on  a  road  the  south  side  of  which  was 
in   Missouri.     He  also  showed  that,  if  the  line  was  where  the  Iowa  officers 
claimed,  it  would  cut  of?  several  acres  of  land  which  had  been  patented  to  him 
as  being  in  Missouri.     The  matter  went  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.     A  commission  was  appointed  by  the  court  to  find  where  the  boundary 
really  was.     The  commissioners  took  testimony,  reached  conclusions  and  put  up 
stone  monuments.     On  the  south  side  of  the  Lineville  square  the  old  public  well 
which  had  been  supposed  to  be  exactly  on  the  boundary  was  left  in  Missouri  by 
the  decision,  while  the  bridge  on  the  east  of  the  depot  which  had  been  put  in  by 
Iowa  was  given  to  Mercer  county,  Missouri.     As  a  whole     the  determination 
by  the  commissioners  seems  to  have  been  quite  satisfactory  to  the  Missourians 
for  the  press  account  of  the  results  said : 

"The  famous  elm  and  oak  at  the  lake  were  held  by  the  commissioners  not  to  be 
witness  trees  on  the  Hendershott  line,  and  they  located  a  line  forty-nine  feet  north  of 
that  for  the  52nd  mile  post,  while  the  53rd  went  eighteen  or  twenty  feet  into  Billy 
McLaughlin's  field,  proving  positively  that  we  on  the  Missouri  side  were  right.  The  53rd 
was  set  on  Saturday  and  before  evening  the  Missouri  girls  had  it  beautifully  decorated 
with  flowers.  There  is  considerable  talk  of  having  a  bonfire  on  the  hill  just  north  of 
Hiram  Moore's  house  to  celebrate  the  setting  of  the  last  monument  which  gives  our 
people  justice  at  last.  We  rejoice  at  the  result  of  the  survey,  of  course,  not  because  it 
gives  us  any  Iowa  land,  but  because  it  gives  us  our  own.  That  Wayne  county  should 
have  been  so  liberal  as  to  build  a  good  bridge  in  Mercer  county,  may  surprise  you  as  it 
does  us.  Well,  I  suppose  we  ought  to  thank  them  for  the  l)ridge  which  is  set  ten  feet 
or  more  south  of  the  line." 

The  strip  of  land  involved  in  the  last  controversy  was  about  two  miles  long 
and  from  fifteen  to  two  hundred  feet  wide.  It  cost  Missouri  and  Iowa  a  good 
deal  more  than  it  was  worth.  Even  after  the  new  posts  were  in,  there  were  some 
disputes  about  fences. 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  67 

The  Days  of  Honey  Harvests. 

The  stories  which  those  early  settlers  along  the  Iowa  line  told  of  their  har- 
vests of  honey  help  to  an  understanding  of  the  "Honey  war."  George  Coombs 
and  his  sons  told  of  finding  170  bee  trees  the  first  year  of  their  settlement  in 
Clark  county.  All  but  five  of  these  trees  were  found  in  one  hunt  which  con- 
tinued several  days.  In  preparation  for  this  hunt,  Coombs  went  to  Warsaw  on 
the  Illinois  side  and  bought  some  barrels.  With  the  help  of  his  boys  he  filled 
seven  of  these  barrels  with  wild  honey  in  comb  and  seven  with  strained  honey. 
These  barrels  he  hauled  to  Warsaw  and  sold  the  contents  for  twenty-five  cents 
a  gallon.  The  last  night  of  the  hunt,  the  Coombs  party  camped  on  Fox  river. 
A  dry  tree  was  cut  down  for  wood  to  keep  the  fire  going  all  night.  The  wolves 
surrounded  the  camp  and  were  so  daring  that  embers  from  the  fire  were  thrown 
to  keep  them  back.  In  the  morning  the  hunters  found  that  the  tree  they  had  cut 
down  in  the  dusk  the  night  before  was  partly  hollow  and  the  cavity  was  filled 
with  honey. 

Judge  John  Langford  told  of  cutting  on  Little  Fox  river  a  bee  tree  which 
yielded  twenty-five  gallons  of  honey.  George  K.  Biggs  located  a  dozen  bee 
trees  in  one  day  within  a  short  distance  of  his  home.  From  one  of  them  he 
took  fifty  gallons  of  honey. 

For  years  the  export  of  honey  through  the  Mississippi  river  towns  was  a 
source  of  much  revenue  to  Northeast  Missouri  settlers.  This  product  sold  at 
from  twenty-five  to  thirty-seven  and  one-half  cents  a  gallon.  Judge  John  C. 
Collins,  of  Scotland  county,  told  of  seeing  seventy-five  barrels  of  this  wild 
honey  passing  his  place  one  day. 

The  Platte  Purchase. 

Eighty-four  years  ago  the  government  at  Washington  bought  the  land  which 
comprises  the  city  of  St.  Joseph,  Buchanan  county  and  the  five  counties  of 
Platte,  Atchison,  Andrew,  Holt  and  Nodaway.  The  Indians  conveyed  the  title 
and  moved.  The  land  was  thrown  open  to  white  settlement.  The  price  paid 
was  $2,500  in  cash,  an  interpreter,  a  blacksmith  and  a  grindstone.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  Platte  Purchase  in  about  the  allotted  span  of  a  single  life  has  been 
wonderful.  It  is  history.  But  today  Ihis  region  and  its  surrounding  territory 
seem  to  be  entering  upon  an  even  more  remarkable  period  of  gain. 

The  popular  movement  for  the  Platte  Purchase  originated,  according  to 
Colonel  Switzler's  researches,  at  a  regimental  muster  on  Dale's  farm  near 
Liberty,  Gen.  Andrew  S.  Hughes  addressing  the  meeting.  A  committee  was 
appointed  to  memorialize  Congress,  consisting  of  William  T.  Wood,  David  R. 
Atchison,  A.  W.  Doniphan.  Peter  H.  Burnett  and  Edward  M.  Samuel.  Judge 
Wood  wrote  the  memorial.  Senator  Benton  introduced  the  bill,  and  he  and 
Senator  Linn  urged  its  adoption,  and  in  1836  the  "purchase"  was  accomplished. 

The  Missouri  river  was  made  the  western  boundary  of  the  state  from 
Kansas  City  northward.  This  added  to  the  state  as  much  land  as  Delaware 
contains^ — land  of  extraordinary  fertility.  Benton  gave  his  colleague.  Dr.  Linn, 
the  credit  for  the  favorable  action  of  Congress  in  the  matter  of  the  Platte  Pur- 
chase.    The  land  was  bought  from  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians. 

The   occupation   of   Platte  county   was   much   like   the   rush    for  land   when 


68  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

portions  of  Oklahoma  were  opened  sixty  years  later.  The  purchase  was  made 
in  1836,  but  before  the  Indians  could  be  moved  out  the  intending  settlers  came 
in.  In  the  spring  of  1837  nearly  everj-  quarter  section  was  taken.  So  rapid 
was  the  development  of  the  purchase  that  Weston  became  the  second  city  of 
Missouri.  Platte  became  the  chief  hemp-growing  county.  Weston  shipped 
more  hemp  than  any  other  place.  One  year  the  business  men  of  Weston 
claimed  commercial  supremacy  over  St.  Louis.  Between  i84o  and  1850  Platte 
became  next  to  St.  Louis  the  most  populous  county  in  Missouri.  In  1850  it  had 
21,000  people.  Four  years  later  Nebraska  and  Kansas  were  organized  as  ter- 
ritories.    Platte  county  people  by  the  thousands  moved  across  the  Missouri. 

Neal  Gilliam's  Map. 

At  an  old  settlers  reunion  in  St.  Joseph  in  1874,  Judge  James  H.  Birch 
made  an  interesting  contribution  to  Missouri  history.  Sometime  before  the 
government  extinguished  the  Indian  title  to  the  Platte  country  and  gave  to 
Missouri  what  became  six  of  its  richest  counties,  Judge  Birch  was  publishing 
at  Fayette  a  rather  modest  paper  called  the  "Western  Monitor  and  Boone's 
Lick  Correspondent,"  at  that  time  the  westernmost  newspaper  office  in  the 
United  States.  He  received  a  letter  from  General  Andrew  S.  Hughes  who  was 
the  agent  of  the  Indians  to  whom  had  been  assigned  the  Platte  country  for  a 
reservation.  General  Hughes,  in  this  letter,  pointed  out  the  advisability  of 
getting  the  Indians  removed  and  the  reservation  annexed  to  Missouri.  He 
accompanied  the  letter  with  a  rude  map  drawn  by  Cornelius  Gilliam,  sometimes 
called  General  Gilliam,  but  more  familiarly  known  as  Neal  Gilliam.  This 
pioneer  cartographer  was  a  mighty  hunter.  He  was  an  ardent  Jackson  man 
and  when  running  for  sherifif  of  Clay  county  in  1830,  he  won  easily  on  the 
strength  of  the  following  speech  which  he  delivered  from  a  big  elm  log: 

"Fellow  Citizens. — I  am  a  Jackson  man  up  to  the  hub.  I  have  killed  more 
wolves  and  broke  down  more  nettles  than  any  man  in  Clay  county.  I  am  n 
candidate  for  sheriff  and  I  want  your  votes." 

He  got  down  from  the  log,  and  the  crowd  shouted  "Hurrah  for  Neal!"  Birch 
said  that  he  enclosed  the  letter  of  Hughes  and  the  map  of  Gilliam  in  a  letter 
of  his  own  to  Senator  Benton  with  whom  he  was  on  good  terms  then.  Back 
came  a  letter  from  Benton  saying  that  the  President  and  secretary  of  war  were 
in  favor  of  adding  the  Platte  reservation  to  the  State  of  Missouri  for  military 
considerations  connected  with  the  peace  of  the  border.  The  effect  of  the  an- 
nexation would  be  to  make  the  Missouri  river  the  boundary,  instead  of  an  arbi- 
trary line  north  and  south,  between  white  settlers  and  the  Indians. 

The  bill  for  annexation  was  introduced  in  Congress  and  pushed  by  Ben- 
ton and  Linn  in  the  Senate  and  by  Ashley  in  the  House,  each  of  them  after- 
wards being  given  credit  by  their  respective  friends.  Judge  Birch  thought  the 
most  marvelous  fact  about  the  Platte  Purchase  was  that  while  it  added  largely 
to  slave  territory,  the  bill  was  reported  favorably  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the 
committee  on  Indian  Affairs,  the  chairman  of  which  was  a  lifelong  emancipa- 
tionist, Horace  Everett  of  Vermont,  who  presented  the  report. 


H^H 

l^i^^^^H 

hH 

^^^^^'^^^^^^H 

^p 

^K^l 

•v            jm^^^^^^H 

ll^^^^^ 

Courtesy  Missouri  lllatorlcal  Society 

AUGUSTE     CHOUTEAU 

Hp   U'll    tlie   first   thirty   to   begin   the 
Imililiiiy  (if  St.   Louis 


-^m^ 


GOVERNMENT  HOUSE  AT  ST.  T.OUIS  AS  REMODELED  BY  AUGUSTE  CHOUTEATI 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  71 

Peter  Burnett's  Ride. 

Peter  Burnett,  a  lawyer  at  Libert}',  afterwards  governor  of  California,  car- 
ried the  news  of  the  Platte  Purchase  out  into  the  country.  Arnold  Chance, 
one  of  the  old  settlers,  remembered : 

"The  first  intimation  we  had  of  it  was  the  appearance  of  Peter  Burnett  galloping 
into  town  from  Liberty,  swinging  his  hat  and  yelling  like  a  wild  Indian.  We  barely  let 
him  stop  to  tell  us  what  was  the  matter  when  we  all  repaired  to  the  'grocery'  and  knocked 
a  spigot  out  without  taking  time  to  count  the  cost.  Merrily  the  flowing  bowl,  only  it  was 
a  gourd,  went  round.  I  tell  you,  if  ever  there  was  a  happy  crowd  in  the  world,  our's  was 
one.  Just  then  it  so  happened  a  good,  honest-hearted  old  minister  of  the  Gospel  hove 
in  sight  trotting  leisurely  down  the  road  on  a  one-eyed,  clay-bank  mare,  and  under  an 
ancient  and  clerical  looking  stovepipe  hat,  one  that  his  grandfather  had  worn  on  the 
mountain  circuit  of  East  Tennessee,  in  1788.  In  a  minute  or  two  more  he  was  within 
reach  of  us,  and  then — poor  lad !  Our  good  brother  never  wore  that  hat  again.  We  were 
young  then,  and  bad  boys.  In  our  hilariousness  we  took  him  and  brought  him  into  the 
grocery  and  set  him  across  a  barrel.  He  was  a  good-natured  soul,  and  was  as  glad  of  the 
news  as  we  were, — and,  to  tell  the  truth,  he  rather  seemed  to  enjoy  the  gourd.  Preachers 
were  not  as  finicky  then  as  they  are  now,  any  way." 

The  Jog  Into  Arkansas. 

For  the  curious-looking  jog  in  the  map  which  carries  Missouri's  southern 
boundar}'  far  down  into  Arkansas  on  the  Mississippi  River  front,  Millard  Fill- 
more Stypes,  in  his  "Gleanings  on  ^lissouri  Histor}-."  gives  this  interesting 
explanation : 

"It  has  been  a  matter  of  speculation  as  to  why  Pemiscot  county,  and  those  portions 
of  Dunklin  and  New  Madrid  which  extended  south  of  the  general  boundary  of  the  state 
into  Arkansas,  were  included  in  Missouri.  The  usual  facetious  reply  is  that  the  people 
in  these  counties  'didn't  want  to  live  in  Arkansas  because  it  is  unhealthful.'  A  writer 
who  has  made  some  investigation  in  the  matter  says  that  in  1804  Louisiana  was  divided 
into  two  territories  by  a  line  running  along  the  thirty-third  parallel  of  latitude.  Then,  in 
1812,  the  territory  of  Missouri  was  organized,  and,  in  1819,  that  of  Arkansas.  At  the 
time  of  the  organization  of  the  latter  territory  the  people  in  the  section  now  comprising 
these  three  counties  were  bound  to  the  up-river  neighbors  by  ties  both  social  and  com- 
mercial, and  an  appeal  was  made  for  inclusion  of  them  in  the  territory  of  Missouri. 
Prominent  among  those  who  conducted  the  negotiations  was  Col.  John  Hardeman  Walker, 
who  owned  extensive  trac.ts  of  land  in  these  counties.  He  'wined  and  dined  the  sur- 
veyors,' and -afterwards,  in  company  with  Godfrey  Lesseuer  and  several  other  prominent 
citizens  of  that  vicinity,  visited  Washington  and  laid  the  matter  before  Congress.  Their 
efforts  met  with  success,  and  this  cotton-growing  district  down  to  the  thirty-si.xth  parallel 
and  as  far  west  as  the  St.  Francois  river  was  included  in  Missouri." 

The  First  St.  Louis  County. 

When  the  territorial  legislature  of  Missouri  in  1813  laid  out  St.  Louis 
county  the  metes  and  bounds  were  set  forth  as  follows: 

"All  that  portion  of  the  territory  bounded  north  by  the  south  line  of  the  County  of 
St.  Charles,  east  by  the  main  channel  of  the  river  Mississippi,  south  by  a  line  in  the 
main  channel  of  the  Mississippi  immediately  opposite  the  upper  line  of  a  tract  of  land 
owned  by  Augustus  Chouteau,  which  is  about  half  way  between  the  mouths  of  the 
Plattin  and  Joachim  rivers ;  thence  running  in  a  direct  line  to  a  point  on  the  dividing 
ridge  between  those  waters  where  Wight's  road  falls  into  the  road  leading  from  the 
town  of  Herculaneum   to   the   Mine-a-Burton ;   thence  along  said  road  to  a  point  thereon 


72  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

immediately  opposite  a  noted  spring  called  the  'Dripping  Springs.'  which  spring  is 
situated  about  two  hundred  yards  off  said  road ;  thence  on  a  direct  course  to  the  mouth 
of  Mineral  fork  or  Grand  river;  thence  such  a  course  as  shall  leave  all  the  persons  now 
settled  in  that  settlement,  usually  known  by  the  name  of  the  Richwood  settlement,  to  the 
south  of  said  course  or  line  in  the  county  of  Washington;  thence  southwest  to  the  western 
boundary  of  the  Osage  purchase ;  thence  northwardly  on  said  line  to  river  Missouri ; 
thence  down  said  river  Missouri  in  the  main  channel  of  the  same  to  the  southwest  corner 
of  the  County  of  St.  Charles,  .shall  compose  one  county,  and  shall  be  called  and  known 
by  the  County  of   St.  Louis." 

'J'his  extended  St.  Louis  county  to  what  is  now  the  Kansas  boundary. 

The  School  Lands. 

The  act  which  resulted  from  Riddick's  ride  and  Heinpstead's  activities  in 
1812  provided  "that  all  town  or  village  lots,  out-lots,  common-field  lots,  and 
commons  in  and  adjoining  and  belonging  to  the  towns  or  villages  of  the  territory, 
which  are  not  rightfully  owned  or  claimed  by  any  private  individual,  or  held  as 
commons  belonging  to  such  towns  or  villages,  or  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  may  not  think  proper  to  secure  for  military  purposes,  shall  be  and  the 
same  are  hereby  reserved  for  the  support  of  schools  in  the  respective  towns  or 
villages  aforesaid ;  Provided,  that  the  whole  quantity  of  land  contained  in  the 
lots  reserved  for  the  support  of  the  schools  in  any  town  or  village  shall  not 
exceed  one-twentieth  part  of  the  whole  lands  included  in  the  general  survey  of 
such  town  or  village." 

The  IVllaking  of  Counties. 

Making  of  Missouri  geography  was  one  of  the  chief  subjects  of  state  legis- 
lation before  the  Civil  war.  Not  infrequently  one  general  assembly  changed 
the  work  of  another  before  names  and  boundaries  were  satisfactory  to  those 
most  concerned — the  inhabitants. 

Strong  admiration  for  military  heroes  and  intense  political  convictions  had 
much  to  do  with  titles.  The  name  of  one  county  was  changed  twice  before  the 
people  were  satisfied.  That  was  Ozark  county.  In  1843  it  was  given  the  name 
of  Decatur  in  honor  of  Admiral  Decatur.  Two  years  later  the  original  name 
of  Ozark  was  retaken. 

Lafayette  county  was  named  Lillard  originally  at  the  time  of  its  organiza- 
tion in  1820.  James  C.  Lillard  was  one  of  the  pioneers.  Fourteen  years  later 
the  legislature  on  the  petition  of  residents  of  the  county  changed  the  name  to 
Lafayette.  The  argument  offered  for  the  change  was  that  Lillard  had  gone 
back  to  Tennessee  and  advised  people  not  to  move  to  Missouri  because  it  was 
an  unhealthy  country.  It  was  charged  that  he  had  even  written  letters  to  that 
effect. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  legislature  went  too  fast  in  the  making  of  coun- 
ties. It  created  Dodge  and  Putnam.  The  line  between  Missouri  and  Iowa 
was  supposed  to  be  some  distance  north  of  the  present  location.  When  the 
courts  decided  in  favor  of  the  Iowa  contention  it  cut  off  a  northern  strip.  Put- 
nam and  Dodge  were  consolidated  into  one  county  with  the  former  name, 
fourteen  miles  wide  and  thirty-six  miles  long.  There  are  maps  of  Missouri 
showing  prospective  counties  with  the  names  of  Dodge,  Donaldson  and  Mer- 
amec.     On  later  maps  these  names  do  not  appear. 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  73 

Missouri  also  had  counties  named  Rives,  Van  Buren  and  Kinderhook.  Rives 
is  now  known  as  Henry  county.  The  change  was  made  for  poHtical  reasons. 
At  the  time  a  new  county  was  being  organized  in  the  west  central  section  of 
Missouri,  William  C.  Rives  was  a  \'irginian  of  wide  reputation.  He  was  much 
admired  by  the  Democrats,  who  had  a  majority  in  the  Missouri  legislature. 
The  county  was  named  Rives  in  1834.  A  few  years  later  Mr.  Rives  became  a 
Whig.  In  1841  the  Democratic  majority  changed  the  name  of  Rives  county  to 
Henry  county,  intending,  as  the  records  show,  to  honor  Patrick  Henr)',  also  a 
Virginian. 

Another  county  which  had  its  name  changed  througli  political  considera- 
tions was  \^an  Buren.  It  was  organized  in  1835  and  given  the  name  to  honor 
President  Martin  Van  Buren.  In  becoming  the  candidate  of  the  Free  Soilers  in 
1848  Van  Buren  ceased  to  be  popular  with  the  Missourians  in  control  of  the 
legislature.  At  the  session  of  the  assembly  in  1849  \^an  Buren  county  was 
changed  to  Cass  county.  Lewis  Cass  of  Michigan  ha<l  been  the  Democratic 
nominee  for  President  in  1848. 

Kinderhook  county  was  named  for  the  home  of  President  \'an  Buren  at 
the  time  when  he  was  a  political  idol  of  Missouri  Democrats.  It  underwent 
change  of  name  in  1843  ''"•^  thereafter  was  called  Camden,  taking  the  name  of 
a  county  in  North  Carolina  from  which  a  number  of  the  early  settlers  came. 

\\'ashington  county,  as  part  of  the  territory  of  Missouri,  was  organized  in 
1 813  under  an  act  of  the  territorial  legislature.  An  imposing  two-ston*'  court 
house  with  a  large  porch  and  brick  columns  from  ground  to  roof  was  built. 
So  enterprising  were  the  Potosi  people  of  that  day  they  came  within  one  vote 
of  securing  the  location  of  the  territorial  capital. 

The  Military  Heroes. 

Missouri  nomenclature  shows  that  the  pioneer  settlers  and  early  legislatures 
were  more  inclined  to  honor  soldiers  than  statesmen  in  selecting  names  for 
counties.  Of  the  114  political  subdivisions  of  the  state  the  names  of  war  heroes 
were  selected  for  forty-four.  Statesmen  came  next.  Of  them  thirty-one  were 
honored  in  the  naming  of  counties.  Wright  county  took  its  name  from  Silas 
Wright  of  New  York. 

A  portion  of  the  Platte  Purchase  had  several  county  names.  In  1841  a  county 
called  Nodaway  was  organized.  Several  weeks  later  the  member  of  the  house 
of  representatives  from  Platte  county,  David  Rice  Holt,  died.  The  legislature 
was  in  session.  To  do  honor  to  Mr.  Holt  part  of  the  county  which  had  been  given 
the  name  of  Nodaway  was  changed  to  Holt.  Two  years  later  a  part  of  Holt 
county  was  cut  off  and  given  the  name  of  Allen.  Subsequently  the  legislature 
changed  the  name  of  Allen  to  Atchison  to  do  honor  to  David  R.  Atchison,  United 
States  senator   from  Missouri   and  president   pro  tem   of   the   Senate. 

Niangua  county  no  longer  appears  upon  the  map  of  Missouri.  The  title  was 
taken  originally  from  the  river  which  still  bears  that  name.  The  Indians  called 
the  river  Nehemgar.  That  meant  a  river  of  numerous  springs  or  sources.  The 
word  Niangua  is  supposed  to  have  been  changed  from  Nehemgar  by  popular 
use.  Niangua  county  was  organized  in  1842.  Two  years  later  George  M. 
Dallas  of  Pennsylvania,  having  been  elected  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 


74  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Niangua  was  changed  to  Dallas  county  by  the  legislature  in  his  honor.  As 
Dallas  county  was  settled  history  was  preserved  by  its  sub-divisions.  The 
townships  were  named  Benton,  Grant,  Green,  Jackson.  Jasper,  Lincoln,  Miller 
and  Washington. 

"The  State  of  Pike." 

As  early  as  1808  Victor  La  Gatra  led  a  colony  of  French  people  to  the  salt 
springs  near  what  is  now  Saverton.  That  was  the  beginning  of  settlement  in 
Ralls  county.  But  when  the  war  of  1812  came  Indians  made  conditions  so 
uncomfortable  that  most  of  the  white  people  went  back  to  St.  Louis.  In  1818 
Daniel  Ralls  came  from  Kentucky  and  selected  a  home  four  miles  west  of  the 
present  site  of  New  London.  At  that  time,  which  was  before  statehood.  Pike 
county  had  been  created  by  the  territorial  legislature  of  Missouri.  It  included 
all  of  Northeast  Missouri  to  the  Iowa  line.  A  common  saying  was  that  "the 
State  of  Pike  took  in  everything  from  the  Mississippi  river  to  the  Day  of 
Judgment." 

In  1867  a  proposition  to  change  the  county  lines  of  Caldwell,  Daviess  and 
Harrison  was  presented  to  the  legislature.  Petitions  were  circulated  for  and 
against  it.  Mass  meetings  were  held.  The  people  of  Kingston  adopted  resolu- 
tions denouncing  the  movement  as  a  scheme  of  Hamilton  people  to  get  the 
county  seat.  They  declared  "that  we  regard  the  said  move  on  the  part  of  our 
neighbors  as  very  unkind,  ungrateful  and  unjust;  and  that,  if  they  persist  in 
their  course,  we  shall  feel  forced  to  pledge  ourselves  to  tlie  use  of  all  honorable 
means  to  turn  from  Hamilton  trade,  commerce  and  travel."    The  plan  failed. 

A  colony  of  eleven  stalwart  prolific  families  from  Campbell  county  in  East 
Tennessee  began  the  settlement  of  Cole  county  in  1818.  They  located  on  Moni- 
teau creek  near  what  is  now  the  town  of  Marion.  They  were  John  English 
and  four  sons,  James  Miller  and  five  sons,  Henry  McKenney  and  three  sons, 
James  Fulkerson  and  three  sons,  David  Yount  and  three  sons,  David  Chambers 
and  three  sons,  John  Mackey  and  two  sons,  John  Harmon  and  one  son,  William 
Gouge  and  four  sons,  Martin  Gouge  and  two  sons,  Joshua  Chambers  and  two 
sons.  In  these  eleven  families  were  more  than  sixty  persons.  A  court  was 
organized  in  1821.  It  met  in  the  house  of  John  English.  Hamilton  R.  Gamble 
was  circuit  attorney.  David  Todd  was  judge.  The  first  judgment  rendered  was 
a  fine  of  one  dollar  against  John  Shore  for  contemptuous  behavior  to  the  court, 
the  defendant  to  be  imprisoned  until  the  fine  was  paid.  The  next  case  was  the 
emancipation  of  Joseph,  the  slave  of  Abraham  CoUett. 

The  first  term  of  the  circuit  court  in  Livingston  county  was  held  in  the 
house  of  Joseph  Cox  in  1837.  The  house  of  Mr.  Cox  was  a  log  cabin.  The 
judge,  jury,  lawyers  and  witnesses  were  boarded  free  during  the  two  days 
of  the  term.  The  board  consisted  of  corn  pone,  venison  and  trimmings  placed 
upon  long  tables  under  the  trees.  For  Edward  Livingston,  secretary  of  state 
in  Andrew  Jackson's  cabinet  Livingston  county  took  its  name.  A  Welsh  colony 
settled  at  an  early  date  in  Livingston,  giving  their  community  the  name  of 
Dawn. 

Until  1825  the  Big  Osages  had  large  villages  in  what  is  now  Vernon  county. 
White  Hare  was  their  chief.  The  Indians  were  loth  to  give  way.    Vernon  county 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  75 

was  not  organized  until  1851.  It  took  the  name  of  Miles  Vernon,  a  man  of 
prominence  in  Laclede  county.  Allen  and  Jesse  Somers,  Kentuckians,  are  said 
to  have  been  the  first  settlers.  After  them  came  Rev.  Nathaniel  Dodge  and  his 
three  sons,  Leonard.  Samuel  and  Thomas.  The  first  white  settlement  was  in 
the  vicinity  of  what  is  now  Balltown. 

Texas  county  was  settled  by  hunters  who  took  their  peltries  in  pony  loads 
to  St.  Louis,  following  the  Indian  trails.  These  pioneers  came  as  early  as  1815. 
They  built  a  small  mill  on  Paddies'  spring. 

Kingdom  of  Callaway. 

Callaway  county  established  its  county  seat  at  Fulton,  named  in  honor  of 
Robert  Fulton,  the  pioneer  in  steam  navigation.  A  courthouse  thirty-six  feet 
square  was  built  in  1826.  It  cost  $1,300  and  was  said  to  be  the  first  courthouse 
west  of  the  Mississippi.  This  seat  of  justice  had  even  greater  distinction  than 
its  architecture,  according  to  tradition.  A  thief  had  stolen  a  horse,  had  been 
arrested,  had  given  bond  and  had  run  away.  The  bond  was  forfeited  and  the 
bondsmen  paid  up.  The  money  thus  realized  by  the  county  went  to  build  the 
courthouse. 

"Kingdom  of  Callaway"  gained  this  distinction  from  the  course  pursued  dur- 
ing the  Civil  war  period.  The  people  were  strongly  in  sympathy  with  the  South. 
The  legislature  which  assembled  and  sat  under  the  Gamble  provisional  state 
government  was  Union.  Callaway  people  were  quite  generally  disfranchised 
because  of  their  states'  rights  position.  Nevertheless  they  voted  and  sent  across 
the  river  to  the  state  capital  representative  after  representative  of  their  own 
political  faith.  These  men  were  rejected  as  often  as  they  presented  their  cer- 
tificates. But  Callaway  continued  to  send  southern  sympathizers  and  went  un- 
represented in  the  legislature.  The  Union  men  in  Jefferson  City  bestowed 
upon  the  county,  in  recognition  of  this  persistence,  the  name  of  "Kingdom  of 
Callaway."  Captain  Callaway  whose  name  was  taken  for  the  county  was  one 
of  the  bravest  of  the  Indian  fighters  in  181 5.  He  was  a  grandson  of  Daniel 
Boone  and  commanded  a  company  of  rangers  at  the  time  of  his  death.  His 
command  had  overtaken  a  marauding  band  of  Sac  and  Fox  Indians  in  the 
vicinity  of  Prairie  fork  of  Loutre  creek,  had  taken  some  stolen  horses  from 
the  squaws  who  were  guarding  them  and  had  started  back  to  Fort  Clemson  on 
Loutre  Island  when  they  were  ambuscaded  by  the  braves.  Callaway's  horse  was 
killed'  under  him.  The  captain  received  a  slight  wound  but  was  saved  by  the 
bullet  striking  his  watch  and  tearing  it  to  pieces.  He  ran  down  the  creek, 
plunged  in  and  was  swimming  when  a  bullet  struck  him  in  the  back  of  his  head. 
He  was  tall,  had  black  eyes  and  hair  and  stood  very  erect.  An  early  writer 
pointed  out  that  "a  name  sometimes  means  a  great  deal.  In  many  instances  it 
indicates  the  character  of  the  people  who  settle  a  country  and  have  given  it  its 
distinctive  characteristics.  In  this  instance  the  people  of  Callaway  possess  those 
fearless  traits  of  character  and  that  dauntless  energy  which  distinguished  the 
gallant  leader  after  whom  the  county  was  named.  So  tenacious  and  unyielding 
have  they  been  in  the  pursuit  and  maintenance  of  their  rights  in  time  past,  that 
they  have  earned  for  their  county  the  sobriquet,  'Kingdom  of  Callaway.'  " 


76  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

A  local  historian  traces  the  origin  of  "Kingdom  of  Callaway"  to  the  "treaty" 
which  Colonel  Jefferson  F.  Jones  made  with  General  John  B.  Henderson  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Civil  war.  General  Henderson  had  recruited  quite  a  force  of 
Union  men  in  Pike  county  and  was  preparing  to  invade  Callaway.  Colonel 
Jones  assembled  300  or  400  men  and  boys  at  Brown's  Spring.  He  had  two 
home-made  cannon,  one  of  wood  with  iron  rings.  He  announced  his  intention  to 
give  the  invaders  battle.  Flags  of  truce  were  raised  and  messages  passed  between 
the  opposing  armies.  The  result  was  an  agreement,  drawn  up  in  the  form  of 
a  treaty,  by  which  Henderson  promised  not  to  invade  and  Jones  promised  to 
disband  his  force. 

Jones  was  somewhat  original  in  character.  He  named  one  of  his  sons  South- 
west and  the  other  Northwest.  His  eighth  child  was  a  girl  on  whom  he 
bestowed  the  name  of  Octave. 

Daviess  county  was  a  political  division  of  Missouri  which  impressed  Amer- 
ican history  without  regard  to  politics  in  its  nomenclature.  The  names  given 
the  townships  of  Daviess  were  Benton,  Colfax,  Gallatin,  Grand  River,  Grant, 
Harrison,  Jackson,  Jefferson,  Liberty,  Lincoln,  Marion,  Monroe,  Salem,  Sheri- 
dan, Union  and  Washington.  The  county  took  its  name  from  Joseph  Daviess  of 
Kentucky. 

Taney  county  took  its  name  from  the  chief  justice  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  Roger  B.  Taney.  Two  brothers  named  Youchuim,  three 
Dentires  and  a  McAdoo  began  the  settlement  of  Taney  making  their  homes  on 
White  river  about  1827. 

"The  Mother  of  Counties." 

Settlement  of  Howard  county  began  in  1807.  Three  years  later  Cooper's 
Bottom  was  quite  a  little  community.  Benjamin  Cooper  and  his  five  sons  from 
Madison  county,  Kentucky,  were  pioneers  in  Howard.  William  Thorp,  a  Baptist 
minister,  came  in  1810.  The  county  was  named  for  Benjamin  Howard,  governor 
of  Missouri  territory.  Out  of  the  original  Howard  county  were  created  about 
forty  other  counties.  When  Howard  county  was  organized  the  county  seat 
was  Old  Franklin,  on  the  Missouri  River.  Removal  to  Fayette,  named  in  honor 
of  General  Lafayette,  took  place  in  1823.  Howard  was  given  the  name  of 
"the  mother  of  counties."  Colonel  Switzler  once  described  Howard  at  a  Mis- 
souri pioneers  gathering  at  Hnntsville: 

"Take  a  position  on  the  Missouri  river  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kaw,  now  Kansas  City, 
proceed  north  to  the  southern  boundary  line  of  Iowa,  in  truth  several  miles  beyond  that 
line,  into  the  territory  of  Iowa,  then  due  east  to  the  high  ridge  of  ground,  known  as  the 
headwaters  of  Cedar  creek,  now  forming  the  border  line  between  Boone  and  Callaway, 
and  descend  the  Cedar  to  its  confluence  with  the  Missouri,  at  Jeflferson  City,  thence  down 
the  Missouri  to  the  mouth  of  the  Osage,  thence  up  that  crooked  .stream  to  a  point  near 
Schell  City  in  Vernon  county,  then  due  west  to  the  Kansas  line,  thence  north  along  that 
line  to  the  place  of  beginning;  this  was  Howard  county,  now  comprising  thirty-six  counties 
of  the  state — twenty-two  and  a  part  of  three  others  south  of  the  Missouri  river  and 
fourteen  and  a  part  of  five  others  north  of  it, — an  area  of  22,000  square  miles — larger 
than  ancient  Greece,  larger  than  Saxony  and  Switzerland  combined  ;  larger  than  \'ermont, 
Massachusetts.  Delaware  and  Rhode  Island  iniitcd." 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  77 

The  Farthest  West. 

Liberty  was  the  frontier  metropolis  for  several  years.  It  was  the  farthest 
west  town  of  the  United  States  just  previous  to  the  Platte  Purchase  in  1836. 
Immigrants  came  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  with  a  sprinkling  of  New  Yorkers.  They  made  Liberty  a  notable 
community.  They  began  to  spread  over  Clay  county  as  early  as  1819.  The 
first  settlers  had  a  few  difficulties  with  the  Indians.  David  McElwee  cut  ofif 
the  hand  of  an  Indian  who  tried  to"  break  into  his  house.  In  the  southeastern 
part  of  Clay  county,  near  the  Missouri  river  seven  Indians  were  killed.  The 
settlers  built  four  block  houses  and  put  up  a  stiff  fight.  The  Indians  ceased  to 
be  troublesome.  For  years  they  came  in  numbers  to  Liberty  and  mingled  with 
the  white  people. 

The  first  county  seat  of  Jefferson  was  Herculaneum  on  the  Mississippi  river, 
the  shipping  point  for  lead.  A  removal  was  made  to  Hillsboro  which  was 
originally  called  Monticello.  As  Lewis  county  had  chosen  the  name  of  Monti- 
cello,  that  of  Jefferson's  home  in  Virginia,  for  its  county  seat,  the  Jefferson 
county  people  gave  their  county  seat  the  name  of  Hillsboro. 

The  first  county  seat  of  Lafayette  was  Mount  Vernon.  The  removal  was 
made  to  Lexington. 

The  county  seat  of  Lincoln  is  Troy  which  was  originally  called  Woods. 

Rutledge  was  the  first  county  seat  of  McDonald.  Pineville  succeeded  it.  The 
original  name  of  Pineville  was  Maryville. 

Far  West  was  the  first  county  seat  of  Caldwell  but  was  abandoned  as  the 
result  of  the  Mormon  war.  Kingston  became  the  county  seat,  named  for  Gov- 
ernor Austin  A.  King  of  Ray  county. 

Camden  county  had  three  county  seats,  Oregon,  Erie  and  Linn  Creek. 

The  first  county  seat  of  Atchison  was  Linden,  wdiich  obtained  its  name  from 
the  large  grove  of  linden  trees.  Later  the  county  seat  was  moved  to  Rockport 
which  obtained  its  name  from  the  rocky  character  of  Tarkio  creek  where  it  is 
located. 

The  county  seat  of  Andrew  county  was  at  first  named  Union  and  then  re- 
named Savannah. 

The  first  name  of  Platte  City,  county  seat  of  Platte  county  was  "The  Falls 
of  Platte." 

Fulton  was  the  first  county  seat  of  Ray  county,  but  at  a  very  early  date  Rich- 
mond was  chosen. 

The  men  who  started  Rolla  in  Phelps  county  disagreed  on  the  name.  One 
of  them,  E.  W.  Bishop,  preferred  Phelps  Center.  George  Coppedge  was  from 
North  Carolina  and  wanted  the  name  to  be  Raleigh.  After  some  discussion 
Bishop  gave  way  on  condition  that  Coppedge  permit  the  spelling  to  be  Rolla. 

Moving  Days  of  County  Seats. 

The  moving  or  renaming  of  county  seats  made  life  interesting  for  Missourians 
during  several  decades.  In  the  early  days  when  counties  were  being  organized 
the  larger  settlements  were  on  the  rivers.  Railroads  changed  the  map  of  Mis- 
souri and  had  no  little  influence  upon  moving  days  for  county  seats.  Political 
considerations  prompted  changes  in  the  names  of  many  county  seats. 


78  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

For  example  the  county  seat  of  Cedar  was  originally  named  Lancaster.  When 
John  C.  Fremont  became  one  of  the  most  popular  men  in  the  country  as  "The 
Pathfinder"  the  county  seat  of  Cedar  was  changed  to  Fremont.  When  ten 
years  later  Fremont  accepted  the  nomination  of  the  Republicans  for  President 
the  legislature  changed  the  name  to  Stockton.  This  was  in  honor  of  Commodore 
Richard  Stockton  who  had  at  one  time  arrested  Fremont. 

Columbia  became  the  county  seat  of  Boone  because  the  locality  was  better 
watered  than  that  at  Smithton  originally  chosen  when  the  county  was  organized 
in  1820.     Smithton  obtained  its  name  from  General  Thomas  A.  Smith. 

The  county  seat  of  Franklin  was  Newport  but  it  was  moved  to  Union. 

Albany,  the  county  seat  of  Gentry,  was  first  known  as  Athens. 

Bethany,  the  county  seat  of  Harrison  was  called  Dallas  but  for  only  a  few 
months. 

The  county  seat  of  Holt,  Oregon,  was  first  called  Finley. 

The  first  county  seat  of  Schuyler  was  Tippecanoe  which  was  succeeded  by 
Lancaster. 

Sand  Hill  was  the  name  of  Scotland's  county  seat,  but  the  name  was  changed 
to  Memphis. 

Gallatin  named  for  Albert  Gallatin,  secretary  of  the  treasury  and  a  warm 
friend  of  Missouri  in  the  territorial  days,  became  the  county  seat  of  Daviess 
upon  the  removal  from  Pattonsburg. 

Douglas  moved  its  county  seat  several  times  from  Ava  to  Vera  Cruz  and  back. 

Macon's  county  seat  has  had  three  names,  the  Box  Ankle,  Bloomington  and 
Macon. 

The  county  seat  of  Madison  was  moved  from  St.  Michael  to  Fredericktown. 

When  the  county  seat  of  Maries  was  named  Dr.  V.  G.  Latham  presiding 
judge  of  the  county  court  had  a  little  daughter,  Vie  Anna.  Her  name  was 
chosen  for  the  county  seat  but  upon  the  map  it  is  printed  thus, — Vienna. 

Boonsborough  was  the  first  name  of  California,  the  county  seat  of  Moniteau. 

Arrow  Rock  Traditions. 

Saline  county  has  had  four  county  seats ; — Jefferson,  Jonesboro,  Arrow  Rock 
and  Marshall.  In  the  vicinity  of  Arrow  Rock  is  a  cliff  which  is  supposed  to 
have  suggested  the  name.  One  of  the  traditions  is  that  the  pioneers  called  it 
"Airy  Rock"  and  that  the  name  was  changed  by  later  comers  to  Arrow  Rock. 
Elliot  Coues,  who  edited  the  Journals  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition,  held 
that  Arrow  Rock  derived  its  name  from  the  visits  of  Indians  who  went  there 
to  make  arrow  heads  from  the  rock.  But  Gerard  Fowke,  the  archaeologist,  who 
.spent  some   time   in  explorations  along  the   Missouri,   said : 

"No  one  now  living  at  Arrow  Rock  ever  heard  of  the  origin  of  the  name  as  stated 
by  Coues  and  by  others  before  him.  Only  one  tradition  e.xists  to  account  for  it.  A 
number  of  young  warriors  assembled  on  a  sandbar  opposite  the  cliff  to  test  their  power 
with  the  bow  by  ascertaining  who  could  send  an  arrow  farthest  out  into  the  stream,  the 
victor  to  wed  the  chief's  daughter.  One  of  them  shot  clear  across  the  river,  his  arrow 
lodging  in  a  crevice  high  above  the  water;  and  so  the  clifT  was  known  thenceforward 
as  'the  arrow  rock.'  No  citizen  of  the  place  has  ever  heard  of  any  other  explanation  of 
the  term." 


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MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  '  81 

Thomas  Claiborne  Rainey,  who  wrote  "Along  the  Old  Trail,"  a  series  of  pio- 
neer sketches  of  Arrow  Rock  and  vicinity,  which  was  given  permanent  form 
by  the  Marshall  chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  believed 
that  Arrow  Rock  got  the  name  from  the  manufacture  of  arrow  heads  by  the 
Indians.     He  said : 

"There  is  not  anywhere  up  the  river  and  near  to  it  any  other  considerable  outcropping 
of  flint.  It  is  probably  that  the  upper  plains  Indians  depended  on  that  locality  for  their 
arrows.  Not  only  local  facts  but  historical  records  show  that  they  were  made  there 
extensively,  and  that  the  name  of  the  town  originates  from  that  fact.  'Pierre  Fleche'  in 
English  is  Arrow  Rock.  So  far  as  I  have  ever  heard,  no  one  now  knows  how  these 
arrow  heads  were  fashioned  so  perfectly  out  of  a  hard  and  brittle  stone,  liable  to  break 
in  any  direction.  They  were  brought  into  perfect  form  without  the  aid  of  any  metallic 
tool.  I  am  told  that  even  by  the  use  of  the  finest  steel  implements  no  one  can  now 
reproduce  a  perfect  flint  arrow  head. 

"The  earliest  authentic  account  of  .^rrow  Rock  discloses  that  it  was  an  Indian  town 
inhabited  by  the  makers  of  flint  arrow  heads.  Existing  evidence  shows  that  such  work 
was  performed  there  in  a  more  extensive  way  than  I  have  ever  known  elsewhere.  A 
resident  of  the  vicinity  told  me  that  he  had  seen  remains  of  flint  spawls  in  quantity  which 
would  have  amounted  to  bushels,  and  this  on  a  different  hillside  to  where  I  found  them 
years  ago.  Doubtless,  cultivation  of  the  land  and  the  action  of  drift  by  rainfall  and 
travel  have  obliterated  most  of  these  ancient  remains.  The  pioneers  were  not  so  much 
concerned  in  preserving  Indian  antiquities  as  in  protecting  themselves  from  flying  missiles 
hurled   from  their  bows." 

Originally  the  county  seat  of  Buchanan  was  Sparta,  a  central  location.  This 
was  chosen  in  1840  but  in  1846  the  county  seat  was  removed  to  St.  Joseph. 

Steel ville  Famous  People. 

Steelville,  the  capital  of  Crawford  county,  is  eighty-five  years  old.  In  a 
little  brick  building  on  one  side  of  the  public  square  went  forth  students  of  law 
who  became  a  governor  of  Oklahoma,  A.  J.  Seay ;  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court 
of  California,  J.  R.  Webb,  and  two  who  remained  in  Missouri  to  become  members 
of  Congress,  Samuel  Byrnes  of  Potosi  and  C.  W.  Hamlin  of  Springfield.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  street,  in  a  yellow  brick  house,  George  Hearst,  who  became 
United  States  senator  from  California  courted  Phoebe  Epperson,  father  and 
mother  of  William  Randolph  Hearst,  the  founder  and  editor  of  more  newspapers 
than  any  other  man  in  the  history  of  American  journalism. 

The  first  white  settler  in  Carroll  county  left  a  reputation  for  courage.  He 
was  a  mighty  wrestler  and  sprinter.  He  built  a  cabin  and  trapped  for  a  living. 
That  was  before  1820  when  John  Standly  and  William  Turner  arrived  with  their 
families  from  North  Carolina.  The  coimty  seat,  Carrollton,  helps  to  perpetuate 
the  memory  of  that  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  who  wrote 
"Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton"  that  King  George's  men  might  have  no  doubt 
about  his  identity. 

The  name  of  Gayoso  was  taken  for  the  county  seat  of  Pemiscot  county. 
Gayoso  was  a  Spanish  official  in  colonial  days.  The  county  seat  was  moved  to 
Carruthersville. 

In  the  history  of  Pettis  there  have  been  three  county  seats,  St.  Helena,  George- 
town and  Sedalia. 


82  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

For  Putnam,  Putnamville  was  selected  for  the  first  county  seat,  the  name 
honoring  John  Israel  Putnam.  Later  the  county  seat  was  moved  to  Winchester 
and  thence  to  Harmony,  which  was  given  the  name  of  Unionville. 

John  Keyte  laid  out  the  townsite  of  Keytesville  in  1832.  Some  time  after- 
wards the  county  seat  was  moved  to  Keytesville  from  Old  Chariton  on  the  Mis- 
souri River.  The  county  seat  of  Clinton  was  changed  twice  in  name  but  not 
ia  locality.  It  was  first  Concord,  then  Springfield  and  now  is  Plattsburg.  The 
last  name  was  chosen  because  Plattsburg  was  the  home  of  Governor  George  De 
Witt  Clinton  of  New  York,  in  whose  honor  the  county  was  named. 

Montgomery's  first  county  seat  was  on  the  Missouri  river  and  was  named 
Pinckney.  It  was  moved  to  Lewiston,  later  to  Boonville  and  finally  to  Mont- 
gomery City. 

In  Morgan  county  Versailles,  recalling  the  French  capital,  succeeded  Mill- 
ville. 

Cass  County's  Courthouse  Architecture. 

The  courthouse  of  Cass  county  served  three  generations.  Architecturally 
it  was  good  for  a  century.  But  the  county  outgrew  the  accommodations  which 
were  ample  in  1837.  Like  other  Missouri  pioneers  the  county  judges  of  Cass 
insisted  on  substantial  results.  They  drew  their  own  specifications  which  included 
walls  two  feet  thick : 

"One  room  18  foot  sqviare.  the  other  room  14  foot  by  18,  with  one  paticion  ran,  to 
be  made  of  good  timber,  well  hued  down  to  6  in.  thick  and  to  face  one  foot  across  the 
center  of  each  logg.  Wall  to  be  compleatly  raised  I  story  and  half  high.  Corners  to  Be 
sawed  down  a  good  plank  or  puncheon  Floor  in  each  room  well  laid  so  that  it  will  not 
rock  nor  shake  nor  rattle.  A  good  chimney  in  each  end  compleatly  Run  out  with  Stick 
and  good  lime  Mortar  well  put  in  and  the  fier  places  well  and  compleate  fixed  with  Stoan 
or  Brick  so  as  to  secure  the  safety  of  fier.  The  roof  put  on  with  good  3  foot  boards, 
well  shaved  lapt  and  nailed  on  ends  well  weatherboarded  up — the  wall  well  filled  in  the 
cracks  with  good  lime  mortar  well  put  in.  i  outside  door  in  each  room.  Also  I  entry 
door  completely  faced  and  cased  with  good  materials.  Shutters  to  be  hung  with  good 
Hinges  latches  etc  with  good  locks  and  kees  To  each  door ;  allso  I  window  in  each  room 
containing  of  12  lights  each  w-ell  faced  and  cased — and  fild  with  the  largest  caind  of 
glass — each  to  have  a  good  outside  shutter  wtih  good  boalts  and  bars  to  each  window. 
Each  room  to  have  a  plank  or  clapboard  loft  closely  laid  and  all  the  work  done  on  said 
building  to  be  done  in  a  good  and  workmanlike  manner  and  out  of  good  materials." 

Days  of  the  Town  Site  Booms. 

About  1820,  according  to  an  early  writer  on  Missouri,  "Towns  were  laid 
out  all  over  the  country  and  lots  were  purchased  by  every  one  on  credit ;  the  town 
maker  received  no  money  for  his  lots,  but  he  received  notes  of  hand  which  he 
considered  to  be  as  good  as  cash ;  and  he  lived  and  embarked  in  other  ventures 
as  if  they  had  been  cash  in  truth." 

Near  the  center  of  Benton  county  a  town  called  Osage  was  established  about 
1837.  The  founders  showed  their  faith  by  settling  there  with  their  families. 
They  ventured  the  prediction  that  "the  population  of  this  place  will  reach  several 
thousand  in  five  years,  and  ever  after  be  second  to  St.  Louis  only."  Osage 
depended  upon  the  navigation  of  the  Osage  river.    Among  the  inducements  held 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  83 

out  to  encourage  newcomers  was  the  promise  to  "establish  a  seminary  of  learn- 
ing, to  be  conducted  by  one  of  the  best  scholars,  a  graduate  of  an  eastern  college, 
that  can  be  procured.  Female  teachers  from  Massachusetts  will  be  likewise 
employed  at  the  Osage  Seminary."  At  that  time  the  great  diagonal  road  from 
Palmyra  in  Northeast  Missouri  to  Springfield  in  Southwest  Missouri  and  thence 
to  Red  river  crossed  the  Osage  at  the  place  selected  for  the  new  city.  The 
crossing  was  known  as  Bledsoe's  Ferry  and  by  that  name  became  historic.  The 
site  of  Osage  was  on  the  tableland  overlooking  Bledsoe's.  It  was  a  beautiful 
location.  The  promoters  told  of  the  wonderful  natural  resources.  They  built  a 
hotel  and  planned  warehouses,  expecting  to  take  care  of  the  trade  of  a  large 
section  of  Missouri.  Had  transportation  been  limited  to  water  their  great  expec- 
tations would  in  some  degree  have  been  realized.  As  it  was,  Osage  vanished.  - 
In  1820  the  point  of  land  where  the  Osage  river  joins  the  Missouri  was 
selected  for  a  townsite.  According  to  a  Gazetteer  published  in  1834,  "lots  to 
the  amount  of  $20,000  or  $30,000  were  sold.  But  the  move  was  a  premature  one 
and  no  improvement  was  made  there.  The  best  corner  lots  are  still  encumbered 
with  the  native  crab-tree,  and  the  principal  streets  are  thickly  shaded  with 
hazel.  The  only  business  there  is  carried  on  by  a  single  concern.  This  is  the 
commission  and  forwarding  house  of  Rackoon,  Possum  &  Co.  The  operation 
of  this  house,  or  the  broken  surface  of  the  country,  may  have  given  the  reproach- 
ful name  of  Varmint  county  to  Cole,  which  it  never  deserved." 

Old  Chariton. 

In  an  address  by  Charles  J.  Cabell  at  an  old  settlers'  reunion  on  the  fair- 
grounds at  Keytesville  in  1877,  this  was  told  of  one  of  the  earliest  and  most 
promising  communities   which   has   since  disappeared : 

"The  town  of  Chariton  was  then  a  rival  of  St.  Louis,  and  was  nearly,  if  not  quite, 
as  large.  This  opinion  was  so  strong  that  many  persons  flocked  to  Chariton,  believing 
it  would  become  the  largest  city  in  the  territory.  Uncle  Billy  Cabeen  exchanged  lots  in 
St.  Louis  for  lots  in  Chariton,  foot  for  foot.  He  improved  the  lots  in  Chariton,  lived 
many  years  on  them,  and  died  on  them,  respected  by  a  large  circle  of  friends  and  by 
all  who  knew  him.  Chariton  occupied  a  level  of  ground  half  a  mile  north  and  south, 
lying  between  large  hills  on  the  east  and  Chariton  river  on  the  west — or  something  less 
than  half  a  mile  in  width.  In  some  portions  of  the  town  the  houses  were  very  close 
together,  and  were  built  of  brick.  It  was  supposed  to  contain  several  thousand  inhabitants. 
If  Yankee  Doodle  was  to  pass  through  the  place  now  he  could  not  see  the  houses  for  the 
town — the  reverse  of  which  was  the  case  with  him  on  a  former  occasion.  The  town  of 
Chariton  could  boast  of  as  good  society  as  any  city  in  America,  having  men  of  great 
literary  attainments,  of  skill  in  their  professions,  and  of  great  social  endowments,  repre- 
senting almost  all  the  noted  institutions  of  learning  in  this  country;  even  Edinburgh, 
Scotland,  was  represented." 

In  old  Chariton,  during  those  palmy  days,  lived  James  Semple  who  operated 
a  tannery,  afterwards  moved  to  Illinois  and  became  a  United  States  senator; 
Dr.  Ben  Edwards,  a  brother  of  Governor  Ninian  Edwards  of  Illinois;  Joseph  J. 
Monroe,  brother  of  President  Monroe;  two  of  the  Sublettes  who  became  historic 
figures  in  the  fur  trade;  the  Burlesons  who  went  to  Texas,  where  Ned  Burle- 
son became  vice-president  of  the  Texas  Republic. 

When  Chariton  county  was  organized  Edward  B.  Cabell  was  made  clerk 


84  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  the  county  court,  clerk  of  the  circuit  court,  county  treasurer,  notary  pubhc 
and  postmaster.  He  was  of  an  old  Virginia  family.  His  son,  Charles  J.  Cabel! 
said:  "I  am  satisfied  that  for  several  years  he  could  carry  the  majority  of  the 
papers  of  both  courts  in  his  hat.  The  first  deed  book  was  made  by  my  mother, 
by  sewing  quires  of  foolscap  together.  Pardon  me  for  saying  that  to  him  more 
than  to  any  other  man  that  ever  lived  in  Chariton  are  its  citizens  indebted  for 
perfection  of  the  titles  of  their  lands.  For  we  occupy  the  central  part  of  the 
military  land  district,  and  nine-tenths  of  our  lands  are  military.  For  years  he 
gave  advice  to  all  who  called  on  him  for  his  opinions,  never  charging  one 
dollar  for  it." 

Beginnings  of  County  Government. 

St.  Clair  county  was  organized  with  a  county  seat  location  fight.  Osceola 
won  by  less  than  a  score  of  votes.  Jesse  Applegate,  who  led  the  opposition  in 
favor  of  Wyatt  Grove,  and  who  was  the  richest  man  in  that  part  of  Missouri, 
was  accused  of  importing  thirty  voters,  the  law  at  that  time  requiring  only  thirty 
days  residence  to  make  a  vote  legal.  But  Applegate  in  his  turn  claimed  that  the 
Osceola  people  had  brought  forty  men  from  Sedalia  to  work  on  the  new  court- 
house and  had  voted  them  to  get  the  majority.  Applegate  was  so  disgusted  with 
the  result  that  he  moved  to  Oregon. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  county  court  the  justices  were  in  much  doubt  as 
to  what  would  be  fair  compensation  for  their  services.  William  Gash,  father  of 
eight  children,  who  was  allowing  the  use  of  his  house  for  the  sessions  of  the 
court,  asked  if  $i  per  day  would  be  too  much.  Hugh  Bamett,  Sr.,  agreed 
that  this  would  not  be  an  exorbitant  salary.  Judge  Joseph  Montgomery  made 
an  impassioned  speech.  He  had  drawn  three  dollars  a  day,  as  a  member  of 
the  legislature  in  his  native  state  and  had  been  in  the  Missouri  state  senate.  He 
dwelt  upon  the  importance  of  the  services  the  justices  were  performing  in  build- 
ing up  the  government  of  a  new  county  and  declared  that  $2  per  day  was  little 
enough.    And  $2  per  day  it  was  made. 

This  court  of  St.  Clair  county,  at  a  later  date,  was  the  scene  of  a  procedure 
without  parallel  in  county  court  practice  in  Missouri.  What  occurred  is  told  in 
an  early  history  of  St.  Clair  county:  Joseph  Montgomery,  the  presiding  justice, 
was  troubled,  as  he  aged,  with  an  uncontrollable  desire  to  sleep.  If  business 
dragged  while  the  court  was  in  session  he  would  drop  off  in  a  nap.  One  day 
while  the  judge  was  sleeping,  Bullock,  the  clerk,  arose  and  in  a  solemn  manner 
said,  "I  move  that  this  court  adjourn  for  the  reason  that  the  clerk  is  incapaci- 
tated for  doing  business."  Bullock  had  a  drink  or  two  but  was  able  to  make 
himself  understood.  The  two  judges  who  were  awake  voted  him  down.  Bul- 
lock, leaning  against  the  table,  said,  "I  move  that  this  court  adjourn  for  the 
reason  that  the  sheriff'  and  the  clerk  are  both  incapacitated  for  doing  business." 
The  two  judges  voted  him  down.  Bullock  hesitated  a  little  and  then  said,  "I  move 
this  court  adjourn  for  the  reason  that  the  presiding  justice  is  asleep  and  that 
the  court,  the  sheriff  and  the  clerk  are  drunk."  The  crowd  roared  and  the 
court  adjotimed. 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  85 

A  Sheriff's  First  Duty. 

When  Judge  James  Clark  was  sitting  shortly  after  the  organization  of 
Linn  county,  he  had  to  adjourn  court  at  Holland's  cabin  because  the  chimney 
was  too  small  for  the  fireplace  and  became  choked.  As  the  judge  walked  out 
of  the  cabin  the  sheriff  who  was  new  to  his  office  came  up  and  told  him  there 
was  a  fight  in  progress  between  two  farmers.  He  wanted  to  know  what  was  his 
duty  in  the  premises.  "Your  duty,"  said  the  judge  excitedly.  "It  is  your 
duty  to  show  me  where  the  fight  is.     I  want  to  see  it." 

Early  settlers  formed  habits  of  economy  which  sometimes  went  too  far. 
Notably  this  was  true  in  the  matter  of  writing  paper.  They  used  backs  of 
envelopes,  half  sheets  of  foolscap,  flyleafs  out  of  books,  almost  any  old  thing 
in  the  shape  of  paper.  The  county  court  of  Henry,  in  an  early  day,  was  prompted 
to  adopt  an  order  in  the  interest  of  the  preservation  of  records  to  meet  this 
custom  of  the  pioneers : 

V  "It  is  ordered  that  all  papers  presented  to  this  court  hereafter  must  be  on 
not  less  than  a  half  sheet  of  foolscap  pa|)er,  and  that  the  court  will  not  act 
on  any  paper  less  in  size  than  the  above,  notes,  receipts  and  vouchers  of  set- 
tlement of  estates  excepted." 

When  David  Barton  went  up  the  Missouri  to  organize  Howard  county  he 
held  court  at  Hannah  Cole's  Fort,  where  Boonville  is  now.  Stephen  Cole  was 
justice  of  the  peace.  He  did  something  in  court  which  caused  Judge  Barton  to 
impose  a  fine  for  contempt.  Cole  protested  but  paid  the  fine  of  one  dollar. 
Court  adjourned  for  dinner.  After  dinner  Cole  organized  his  court  at  a  con- 
venient log  in  front  of  the  fort.  Barton  came  out  from  dinner  and  leaned 
against  a  tree  observing  what  Cole  was  doing.  He  had  a  pipe  in  his  mouth. 
Cole  looked  at  him  sternly  and  said,  "Judge  Barton,  I  fine  you  one  dollar  for 
contempt  of  my  court  for  smoking  in  its  presence."  Judge  Barton  pulled  out 
a  dollar,  paid  it  to  the  clerk  and  went  on  to  open  his  own  court. 

The  SaJt  River  Tigers. 

Audrain  county  came  into  existence,  geographically,  some  time  after  other 
Central  Missouri  counties  had  been  organized.  James  Rollins,  according  to 
former  Attorney  General  D.  H.  Mclntire,  was  accustomed  to  refer  to  Audrain 
as  "Little  Sis."  A  popular  name  for  the  early  residents  of  Audrain  was  "Salt 
River  Tigers."  Before  Audrain  was  organized,  some  of  the  residents  of  the 
territory  concluded  that  they  would  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage  if  they  had 
to  go  abroad.  They  organized  a  company  along  Salt  river,  with  Jack  Willing- 
ham  as  leader,  and  marched  to  a  polling  place  in  Boone  county.  They  told  the 
judges  they  had  come  to  vote.  The  judges  tried  to  turn  them  off  by  denying 
that  they  had  any  right  to  vote.  The  Salt  river  men  said  they  were  going  to 
vote,  right  or  no  right.  The  end  of  the  wrangle  was  that  the  judges  were  com- 
pelled to  hear  the  men  announce  their  votes  and  to  record  them.  As  Willing- 
ham  and  his  party  rode  away,  a  Boone  county  election  judge  looking  after  the 
cavalcade  said  disgustedly,  "Ain't  those  men  tigers?" 

General  Mclntire  said  that  at  one  of  the  first  sessions  of  court  in  Audrain 
the  grand  jury  retired  to  a  convenient  brush.  The  jury  had  been  charged  to 
investigate  a  complaint  against  a  lawyer.     This  lawyer  found  his  way  into  the 


86  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

primitive  grand  jury  room,  made  a  speech,  told  a  story,  and  treated  the  jurors.. 
In  a  short  time  tlie  grand  inquest  returned  to  court,  reported  that  the  case  had 
been  considered  and  that  the  jurors  found  it  "too  small  a  matter  to  kick  up  any 
fuss  about." 

To  the  Old  Settlers'  Association  of  Audrain  county,  W.  D.  H.  Hunter  told 
some  recollections  of  his  coming  to  Mexico: 

"It  was  in  the  early  morning,  just  before  the  dawn  of  day,  wlien  we  reached  the 
town.  I  could  see  in  the  dim  twilight,  here  and  there,  in  the  midst  o£  the  hazel  brush,  the 
rudely  constructed  homes  of  the  early  inhabitants — a  dozen  families  embraced  them  all. 
It  may  seem  strange  to  those  who  know  but  little  about  the  early  days  of  this  county 
why  I  chose  to  enter  Mexico  before  the  dawn  of  day.  To  those  pioneers  here,  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  say  that  it  was  to  avoid  the  green-head  flies,  which  at  that  time 
infested  the  prairies.  I  have  seen,  at  that  early  day,  white  or  gray  horses  come  into 
town  with  blood  trickling  apparently  from  every  pore,  bitten  by  green-heads.  They 
were  the  terror  of  stock  during  the  day,  and  night  was  the  only  time  that  horses  could 
travel  with  comfort.  In  many  cases  most  of  the  plowing  and  other  work  on  the  farm 
was  done  at  night.  When  the  old  courthouse  stood,  it  used  to  be  the  refuge  for  the 
sheep,  cattle  and  horses  that  were  driven  from  the  prairies  after  sun-up  by  the  flies  and 
many  of  you  will  be  able  to  call  to  mind  Old  Man  Bonner's  jennets  that  were  generally 
the  first  to  reach  the  courthouse  door,  and  in  those  days  were  the  most  familiar  objects 
within  the  courthouse  square. 

A  Turkey  Dinner  Won  the  Name. 

When  Kirksville  was  laid  out  the  founders  met  at  the  farm  house  of  Jesse 
Kirk.  That  morning  Mr.  Kirk  had  killed  two  wild  turkeys.  The  game  was  on 
exhibition.  When  other  legal  formalities  had  received  attention  the  question 
of  naming  the  town  site  was  raised.  "Call  it  Kirksville,"  said  Mrs.  Kirk,  "and 
I  will  give  you  a  dinner  of  roast  turkey,  corn  bread  and  wild  honey."  It  was 
done. 

Adair  county  is  divided  by  a  ridge.  On  one  side  the  streams  flow  toward 
the  Mississippi  and  on  the  other  side  the  slope  is  to  the  Missouri.  When  Gar- 
land C.  Brodhead  was  state  geologist  he  estimated  the  coal  underlying  Adair 
at  2,754,385,920  tons.  A  locality  is  known  as  the  "Barrens."  It  consists  of 
irregular,  winding,  sharp  ridges  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  height. 

A  distinguished  characteristic  of  Phelps  county  is  the  "prairie  hollow." 
These  hollows  lie  between  ridges.  They  are  not  usually  more  than  half  a  mile 
in  width  but  are  often  several  miles  in  length.  They  are  undulating,  well 
drained  and  very  fertile. 

Dunklin  county  has  but  one  hill  and  no  rocks.  Franklin  is  the  largest  county 
in  the  state;  it  has  560,000  acres. 

"Polecat  creek,"  in  Harrison  county,  received  its  christening  from  a  party 
of  bee  hunters  who  found  the  place  infested  with  skunks.  Uncle  Tommy 
Taylor,  a  pioneer  settler  in  Harrison,  located  well  up  toward  the  source  of  this 
creek.  It  was  a  current  joke  of  the  pioneers  that  Uncle  Tommy  was  the  smart- 
est man  on  Polecat  creek  because  he  had  shown  his  wisdom  in  locating  so 
near  the  head  of  the  "critter." 

Geographers  of  Missouri  have  found  it  necessary  to  revise  their  conclusions 
repeatedly.     When  Holcombe  wrote  his  history  of  Marion  county  in  the  begin- 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  87 

ning  of  the  eighties  he  said  the  Fabius  river  was  so  named  by  Don  Antonio 
Soulard,  the  Spanish  surveyor.  But  when  he  concluded  his  researches  for  the 
history  of  Lewis  county,  he  said  that  "with  more  hght  on  the  subject"  he 
believed  the  Fabius  was  a  corruption  from  the  Indian  name  of  Fabbas  given  to 
this  river  and  its  south  fork,  fabba  meaning  bean.  Holcombe  said  "the  real 
English  name  of  the  stream  is  Bean  creek." 

The  Two  Kansas  Cities. 

For  many  years  the  dividing  line  between  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  and  Kansas 
City,  Kan.,  was  utilized  by  law  breakers.  Missouri  had  a  very  stringent  anti- 
gambling  law  and  Kansas  enforced  prohibition.  The  saloons  flourished  on  the 
Missouri  side  and  the  gamblers'  lay-outs  were  many  on  the  Kansas  side.  Bill 
Lewis  located  his  resort  so  that  the  line  ran  through  the  middle  of  the  room. 
He  baffled  the  authorities  for  a  long  time.  At  last  the  Kansas  City  chief  of 
police,  Thomas  Spears,  set  a  trap  and  caught  him : 

"For  many  years  Bill  had  a  deep-seated  and  chronic  objection  to  paying  any  licenses 
for  the  sale  of  liquor.  His  bar  and  dance  house  was  a  sort  of  a  movable  affair  which 
he  had  located  on  the  edge  of  the  city  near  the  state  line  of  Kansas.  I  made  several 
sorties  on  Bill's  lay-out,  as  he  was  violating  the  law  for  selling  liquor  without  a  license, 
but  he  always  got  wind  in  some  mysterious  manner  of  my  coming  and  would  gently 
push  his  bar  over  into  Kansas  and  he  and  his  patrons  would  amuse  themselves  by 
giving  me  the  laugh.  When  the  Kansas  City,  Kan.,  authorities  got  after  him  he  would 
baffle  them  by  moving  into  Missouri   again,   and  so  the  thing  went  on. 

"I  was  not  to  be  outwitted,  however,  as  my  reputation  was  at  stake,  and  finally  the 
authorities  of  both  states  put  their  heads  together  and  we  determined  to  make  a  joint 
attack  on  Bill.  Bill  at  the  time  was  raking  in  the  shekels  on  the  Missouri  side,  and  I 
swooped  down  on  him.  He  started  to  move  across  the  room  over  into  Kansas,  as  usual, 
but  was  surprised  when  he  saw  a  posse  of  Kansas  state  authorities  waiting  to  seize  him. 
This  was  a  critical  moment.  What  was  Bill  to  do?  He  was  fairly  and  squarely  in  a 
trap,  but  he  did  not  abandon  hope.  Suddenly  a  bright  idea  struck  him.  He  pushed  his 
bar  half  over  the  state  line  in  the  floor  and  left  it  there.  It  was  for  us  to  do  the  thinking 
now.  Bill  thought  he  had  got  us  and  indulged  in  a  broad  grin  when  he  saw  us  scratching 
our  heads.  Neither  state  could  claim  the  bar,  but  we  compromised  matters  in  a  way 
which  caused  Bill's  smile  of  delight  to  change  into  a  look  of  dismay.  We  secured  saws 
and  axes  and  actually  cut  the  bar  in  halves,  Missouri  claiming  one  half  and  Kansas  the 
other.     This  settled  Bill.     He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  better  to  obey  the  law." 

The  Original  of  Eden. 

A  promising  metropolis  of  Missouri  was  located  on  the  Mississippi  about 
half  way  between  Hannibal  and  Quincy.  It  was  named  Marion  City.  The 
founder  was  William  Muldrow  who  came  from  "Muldrow's  Hill"  in  Ken- 
tucky. In  "Martin  Chuzzlewit,"  Dickens  tells  the  story  of  an  ambitious  city 
site  scheme  which  he  called  "Eden"  and  which  he  located  on  the  Mississippi 
river.  Martin  Chuzzlewit  put  his  money  into  city  lots  of  Eden,  having  been 
led  to  believe  it  was  to  become  a  place  of  great  importance.  He  made  the 
journey  to  Eden  and  found  instead  of  the  business  blocks,  fine  residences,  parks, 
churches  and  institutions  of  learning,  a  small  collection  of  log  cabins.  Some 
time  after  Martin  Chuzzlewit  appeared  people  who  knew  the  history  of  Marion 
City  said  that  it  was  the  original  of  Dickens'  "Eden."     At  a  later  date  there 


88  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

were  those  who  believed  that  \\'ilHam  Muldrow  suggested  to  Mark  Twain  the 
famous  character,  Colonel  Mulberry  Sellers. 

Muldrow  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  initiative  and  great  expectations. 
After  carrying  out  several  lesser  schemes  with  success  Muldrow  conceived  the 
idea  of  creating  a  city.  He  had  maps  drawn,  showing  streets,  locations  of 
banks,  churches,  hotels  and  wharves,  a  theater  and  a  newspaper  office.  He 
secured  as  the  location  a  considerable  tract  of  ground  on  the  river.  This  was 
about  1830.  Muldrow  took  his  maps  east  and  told  of  Marion  City  with  such 
enthusiasm  that  many  lots  were  bought.  He  urged  eastern  people  to  locate  in 
Marion  City.  The  result  was  that  not  only  did  the  intending  settlers  come  in 
numbers  but  they  had  prepared  for  them  in  eastern  states  the  parts  of  build- 
ings to  be  shipped  to  Marion  City  in  sections.  For  some  months  Marion  City 
grew  very  rapidly.  A  large  warehouse  was  constructed  by  the  river;  the  coun- 
try was  cleared;  there  was  considerable  trade  done  by  the  business  men. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1836  came  an  extraordinary  flood  in  the  Upper 
Mississippi.  Heavy  rains  and  melting  snow  carried  the  river  over  the  site  of 
the  city.  The  exodus  was  as  rapid  as  the  influx  had  been.  Muldrow  promised 
to  build  a  levee,  got  some  of  the  leading  men  together  and  used  every  possible 
argument  to  stay  the  collapse.  He  succeeded  in  quieting  some  of  the  settlers. 
Boats  continued  to  land  and  several  stage  coaches  made  connections  with  Marion 
City.  But  the  flood  was  followed  a  few  years  later  by  a  great  fire  and  then  a 
cyclone  unroofed  many  of  the  remaining  houses.  Gradually  those  who  had 
remained  with  Muldrow  after  the  early  disaster  sought  other  locations.  The 
founder  was  overwhelmed  with  law  suits.  He  stood  his  ground  and  for  a 
time  was  able  to  put  up  plausible  defense.  In  the  end  the  litigation  went  against 
him.  Gold  was  discovered  in  California  and  about  1849  Muldrow  went  there. 
On  the  coast  he  attempted  to  establish  another  city  and  got  into  more  litigation. 
After  his  failure  in  California  he  returned  to  Missouri  and  was  known  as  "Old 
Bill  Muldrow."  When  he  died  he  left  his  estate  so  complicated  that  the  admin- 
istrators were  twelve  years  in  settling  it. 

There  seems  to  be  good  authority  for  the  statement  that  the  expression, 
"There's  millions  in  it,"  which  Mark  Twain  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Mulberry 
Sellers,  was  original  with  Muldrow.  Old  residents  of  Hannibal  held  to  this  as 
historical  truth.  Muldrow  was  a  Kentuckian  by  birth,  typical  of  that  state  in 
his  physical  apfHjarance.  He  was  one  inch  more  than  six  feet  in  height,  weighed 
200  pounds,  and  had  an  impressive  bearing  which  would  account  for  the  wide 
swathe  he  cut  as  the  foremost  Missouri  promoter  of  his  day. 

Submergence  of  Marion  City. 

Marion  City  went  under  in  the  spring  of  1836.  That  was  the  winter  of 
"the  big  snow."  The  Mississippi  was  so  deep  on  the  site  of  the  "city,"  that,  in 
a  measure,  it  justified  a  local  artist  who  made  a  drawing  of  a  boat  with  Muldrow 
and  Rev.  Dr.  Ely  on  waterscape  without  a  tree  or  house  in  sight.  Both  men  had 
poles  and  were  reaching  down  into  the  water  as  far  as  they  could.  Dr.  Ely 
was  represented  as  saying:  "I  declare,  Muldrow,  I  believe  I  -have  found  the 
top  of  one  of  the  chimneys." 

Marion    City    did   not    pass   entirely    out   of    existence    with    this    visitation. 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  89 

Many  moved  away  but  some  held  on.  The  promoters  had  taken  notes  from 
many  investors.  They  issued  a  proclamation  to  these  people  offering  more  time 
on  the  payment  of  the  notes  or  even  cancellation  of  them  under  certain  condi- 
tions. They  went  ahead  with  the  development.  A  Presbyterian  church  was 
built ;  also  a  tavern,  mercantile  houses,  a  wharf.  Marion  City  became  quite  a 
shipping  point;  hack  lines  ran  to  interior  places.  A  railroad  was  graded,  the 
first  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Marion  City  became  the  market  for  the  hogs  of 
that  part  of  Missouri.    A  packing  house  was  built. 

"The  Metropolis  of  the  West." 

On  one  of  his  visits  east,  with  Dr.  Ely,  Muldrow  had  taken  in  $150,000  in 
money  and  notes  for  lots  in  Marion  City,  which  was  described  on  the  plats  as 
"The  Metropolis  of  the  West." 

The  railroad  was  begun  in  the  fall  of  1835.  Its  route  was  to  be  westward 
through  "Railroad  Street"  in  Marion  City  to  the  Missouri  Philadelphia  and 
thence  on  to  the  Pacific.  The  day  after  Christmas,  1835,  Muldrow  wrote  to 
Moses  D.  Bates: 

"Our  plan  is  to  strike  the  Pacific  Ocean  wtih  our  railroad,  thereby  tapping  the  East 
India  Trade,  the  most  important  to  us  of  any  in  the  world.  This  will  make  a  reduction 
of  three-fourths  of  the  present  route,  and  more  than  half  of  the  expense  will  be  taken  off. 
To  complete  this  may  require  twenty  years,  though  I  believe  it  will  be  completed  before 
that  time ;  and  all  will  admit  that  our  connection  with  New  York  will  be  complete  before 
that  time  expires.  And  if  this  be  admitted,  I  ask  you  to  say  what  the  size  of  our  town 
will  be,  and  what  the  value  of  our  own  lots,  when  we  have  this  extent  of  garden  land 
drawing  their  products  continually  to  us,  together  with  the  trade  and  products  of  the 
Indies.  Couple  with  this  the  fact  that  the  great  Mississippi  makes  one  part  of  the 
cross-road  which  passes  through  an  extent  of  country,  which,  for  length  and  fertility, 
is  unparalleled  by  any  on  the  globe.  Now,  sir,  I  ask  you,  what  may  we  not  expect  our  own 
city  to  come  to?  The  man  who  could  not  see  our  just  claims  to  a  rivalship  with  any 
of  our  western  cities,  must  be  blind." 

The  eflforts  to  regenerate  Marion  City  after  the  first  deluge  were  not  per- 
manently successful.  Subsequent  floods,  in  1844,  and  in  1851  disheartened  those 
who  tried  to  make  their  homes  on  the  low  land  and  the  "city"  dwindled.  Some 
of  the  buildings  fell  into  ruins,  some  were  carried  down  the  river.  Marion,  the 
most  ambitious  of  the  boom  towns  of  Missouri,  became  a  reminiscence. 

Muldrow 's  Variety  of  Schemes. 

Several  ambitious  real  estate  projects  grew  out  of  the  booming  of  Marion 
City.  A  townsite  called  "Philadelphia"  was  laid  out  a  few  miles  from  Marion 
City,  and  in  the  same  vicinity  w-as  "Ely."  Another  city  on  paper  called  "New 
York"  was  forty  miles  west  in  Shelby  county.  \\'hen  Dr.  Ely  found  himself 
separated  from  his  money  he  reproached  Muldrow. 

"Do  I  understand  you  to  say.  Dr.  Ely,  that  you  are  worth  nothing  now;" 
asked  the  Missouri  boomer. 

"No,  sir,  nothing,"  said  Dr.  Ely,  "I  am  financially  ruined." 

"Well,  sir,"  said  Muldrow,  "then  you  may  just  exactly  return  to  Philadel- 
phia as  soon  as  you  please,  sir,  for  we  have  no  further  use  for  you  at  all,  sir." 

When   Muldrow's  attention  was  invited  to  the  fact  that  Marion  Citv  was 


90  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

situated  on  such  low  ground  that  in  high  water  the  river  sent  part  of  its  sur- 
plus around  under  the  bluff  back  of  his  city,  he  replied  to  the  criticism:  "Why, 
sir,  that  is  one  of  the  great  advantages  the  city  possesses.  We  will,  just  exactly, 
sir,  deepen  the  channel  of  the  slough  by  cutting  a  channel  in  it  a  few  feet  deep 
and  then  connect  it  with  the  river  above  and  below,  and  then  the  city  will,  just 
exactly,  sir,  have  first  rate  navigation  for  steamboats  all  around  it,  and  the 
lots  fronting  the  slough  will  be  as  valuable  as  those  on  the  river  itself !  This 
canal,  sir,  will  be  spanned  by  drawbridges,  as  in  time  will  the  great  river  itself, 
and  there  will  be  no  impediments  on  account  of  the  slough  or  the  river  to  either 
steamboat  navigation  or  wagon  transportation." 

Muldrow's  Versatility. 

Muldrow  did  not  confine  his  big  schemes  to  Marion  county  entirely.  He  en- 
listed the  support  of  New  York  capital  in  a  plan  to  enter  two  townships  in 
Clark  county.  The  plan  was  to  establish  seminaries  which  should  be  not  only 
self  supporting  bul  profitable  through  the  manual  labor  of  the  students.  In  the 
center  of  each  township  was  to  be  reserved  4,000  acres  to  be  held  by  Muldrow 
and  the  parties  in  the  East  who  advanced  the  capital.  The  college  was  to  be 
located  in  the  center  of  the  4,000  acres.  All  income  derived  from  the  land  was 
to  be  handled  by  Muldrow  and  the  capitalists  as  trustees  of  the  college  and  to 
be  applied  towards  its  support.  Surrounding  the  campus,  land  to  the  amount 
of  1,063  acres  was  to  be  divided  into  town  lots  and  sold,  it  being  argued  by 
Muldrow  that  the  college  would  draw  settlers  and  create  a  town.  From  the 
sale  of  the  lots  Muldrow  was  to  take  for  his  compensation  a  one-sixth  part 
and  ten  per  cent  of  the  whole.  The  remainder  was  the  profit  to  accrue  to  the 
eastern  capitalists  for  their  investment  in  the  education  of  young  Missourians. 
Three  New  Yorkers,  who  thought  they  saw  a  good  thing  in  Muldrow's  whole- 
sale educational  plan,  backed  him  to  such  an  extent  that  one  township  was 
secured  in  Clark  county  on  the  edge  of  what  is  now  Kahoka.  Muldrow  received 
$28,000,  but  before  the  plan  could  be  carried  out  the  New  Yorkers  got  cold 
feet  and  sued  him.  The  litigation  was  settled  by  arbitration,  Muldrow  obtain- 
ing title  to  the  Clark  county  land.  Success  of  the  plan  all  depended  on  the 
students  who  would  come  to  the  institution  and  cultivate  the  surplus  land, 
raising  enough  to  pay  their  way  in  the  college  and  something  more  toward  the 
support  of  the  faculty.  After  he  had  closed  his  litigation  with  the  three  New 
Yorkers,  Muldrow  put  a  trust  deed  on  the  Clark  county  land  without  having 
his  wife  join  him.  The  land  was  sold  under  the  deed,  but  Kahoka  had  to  wait 
many  years  until  the  death  of  Mrs.  Muldrow  before  the  title  to  a  considerable 
part  of  Kahoka  was  entirely  cleared. 

The  Lost  Towns. 

In  the  northwestern  part  of  what  is  now  St.  Louis  county  was  a  community 
called  St.  Andrews,  which,  tradition  has  it,  was  once  larger  than  St.  Louis.  It 
was  an  agricultural  community  of  Americans  who  had  come  from  the  states  to 
St.  Louis  and  had  been  given  lands  by  the  Spanish  governors.  The  Missouri 
river  encroached  upon  St.  Andrews  as  it  did  upon  several  other  once  prom- 
ising communities.     Many  of  the  people  who  first  settled  there  moved  to   St. 


FIRST  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  MISSOURI 

This  church  erected  in  St.  Louis  in  1770  bj-  the  French  settlers.     The  church,  parochial 

house  and  consecrated  graveyard  occupied  block  on  Walnut  between  Second  and  Third  streets 


A  PIONEER  MISSOURI  HOME 

The  new  comers  one  hundred  years  ago  settled  along  the  rivers  and  creeks,  unable  to 

break  the  prairie  sod  with  their  wooden  mold-board  plows 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  93 

Louis  after  the  American  flag  was  raised.    They  established  themselves  in  busi- 
ness and  in  professions. 

Another  of  the  lost  towns  of  Missouri  was  St.  Michael  in  Madison  county. 
It  was  established  in  1800  by  the  Spaniards.  The  government  bestowed  liberal 
grants  upon  the  first  settlers.  The  name  of  one  of  the  townships  is  the  only 
reminder  of  the  once  flourishing  community. 

'Astoria  was  laid  out  in  Livingston  county  in  1837  by  a  St.  Louis  promoter 
who  predicted  it  would  become  the  metropolis  of  the  Grand  river  valley.  A 
fine  colored  map  showed  the  prospective  locations  of  churches,  banks  and  other 
buildings.     Lots  were  sold  at  $roo  each.     Not  a  house  was  ever  built. 

The  Townsite  Harvest. 

The  politicians  at  St.  Louis  were  not  behind  in  reaping  their  share  of  the 
townsite  harvest.  Duff  Green,  one  of  the  makers  of  Missouri  in  the  legislative 
sense,  who  afterwards  removed  to  the  national  capital  and  became  a  widely- 
known  journalist,  was  the  promoter  of  Bluffton  which  he  located  on  the  Mis- 
souri river  forty  miles  above  Chariton. 

"From  its  local  situation,"  said  Mr.  Green  in  his  announcement,  "it  promises  not 
only  to  become  the  seat  of  justice  for  the  county  soon  to  be  formed  of  the  rich  lands 
lying  on  Crooked  and  Fishing  rivers,  but  also  offers  great  inducements  to  mechanics, 
manufacturers,  merchants  and  all  citizens  who  are  disposed  to  live  in  a  village.  It  is  laid 
off  on  a  liberal  scale.  Dr.  B.  F.  Edwards,  living  on  the  premises,  is  authorized  to  dispose 
of  lots,  and  mechanics  and  actual  settlejs  who  will  put  improvements  to  be  agreed  on 
shall  have  lots  gratis.    A  word  to  the  wise  is  sufficient.    Call,  see  and  judge  for  yourselves." 

The  townsite  of  Bluffton  is  now  a  wheatfield.  Columbia  was  the  name 
chosen  in  1819  for  a  town  which  is  not  now  in  existence.  The  founders  in 
announcing  the  sale  of  lots  held  out  these  alluring  advantages  in  their  pros- 
pectus : 

"This  is  a  pleasant  and  beautiful  situation  on  the  Missouri  river,  nearly  opposite 
Missouriton,  in  the  Sugar  Tree  Bottom,  and  about  forty  miles  nearly  west  of  Boonville. 
.'\n  order  of  court  has  been  granted  for  a  read  to  run  from  Booi)ville  to  Pinnacles,  fifteen 
miles  below  this  town,  through  the  main  street  of  which  its  continuance  will  have  to 
pass.  Consequently  the  great  western  communication  will  be  through  this  town,  which, 
combined  with  its  navigable  advantages,  will  render  it  one  of  the  most  public  places  on 
the  Missouri.  There  are  immense  coal  banks  and  a  sufficiency  of  timber  in  its  immediate 
vicinity.  It  is  only  four  miles  from  the  Salt  Fork  of  Lamine  river,  and  in  a  neighborhood 
rapidly  populating." 

Missouriton  mentioned  as  a  means  of  locating  the  proposed  Columbia  is 
unknown  to  this  generation.  The  file  of  the  Intelligencer  preserved  by  the 
State  Historical  Society  at  Columbia,  derived  considerable  advertising  patronage 
from  the  townsite  promoters  of  one  hundred  years  ago.  The  proprietors  of 
the  townsite  of  Nashville  announced,  a  week  before  Christmas,  1819,  their 
philanthropic  purpose  to  let  their  fellow  Missourians  in  on  the  ground  floor  of 
a  good  thing.    They  said  of  Nashville: 

"The  town  is  laid  off  on  a  Spanish  grant  confirmed  to  the  United  States.  The  title  to 
the  property  is  indisputable.     It  is  situated  on  tlic  North  bank  of  the  Missouri  river,  near 


94  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  mouth  of  Little  Boiine  Femme  creek,  about  thirty  miles  below  the  town  of  Franklin 
It  promises  to  enjoy  a  large  portion  of  the  trade  on  the  river,  and  from  the  convenienc) 
of  its  situation  it  will  furnish  many  facilities  to  the  transportation  of  the  vast  quantities 
of  surplus  produce  of  an  extensive  and  salubrious  soil.  The  landing  at  this  town  is 
at  all  seasons  of  the  year  superior  to  most  other  places  and  certainly  inferior  to  none 
on  the  Missouri.  We  have  concluded  to  give  the  public  at  large  an  opportunity  of 
enjoying  the  profits  arising  from  the  increase  of  town  property  by  oflfering  at  public  sale 
a  few  lots  in  Nashville,  at  Franklin,  on  Saturday,  the  first  of  January." 

The  site  of  Nashville  in  the  year  1919  contributed  its  full  acreagfe  to  Mis- 
souri's great  corn  crop.  Presenting  the  inducements  to  buy  lots  in  the  town  of 
Missouri,  Daniel  M.  Boone  said: 

"This  town  is  in  the  heart  of  the  Femme  Osage  settlement  and  is  the  most  convenient 
point  on  the  Missouri  river  for  a  great  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Charles  county 
to  export  their  produce  and  to  land  and   receive  their  importations." 

"One  Third  Cash  or  Negroes." 

The  advertisement  of  lots  to  be  sold  in  Cote  sans  Dessein,  the  promoters  of 
[which  hoped  to  have  it  chosen  as-  the  location  of  the  capital,  said  payments 
were  "to  be  one-third  cash  or  negroes." 

Jamestown  was  laid  out  on  the  Missouri,  six  miles  above  the  mouth.  The 
promoter,  "Phinehas"  James,  announced : 

"Near  the  public  square  there  is  a  cave  through  which  passes  a  large  body  of  cold, 
sweet,  lucid  water,  which,  I  think,  could  v.ithout  much  expense  be  raised  and  conveyed 
to  every  part  of  the  town. 

"The  situation  of  this  town  is  so  lofty  and  noble  as  never  to  offend  by  noxious  fumes 
of  putrid  sickly  air;  and  the  eye  has  always  presented  to  it  a  beautiful  and  grand 
variety." 

The  Special  attractions  of  the  proposed  town  of  Fenton  on  the  Meramec  were 
set  forth  in  the  Missouri  Gazette  of  March  24,   1819: 

"From  every  appearance  this  situation  must  have  been  of  considerable  magnitude 
and  strength.  The  numerous  mounds  situated  in  different  directions  and  a  quantity  of 
graves  in  which  some  of  the  human  race  has  been  so  particularly  and  singularly  interred 
renders  it  worthy  of  the  attention  of  any  traveler  to  examine.  This  place  is  situated 
within  three  miles  of  three  most  excellent  salt  springs,  one  of  which  is  contemplated 
to  be  put   in  operation   the  present   year,   which   will   reduce   the   enormous   price   of   salt." 

Lots  in  Herculaneum  were  boomed  with  the  announcement  that,  "The 
town  of  St.  Louis  is  dependent  on  Herculaneum  for  some  hundred  barrels  of 
flour  and  many  thousand  barrels  of  whiskey  annually.  It  is  estimated  that  the 
produce  of  wheat  this  season  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  and  within 
thirty-five  or  forty  miles  of  this  town,  will  amount  to  150,000  bushels,  the  most 
of  W'hich  will  concentrate  at  Herculaneum  for  exportation." 

"Hajinibal,  at  the  Mouth  of  Bear  Creek." 

Not  all  of  these  townsite  promoters  were  mistaken  in  their  judgment  on 
the  locations  selected.  The  six  men  who  pinned  their  faith  on  Hannibal  were 
Stephen  Rector,  Thompson  Baird,  Thomas  Rector,  William  V.  Rector,  Richard 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  95 

Gentry,  M.  D.  Bates.  Their  aiinoiincement,  lots  for  sale,  !March  19,  1819,  was 
business-like : 

"The  undersigned  have  laid  ofif  a  town,  which  they  call  Hannibal,  at  the 
mouth  of  Bear  creek,  about  twenty-five  miles  above  the  mouth  of  Salt  river 
and  fifteen  miles  below  the  mouth  of  Two  rivers. 

"Hannibal,  it  is  believed,  occupies  the  best  site  for  a  town  there  is  on  the 
Mississippi  (anywhere  above  St.  Louis),  and  is  secured  by  rocky  shores;  it  is 
easy  of  access  from  every  direction,  commands  an  extensive  view  of  the  river 
and  surrounding  country.  There  are  two  springs  of  excellent  water  within 
the  town,  an  excellent  quarry  of  limestone,  and  is  backed  by  one  of  the  most 
extensive  tracts  of  rich  and  productive  land  that  there  is  in  Missouri  territory." 

A  Town  with  a  Bad  Name. 

Kennonsville  was  one  of  the  lost  towns  of  ^lissouri.  It  was  started  under 
fine  auspices  by  Rev.  Joseph  Anderson,  given  the  name  of  an  Ohio  Congress- 
man of  considerable  fame  in  that  day.  One  block  of  ground  was  reserved 
by  the  founders  "for  literary  purposes."  Holstein  academy  was  chartered  by 
the  legislature  and  had  a  splendid  array  of  trustees.  But  the  academy  was 
never  built.  Kennonsville  got  a  bad  name.  One  of  the  settlers  there,  a  lady,  who 
moved  away  said  that  during  the  few  years  of  its  existence,  Kennonsville  "was 
so  near  Hell  that  if  you  stuck  a  mattock  into  the  ground  up  to  the  eye,  the 
blue  smoke  would  come  up  and  you  could  smell  sulphur."  The  legislature, 
about  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  war,  wiped  out  the  legal  status  of  the  aban- 
doned town. 

Jerusalem  was  laid  out  in  Lewis  county  and  the  streets  were  named  after 
men  of  national  fame,  beginning  with  Perry,  "for  Commodore  Perry  of  the 
Lake  Erie  battle."  The  founder  of  Jerusalem  announced  in  the  prospectus 
that  it  had  a  commodious  and  beautiful  elevated  situation,  and  it  can  be  extended 
and  enlarged  as  may  suit  the  proprietor,  or  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  and 
the  name  may  be  changed  to  suit  the  majority  of  the  citizens  of  the  town." 
Jerusalem  never  got  beyond  the  prospectus  incubation. 

Petersburg,  which  had  its  beginning  in  1836,  if  it  was  now  in  existence, 
could  point  with  pride  to  a  distinguished  Missourian  abroad.  Petersburg  was 
the  birthplace  of  Mary  Cunningham  who  became  famed  internationally  as  Mrs. 
John  A.  Logan.     Petersburg  is  one  of  the  entirely  lost  towns  of  Missouri. 

Some  of  the  earliest  French  names  were  changed  to  suit  the  vernacular  of 
newcomers.  Thus  an  ambitious  movement  to  establish  a  new  town  on  the 
Perche  river  resulted  in  the  naming  of  the  site  Persia.  The  location  was  on 
the  trail  from  St.  Charles  to  Franklin.  The  promoters  of  Persia  announced 
their  plans  in  a  dignified  prospectus : 

"The  proprietors  of  this  town  do  not  wish  to  exhibit  on  paper  for  purposes  of  specula- 
tion, as  is  too  frequently  the  case,  but  wish  purchasers  to  improve  their  lots  and  realize 
their  value.  Fifty  lots  will  be  given  to  merchants,  mechanics,  and  persons  wishing  to 
improve  the  above  town,  on  stipulated  terms,  viz.,  a  lot  out  of  each  block,  or  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  blocks  in  said  town  a  corner  lot  on  which  a  building,  frame,  brick  or 
stone,  not  less  than  two  stories  high,  and  eighteen  by  twenty-five  feet,  is  enclosed  by 
September  20  next." 


96  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Persia  has  no  existence  today,  not  even  a  solitary  resident.  The  same  is 
true  of  Columbus,  the  site  of  which  was  laid  out  on  the  bank  of  the  Missouri 
at  what  was  known  as  Petit  Osage  Bottom.  Columbus  was  heralded  in  1819 
in  this  announcement  which  appeared  in  the  Intelligencer: 

"Its  natural  advantages  are  not  perhaps  surpassed  by  any  others  on  the  Missouri  river. 
There  are  several  excellent  springs  of  water,  which  may  be  conveyed  to  any  part  of  the 
town.  A  large  bank  of  stone  coal  convenient,  also  an  established  ferry,  and  from  its 
central  position,  between  the  contemplated  county  lines  it  is  more  than  probable  that  it 
will  become  a  county  seat.  Further  description  is  thought  unnecessary,  as  it  is  pre- 
sumable that  the  purchaser  will   examine  before  he  buys." 

One  of  these  lost  towns  of  Missouri  progressed  so  far  beyond  the  lot- 
selling  boom  as  to  make  considerable  showing  in  houses.  This  was  America 
which  was  located  a  few  miles  above  the  junction  of  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Ohio.  In  the  advertisement  of  a  lot  sale  to  be  held  in  America  in  1820,  the 
promoter  paid  his  respects  to  those  who  had  libeled  the  prospects  of  the  new 
community.     He  said  in  print: 

"The  town  was  commenced  a  year  ago  and  is  improving  rapidly ;  is  a  prominent  seat 
of  justice  for  the  county,  and  commands  the  trade  of  an  extensive,  fertile  and  thriving 
tract  of  country.  False  and  unfounded  reports  respecting  its  health  and  liability  to 
overflow  have  been  industriously  propagated  by  folly  and  a  mean  jealousy  of  its  superior 
advantages,  the  falsehood  of  which  a  visit  to  the  place  on  that  day  must  effectually  detect." 

The  City  Ne  Plus  Ultra. 

Townsite  speculation  reached  such  extravagant  proportions  that  it  suggested 
an  "Advertisement  Extraordinary,"  of  the  "City  Ne  Plus  Ultra,"  in  the  Mis- 
souri Gazette,  July,  1818: 

"This  city  is  handsomely  situated  in  the  Grand  Prairie,  in  the  territory  of  Missouri, 
about  one  hundred  miles  northwest  from  St.  Louis.  The  site  is  the  most  eligible  that 
can  possibly  be  conceived,  in  the  center  of  an  extensive  prairie  extending  from  the 
Missouri  to  the  Mississippi.  The  city  itself  occupies  about  fifteen  townships  of  the  most 
fertile  land  in  the  known  world;  and  as  for  healthiness  and  salubrity  of  climate  is 
unequaled.  Sickness  being  extremely  rare,  and  no  person  is  known  to  have  died  there 
within  the  memory  of  man.  The  city  is  laid  off  on  the  most  liberal  plan,  and  modern 
style.  Market  or  Main  street  is  one  mile  wide  with  a  canal  running  through  its  whole 
extent.  The  canal  itself  extends  from  the  Missouri  to  the  Mississippi,  and  connects 
these  two  great  water  courses. 

"The  public  square  is  situated  near  the  center  of  the  city;  in  the  center  of  this 
square  is  a  large  mound,  upwards  of  five  hundred  feet  high  and  covering  near  one 
hundred  acres  of  land.  This  mound  is  supposed  to  contain  the  remains  of  the  great 
Mammoth  (no  doubt  the  sire  of  those  living  Mammoths,  lately  seen  near  the  rocky 
mountains!!).  Besides  the  public  square  there  are  fifteen  squares  for  public  worship  of 
different  denominations  of  Christians,  five  for  colleges  and  other  seminaries  of  learning, 
and  ten  for  other  purposes  of  public  utility  and  amusement. 

"The  great  western  road  from  the  seat  of  government  across  the  Rocky  mountains 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  opening  a  direct  communication  with  China,  must  pass  through  this 
city,  and  the  great  northern  road  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  new  world,  lately 
discovered  by  way  of  the  north  pole,  must  inevitably  pass  through  this  great  city  destined 
to  be  the  capital  of  the  w'estern  empire,  or  perhaps  the  world. 

"Manufactories  of  everv'  description  will  not  only  meet  with  great  encouragement 
but   can   he   carried   on    with    trifling   expense;    the   country   abounding    in   coal,    iron,    lead, 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  97 

copper,    tin,    rock    salt,    sulphur,    saltpeter,    marble,    slate,    alum,    copperas,    etc.,    etc.,    and 
strong  expectations  exist  that  the  precious  metals  will  be  found   in  abundance. 

"Besides  other  great  and  national  Institutions,  there  will  be  established  at  the  city  a 
grand  Bank,  with  a  capital,  sufficient,  say  $100,000,000,  to  enable  it  to  give  branches  to 
every  town  and  village  in  the  state.  The  bank  managed  by  thirty  directors  besides  five 
extra  presidents  and  cashiers   for  signing  notes. 

"One  hundred  bricklayers,  200  carpenters,  50  taylors,  30  blacksmiths,  loo  shoemakers, 
.So  coopers,  50  shipbuilders,  50  stonecutters,  and  all  other  mechanics  will  find  constant 
employment  in  the  city.     Doctors  are  not  wanted  and  lawyers  need  no   inviting. 

"Nihil 
"Nemo,  Proprietors. 

"All  the  printers  in  the  world  are  requested  to  give  the  above  an  insertion  in  their 
respective  papers  and  to  transmit  their  accounts  postpaid  to  the  proprietors  at  the  city 
of  Ne  Plus  Ultra." 

The  promotion  of  townsite  speculation  was  not  always  limited  to  alluring 
advertisements  in  the  newspapers.  At  the  time  when  lots  were  to  be  sold  at 
Putnamville,  the  county  court  made  this  entry  on  the  record : 

"Ordered  that  the  town  commissioner  be  authorized  to  purchase  four  gal- 
lons of  whiskey  and  that  he  be  paid  out  of  the  town  fund." 

A  traveler,  so  the  story  ran,  stopped  over  night  at  one  of  these  townsites. 
He  excited  suspicion  by  refusing  to  give  his  name.  As  he  mounted  his  horse 
the  next  morning,  he  said,  "My  name  is  Robinson.  I  objected  to  mentioning 
it  last  night,  fearing  you  would  name  a  town  after  me."  Linked  with  this  was 
the  other  story  that  in  a  distance  of  five  miles  there  were  located  five  townsites. 

The  Beginning  of  Springfield. 

Of  Springfield's  beginning  Mrs.  Rush  C.  Owen,  daughter  of  John  P.  Camp- 
bell, wrote  for  the  Springfield  Leader,  of  August  31,  1876,  this  very  interesting 

narrative : 

"In  1827  my  father,  John  P.  Campbell,  and  my  uncle,  Matthew  Campbell,  took  refuge 
from  an  autumnal  storm  in  old  Delaware  town  on  the  James,  not  far  from  the  Wilson 
Creek  battle-ground.  The  braves  had  just  brought  in  a  remnant  of  Kickapoos  which  they 
had  rescued  from  the  Osages.  Among  the  Kickapoos  was  a  young  brave  boy  ill  with 
a  kind  of  bilious  fever  recently  taken.  Just  before  leaving  home  my  father  had  been 
reading  a  botanic  treatise,  and  had  become  a  convert.  In  his  saddle-bags  he  carried 
lobelia,  composition  and  No.  6.  He  gave  them  to  understand  that  he  was  a  medicine 
man,  and  against  Uncle  Mat's  earnest  protest,  who  feared  the  consequences  if  the  Indian 
died,  he  undertook  the  case.  Not  understanding  the  condition  of  his  patient,  or,  perhaps, 
the  proper  quantity  of  the  emetic  to  administer,  he  threw  the  Kickapoo  into  an  alarm, 
or  in  other  words  a  frightful  cold  sweat  and  deathly  sickness.  Then  there  was  work 
for  dear  life.  Uncle  Mat,  the  older  and  more  cautious  of  the  two,  pulled  off  his  coat 
and  plunged  in  to  help  my  father  get  up  a  reaction,  which  they  did,  leaving  the  poor 
patient  prostrate,  and  'weak  as  a  rag.'  My  father  always  laughed  and  said :  'But  feel 
so  good,  good — all  gone.'  laying  his  hand  weakly  on  his  stomach. 

"They  remained  some  time  with  the  Indians,  hunting  and  looking  at  the  country. 
They  finally  made  up  their  minds  to  return  to  Maury  county,  Tennessee,  and  bring  their 
families.  Piloted  by  the  Kickapoo  they  went  some  distance  up  the  James,  and  made 
arrangements  with  an  old  trapper  to  get  out  their  house  logs  ready  to  be  put  up  imme- 
diately upon  their  return.  They  selected  lands  where  Springfield  now  stands.  They 
found  four  springs  whose  branches  uniting  formed  Wilson  creek.  About  the  center  of 
the  area  between  these  springs  was  a  natural  well  of  wonderful  depth,  now  known  to  be 
a  subterranean  lake,  hard  by  which  my  father  'squatted,'  after  a  toilsome  journey  through 

Vol.  I— T 


98  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  wilderness.  The  Mississippi  river  was  frozen  over  so  hard  that  they  crossed  on  the 
ice  in  February,  1830.  Several  families  accompanied  him,  among  whom  was  glorious 
old  Uncle  Jo  Miller.  Who  ever  saw  him  angry?  Who  ever  caught  him  looking  on  the 
dark  side?  The  moment  he  was  seated  every  child  clambered  and  buzzed  over  him  like 
bees  over  a  honey-comb,  and  we  had  implicit  faith  in  his  'honey  pond  and  fritter  tree,' 
and  have  to  this  day. 

"The  Kickapoo  came  over  immediately  and  became  an  almost  indispcnsaljle  adjunct 
to  the  family.  Seeing  that  my  father  was  very  tender  with  my  mother,  he  looked  upon 
her  as  a  superior  being,  something  to  be  guarded  and  watched  that  no  harm  came 
near.  He  was  out  on  a  hunt  when  my  sister  was  born,  the  first  wliite  child  in  Kickapoo 
prairie.  When  he  came  in  my  father,  who  had  thrown  himself  on  the  bed  by  my  mother, 
said :  'Oh,  ho !  look  here  I'  He  approached,  looked  at  the  little  creature  with  quaint 
seriousness,  and  said,  'What  call  ?'  My  mother,  to  please  him.  said  'Kickapoo' ;  and  my 
father,  who  was  cheerful  and  bright,  had  just  taken  the  baby's  tiny  hand  and  exclaimed, 
'My  Beautiful,'  so  the  child  was  ever  to  the  Indians,  'Kickapoo,  My  Beautiful,'  and 
exceedingly  beautiful  she  proved  to  he.  The  old  people  discourse  upon  her  loveliness  to 
this  day,  and  refuse  to  believe  that  there  ever  was  another  to  compare  with  her.  The 
Kickapoo's  greatest  pleasure  was  guarding  the  rustic  cradle,  and  drawing  the  delicately 
tapered  hand   through  his  own. 

"Springfield  soon  became  a  habitation  with  a  name.  Cabins  of  rough  poles  were 
hastily  put  up.  and  filled  with  emigrants.  My  father  vacated  and  built  thirteen  times  in 
one  year  to  accommodate  newcomers.  Log  huts  filled  with  merchandise,  groceries,  and 
above  all  tliat  curse  of  America — whisky — soon  did  a  thriving  trade  with  the  Indians  and 
.immigrants.  A  cool  autumn  afternoon  my  mother,  who  was  remarkably  tall,  with  black 
hair  and  fine  eyes,  went  to  one  of  the  primitive  stores  to  buy  a  shawl,  and  could  find 
nothing  but  a  bright  red  with  gay  embroidered  corners.  She  threw  it  over  her  shoulders 
and  crossed  over  to  see  a  sick  neighbor.  Returning  at  dusk  she  was  forced  to  pass 
around  a  crowd  of  Indians  who  had  been  trading  and  drinking.  A  powerful,  bare-armed 
Osage,  attracted  no  doubt  by  the  gay  shawl,  threw  up  his  arms,  bounded  toward  her 
shouting,  'My  squaw.'  She  flew  towards  home.  Just  as  she  reached  the  door  her  foot 
twisted  and  she  fainted.  A  strong  arm  with  a  heavy  stick  came  down  on  the  bare  head 
of  the  dusky  savage,  and  he  measured  his  length  on  the  ground.  The  Kickapoo,  for  it 
was  he  that  came  so  opportunely  to  my  mother's  rescue,  carried  her  in.  closing  the  door, 
for  by  this  time  everybody  had  rushed  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  the  Os^es  calling  for 
the  Kickapoo  who  had  dealt  the  blow  upon  their  companion.  He  passed  on  to  the 
kitchen,  making  a  sign  to  Rachel  to  go  in;  took  'Kickapoo.  My  Beautiful,'  from  Elizabeth, 
pressed  her  tenderly  to  his  heart,  looked  at  her  wistfully,  returned  her  to  the  nurse 
and  was  gone.  The  blow  dealt  really  killed  the  Osage.  Nothing  but  Rachel  opening  the 
door  wringing  her  hands,  with  tears  running  down  her  own  and  Elizabeth's  cheeks,  with 
'Kickapoo,  My  Beautiful,'  screaming,  the  finding  of  my  mother  in  a  death-like  swoon, 
and  no  trace  of  the  Kickapoo  saved  the  village  from  serious  trouble.  Days,  weeks, 
months  and  years  passed,  and  all  my  father's  efforts  to  find  out  the  fate  of  his  red 
friend  were  futile,  and  he  concluded  he  had  been  assassinated  by  the  Osages,  though 
assured  by  them,   'They  no  find  him.'  " 

Neosho's  Well  Chosen  Name. 

"Neosho"  is  Indian  for  cold,  clear  water.  The  name  was  well  chosen  for 
the  capital  of  Newton  county.  An  early  description  of  the  location  gave  this 
account  of  the  water  sources  on  the  site : 

"Almost  in  the  center  of  the  town  is  the  Big  spring,  a  limestone  water,  clear  and 
cold,  rushing  from  beneath  a  rocky  cliff,  and  forming  a  swift  creek  or  river,  capable  of 
running  many  mills.  East  of  the  Big  spring,  900  feet,  is  Bell's  iron  spring,  rising  in  the 
valley  and  capable  of  supplying  a  city  of  50,000  people.  On  the  eastern  line  of  Nfeosho 
is  Brock's  spring  and  creek,  while  just  south  of  Brock's  are  A.  M.  Sevier's  two  springs, 
one  of  which  is  soft  water.     East   of  the  springs  near  Captain  Ruark's   house   is   a  hard- 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  99 

water  spring,  which  forms  a  crystal  rivulet  about  four  feet  wide.  The  Hearrell  springs 
are  on  the  southeast  line  of  the  Neosho,  producing  the  same  quality  of  water  as  the  Big 
spring,  and  one  an  equal  quantity.  In  the  northern  part  of  town  are  the  medical  springs 
of  Carter  &  Clark.  The  Bcthcsda  spring  in  the  northeast  section  is  famous  for  its 
healing  properties;  the  water  is  always  about  75°  Fahrenheit,  soft  and  clear,  while  just 
south  is  the  stronger  Birch  spring.  North  of  the  Bethesda  are  the  three  Mertin  springs, 
rushing  from  beneath  the  cliff,  and  each  producing  a  different  water.  The  McElhany 
springs  form  a  bold  stream  of  freestone  water  in  the  western  part  of  the  town,  while 
Hickory  creek  is  formed  of  the  waters  of  several  small  springs.  The  United  States 
fish  commission,  through  the  agent,  Colonel  Moore,  located  the  fish  hatchery  at  Neosho 
in  1887.  Every  effort  was  made  to  destroy  the  chances  of  Neosho,  but.  through  the 
energy  of  Major  Bell,  M.  E.  Benton,  P.  R.  Smith  and  others,  aided  by  Congressman 
Wade,  Senators  Cockrell  and  Vest,  and  hei  own  incomparable  adaptaliility,  Neosho  won 
this   rare   institution." 

The  Making  of  Cities  and  Towns, 

Kingston  got  its  name  on  the  jjetition  of  a  large  number  of  Caldwell  county 
people  who  admired  Judge  Austin  A.  King  of  Richmond.  Five  years  later  Judge 
King  was  elected  governor.  He  was  a  Democrat,  originally  from  Tennessee, 
but  took  strong  ground  for  the  Union  and  was  made  a  prisoner  by  General 
Price's  army.  In  1862  he  was  elected  to  Congress  and  served  one  term.  The 
founding  of  Kingston  was  celebrated  on  the  4th  of  July,  1843.  No  houses  had 
been  built.  The  people  assembled  in  a  great  arbor  of  brush.  Charles  H. 
Hughes  was  the  orator  of  the  day.  According  to  a  local  account  "there  was  a 
bountiful  dinner,  plenty  of  whisky,  everybody  was  happy,  but  nobody  very 
drunk." 

When  the  Missouri  Pacific  railroad  was  being  laid  out.  George  R.  Smith 
of  Pettis  county  was  the  aggressive  spirit  in  the  movement  to  divert  the  route 
from  the  river  side  and  to  bring  it  over  the  prairies.  He  appealed  to  the  i>eopIe 
of  Georgetown,  the  county  seat  of  Pettis,  to  get  behind  him  and  help  as  against 
the  river  route.  "Open  your  eyes."  he  said,  "and  see  the  friend  that  is  coming 
to  aid  you :  hold  out  your  hands  and  welcome  it ;  give  of  your  means  to  quicken 
its  movements  towards  you."  But  the  Georgetown  folks  were  too  conserva- 
tive. At  last  George  R.  Smith  got  out  of  patience  and  at  a  final  meeting  in 
Georgetown  he  told  the  people  that  he  would  live  to  see  the  day  when  owls 
and  bats  would  make  their  home  in  th^  Georgetown  court  house.  He  went 
three  miles  south,  bought  a  farm  and  started  Sedalia.  I.  McDonald  Demuth, 
the  historian  of  Sedalia,  says  that  a  year  before  Smith  died  the  old  court  house 
at  Georgetown  was  deserted  except  for  occupancy  by  bats,  owls  and  whippoor- 
wills.  General  Smith  had  a  daughter  named  Sarah,  but  who  was  called  "Sed" 
by  her  young  friends.  He  wanted  to  name  the  city  after  the  young  lady  and 
first  called  it  Sedville.  Some  one  suggested  that  Sedalia  would  be  more  eupho- 
nious.    The  general  thought  so  too. 

St.  Mary's  on  the  Mississippi  was  once  known  as  Camp  Rowdy.  It  was  for 
a  time  the  home  of  General  Henry  Dodge,  who  lived  there  in  a  double  log 
house.  Afterwards  St.  Mary's  became  quite  a  milling  point,  the  unusual  excel- 
lence of  the  wheat  of  Southeast  Missouri  encouraging  that  industry. 

Cameron  took  its  name  from  Colonel  Cameron  of  Clay  county,  the  father- 
in-law   of   Samuel   McCorkill,  one  of  the   founders. 

Albert    ti.    Davis,    who   built    the    first    and    the    second   hou.se    in    Hamilton 


100  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  who  started  the  first  store  in  1856  and  1857,  said  he  chose  the  name  for 
the  settlemeYit  partly  in  remenihrance  of  Alexander  Hamilton  and  partly  for 
Joseph  Hamilton,  the  lawyer-soldier  who  fell  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames  in 
the  war  of  18 12.  The  first  name  was  the  Prairie  City.  The  city  consisted 
of  one  building  standing  on  a  wide  prairie.  This  building  was  known  far  and 
wide  as  "lone  house."  It  stood  on  the  "Pioneer  Trail,"  which  connected  Gal- 
latin and  Kingston.  For  three  years  the  first  citizens  were  accustomed  to  go 
out  from  Hamilton  a  mile  or  two  in  the  early  fall  and  find  deer  in  the  luxuriant 
grass.  It  was  possible  to  kill  several  deer  in  a  day.  Venison  was  plentiful  and 
cheap  until  St.  \'^alentine's  day  in  1859,  when  on  a  wager  of  ten  gallons  of 
whisky  the  Hamilton  &  St.  Joe  track  layers  rushed  in  with  ties  hurriedly  placed 
on  frozen  dirt  and  the  engine  whistled.  After  that  Hamilton  boomed  and 
there  were  no  more  deer  in  the  nearby  draws. 

Mississij)pians  were  the  earliest  settlers  of  Pulaski  county.  They  took  pos- 
session of  a  saltpeter  cave  near  Waynesville  and  manufactured  gunpowder. 
This  cave   was  the   location  of  an  Indian  battle.     A  party  of   Delawares  and 

Shawanocse  took  refuge  in  it,  being  hard  pressed  by  one  hundred  Osages.  The 
battle  lasted  until  dark.    The  Osages  tried  to  force  their  way  into  the  cave  but 

were  driven  back  after  many  had  been  killed.     When  night  came  the  Osages 

barricaded  the  entrance  and   withdrew.     When  they   returned  in  the   morning 

to  renew  the  battle,  the  cave  was  empty.     The  Delawares  and  Shawanoese  had 

found  another  way  out. 

Sarcoxie  is  an  Indian  word.     It  was  the  name  of  a  chief  and  means  "rising 

sun." 

When  a  community  in  Cass  county  wanted  a  name  and  could  not  agree,  they 

wrote  to  the  postoffice  department  to  do  the  christening,  saying  in  their  petition 

that  they  wanted  something  "peculiar."     The  answer  came  back,  naming  the 

town  "Peculiar." 

Walnut   Grove   in    Greene   county   was   given  its  name    from   the    forest   in 
■  which  it  was  located.     At  the  time  of  the  first  settlement  the  name  was  "Pos- 
sum Trot." 

Chillicothe  is  a  Shawnee  word  and  is  said  to  mean  "The  Big  Town  Where 

We  Live."  .  Breckenridge  in  Caldwell  county  honored  the  memory  of  John  C. 

Breckenridge,   who   was   a   candidate   for  vice-president   at   the   time  the  name 

was  given. 

Maryville  was  named  in  honor  of  Mary  Graham,  the  wife  of  Amos  Graham, 

the  first  resident. 

Tradition  credits  Ephraim  Stout  with  being  the  first  setrtler  to  recognize  the 

beauty  of  Arcadia  Valley.  He  built  his  cabin  there  and  the  place  was  known 

for  years  bv  the  homely  name  of   Stout's  Settlement. 

Harmony  Mission. 

Missionaries  sent  out  by  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  and  Domestic 
Missions  first  settled  in  Bates  county.  They  were  welcomed  by  the  Osages.  A 
council  was  called.  It  was  attended  by  8,500  Indians.  The  meeting  place  was 
on  the  banks  of  the  Marias  des  Cygnes.  The  Indians  gave  the  missionaries  a 
tract  of  land  ten  miles  square  and  invited  them  to  make  a  home  there.  This 
was  in  1818.    The  missionaries  accepted  the  land  and  called  the  place  Harmony 


MISSOURI  GEOC.RAPHY  103 

Mission.  A  school  for  Indian  children  was  established.!  Three  years  later  a 
treaty  with  the  Osages  was  made  at  St.  Louis.  By  the  terms  of  it  the  title  to 
two  sections  of  land,  about  thirteen  hundred  acres,  was  conveyed  to  Harmony 
Mission.  A  large  orchard  was  one  of  the  improvements.  The  Osages  became 
much  attached  to  the  missionaries.  When  they  were  moved  to  a  reservation  in 
the  Indian  Territory,  the  mission  was  also  moved  there.  It  was  maintained 
until   1837.      •  ■» 

When  St.  Louis  Seceded. 

As  a  political  subdivision  St.  Louis  occupies  a  unique  position  among  Amer- 
ican cities.  In  1875,  the  city  and  county  of  St.  Louis  were  authorized  to  sepa- 
rate. The  city  assumed  all  debts  of  the  .county  and  was  relieved  of  all  county 
government.  The  western  limits  of  the  city  were  made  an  arbitrary  curved 
line  with  a  general  north  and  south  direction.  If  there  was  more  curvature  of 
this  line  on  the  west  and  of  the  river  on  the  east  St.  Louis  w^ould  be  egg-shaped. 
The  river  bends  to  the  east  and  the  boundary  curves  to  the  west,  but  river  and 
line  meet  in  north  and  south  points.  The  length  of  the  city  along  the  river  is 
about  twenty  miles.  The  greatest  width  is  about  six  iniles  and  this  is  midway 
between  the  north  and  south  ends. 

When  this  separation  took  place,  forty-five  years  ago.  the  limits  of  the  city 
thus  fixed,  seemed  to  the  wise  citizens  of  that  generation  to  be  ample.  If  the 
separatists  foresaw  a  city  greater  than  they  then  provided  for,  they  did  not 
allow  it  to  afifect  their  plans.  Under  a  new  charter  the  city  became  a  new 
political  subdivision  of  the  state.  The  County  of  St.  Louis  set  up  its  own  gov- 
ernment, establishing  its  county  seat  two  miles  west  of  the  new  city  limits.  But 
a  period  of  forty-five  years  brought  unforeseen  growth.  In  1876,  Grand  ave- 
nue, or  Thirty-sixth  street,  was  the  limit  of  the  residence  section.  Beyond,  to 
the  new  city  limits,  stretched  farm  lands.  Westward  the  home  building  extended. 
It  passed  beyond  the  city  limits  and  covered  large  sections  of  the  county. 
There  came  into  existence  many  communities,  parts  of  the  city  in  respect  to 
municipal  utilities,  but  not  politically.  They  were  in  St.  Louis  county  but  their 
residents  did  business  in  the  city.  They  did  not  count  in  the  population  of 
St.  Louis. 

Missouri  Nomenclature. 

.Many  of  the  names  in  Missouri  geography  are  homely  They  suggest  the 
pioneer  days.  Eleven  Points  is  a  river  in  Oregon'  county.  It  has  its  source  in 
an  immense  spring  at  the  foot  of  a  hill  three  hundred  feet  high.  One  Hundred 
and  Two  River  is  in  Nodaway  county.  Deep  Water.  Big  White  Oak.  Tebo, 
Honey  and  Bear  are  the  principal  creeks  of  Henry  county.  Turn-back  river  is  in 
Dade  county. 

Peruque  river  in  St.  Charles  county  took  its  name  from  the  fact  that  a 
Frenchman  in  the  early  days,  while  fording  the  creek.  Peruque  river,  caught 
his  wig  or  peruque  after  the  manner  of  Absalom,  in  the  branch  of  a  tree. 

The  Great  Saltpeter  cave  in  Dallas  county  was  named  from  the  fact  that 
it  atiorded  shelter  to  a  gang  of  counterfeiters  who  pretended  they  were  there 
to  manufacture  saltpeter. 


104  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Humansville,  in  Polk  county,  received  its  name  for  James  Hixman,  a  pioneer 
of  1834.  A  single  black  jack  tree  upon  the  elevation  suggested  the  name  of 
Lone  Jack  in  Jackson  county. 

Lee's  Summit  was  given  for  the  double  reason  that  Dr.  P.  J.  G.  Lee  was 
one  of  the  earliest  settlers  and  because  it  is  the  highest  point  between  Kansas 
City  and  St  Louis  on  the  Missouri  Pacific  railroad. 

Health  Giving  Fountains. 

Indian  creek  in  McDonald  county,  according  to  an  early  writer,  was  ''so 
named  from  the  fact  that  along  its  banks  was  the  great  rendezvous  for  the 
Indians  who  inhabited  this  country.  Among  the  earliest  traditions  gathered 
from  the  Indians  by  the  white  settlers  was  one  of  healing  fountains  which  were 
said  to  exist  in  this  region,  the  waters  of  which  healed  all  diseases;  large  num- 
bers of  Indians  came  every  year.  A  few  daring  hunters,  by  affiliating  with  the 
Indians,  visited  these  fountains  and  told  wonderful  tales  of  the  cures  efYected 
by  them.  But  so  jealous  were  the  Indians  of  their  location,  afid  so  tenaciously 
did  they  cling  to  the  surrounding  country,  that  most  white  men  were  deterred 
from  settling  in  this  immediate  vicinity.  The  few  white  settlers  who  did  settle 
here,  however,  were  not  shown  these  'fountains,'  but  only  got  their  history  and 
description  of  their  location  from  the  red  men;  but  so  great  were  the  praises 
of  the  Indians,  that  the  whites  soon  began  to  search  for  them.  Among  the 
first  to  make  an  extended  search  was  a  man  named  Friend,  who  was  also,  prob- 
ably, the  first  white  man  to  settle  on  Indian  creek,  and  a  member  of  whose 
family  was  severely  afflicted  with  rheumatism.  Guided  by  the  Indian  descrip- 
tions, he  was  not  a  great  while  in  finding  the  'Four  Great  Medical  Springs.' 
Living  but  a  few  miles  away,  the  water  was  freely  used,  and  a  speedy  and  per- 
manent cure  effected." 

Henry  McCary's  writing  in  1876  of  pioneer  days  in  Barry  county  told  how 
names  were  bestowed  in  the  early  days:  "Washburn  prairie  was  settled  first 
by  a  Mr.  Washburn,  in  1828,  and  Stone's  prairie  by  a  James  Stone,  and  King's 
prairie  by  George  W.  King;  Starkey's  prairie  by  John  W.  Starkey ;  Hickam's 
prairie  by  Jacob  Ilickam;  Jenkins'  creek  by  a  man  by  the  name  of  Jenkins,  who 
died  in  his  little  cabin,  in  the  dead  of  winter,  no  one  but  his  wife  and  little 
children  there.  She  had' to  travel  all  the  way  to  Sudeth  Meek's,  a  short  distance 
s6uth  of  Washburn  prairie,  to  get  help  to  bury  him,  and  no  road  from  the 
mouth  of  Jenkins'  creek  to  the  John  Lock  place,  eight  or  ten  miles ;  nothing 
but  a  deer  or  wolf  trail  to  guide  her." 

Some  Missouri  communities  had  their  beginnings  without  preliminary  plan- 
ning. Hosea  Powers,  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  education,  a  licensed  lawyer 
and  possessed  of  some  means,  came  with  his  caravan,  moving  westward  through 
the  state  about  1839.  It  was  his  custom  to  walk  in  advance  of  the  wagons,  car- 
rying his  rifle  on  his  shoulder.  He  stopped  at  a  spring  in  what  is  now  Benton 
county,  stooped  and  drank.  He  liked  the  water,  looked  around  him  and  con- 
cluded that  was  for  him  the  ideal  spot.  As  the  wagons  came  up  he  rounded 
them,  ordered  the  teams  unhitched  and  told  the  family  he  had  found  the  place 
to  settle.  There  wasn't  another  house  near.  Being  a  surveyor,  Hosea  Powers 
ran  the  lines  and  staked  his  claim.     Such  was  the  beginning  of  Cole  Camp.     The 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  105 

name   came    from   the   Cole    family,   of    Cooper   county,   who   had   been    in    the 
habit  of  camping  on  the  creek  when  on  their  hunting  expeditions. 

Meramec,  Alias  Catfish. 

Tradition  has  it  that  Indians  gave  the  Meramec  river  its  name  because  it 
abounded  in  catfish.  Judge  Wilson  Primm,  an  authority  on  Missouri  nomencla- 
ture in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis,  accepted  this  and  quoted  his  neighbor.  Captain 
Samuel  Knight,  who  was  a  fisherman.  The  captain  told  the  judge  that  in  the 
fall  of  1820  he  was  deer  hunting  in  the  vicinity  of  the  mouth  of  the  Meramec. 
The  water  was  so  clear  that  objects  on  or  near  the  bottom  were  distinguished. 
The  captain  saw  great  numbers  of  catfish,  so  many  that  they  actually  dammed 
the  water.  These  catfish  were  lying  side  by  side  as  close  to  each  other  as  the 
fingers  of  the  hand.  Their  heads  were  in  a  line,  from  shore  to  shore,  Knight 
said.  The  fish  were  of  large  size.  They  lay  motionless,  not  attempting  to  seize 
the  small  fish  swimming  near  them.  Captain  Knight  said  hei*  mentioned  this 
astonishing  spectacle  to  Ben  Fine,  McGregor  Fine,  and  John  Home,  who  had 
lived  for  years  near  the  mouth  of  the  "Meramec,  and  they  told  him  they  had 
seen  the  same  curious  spectacle  every  fall.  Judge  Primm  said  that  while  Mer- 
amec was  the  common  form  of  spelling,  the  Spanish  had  called  the  river  the 
Maramec. 

When  Daniel  Webster  visited  St.  Louis  in  1837,  he  ajjpeared  at  the  Market 
street  entrance  of  the  old  National  hotel  on  Third  street,  where  he  was  being 
entertained,  and  said  to  the  cheering  throng: 

"In  coming  up  the  Mississippi  river  today,  about  twenty  miles  below  your  flourishing 
city,  I  passed  the  mouth  of  a  stream  called  the  Meramec.  It  is  a  name  sacred  and  dear 
to  me.  I  was  born  upon  the  banks  of  the  Merrimac  in  New  Hampshire,  and  whether 
a  man  be  born  upon  the  banks  of  the  Meramec  of  Missouri,  or  the  Merrimac  of  New 
Hampshire,  I  am  proud  to  meet  him  as  a  fellow  countryman,  and  greet  him'with  the 
right  hand  of   friendship   and   fellowship." 

Bonhomme,  which  is  the  name  of  a  road  following  a  spine  of  the  Ozark  foot- 
hills, also  of  a  creek  in  St.  Louis  county,  derived  its  name  from  neighbors'  appre- 
ciation of  Joseph  Herbert,  an  early  settler.  Herbert,  according  to  Judge  Primm, 
was  easy  going,  honest,  obliging  and  popular,  so  much  so  that  the  French  set- 
tlers gave  him  the  name  of  "Bonhomme"  Herbert.  From  this.  Judge  Primm 
said,  Bonhomme  road,  Bonhoinme  creek  and  Bonhomme  township  got  their 
naiTies.  Judge  Primm  thought  that  the  French  may  have  called  it  La  Riviere  au 
Bonhomme,  from  its  nearnes*  to  Herbert's  home,  and  that  when  the  change 
of  government  and  later  immigration  came,  the  name  was  Americanized  to 
Bonhomme  creek  and  Bonhomme  road.  Judge  Primm  accounted  for  the  nam- 
ing of  the  River  des  Peres,  which  has  bothered  St.  Louis  engineers  for  two 
generations. 

The  River  of  the  Fathers. 

"A  numlier  of  the  religious  order  of  Trappists  or  Monks  from  Canada  had,  under 
the  authority  of  the  Bishop  at  Quebec,  Canada,  settled  at  Cahokia  in  what  is  now 
St.  Clair  county,  Illinois.  A  few  members  of  this  order,  attracted  by  the  beauty  of  the 
mouth   of   this  stream,  commenced  the   formation  of   an  establishment  there;   but  through 


106  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

fear  of  Indian  depredation  or  fearful  of  sickness,  they  abandoned  the  work  which  they 
had  begun.  Henceforth  the  stream  was  known  and  called  the  Des  Peres,  the  River 
of  the  Fathers." 

For  Creve  Coeur.  the  name  of  the  long  lake,  which  had  been  once  a  channel 
of  the  Missouri  river,  Judge  Priinm  had  an  explanation  based  on  one  of  the 
French  traditions.  Alexis  was  the  bellringer  at  the  Catholic  church  in  the  good 
old  colony  days  of  St.  Louis.  He  took  to  himself  a  wife  and  started  his  new 
home  on  the  border  of  the  lake  where  fish  and  game  were  abundant  and  where 
the  Missouri  bottom  soil  was  rich  beyond  compare.  After  a  year  in  what  was 
then  frontier  for  Laclede's  settlement  under-the-hill,  Mdme.  Alexis  came  in  to 
visit  with  relatives.  She  replied  in  French  to  their  inquiries,  that  life  at  the 
lake  was  a  weight  on  her  heart.  And  that,  Judge  Primm  said,  was  what  was 
best  expressed  by  "creve  coeur."  The  young  wife  meant  that  she  missed  the 
ringing  of  the  church  bells  and  was  depressed  by  the  surroundings  of  the  lake- 
side home.  Ale*xis  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  the  wife,  moved  back  to  the 
village  and  resumed  his  vocation  of  official  bellringer  in  the  church.  •  The  name 
of  Creve  Coeur  remained. 

The  Climate  Chaxmed. 

Missouri  climate  charmed  the  newcomers  of  one  hundred  years  ago.  It 
received  the  emphatic  commendation  of  the  travelers  and  visiting  scientists. 
John  Bradbury,  an  English  naturalist,  came  to  Missouri  about  1811  and  re- 
mained several  years.     He   wrote   from  experience : 

"The  climate  is  very  fine.  The  spring  commences  about  the  middle  of  March  in  the 
neighborhood  of  St.  Louis,  at  which  time  the  willow,  the  elms,  and  maples  are  in  flower. 
.  The  spring  rains  usually  occur  in  May,  after  which  month  the  weather  continues  fine, 
almost  without  interruption,  until  September,  when  rain  again  occurs  about  the  equinox, 
after  which  it  again  remains  fine,  serene  weather  until  near  Christmas,  when  winter 
commences.  About  the  beginning  or  middle  of  October  the  Indian  summer  begins,  which 
is  immediately  known  by  the  change  that  takes  place  in  the  atmosphere,  as  it  now 
becomes  hazy,  or  what  they  term  smoky.  This  gives  to  the  sun  a  red  appearance,  and 
takes  away  the  glare  of  light,  so  that  all  the  day,  except  a  few  hours  about  noon,  it  mav 
be  looked  at  with  the  naked  eye  without  pain ;  the  air  is  perfectly  quiescent  and  all  is 
stillness,  as  if  nature,  after  her  exertions  during  the  summer,  was  now  at  rest.  The 
winters  are  sharp,  but  it  may  be  remarked  that  less  snow  falls,  and  they  are  much  more 
moderate  on  the  west  than  on  the  east  side  of  the   .Mleghanies   in  similar  latitudes." 

Bradbury  became  enamored  with  Missouri  and  made  his  home  here.  He 
built  a  house  near  a  sulphur  spring  on  the  banks  of  the  River  des  Peres  and  was 
living  there  as  late  as  1819. 

"Winter  of  the  Big  Freeze." 

Winters  of  extreme  severity  have  been  so  rare  in  Missouri  as  to  make 
them  historic.  In  thirty-six  years  after  the  United  States  weather  bureau  was 
established  in  St.  Louis  the  mercurj-  in  December  dropped  below  zero  in  only 
twelve  of  them.  The  bureau  was  established  in  1874.  The  winter  of  1874-5 
is  one  of  the  few  that  constitute  the  exceptions  to  Missouri's  uniform  record  of 
favorable    temperature.       That    winter    ranks    witli    "the    Winter    of    the    Big 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  107 

Freeze" — 1836.  The  river  closed  the  last  day  of  December  and  so  remained 
until  the  2nd  of  March.  The  long  cold  period  ended  in  one  of  the  heaviest 
snow  storms  ever  seen  in  Missouri,  In  January,  1875,  the  mercury  registered 
16  below  zero.  It  has  been  quite  the  rule  of  Missouri  climate,  as  shown  by 
the  government  records,  to  have  December  temperatures  forecast  the  character 
of  the  entire  winters.  A  mild  December  has  usually  been  followed  by  a  mild 
winter. 

The  winter  of  1874  preceded  the  completion  of  the  Eads  bridge.  For  sixty- 
two  days  no  ferry  boats  ran.  Immense  quantities  of  merchandise,  besides  the 
city's  supply  of  coal,  were  wagoned  over  on  the  ice.  Booths  were  built  midway 
of  the  channel.  Liquid  refreshments  were  served  and  some  amusements  were 
conducted.  The  ice  bridge  was  used  by  travelers  arriving  and  departing  from 
the  stations  of  the  eastern  railroads  on  the   Illinois  side. 

The  Long  Expedition. 

Great  expectation  attended  the  government  expedition  headed  by  Major 
Long,  which  left  St.  Louis  in  1819.  The  destination  was  the  Upper  Missouri. 
The  purpose  was  a  comprehensive  military  and  scientific  exploration  of  the 
country  between  the  Missouri  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  an  editorial, 
the   Missouri  Gazette  of  April  21   said: 

"The  importance  of  this  expedition  has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  wliole  nation, 
and  there  is  no  measure  which  has  heen  adopted  by  the  present  administration  that 
has  received  such  universal  commendation.  If  the  agents  of  the  government  who  have 
charge  of  it  fulfill  the  high  expectations  which  have  been  raised,  it  will  conspicuously 
add  to  the  admiration  with  which  the  administration  of  James  Monroe  will  hereafter  be 
viewed.  ♦  *  *  *  If  the  expedition  should  succeed,  as  we  fondly  hope  and  expect,  and  the 
views  of  the  government  should  be  carried  into  eflfect,  the  time  will  not  be  far  distant 
when  another  nation  will  inhabit  west  of  the  Mississippi,  equal  at  least,  if  not  superior, 
to  those  which  the  ancient  remains  still  found  in  this  country  lead  us  to  believe  once 
flourished  here,  a  nation  indeed  rendered  more  durable  by  the  enjoyment  of  that  great 
invention  of  American   freemen — a  Federal   Republic." 

To  show  the  "very  erroneous  opinions  entertained  by  our  eastern  brethren 
as  to  the  mountains  and  rivers  between  this  valley  and  the  Pacific,"  the  Mis- 
souri Gazette  republished  this  paragra])h  which  was  going  the  rounds  in  1818, 
the  vear  before  the  Long  Expedition  started  up  the  Missouri : 

"Government  is  fitting  out  an  expedition  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Northwest 
Coast.  It  is  said  to  be  an  expedition  of  discovery  and  is  to  be  conducted  by  able  and 
scientific  men,  attended  by  a  military  force  A  steamboat  is  now  building  at  Pittsburg 
for  this  expedition,  and  which,  it  is  expected,  will  be  able  to  proceed  up  the  Missouri  to 
its  source.  It  is  ascertained  that  there  is  a  passage  through  the  Rocky  Moimtains,  and. 
at  the  distance  of  about  five  miles  after  you  pass  the  mountains,  a  branch  of  the 
Columbia  commences  running  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  It  is  intended  to  take  the  steamboat 
to  pieces  and  rebuild  her  in  this  river.  The  expedition  is  to  traverse  the  continent  by 
water,  and  to  he  absent  about  two  years.  It  will  pass  the  first  winter  on  this  side  the 
Rocky   Mountains." 

The  Wonderful  Western  Engineer. 

"White  man  bad  man,  keep  great  spirit  chained  and  build  fire  under  it  to 
make  it  work  a  boat."  This  was  an  Indian's  description  of  the  Western  Engi- 
neer, the  craft   which   transported  these  government  scientists. 


108  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  expedition  at  St.  Louis,  the  Enquirer  said  of  this 
remarkable  marine  architecture: 

"The  bow  of  the  vessel  exhibits  a  huge  serpent,  black  and  scaly,  rising  out  of  the 
water  from  under  the  boat,  his  head  as  high  as  the  deck,  darted  forward,  his  mouth 
open,  vomiting  smoke,  and  apparently  carrying  the  boat  on  his  back.  From  under  the 
boat,  at  its  stern,  issues  a  stream  of  foaming  water,  dashing  violently  along.  All  of  the 
machinery  is  hid.  The  boat  is  ascending  the  rapid  stream  at  the  rate  of  three  miles 
an  hour.  Neither  wind  nor  human  hands  are  seen  to  help  her,  and  to  the  eye  of  igno- 
rance the  illusion  is  complete,  that  a  monster  of  the  deep  carries  her  on  his  back  smoking 
with   fatigue   and  lashing  the   waves   with   violent   exertion." 

The  Indians  thought  they  could  see  a  long  tongue  dart  out  when  the  steam 
puffed  from  the  serpent's  head.  They  were  horror-stricken.  The  expedition 
performed  its  mission  without  interference. 

"The  Great  American  Desert." 

The  Long  expedition  gave  to  American  geography  "the  Great  American 
Desert."  Long  and  his  party  of  scientists  explored  Nebraska,  Colorado,  Kan- 
sas and  Oklahoma.  They  left  the  Missouri  near  Omaha.  They  went  as  far 
as  the  Rocky  Mountains.  They  divided  into  groups  and  covered  considerable 
territory,  before  they  arrived  at  Fort  Smith.  In  summing  up  his  conclusions 
on  the  expedition,  Major  Long  included  in  his  sweeping  condemnation  northern 
Texas  and  the  Dakotas. 

"In  regard  to  this  extensive  section  of  country,"  he  wrote  to  the  govern- 
ment, "we  do  not  hesitate  in  giving  the  opinion,  that  it  is  almost  wholly  unfit 
for  cultivation  and,  of  course,  uninhabitable  by  a  people  depending  upon  agri- 
culture for  their  subsistence.  Although  tracts  of  fertile  lands  considerably 
extensive  are  occasionally  to  be  met  with,  yet  the  scarcity  of  wood  and  water, 
almost  uniformly  prevalent,  will  prove  an  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
settling  the  country.  This  objection  rests  not  only  against  the  immediate  sec- 
tion under  consideration,  but  applies  with  equal  propriety  to  a  very  much  larger 
portion  of  the  countr)'." 

It  is  here  that  Major  Long  spreads  his  desert  idea  over  part  of  Texas  and 
all  of  the  Dakotas.     He  adds: 

"Agreeably  to  the  best  intelligence  that  can  be  had,  concerning  the  country  northward 
and  southward  of  the  section,  and  especially  to  the  references  deducible  from  the 
account  given  by  Lewis  and  Clark  of  the  country  situated  between  the  Missouri  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  above  the  river  Platte,  the  vast  region  commencing  near  the  sources 
of  the  Sabine,  Trinity,  Brazos  and  Colorado,  extending  northwardly  to  the  forty-ninth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  by  which  the  United  States  is  limited  in  that  direction,  is 
throughout  of  a  similar  character.  The  whole  of  this  region  seems  peculiarly  adapted 
as  a  range  for  buffaloes,  wild  goats,  and  other  wild  game,  incalculable  multitudes  of 
which  find  ample  pasturage  and  subsistence  upon  it." 

Major  Long  found  reason  to  congratulate  the  government  that  this  Great 
American  Desert  was  where,  according  to  his  observation,  it  was. 

"This  region,  however,"  he  wrote,  "viewed  as  a  frontier,  may  prove  of 
infinite  importance  to  the  United  States,  inasmuch  as  it  is  calculated  to  serve 


MISSOURI  GEOGRAPHY  109 

as  a  barrier  to  prevent  too  great  an  extension  of  population  westward,  and 
secure  us  against  the  machinations  or  incursions  of  an  enemy  that  might  other- 
wise be  disposed  to  annoy  us  in  that  quarter." 

Long  was  an  officer  of  the  government  engineer  corps,  of  high  attainments. 
He  had  in  his  party  a  botanist,  a  zoologist,  a  geologist,  a  naturalist,  a  painter 
and  topographers.  These  scientists  of  one  hundred  years  ago  agreed  that  Mis- 
souri was  "the   farthest  west"  for  the  march  of  American  civilization. 

The  Modern  View. 

To  a  Boston  audience  in  1913,  Rev.  Dr.  Xewell  Dwight  Hillis,  of  Plymouth 
church,  Brooklyn,  offered  this  forecast  of  the  Center  State  and  its  tributary 
country : 

"God  built  this  country  like  a  ship,  with  the  Mississippi  for  the  keel,  and  the  rivers, 
like  the  Ohio  and  the  Missouri  and  their  various  branches,  stretching  forth  on  either  side 
like  ribs  from  the  keel ;  but  the  center  of  the  ship  always  is  the  captain's  treasure  chest 
and  in  that  central  spot  are  assembled  all  the  riches  of  the  cargo.  Long  ago  Mr.  Glad- 
stone prophesied  that  the  Manchester,  Birmingham  and  Leeds  of  the  twentieth  century 
would  be  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  He  held  that  cities  of  a  million  population  would 
spring  up  in  that  region,  where  the  food  products  are  abundant  and  where  the  freight 
upon  raw  cotton  would  be  little  and  the  freight  upon  manufactured  goods  less.  Already 
that  prophecy  is  beginning  to  be  fulfilled.  Many  a  shrewd  Englishman  manufacturer 
will  move  his  spindles  and  looms  to  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  and  take  advantage  of 
the  food  materials  and  the  raw  cotton  and  flax  and  wool,  with  the  iron  and  the  coal  and 
the  water  power  that  lend  such  unique  and  such  strategic  advantage  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley  region.  The  region  where  the  Ohio,  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi  Vallej-s  meet 
is  to  be  the  most  densely  populated  region  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  not  less  than  the 
richest  and  the  most  prosperous  region.  New  York,  indeed,  will  always  be  the  London, 
but  it  will  be  supported  by  the  manufacturing  districts.  We  now  seem  to  be  within  sight 
of  the  era  when  the  center  of  economic  gravity  is  to  change." 

When  Joseph  W.  Folk  had  come  to  know  the  Center  State,  after  four  years 
of  the  governorship  and  much  journeying  to  and  fro,  he  summed  up  the  nat- 
ural and  developed  advantages  of  the  commonwealth : 

"If  a  wall  were  built  around  Missouri  the  state  could  still  supply  every  want 
of  those  within.  There  are  fewer  mortgaged  homes  in  Missouri  than  in  any 
other  manufacturing  state,  fewer  mortgaged  farms  than  in  any  other  agricul- 
tural state,  and  fewer  mortgaged  men  than  in  any  of  the  United  States.  One- 
tenth  of  the  wheat  and  one-twelfth  of  the  corn  of  the  entire  world  are  grown 
in  Missouri.  In  horticulture  as  well  as  in  agriculture,  Missouri  leads  the  other 
states.  The  largest  orchards  on  the  globe  can  be  found  in  Missouri.  We  have 
no  silver  mines  of  consequence,  but  the  output  of  the  ^Missouri  hen  each  jear 
exceeds  in  value  the  total  production  of  all  the  silver  mines  of  Colorado.  We 
have  no  gold  mines,  but  the  minerals  the  miners  bring  up  from  the  bowels  of 
the  earth  into  the  Missouri  sunlight  each  year  exceed  in  value  the  total  mineral 
production  of  the  golden  state  of  California." 

What  Missouri  Gained.  * 

This  generation  smiles  over  Major  Long's  discovery  of  the  '"Great  American 
Desert."     But  some  day  an  historical   student  may   put  up  a  strong  argument 


110  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

that  it  was  the  best  thing  that  ever  happened  for  Missouri.  Major  Long's 
findings  and  the  government's  acceptance  of  them  and  action  upon  them,  fixed 
Missouri  for  two  generations  as  the  farthest  west  of  civilization.  Immigration 
to  this  state,  before  the  European  revolutions  of  1848  and  the  potato  famine  of 
Ireland  in  1849.  was  from  eastern,  southern  and  middle  states.  It  made  the 
settlement  of  Missouri  during  that  period  distinctively  American.  And  those 
who  came  remained  to  make  their  homes  and  raise  Missouri  families.  The 
movement  of  Americans  westward  beyond  the  Missouri  did  not  come  in  large 
numbers  until  after  the  Civil  war.  The  census  of  1910  showed  that  three  out 
of  four  Missourians  are  to  Missouri  bom.  Out  of  over  3,000,000  population, 
Missouri  had  only  230,000  alien  born, — one  Missourian  of  foreign  birth  to 
thirteen  of  American  birth.  The  Great  American  Desert  played  no  small  part, 
perhaps,  in  making  Missouri   the  typical  and  distinctive  American  state. 


I  OLD  GlLLIS  HOUSE 


THE  PRINCIPAL  HOTEL  OF  KANSAS  CITY   IX  THE  FIFTIES 
Headquarters  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  for  the  colonization  of  Kansas  with  free 

state   settlers 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN 

Entertainment  for  Man  and  Beast — The  Cradle  of  Statehood — Hotel  Environment  Elected 
Benton — Setting  for  the  First  Law  Making — Nature's  Hostelry — Van  Bibber's  Phi- 
losophy— Startling  Phenomena  at  Loutre  Creek — First  Bill  of  Fare  on  the  European 
Plan — "Gourd  Head"  Prescott — Taking  Care  of  a  Governor — Old  Alexie — A  Land- 
lord's Wife  Befriended  Little  Mark  TiLoin — John  Graves'  Etiquette — Washington  Irv- 
ing Charmed — Audubon  on  Cost  of  Hotel  Living — Charles  Dickens'  Compliments — 
Judge  Quarles  and  the  Towel  Criticism — Uncle  John  Mimms,  Peacemaker  of  the  Bor- 
der— When  Benton  Was  Shocked — Barnum's  Famous  Ragout — How  Guests  Were 
Identified — A  Duel  Averted  by  Tavern  Hospitality — Jefferson  City  Lodging — A  Dance 
and  a  Church  Trial — The  Hotel  Raffle — History  on  a  Register — Where  Old  Bullion 
Drew  the  Line — Liberty's  Tavern  the  Outpost  of  Civilisation — Thrift  and  Horse  Feed 
— Kenncr  of  Paudingville — Court  Day  with  Robidoux — The  Montesquieu  Tragedy — 
When  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon  Thwarted  a  Mob — St.  Louis  Hotels  the  Undoing  of  a  Presi- 
dent— The  Gillis  House  Made  National  History — "McCarly  of  the  McCartys" — Mon- 
roe's County  Seat  Contest — The  Praises  of  English  Travelers — Lafayette's  Experi- 
ences— An  Ozark  Menu — Missouri  Tavern  Etiquette — Some  Surz-ivors  of  the  Stage 
Coach — Arrow  Rock  and  the  Patriotic  Women— Good  Roads  and  Tourist  Motors  Mean 
Renaissance   of  the   Tavern. 

JOSEPH    CHARLESS 

informs  the  gentlemen  who  visit   St.   Ix>uis  and  travelers  generally  that   he   has   opened   a  house  for  their 
reception  at  the  corner  of  Fifth  street  on  the  public  square  of  St.  Louis,  where,  by  the  moderate  charges 
and  attention  to  the  comfort  of  his  guests,  he  will  endeavor  to  merit  general  approbation 
Boarding   and    lodging    per    week,  $4- 50 

Boarding  only,  3.50 

Do,   less  than    a  week,   per   meal  .25 

Lodging   per    night    in    separate   bed  .25 

Where    two   occupy  one  bed  .12  J4 

The  Stat6  paper  of  Missouri  and  Illinois  will  be  taken  at  a  fair  discount 

AdrertisemenI   in  Missouri  Garette,  Sel>lember,  rS^r. 

Twelve  years  Joseph  Charless  edited  and  published  the  first  newspaper  in 
Missouri.  At  the  top  of  the  title  page  of  the  Missouri  Gazette  he  printed 
his  slogan  in  black  type, — "Truth  Without  Fear."  And  he  lived  up  to  it,  carry- 
ing a  big  stick  and  dodging  bullets.  Then  he  retired  from  strenuous  journal- 
ism and  opened  a  tavern. 

The  Missouri  tavern  was  of  its  own  class.  Identified  with  the  vocation  of 
tavern  keeping  in  Missouri  are  the  names  of  some  of  the  best  known  and  most 
highly  esteemed  first  families  in  the  state's  historj'.  Taverns  were  opened  for 
"accommodation"  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  They  established  the  repu- 
tation for  hospitality  which  Missouri  has  never  lost.  Immigration  came  in 
successive  high  tides.  In  not  a  few  cases,  as  was  shown  by  Joseph  Charless. 
homes  were  opened  as  a  matter  of  private  "accommodation"  which  led  to  public 
Vol.  1-8  113 


114  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"entertainment."  About  the  wide  fireplace,  the  host  and  his  family  visited  with 
the  wayfarers.  They  listened  to  the  latest  budget  of  news  from  the  outside 
world  and  gave  encouraging  information  as  to  their  own  locality  and  its  advan- 
tages for  settlement.  Court  sessions  were  held  in  the  early  taverns.  Counties 
and  towns  were  organized  and  political  caucuses  w^ere  held  in  Missouri  taverns. 
In  brief,  the  Missouri  tavern  was  the  center  of  pul)lic  affairs  during  those 
pioneer  decades.  In  no  other  state  does  it  appear,  from  somewhat  cursory 
inquiry,  that  the  tavern  has  played  such  important  part. 

"Every  Accommodation  but  Whiskey." 

It  is  told  of  the  wife  of  the  first  editor  in  Missouri  that  no  one  in  need  was 
turned  away  from  her  door.  Mrs.  Sarah  Charless  lived  to  be  eighty-one  years 
of  age.  She  lived  in  Missouri  more  than  half  a  century.  St.  Louis  was  notably 
lacking  in  taverns  when  Joseph  Charless  came  to  start  the  first  newspaper  west 
of  the  Mississippi.  Strangers  whose  credentials  or  appearances  justified  were 
made  welcome  at  private  houses.  To  accommodate  the  new  comers  generally, 
who  often  had  difficulty  in  finding  shelter,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charless  opened  their 
house,  which  was  a  large  one  on  Fifth  and  Market  streets.  A  sign  was  hung 
from  a  post  bearing  the  announcement :  "Entertainment  by  Joseph  Charless." 
With  the  house  was  a  garden,  one  of  the  finest  in  St.  Louis,  occupying  half  of 
the  square  bounded  by  Fifth,  Fourth,  Market  and  Walnut  streets.  There, 
fruit  and  vegetables  were  grown  for  a  table  which  became  famous.  In  a  card 
Mr.  Charless  told  through  the  Gazette  that  at  his  house  strangers  "will  find 
every  accommodation  but  whiskey."  Mrs.  Charless  was  one  of  the  seven  women 
who,  with  two  men,  organized  the  first  Presbyterian  church  in  Missouri. 

Birthplace  of  the  State. 

In  a  tavern  Missouri  was  born.  The  first  legislature  met  in  that  hotel.  The 
first  governor,  McNair,  and  the  first  lieutenant-governor,  Ashley,  w'ere  inaugu- 
rated in  that  hotel.  The  first  United  States  senators.  Barton  and  Benton,  were 
elected  there. 

In  accord  with  the  fitness  of  things,  it  was  called  the  Missouri  hotel.  It 
was  situated  well  up  Main  street.  Begun  in  1817  and  completed  two  years 
later,  the  Missouri  hotel  was  ready  for  its  place  in  the  history  of  the  state's 
making.  Major  Biddle  became  the  owner  of  the  hotel.  He  enlarged  it.  went 
east  and  obtained  the  best  professional  boniface  he  could  induce  to  come  west. 
The  Missouri  was  opened  with  equipment  and  appointments  which  made  it  for 
more  than  a  generation  the  pride  of  the  Mississippi  \' alley.  Upon  the  sign  of 
the  Missouri  hotel  was  painted  a  bufifalo. 

For  many  years  the  Missouri  was  the  place  favored  for  banc[uets  and 
balls.  There  his  admiring  fellow  citizens  entertained  Barton  with  a  grand 
dinner  when  he  came  back  from  Washington  after  making  his  great  speech 
in  the  Senate.  St.  Patrick's  Days  were  celebrated  at  the  Missouri  hotel.  Ex- 
peditions were  planned  there.  Principals  and  seconds  met  there  to  arrange 
preliminaries  of  duels.  General  William  Henry  Harrison,  afterwards  President, 
General  Zachary  Taylor,  also  afterwards  President,  General  Winfield  Scott, 
wlio  wanted  to  be  but  was  not  President,  were  entertained  at  the  Missouri. 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  115 

Thomas  H.  Benton  owed  his  first  election  to  tavern  environment.  His 
friends  had  been  able  to  muster  only  a  tie  vote  against  the  opposition.  One 
of  the  Benton  votes  was  that  of  Daniel  Ralls  who  lay  in  the  last  stages  of  ill- 
ness. Benton's  friends  won  over  one  vote  from  the  opposition,  giving  the  nec- 
essary majority  if  the  dying  man  could  be  kept  alive  and  brought  in  when  the 
legislature  resumed  its  session.  The  fact  that  the  legislature  was  sitting  in  the 
hotel  and  that  the  dying  member  was  in  a  room  up  stairs  made  the  plan  of 
Benton's  friends  possible,  although  desperate.  The  sick  member  was  carried 
down  stairs  by  four  negro  servants  and  voted  for  Benton.  He  died  shortly 
after  being  returned  to  his  room. 

The  first  constitution  of  Missouri  was  framed  in  a  tavern  which  bore  the 
imposing  name  of  the  Mansion  House  hotel.  The  delegates  met  in  the  dining 
room.  There  were  forty-one  of  them.  W^illiam  Bennett,  the  owner  of  the 
hotel,  received  thirty  dollars  a  week  for  the  use  of  the  dining  room  and  two 
smaller  rooms  used  for  offices.  The  Mansion  House  owed  its  title  to  the  fact 
that  it  had  been  the  residence  and  office  of  Surveyor-General  Rector,  built  by 
him  in  1816,  and  at  the  time  one  of  the  show  places  of  St.  Louis.  Bennett  got 
possession  in  1819,  made  changes  and  adapted  the  building  to  hotel  purposes. 
In  his  desire  to  rival  the  Missouri  hotel  as  the  official  tavern  of  the  forming 
state,  he  offered  accommodations  at  an  attractive  price.  Under  the  name  of 
the  Denver  House  this  birthplace  of  the  first  constitution  was  still  standing  at 
Third  and  Vine  streets  in  the  early  eighties. 

Palmer  on  Parliamentary  Practice. 

There  was  a  man  who  called  himself  "Ringtail  Painter"  in  that  first  general 
assembly  of  Missouri.  His  name  was  Palmer  and  his  cabin  home  was  in  the 
Grand  river  valley.  This  first  legislature  met  in  the  hotel.  Palmer  insisted  on 
occuping  the  same  bed  for  one  night  with  Governor  McNair  so  that,  as  he  said, 
he  could  go  back  and  tell  his  friends  of  Fishing  river  that  he  had  slept  with  the 
governor  of  Missouri. 

This  first  meeting  of  the  general  assembly  in  that  hotel  was  enlivened  by  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  parliamentary  scenes  in  the  history  of  Missouri  law- 
making. During  a  session  of  the  state  senate  Duff  Green  and  Andrew  McGirk 
became  involved  in  a  heated  argument.  McGirk  threw  a  pewter  inkstand  at 
Green.  The  two  men  started  a  fist  fight.  Governor  McNair  came  forward 
and  tried  to  stop  the  fight.  He  caught  hold  of  Green  and  was  in  the  act  of 
pulling  him  away  when  Ringtail  Painter  Palmer  grabbed  the  governor  and  pushed 
him  to  one  side  shouting.  "Stand  back,  governor;  you  are  no  more  in  a  fight 
than  any  other  man.  I  know,  that  much  law.  I  am  at  home  in  this  business. 
Give  it  to  him.  Duff,  give  it  to  him  1" 

In  1835,  the  Missouri  was  still  a  famous  hotel.  John  F.  Darby  sold  it 
to  Isaac  Walker  who  owned  the  property  many  years  and  tried  to  maintain 
the  Missouri's  reputation.  He  rented  the  hotel  to  a  tavern  keeper  in  whom  he 
thought  he  could  have  confidence.  The  result  was  so  disappointing  that  Walker 
said  publicly  this  man  "was  not  fit  to  keep  tavern ;  that  his  butter  was  so  strong 
he  could  hang  his  hat  on  it."  The  hotel  man  sued  Walker  for  slander  and  em- 
ployed Uriel  Wright,  the  foremost  orator  at  the  bar  in  those  days,  to  push  the 


116  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

case.    The  old  Missouri  hotel  stood  until  1873  and  then  gave  way  to  a  business 
structure. 

When  St.  Charles  was  made  the  temporary  capital,  members  of  the  general 
assembly  were  given  the  best  that  the  taverns  could  afford  and  were  charged 
only  $2.50  a  week.  The  landlords  paid  a  cent  and  a  half  a  pound  for  pork, 
twenty-five  cents  each  for  venison  hams,  five  cents  a  dozen  for  eggs,  twenty-five 
cents  a  gallon  for  lioney,  and  one  dollar  a  pound  for  cofl^ee. 

Some  Historic  Hosts. 

Men  who  became  prominent  in  pubHc  affairs  and  successful  in  business 
were  among  those  who  kept  tavern  in  the  early  days.  James  H.  Audrain, 
whose  family  name  is  carried  by  one  of  the  Central  Missouri  counties,  adver- 
tised, in  July,  1818,  that  he  "had  opened  a  house  of  entertainment,  fourteen 
miles  west  of  St.  Charles,  at  Peruque,  on  the  road  from  Boone's  Lick  to  Salt 
river.  He  hopes  from  his  unremitted  attention  to  make  travelers  comfortable 
and  to  share  a  portion  of  the  public  patronage." 

William  Montgomery  announced  the  opening  of  his  tavern  "at  the  sign  of 
the  spread  eagle"  in  Jackson  that  same  year;  "He  has  furnished  himself  with 
all  kinds  of  liquors  of  the  best  quality.  He  has  provided  good  ostlers,  and  his 
stables  well  furnished  with  hay,  corn  and  oats.  From  his  long  acquaintance 
with  business  in  his  line,  and  his  wish  to  please,  he  is  induced  to  believe  that 
no  person  will  leave  his  house  unsatisfied." 

The  card  of  J.  J.  Dozier,  of,  St.  Charles,  was  a  model.  He  told  through  the 
Missouri  Gazette,  in  1818,  that  he  had  "commenced  keeping  a  house  of  enter- 
tainment for  travelers  and  all  genteel  and  orderly  company.  He  flatters  himself 
from  the  accommodations  his  house  will  offer,  with  his  strict  attention  and 
desire  to  please,  to  render  all  his  guests  general  satisfaction.  His  charges  will 
be  as  low  as  the  country  will  afford ;  he  tenders  his  thanks  to  his  former  cus- 
tomers in  this  line  of  business,  and  hopes  a  continuance  of  their  favors  with  a 
share  of  public  patronage."  Another  of  these  politely  worded  tavern  cards 
read : 

"Tavern.  Sign  of  the  Green  Tree.  The  subscriber  informs  his  friends  and  the  pub- 
lic that  he  has  taken  that  noted  stand  of  Mr.  Daniel  Freeman,  in  Church  street,  St. 
Louis,  long  occupied  by  Mr.  Freeman  as  a  house  of  public  entertainment,  when  by  his 
exertions  he  hopes  to  merit  a  share  of  the  public  patronage. 

"Attached  to  the  establishment  is  a  livery  stable  kept  by  Mr.  David  Ogden,  where 
Gentlemen  traveling  on  horseback  may  be  sure  that  their  horses  will  receive  the  best 
attention. 

"The  subscriber  intends  that  his  house  shall  be  noted,  as  it  has  been  heretofore,  for 
its   moderate   charges, — boarding  by   the  week   or  month   on   moderate   charges. 

"John    Simonds."- 

In  the  Gazette,  of  November  15,  1817,  appeared  this  "Notice,"  over  the 
name  of  Benjamin  Emmons:  "The  subscriber  gives  information  that  he  keeps 
public  entertainment  at  the  village  of  St.  Charles,  in  the  house  lately  occupied 
for  that  purpose  by  N.  Simonds,  Esq.,  where  the  hungry  and  thirsty  can  be 
accommodated  and  the  weary  find  rest." 

The  popularity  which  Mr.  Emmons  achieved  was  well  shown,  later  in  1820, 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  117 

when  his  fellow  citizens  elected  him  to  the  convention  which  framed  the  first 
constitution  of  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  selection  of  Mr.  Emmons  was  the 
more  notable  because  he  was  the  only  delegate  elected  who  was  in  favor  of 
some  degree  of  restriction  on  slavery  in  the  new  state. 

At  Fayette  there  was  a  tavern  famous  through  two  generations  of  Missou- 
rians.  It  was  three  stories  high,  a  regular  skyscraper  for  that  day.  Behind 
the  hotel  was  an  immense  barn.  In  front  of  the  hotel  was  a  large  block,  pro- 
vided especially  for  ladies  arriving  on  horseback.  The  block  was  a  part  of 
the  equipment  of  most  of  the  Missouri  taverns.  It  had  its  place,  as  indispensable 
as  the  swinging  sign  and  the  bell  on  the  top  of  a  post.  The  rates  at  this  Fay- 
ette tavern  were  fifty  cents  a  day  for  man  and  the  same  for  horse.  Negro 
hostlers  were  on  duty  day  and  night  to  take  the  horses  to  the  barn.  It  was 
customary  for  the  departing  guest  to  tip  the  hostler  who  brought  round  his 
horse,  with,  not  a  nickel,  but  a  silver  half-dime.  The  bell  invariably  rang  when 
meals  were  ready.  It  is  a  rather  curious  fact  that  in  the  Missouri  tavern  adver- 
tisements of  one  hundred  years  ago,  hostler  was  spelled  without  the  "h." 
Bowling's  tavern,  kept  by  one  of  the  pioneers  at  the  north  end  of  Main  street 
in  St.  Louis,  announced  through  the  press: 

"Every  exertion  will  be  made  to  furnish  his  table,  so  as  to  render  comfortable  those 
that  stop  at  his  house. 

"His  Bar  is  well  supplied  with  the  best  of  Liquors  and  an  aUentive  keeper.  His 
Stable  is  well  supplied  with  provender  and  attended  by  a  careful  ostler.  In  short  he  will 
spare  no  expense  to  please." 

Bar,  liquors  and  stable  were  printed  in  large  type. 

Nature's  Tavern. 

The  oddest  tavern  in  Missouri  was  a  cave  forty  feet  wide  and  twenty  feet 
high,  in  St.  Charles  county.  Boatmen  ran  their  pirogues  and  longhorns  to  the 
bank  and  took  shelter  in  that  cave  from  driving  storms.  They  called  it  ''The 
Tavern."  On  the  walls  in  the  early  days  were  to  be  seen  the  names  of  many 
who  had  found  shelter  there  and  who  had  registered.  Drawings  and  carvings 
of  birds  and  beasts  said  to  have  been  done  by  the  Indians  were  the  mural 
decorations  of  this  nature  tavern.  A  creek  of  considerable  size  empties  into 
the  Missouri  near  this  cave  and  at  the  present  day  is  known  as  Tavern  creek. 

To  Van  Bibber's  tavern  came  Colonel  David  Craig  when  he  migrated  to 
Missouri  in  1817.  He  brought  with  him  two  suits  of  black  clothes  and  on  a 
Sunday  morning  not  long  after  his  arrival,  following  the  Virginia  custom,  he 
put  on  the  good  clothes  and  went  to  breakfast.  The  women  folks  crowded 
around  and  with  much  interest  examined  the  store  clothes.  One  of  the  girls 
touched  the  cloth  and  admiringly  exclaimed,  "Oh !  Ain't  he  nice !"  The  tavern 
keeper,  who  either  didn't  favor  such  style  or  wished  to  check  further  display 
of  enthusiasm  by  his  family,  said,  "Nice!  He  looks  like  a  black  snake  that  has 
just  shed  its  skin." 

Van  Bibber's  Philosophy. 

Van  Bibber  was  somewhat  of  a  philosopher.  He  believed  in  transmigra- 
tion of  souls  and  carried  out  his  theorv  to  definite  details.     Everv  six  thousand 


118  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

years  was  a  complete  cycle,  he  argued,  and  everything  started  over  again.  Sev- 
eral Kentuckians  were  stopping  at  the  tavern  one  night,  and  Van  Bibber  kept 
them  up  late  while  he  expounded  his  belief  at  great  length.  Apparently  the 
guests  were  impressed  and  encouraged  their  host  to  keep  on  talking.  Van 
Bibber  was  so  pleased  with  the  attention  given  him  that  he  told  his  wife  he 
believed  he  had  converted  his  guests  to  his  theory.  In  the  morning  the  spokes- 
man for  the  party  of  travelers  said  to  the  landlord: 

"We  were  very  much  impressed  with  your  argument  last  night.  Believing 
there  may  be  some  truth  in  your  doctrine  and  being  short  of  cash  just  now 
we  have  decided  to  wait  until  we  come  around  again  at  the  end  of  6,000  years 
and  settle  our  bill." 

"No,"  said  Van  Bibber,  "you  are  the  same  blamed  rascals  who  were  here 
6,000  years  ago  and  went  away  without  paying  your  bills,  and  now  you  have 
to  pay  before  you  leave." 

When  Long's  expedition  was  on  the  way  up  the  Missouri  in  1819  to  dis- 
cover that  "Great  American  Desert"  which  appeared  on  United  States  maps 
for  two  generations.  Van  Bibber  was  prepared  to  furnish  the  scientific  minds 
with  something  tO  think  about.  He  told  of  marvelous  occurrences  in  the 
vicinity  of  Loutre  Lick.  At  the  end  of  winter,  or  in  unusually  rainy  seasons, 
according  to  Van  Bibber,  there  appeared  lights  or  balls  of  firCj  apparently  com- 
ing out  of  the  ground.  At  other  timeS  vast  volumes  of  smoke  arose,  coming 
out  of  the  soil.  A  son  of  Daniel  Boone  was  one  of  the  witnesses  of  this  phenom- 
enon. The  tavern  keeper  told  Long  that  two  preachers  were  riding  along 
late  at  night,  about  nine  miles  from  Loutre  Lick,  when  a  ball  of  fire  appeared 
at  one  end  of  the  whip.  Both  preachers  saw  it.  In  a  short  time  a  small  ball 
of  fire  appeared  at  the  other  end  of  the  whip.  Almost  immediately  the  preach- 
ers, their  horses  and  the  objects  around  them  seemed  to  be  enveloped  in  "wreaths 
of  flames."  Van  Bibber  said  the  preachers  were  so  overcome  with  the  spectacle 
that  they  couldn't  tell  more  than  this.  The  scientists  concluded  that  "com- 
bustion of  a  coal  bed  or  decomposition  of  a  mass  of  pyrites"  must  be  the  ex- 
planation of  these  strange  things  told  by  Van  Bibber;  they  dismissed  the  tavern 
keeper's  stories  with  so  little  interest  that  he  was  disgusted. 

Van  Bibber  married  a  granddaughter  of  Daniel  Boone.  He  had  two 
sprightly  daughters,  Fanny  and  Matilda.  His  first  tavern  was  of  logs  and  as 
business  developed  Van  Bibber  added  other  cabins.  Loutre  Lick  became  the 
first  Missouri  spa.  The  earliest  settlers  went  there  for  bodily  ailments  which 
were  benefited  by  the  waters.  Later  Loutre  Lick  became  a  health  resort.  Ben- 
ton went  there  and  told  in  Washington  of  the  waters.  He  advertised  Loutre 
Lick  so  enthusiastically  that  Henry  Clay  referred  in  a  speech  to  the  Missouri 
senator's  "Bethesda."  Washington  Irving,  with  his  traveling  companions,  the 
Swiss  count,  M.  de  Portales,  and  the  Englishman,  Latrobe,  stopped  at  Loutre 
Lick.  He  was  so  pleased  with  the  surroundings  that  he  told  Van  Bibber  "When 
I  get  rich  I  am  coming  to  buy  this  place  and  build  a  nice  residence  here."  But 
Irving  got  into  diplomatic  service  abroad  and  spent  so  much  time  abroad  that  he 
never  carried  out  his  impulse  to  become  a  Missourian. 

Van  Bibber  prospered  to  the  degree  which  called  for  better  than  log  cabins. 
A  carpenter,  Cyranus  Cox,  and  a  blacksmith,  McFarland,  stopped  at  Van  Bib- 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  119 

ber's  one  day.  The  tavernkeeper  persuaded  them  to  stop  and  build  him  some- 
thing more  pretentious  than  the  cabins.  Cox  was  charmed  with  Fanny  Van 
Bibber.  When  the  time  approached  for  the  wedding,  the  carpenter  and  the 
girl  decided  that  his  clothes  were  too  badly  worn  for  the  ceremony.  Cox 
walked  to  St.  Louis  and  bought  a  wedding  suit.  Matilda  Van  Bibber  married 
James  Estill,  a  pioneer  Missouri  merchant.  As  late  as  1912,  a  great  gathering 
of  people,  about  2,000,  assembled  at  Mineola,  the  modern  name  for  Loutre  Lick, 
and  under  the  auspices  of  the  Old  Trails  Association  discussed  the  possibility 
of  preserving  the  Van  Bibber  tavern.  To  feed  the  multitude,  forty  sheep,  one 
hundred  chickens  and  several  beeves  were  barbecued.  Mrs.  Mary  Sharp,  bom 
in  the  tavern,  was  the  guest  of  honor.  Champ  Clark  told  of  the  Missouri  poli- 
tics which  had  been  associated  with  Van  Bibber's  tavern. 

A  La  Carte  on  Boone's  Lick  Road. 

William  (i.  Rice  who  kept  tavern  on  the  Boone's  Lick  road  in  Montgomery 
county,  had  a  scale  of  prices.  He  kept  what  might  be  called  the  first  hotel  in 
Missotnu  on  the  European  plan.  He  told  his  guests  that  the  price  of  dinner 
consisting  of  corn  bread  and  "common  fixins"  was  twenty-five  cents.  For 
wheat  bread  and  "chicken  fixins"  the  charge  was  thirty-seven  and  one-half 
cents.  If  the  decision  was  to  try  both  kinds  of  "fixins"  the  traveler  was  required 
to  pay  sixty-two  and  one-half  cents.  Rice  was  noted  for  his  precision  and  ac- 
curacy in  business.  He  was  made  assessor  of  the  county  when  there  was  quite 
a  debt.  When  he  went  out  of  office  he  had  cleared  off  the  debt  and  left  a 
surplus  in  the  county  treasury.  Tradition  has  it  that  in  making  his  canvass  of 
the  county  to  collect  the  taxes,  Rice  rode  an  ox. 

A  combination  of  preaching  and  tavern  keeping  was  not  uncommon  in  Mis- 
souri's pioneer  days.  Rev.  Andrew  Monroe,  the  Methodist  preacher,  kept 
the  tavern  near  what  is  now  Danville.  This  was  the  place  where  another  minis- 
ter, a  tenderfoot  in  Missouri,  stopped  for  dinner  one  day  and,  there  being  no 
one  else  to  take  care  of  his  horse,  the  minister  went  out  to  the  stable.  There 
he  found  a  heap  of  gourds  common  in  Missouri  in  that  period.  The  minister 
sujjposed  the  gourds  to  be  pumpkins  and  off'ered  some  of  them  to  his  horse. 
After  that  the  minister  was  known  as  "Gourd  Head  Prescott."  Rev.  Andrew 
Monroe  was  one  of  the  first  prohibitionists  of  Missouri.  At  one  time  the  gov- 
ernor of  Missouri  stopped  at  Preacher  Monroe's  tavern  and  called  for  a  stimu- 
lant. Waiving  his  own  scruples,  the  preacher  sent  to  a  store  and  got  a  bottle 
of  whiskey  for  his  distinguished  guest.  But  thereby  he  created  a  precedent. 
Preacher  Monroe  was  strict  in  enforcing  church  rules  against  liquor  using. 
One  day  he  met  David  Dryden,  a  steward  of  the  Methodist  church,  who  had 
recently  settled  in  Montgomery  county  and  built  a  mill,  a  horse  mill,  an  indus- 
try much  needed  at  that  time.  Dryden  was  carrying  a  suspicious  looking  pack- 
age. The  preacher  eyed  it  and  asked,  "Well,  Brother  Dryden,  what  is  that 
you  have  in  your  jug?"  To  Dryden's  memory  came  in  a  flash  what  he  had  heard 
of  Tavernkeeper  Monroe's  experience  with  the  governor.  He  replied,  "It's 
some  whiskey  I  have  just  purchased  for  the  governor  who  is  at  my  house." 
The  preacher  smiled  and  passed  on. 


120  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

John  Smith  T's  Tavern  Incidents. 

Two  incidents  in  the  career  of  John  Smith  T,  Missouri's  most  famous 
gunman  in  the  first  decade  of  statehood,  had  their  settings  in  taverns.  In  a 
lecture  before  the  Missouri  Historical  Society,  many  years  ago,  General  F.  A. 
Rozier  described  these  incidents  which  illustrated  Colonel  Smith's  grim  sense 
of  humor  and  also  the  nerve  of  a  Missouri  tavernkeeper's  wife : 

"In  September,  1830,  Smith  went  to  Ste.  Genevieve,  and,  while  indulging  in  liquor 
with  an  old  citizen  named  Samuel  Ball  at  the  tavern  of  William  McArthur,  they  quar- 
reled, and  Smith  shot  Ball  through  the  head.  They  were  alone  in  the  barroom  at  the 
time.  Mrs.  Mc.A.rthur,  a  brave  woman,  heard  the  shot,  and,  running  into  the  room,  saw 
Ball  lying  dead  on  the  floor.  She  denounced  the  killing  as  a  cowardly  act,  and  demanded 
of  Smith  that  he  surrender  his  pistol.  Producing  the  four  weapons  which  he  always 
carried,  he  handed  them  to  her  with  a  courteous  bow,  and  said,  'Take  them,  my  daughter.' 
He  surrendered  to  the  authorities,  and  a  week  later  was  tried  and  acquitted  before  the 
Circuit  Court.  Acquittal  always  followed  his  arrest  and  trial  for  murder.  No  jury  would 
have  the  temerity  to  convict  him. 

"The  killing  of  Ball,  in  1830,  was  the  last  of  Smith's  homicides.  While  on  bail  await- 
ing trial  for  that  oflfense  he  came  to  St.  Louis.  He  was  described  then  as  having  hair 
perfectly  white.  He  wore  a  buckskin  hunting-shirt  and  a  pair  of  shoes  with  the  tan  on 
them.  'He  seemed,'  says  John  F.  Darby,  in  his  'Personal  Recollections,'  'from  his  venerable 
appearance,  to  have  a  sort  of  Daniel  Boone  aspect  about  him,  which  attracted  the  gaze 
of  every  one.'  When  the  guests  of  the  Planters'  House  learned  who  he  was,  their  dread 
of  him  was  unbounded.  He  had  the  fire  to  himself,  and  when  he  walked  on  the  streets 
he  was  hastily  given  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  room. 

"At  about  this  time  he  went  up  to  Jeflferson  City  during  a  session  of  the  legislature. 
The  Hon.  James  S.  Rollins,  then  a  young  man  of  25,  had  just  returned  from  a  tour  of 
the  state,  on  which  he  had  attracted  general  attention  by  his  eloquence  in  the  temperance 
cause.  Old  Smith  was  in  the  City  Hotel  barroom  and  office  one  night,  considerably  the 
worse  for  liquor,  when  young  Rollins  came  in.  Smith  heard  the  name,  and  calling  the 
young  man  up,  said :  'You  are  the  young  man  whose  temperance  speeches  have  earned 
for  you  the  name  of  the  silver  tongue,  aren't  you?' 

"  'My  name  is  Rollins,'  modestly  replied  the  gratified  orator. 

"Old  Smith  turned  to  the  bar  and  filled  a  tumbler  with  whisky.  Then  whipping  out 
his  Bowie  knife,  he  said:    'Well,  Mr.   Silver  Tongue,  I  want  you  to  join  me  in  a  drink.' 

"'I  have  never  taken  a  drink  in  my  life,'  Rollins  protested. 

"  'No,  sir,  you  never  will  unless  you  take  this  one  right  now,'  and  the  glistening  blade 
was  flourished.  Rollins  drank  the  liquor.  It  made  him  very  sick,  but  it  did  not  kill  him, 
and  Smith  certainlv  would  have  done  so  if  he  had  persisted  in  his  refusal." 

"Old  Alexia." 

More  residents  of  St.  Louis  saw  the  sun  rise  the  29th  of  April,  1825,  than 
had  seen  it  on  any  previous  morning  since  "the  first  thirty"  arrived  from  Fort 
Chartres  with  Auguste  Chouteau.  The  evening  of  the  28th.  a  man  on  a  pony 
galloped  up  the  road  from  Carondelet.  He  brought  the  news  that  Lafayette  had 
just  landed  there  and  would  remain  over  night,  reaching  St.  Louis  in  the  morn- 
ing. "Lafayette  is  coming!"  The  news  spread  through  the  community  of  five 
thousand.  Couriers  mounted  and  rode  in  haste  up  Bellefontaine  road,  out  St. 
Charles  road,  toward  Manchester,  over  the  Gravois  Creek  hills.  As  they  went 
they  shouted  "Lafayette  is  coming!"  All  night  the  candles  burned  in  more  than 
half  of  the  houses  of  St.  Louis.  At  the  earliest  dawn  people  were  moving  in 
the  streets.  When  the  sun  came  up  across  the  American  bottom  it  shone  in 
expectant  faces  of  thousands  of  people  who  lined  the  river  edge,  crowded  dan- 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  121 

geroiisly  near  the  limestone  cliff,  covered  the  Place  d'  Armes,  and  stood  in 
clusters  on  the  house  roofs  from  Main  to  Fifth  streets. 

St.  Louis  had  been  preparing  for  the  great  day.  Lafayette  was  entertained 
with  a  reception  at  Major  Pierre  Chouteau's  mansion.  He  was  given  a  ride 
about  the  city.  He  visited  Governor  Clark's  Indian  museum.  Then  followed 
the  banquet  and  after  that  was  given  the  ball. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  Lafayette  was  amazed  to  see  approaching  an  old 
man  in  the  full  uniform  of  the  French  at  Yorktown.  He  was  delighted  when 
the  old  soldier  saluted  stiffly,  but  correctly.  He  was  deeply  moved  when  Alex- 
ander Bellissime  identified  himself  as  a  native  of  Toulon  who  had  come  over 
with  him  to  fight  for  -American  independence.  Bellissime  had  become  a  St. 
Louisan.  He  was  known  to  everj'body  as  "Old  Alexie."  His  tavern  on  Second 
street,  near  Myrtle,  was  the  resort  of  the  French  boatmen.  After  Lafayette's 
departure  the  veteran  who  had  been  embraced  by  his  commander,  was  more 
esteemed  than  ever  before.  He  lived  to  be  eighty-seven.  On  the  great  days  of 
St.  Louis  "Old  Alexie"  appeared  in  that  well  preserved  uniform  and  three- 
comered,  cockade  hat.  When  "Old  Alexie"  died  in  1833,  Captain  Easton  turned 
out  the  crack  military  company,  the  St.  Louis  Grays,  and  gave  the  veteran  what 
would  have  been  his  heart's  desire — a  military  funeral. 

When  Mark  Twain  Needed  a  Friend. 

On  the  stage  route  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Missouri  river,  passing  through 
Florida,  was  one  of  the  historic  taverns  of  Northeast  Missouri.  It  was  kept  by 
William  Nelson  Penn,  a  Kentuckian  by  birth,  who  became  a  man  of  no  small 
consequence  in  that  section  of  the  state.  Mrs.  Penn  was  one  of  those  good 
Missouri  women  whose  motherly  instinct  went  far  beyond  her  own  household. 
The  Penns  were  landowners.  They  rented  some  acres  to  a  family  less  well-to- 
do.  When  an  interesting  event  occurred  in  the  renter's  family,  Mrs.  Penn  gave 
the  baby  clothes  which  had  been  her  little  daughter's,  and  thus,  when  he  came 
into  the  world,  Mark  Twain  found  a  wardrobe  awaiting  him.  IMr.  Penn  not 
only  kept  tavern,  but  was  a  merchant.  He  served  in  the  legislature  and  later 
was,  for  eighteen  years,  one  of  the  officers  of  Monroe  county. 

John  Graves'  Tavern  House. 

No  man  criticised  with  impunity  the  management  of  those  pioneer  hotels. 
John  Graves  kept  the  first  tavern  in  Chillicothe.  He  started  the  "tavern  house," 
as  he  called  it,  so  early  in  the  history  of  that  community  that  many  consider 
him  the  founder  of  the  city.  Graves  did  the  best  he  knew  how,  and  he  thought 
that  was  good  enough.  One  day  a  traveler  grumbled  about  the  cj)oking.  Graves 
caught  the  critic  by  the  collar,  jerked  him  out  of  his  chair  at  the  table  and 
kicked  him  out  the  front  door. 

"The  blamed  skunk,"  he  said,  "insulted  my  boarders  and  I  won't  stand  for 
it.  My  boarders  eat  my  fare  and  like  it,  and  when  a  man  makes  fun  of  my 
grub,  it  is  the  same  as  saying  they  haven't  sense  enough  to  know  good  grub  from 
bad.    I  am  bound  to  protect  my  boarders." 

Duden,  whose  marvelous  letters  set  Germany  afire  for  emigration  to  Mis- 
souri, told  that  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Missouri,  opposite  St.  Charles  "there 


122  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

lives  a  jolly  Frenchman  who  manages  the  ferry,  is  postmaster  and  an  innkeeper. 
His  name  is  Chauviii;  he  was  born  in  Canada.  He  told  me  that  Prince  Paul  of 
Wuertemberg  had  spent  the  night  with  him  some  time  ago." 

Charles  Joseph  Latrobe,  who  wrote  the  "Rambler  in  North  America"  told 
of  stopping  opposite  St.  Charles,  "where  we  found  shelter  for  the  night  in  a 
little  French  inn,  which,  with  its  odd,  diminutive  bowling  green,  skittle  ground, 
garden  plots  and  arbors,  reminded  us  more  of  the  Old  World  than  anything 
we  had  seen." 

When  Zadock  Woods  built  the  first  tavern  in  Lincoln  county,  one  of  the 
first  houses  in  Troy,  he  surrounded  not  only  the  building  but  the  spring  with 
a  high  stockade,  to  afford  protection  for  his  guests,  and  for  the  neighboring 
settlers  as  well,  from  the  Indians. 

General  Owens  kept  tavern  in  Fayette.  He  was  a  man  of  keen  observa- 
tion and  wit.  At  that  time  Randolph  county  was  on  the  border  line  of  settle- 
ment. The  general  said  he  could  always  tell  his  guests  from  Randolph  by  the 
color  of  their  clothes.  Randolph  people  wore  jeans  which  were  dyed  with 
walnut  bark. 

Judge  Quarles,  an  uncle  of  Mark  Twain,  kept  tavern  in  Paris.  A  guest 
came  to  the  landlord  with  the  request  for  a  clean  towel  in  the  common  wash- 
room. "Sir,"  said  the  judge  with  some  show  of  reproof,  "two  hundred  men 
have  wiped  on  that  towel  and  you  are  the  first  to  complain." 

Audubon  and  Dickens  in  Missouri. 

Audubon,  the  naturalist,  in  his  travels  about  Missouri  in  1843,  was  im- 
pressed with  the  abundance  of  natural  food  supplies  and  with  the  cheapness  of 
everything  eatable.     He  wrote  to  James  Hall : 

"The  markets  here  abound  with  all  the  good  things  of  the  land  and  of  nature's  crea- 
tion. To  give  you  an  idea  of  this  read  the  following  items :  grouse,  two  for  a  York 
shilling;  three  chickens  for  the  same;  turkeys,  wild  or  tame,  twenty-five  cents;  flour,  two 
dollars  a  barrel ;  butter,  si.x  pence  for  the  best — fresh  and  really  good  beef,  three  to  four 
cents;  veal,  the  same;  pork,  two  cents;  venison  hams,  large  and  dried,  fifteen  cents  each; 
potatoes,  ten  cents  a  bushel;  ducks,  three  for  a  shilling;  wild  geese,  ten  cents  each;  canvas 
back  ducks,  a  shilling  a  pair ;  vegetables,  for  the  asking  as  it  were." 

In  a  land  of  such  plenty,  Audubon  felt  that  the  tavern  rates  were  altogether 
too  high.     He  complained : 

"And  only  think,  in  the  midst  of  this  abundance  and  cheapness,  we  are  paying  at  the 
rate  of  nine  dollars  a  week  at  our  hotel,  the  Glasgow;  and  at  the  Planters  we  were  asked 
ten  dollars.  We  are  at  the  Glasgow  hotel  and  will  leave  the  day  after  tomorrow  as  it 
is  too  good  for  our  purses." 

In  his  "American  Notes"  and  "Martin  Chuzzlewit,"  Charles  Dickens  "played 
the  dickens"  and  set  this  country  by  the  ears  after  his  visit  in  1842.  But  Mr. 
Dickens  was  well  pleased  with  his  experience  at  a  famous  old  Missouri  hotel: 

"On  the  fourth  day  after  leaving  Louisville,  we  reached  St.  Louis.  We  went  to  a 
large  hotel  called  the  Planters'  House,  built  like  an  English  hospital,  with  long  passages 
and  bare  walls,  and  skylights  above  the  doors  for  free  circulation  of  air.     There  were  a 


A   SORGHUM    MILL 
A  thriving  industry  in   Missouri  t\vent3'-five  years  ago 


THE    MISSOXJRI   BLACKSMITH'S    BUSY    DAY 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  125 

great  many  boarders  in  it  and  as  many  lights  sparkled  and  glistened  from  the  windows 
down  into  the  street  below,  when  we  drove  up,  as  if  it  had  been  illuminated  on  some 
occasion  of  rejoicing.  It  is  an  excellent  house,  and  the  proprietors  have  most  bountiful 
notions  of  providing  the  creature  comforts.  Dining  alone  with  my  wife  in  her  own  room 
one  day,  I  counted  fourteen  dishes  on  the  table  at  once." 

A  power  to  be  reckoned  with  along  the  debatable  Missouri-Kansas  border 
in  the  fifties  was  Uncle  John  who  kept  the  Mimms  hotel  at  Kansas  City.  Red 
Legs  and  Border  Ruffians,  Jayhawkers  and  slave  drivers,  stopped  with  Uncle 
John.  They  were  entertained  impartially,  and,  strange  to  tell,  the  peace  was 
preserved  among  these  warring  elements  so  long  as  they  remained  the  guests 
at  the  Mimms  hotel.  Uncle  John  was  an  ordained  minister  of  the  Missionary 
Baptist  church.  He  was  from  Kentucky,  a  fearless  man,  a  character  of  that 
peculiar  reserve  force  which  made  other  men  feel  peaceful  in  his  presence. 

"The  Washington  Lewis  Place,"  in  Saline  county,  served  as  a  tavern  fifteen 
or  twenty  years.  The  tradition  that  a  considerable  quantity  of  whiskey  was 
buried  there  is  still  current.  Washington  Lewis  was  one  of  three  brothers  who 
came  out  from  Virginia  about  1830.  The  tavern  is  a  brick  structure  with  a 
crack  in  the  walls  said  to  have  been  caused  by  an  earthquake  in  1846.  One  of 
the.  first  post  offices  of  Central  Missouri  was  in  this  tavern.  In  an  upper  room 
the  pioneer,  Doctor  Yancey,  had  his  oftice. 

When  Benton  Was  Shocked. 

Realization  of  his  waning  hold  came  as  a  shock  to  Benton  in  a  tavern  during 
the  campaign  of  1849.    Judge  Fagg  told  the  story  in  his  own  graphic  way: 

"Still  clinging  to  the  policy  of  driving  everything  by  force  and  unconscious  of  the 
fact  that  hundreds  and  thousands  of  his  old  friends  and  supporters  were  gradually  falling 
away  from  him — that  the  slavery  agitators  were  constantly  alarming  the  slaveholders 
more  and  more  as  to  the  security  of  their  property — he  still  believed  that  he  had  the 
power  to  maintain  himself  in  the  state.  He  started  out  again  'solitary  and  alone'  in  hi.s 
private  carriage,  and,  crossing  the  Missouri  river  at  St.  Charles,  he  took  what  he  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  calling  in  the  early  days,  'The  Salt  River  Trail.'  He  passed  up  through 
St.  Charles  and  Lincoln  counties,  scarcely  meeting  a  solitary  man  that  he  could  call  his 
friend.  Late  in  the  evening  he  found  himself  at  the  village  of  Auburn.  He  recognized 
the  place  and  remembered  that  more  than  twenty  years  previously  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  stopping  with  his  old  friend,  Daniel  Draper.  There  was  the  same  old,  hewed 
log  house.  The  same  old  sign  post  from  which  was  suspended  an  old  sign  with  the 
letters  so  faded  that  he  read  with  difficulty,  'Entertainment  by  D.  Draper.'  It  was  like 
an  oasis  in  the  desert.  He  had  journeyed  through  an  anti-Benton  wilderness  but  he  would 
now  be  cheered  and  refreshed  by  the  hearty  greeting  and  cordial  entertainment  of  his 
old  acquaintance  and  friend.  Stepping  out  of  his  carriage  and  approaching  the  house 
he  was  met  by  the  old  landlord,  tottering  with  age  and  lookin.g  at  his  visitor  in  a  sort  of 
listless  indifferent  way.  He  said,  'You  will  have  Colonel  Benton  with  you  tonight,  Mr. 
Draper.'  Still  looking  at  his  distinguished  visitor,  the  old  man  replied  in  a  voice  that 
betrayed  no  surprise  or  emotion,  'Yes,  I  reckon  so;  all- sorts  of  people  stop  here.'" 

James  O.  Broadhead  had  a  version  of  the  same  incident  to  illustrate  alike 
the  independence  of  the  tavern  keeper  of  early  days  and  the  little  respect  the 
Whigs  had  for  Benton.  He  said  that  on  the  state  road  which  ran  through 
Auburn,  in  Lincoln  coimty,  old  Daniel  Draper  kept  tavern.  He  was  a  ^^  hig 
and  made  no  concealment  of  his  political  sentiments.  Benton  stopped  in  front 
of   Draper's   one   day   toward   night   and   as   usual    referring  to  himself   in   the 


126  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

third  person  said,  "Senator  Benton  wishes  to  stay  all  night  with  you !"  Draper 
was  chopping  wood.  Without  looking  up  he  said,  "Get  down  and  hitch  your 
horse.     We  are  not  particular  about  whom  we  entertain." 

The  Barnum  Stew. 

Barnum's  hotel  stew  was  a  Missouri  distinction  in  the  forties  and  fifties. 
Every  noted  visitor,  the  Prince  of  Wales  who  w^as  to  become  King  Edward 
included,  was  made  acquainted  with  this  famous  ragout.  Theron  Barnum  was, 
in  popular  estimation,  one  of  the  most  important  citizens  of  St.  Louis,  ranking 
with  the  mayor  on  many  occasions  when  guests  were  to  be  paid  unusual  honors. 
He  was  a  Vermonter,  coming  to  Missouri  in  1840  with  the  reputation  of  being 
the  nephew  of  the  Barnum  who  had  kept  the  best  hotel  in  Baltimore  about 
1825.  The  wife  of  Theron  Barnum  was  a  Connecticut  woman,  Mary  L. 
Chadwick,  who  helped  her  husband  make  their  first  hotel  on  Third  and  Vine 
streets  so  famous  that  St.  Louis  capitalists  raised  $200,000  and  built  the  most 
imposing  hotel  west  of  the  Alleghany  mountains.  George  R.  Taylor,  George 
Collier,  Joshua  B.  Brant  and  J.  T.  Swearingen  were  the  men  of  means  who 
headed  the  movement  to  build  the  hotel.  Theron  Barnum  guarded  jealously 
the  recipe   for  that  stew  which  made  all  visitors  wonder. 

The  Missouri  tavern  keeper  had  his  own  way  of  classifying  his  guests  of 
the  pioneer  days.  The  Missouri  shibboleth  was  a  matter  not  so  much  of  dress 
and  speech  as  it  was  of  taste.  The  tavern  keeper  said  to  himself  this  man  is 
a  southerner  and  that  man  is  a  northerner  after  the  first  meal.  If  the  guest 
said  he  would  take  a  cup  of  sweet  milk,  that  showed  he  was  from  north  of  the 
Ohio  river — from  a  New  England  or  Middle  state.  If  the  stranger  called  for 
sour  milk  he  was  at  once  set  down  as  from  a  southern  state.  In  St.  Louis  at 
that  rime  sweet  milk  sold  at  twenty-five  cents  a  gallon,  and  sour  milk  at  eighteen 
and  one-half  cents  a  gallon. 

Settled  at  the  Bar. 

Mann's  Tavern,  in  Bowling  Green,  was  the  scene  of  an  historic  incident  which 
merits  place  in  the  history  of  Missouri  duels.  Judge  Thomas  J.  C.  Fagg  told 
the  stor)'  in  his  reminiscences  which  were  published  by  the  Pike  County  News 
twenty  years  ago: 

"Some  time  in  the  twenties,  possibly  after  1825,  two  squads  of  travelers  dismounted 
in  front  of  the  hotel.  There  being  no  other  house  of  entertainment  in  the  town,  they 
were  necessarily  compelled  to  stop  at  the  same  place.  They  came  from  the  same  direc- 
tion, all  on  horseback.  They  were  well  dressed,  but  absolute  strangers  in  the  town.  The 
mystery  deepened  as  the  strangers  hovered  over  the  big  log  fire  that  blazed  on  the  spacious 
hearth.  It  was  a  rainy,  chilly  day  in  November,  and  the  two  parties  had  evidently  had 
a  long  ride  from  the  west.  Two  separate  groups  of  three  gentlemen, — What  could  it 
mean?  The  first  three  to  enter  the  house  finally  approached  the  bar  and  called  for  some- 
thing to  drink.  Then,  in  turn,  the  other  three  did  the  same  thing.  This  was  repeated 
before  supper.  The  hot  coffee  and  broiled  venison,  added  to  the  whiskey,  had  a  won- 
derfully  softening   influence   upon   the   crowd. 

"As  they  returned  to  the  bar-room,  one  of  the  party  felt  called  upon  to  make  a  brief 
speech.  In  substance,  he  said  they  were  about  to  relapse  into  a  state  of  barbarism.  Nft 
true  gentleman  ever  drank  by  himself  when  there  was  another  man  standing  by,  who 
could   enjoy   the   exhilarating   draught   with   him.      No   two   parties,   no   matter    how   bitter 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  127 

their  feelings  might  be  to  each  other,  could  afford  to  go  up  to  the  bar  in  separate  squads 
and  gulp  down  their  liquor  in  silence  and  without  an  invitation  to  all  to  join.  'Boys,  I 
move  we  all  drink  together.'  The  entire  crowd  responded  by  going  up  to  the  bar  in  a 
body.  As  they  stood  with  glasses  in  hand,  the  same  speaker  said :  'Gentlemen,  I  have 
another  proposition  to  make.  Let  us  forgive  and  forget  all  past  differences  and  drink 
to  the  good  health  and  perpetual  friendship  of  each  other.'  They  touched  their  glasses 
and  drank  most  heartily  to  the  sentiment.  As  they  set  their  glasses  upon  the  counter 
they  grasped  each  other's  hands  with  a  pledge  of  undying  friendship. 

"The  mystery  came  out  at  last.  A  bitter  personal  quarrel  was  amicably  adjusted 
as  they  took  the  last  drink.  The  two  parties  had  traveled  from  Fayette  and  Boonville 
in  order  to  cross  the  river  at  this  point  to  fight  a  duel  on  Sny  island  the  next  day.  The 
party  consisted  of  the  two  principals,  each  with  his  second  and  surgeon.  Their  object  was 
to  fight  in  Illinois  so  as  to  avoid  the  penalties  imposed  by  the  laws  of  this  state  against 
dueling.  Instead  of  crossing  the  river  in  the  morning  to  meet  in  deadly  combat,  the  tw« 
principals  with  their  seconds  and  surgeons,  journeyed  back  to  their  homes  together,  de- 
lighted with  the  outcome  of  the  expedition.  The  parties  consisted  of  Peyton  R.  Hayden. 
of  Boonville,  and  Charles  French,  of  Lexington,  the  two  principals;  and  .\biel  Leonard 
and  Hamilton  Gamble,  the  seconds.  My  impression  is  that  neither  Hayden  nor  French 
ever  sought  political  honors  but  both  were  eminent  lawyers  and  highly  gifted.  It  is 
barely  possible  that  I  may  be  mistaken  as  to  Hayden  being  one  of  the  principals,  but  as 
to  the  rest  of  the  story  there  is  no  doubt.  I  give  it  substantially  as  Judge  Leonard  told 
it  to  me.  The  conclusion  of  his  narrative  was  that  'it  was  the  only  instance  in  all  his 
life  that  he  had  known  any  good  to  result  from  a  drunken  frolic'  " 

Lodgings  at  the  State  Capital. 

Housing  the  members  of  the  general  assembly  for  the  first  session  held  in 
JefTerson  City  was  a  problem.  The  new  capitol  was  ready  before  the  taverns 
were.  John  R.  Musick,  in  his  "Stories  of  Missouri,"  says  that  one  man  swung 
out  his  sign  to  entertain  when  all  that  he  had  apparently,  was  a  board  structure 
with  office  in  front  and  dining  room  and  kitchen  in  the  rear.  There  was  no 
floor.  A  legislator  applied  for  board  and  lodging.  "Certainly,"  said  the  affable 
tavern  keeper.  "That  is  what  I  am  here  for.  Plenty  of  good  rooms  and  beds. 
I  will  give  you  number  15."  After  supper  the  legislator  said  he  would  go  to 
bed.  The  landlord  picked  up  a  candle,  led  the  way  out  doors  and  around 
back  of  the  wooden  building  where  there  were  several  tents.  In  front  of  one 
of  the  tents  was  a  piece  of  board  stuck  in  the  ground  and  painted  "No.  15." 
Inside  of  the  tent  was  a  cot. 

Morgan  B.  White  was  sent  by  Callaway  county  to  the  legislature  in  1834. 
He  found  lodgings  in  the  house  of  a  widow,  who  assigned  him  a  bed  with  four 
high  posts  and  heavy  damask  curtains.  When  it  came  time  to  go  to  bed.  Uncle 
Morgan  said  he  could  not  imagine  how  he  was  to  get  in.  He  had  never  seen 
that  kind  of  a  bed  and  he  didn't  want  to  ask  questions.  So  he  pulled  a  table 
and  chair  to  the  side  of  the  bed,  climbed  over  the  top  of  the  curtains.  Instead 
of  stopping  when  he  reached  the  feathers  he  went  through  and  struck  the  floor. 

A  Social  Center  in  Old  Monroe. 

What  happened  at  the  old  Glenn  house  in  Paris  furnished  the  ground  for 
a  church  trial  which  agitated  a  large  section  of  Missouri  when  the  church  was 
divided  on  the  question  of  dancing.  David  Peavy,  known  from  the  Mississippi 
to  the  Missouri,  was  the  first  landlord,  the  tavern  then  consisting  of  a  combina- 
tion of  log  and  frame.     His  sign  announced  the  usual  "entertainment  for  man 


128  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  beast."  There  was  a  bell  on  a  post  in  front  of  the  tavern.  When  a  stranger 
rode  up  on  a  horse.  Uncle  Davy  went  out  to  greet  him,  and  rang  the  bell  as  if 
to  call  a  stable  boy.  After  the  guest  had  gone  inside,  the  landlord  took  the 
horse  to  the  stable  and  attended  to  it.  After  Peavy,  the  tavern  was  kept  bv 
Anderson  W'oods,  a  Baptist  preacher,  and  his  wife  Betsy.  The  dining  room 
back  of  the  hotel  had  been  for  years  used  for  dancing  parties.  Preacher 
Woods  suspended  these  parties.  Aunt  Betsy  did  not  have  the  same  scruples 
as  her  husband.  When  Mr.  Woods  went  away  to  fill  a  preaching  appointment, 
Aunt  Betsy  readily  yielded  to  the  pleas  of  the  young  people  and  gave  per- 
mission for  a  dance.  The  preacher  found  a  creek  too  high  to  cross.  He  came 
back  when  the  fun  was  fast  and  furious,  stood  for  a  few  moments  looking  in 
at  the  door  and  said :  "I  can  see  no  harm  in  that."  But  the  church  authorities 
disagreed  with  him,  preferred  charges  and  brought  him  to  trial.  For  some 
years  after  that  there  was  no  more  dancing  in  the  tavern  dining  room.  During 
more  than  sixty  years  the  Glenn  house  was  a  social  center  of  Monroe  county. 

Hinkson  creek,  originally  called  something  else,  derived  its  name,  according 
to  E.  W.  Stephens,  the  historian  of  Boone  county,  from  what  befell  Robert 
Hinkson,  a  tavern  keeper  and  one  of  the  first  settlers  in  that  county.  Hinkson 
had  quite  a  herd  of  cattle.  He  started  from  home  one  morning  in  early  winter 
to  drive  the  cattle  to  the  river  bottom,  intending  to  leave  them  there,  as  was 
the  winter  custom,  to  rough  through  till  spring.  When  night  came  he  stopped 
and  camped  on  the  bank  of  the  creek.  The  next  morning  he  drove  out  into  the 
forest  and  kept  the  course  as  well  as  he  could  guess  all  day.  At  night  he  found 
himself  on  the  identical  spot  where  he  had  camped  the  previous  night.  The 
other  settlers  fastened  the  joke  on  Hinkson  and  made  it  living  tradition  by 
giving  the  creek  his  name. 

Upon  a  Missouri  tavern  was  built  one  of  the  largest  of  the  lottery  enter- 
prises which  agitated  the  American  people  about  the  time  of  the  Civil  war. 
The  Patee  House  was  the  name  of  the  tavern.  With  two  acres  of  ground 
adjoining  it  in  the  city  of  St.  Joseph,  this  building,  owned  by  John  Patee,  was 
disposed  of  by  raffle  in  1863.  The  property,  which  included  all  of  the  furniture 
and  fixtures,  was  valued  at  $i4o,ooo.  The  tickets  were  two  dollars.  The  tickets 
bore  the  stipulation  that  $25,000  of  the  receipts  from  the  sale  of  tickets  would 
"be  apportioned  between  those  cities  and  towns  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
tickets  sold  therein,  the  amount  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  authorities  for 
any  benevolent  object  they  may  deem  proper. 

McPherson's  Historic  Register. 

In  the  collection  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Missouri,  at  Columbia, 
is  the  register  of  the  City  hotel  of  Boonville,  for  1843  ^"d  1844.  Guests  not 
only  wrote  their  names  and  homes  and  destinations  but  enough  information 
about  themselves  to  make  the  book  interesting  reading.  There  was  room  for 
remarks,  and  one  man  who  must  have  arrived  in  a  storm  wrote  after  his  Ken- 
tucky address,  "Blanked  poor  weather  for  fools  who  have  left  the  sunny  south." 
The  landlord,  Edward  B.  McPherson,  was  an  ardent  politician  and  a  frequent 
contributor  to  the  comments  on  his  register.  On  Sundays  he  would  enter,  "Let 
us  all  go  to  church."    After  one  name  the  landlord  wrote,  "Left  without  paying 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERX  129 

his  bill."  Mcl^herson  was  for  Clay, — aggressively  xi.  lie  made  many  com- 
ments on  the  progress  of  the  campaign  and  encouraged  his  guests  to  write  after 
their  names  "Clay  and  Frelinghuysen"  or  "Polk  and  Dallas,"  as  they  preferred. 
In  a  number  of  cases  the  guests  told  why  they  were  for  their  favored  ticket 
or  offered  wagers  on  the  result.  When  the  returns  finally  showed  the  defeat 
of  Clay,  his  political  idol.  Landlord  McPherson  wrote  on  the  register: 

"Snowstorm,  Polk  and  Dallas,  Oregon  and  Texas,  free  trade,  war  with 
Mexico  and  Great  Britain,  hard  money,  relap.se  into  barbarism,  but  a  division 
of  proi>erty  first." 

The  signature  of  Thomas  H.  Benton  appears  a  number  of  times  on  this  regis- 
ter, which  might  seem  rather  remarkable  in  view  of  his  antagonism  to  the 
outspoken  politics  of  the  W  hig  landlord :  but  Secretary  Shoemaker  of  the 
State  Historical  Society  has  dug  up  the  fact  that  when  "The  Magisterial," 
as  Benton  was  sometimes  called,  was  questioned  about  the  propriety  of  stopping 
with  a  Whig  landlord,  he  replied:  "Sir,  do  you  think  Benton  takes  his  politics 
into  his  belly?"  When  it  was  suggested  that  guests  double  up  in  times  of 
congestion,  the  reply  was,  "Benton  sleeps  in  the  same  bed  with  no  other  man." 

At  the  old  tavern  in  Potosi,  kept  by  Roberts,  the  charge  was  twenty-five 
cents  a  meal:  or  "dinner  and  whiskey,  thirty-seven  and  one-hailf  cents."  An 
account  book  kept  in  1824  shows  that  most  of  the  charges  included  the  whiskey. 
Sometimes  the  whiskey  was  sold  by  the  pint  and  then  it  was  twenty-five  cents. 

The  first  tavern  built  in  Pacific,  or  Franklin  as  it  was  known  for  years,  went 
by  the  name  of  "Buzzards'  Roost." 

"Gray's  Summit"  was  gi\en  its  name  for  the  first  tavern  keeper,  Daniel 
Gray. 

"Big  \\  Oman's  Ta\ern''  was  a  popular  stopping  i)lace  in  the  early  days  of 
Kansas  City. 

Colonel  W.  B.  Royal,  a  X'irginian  and  a  highly  educated  man,  kei)t  one  of 
the  early  taverns  in  Columbia.  He  added  to  customary  wording  on  his  sign 
"Semper  Paratus."  Buck  Lampton,  of  historic  memory  for  his  ready  speech, 
said  that  "Semper  Paratus"  stood  for  "Sweet  Milk  and  Potatoes," 

There  are  towns  of  considerable  population  and  even  cities  in  Missouri,  the 
beginnings  of  whicli  were  taverns.  The  first  house  built  in  what  afterwards  be- 
came Columbia  was  General  (ientry's.  It  was  of  three  rooms,  two  of  which 
accommodated  the  young  famil} .  The  third  room  was  set  apart  for  the  traveling 
public.  The  next  year  General  Gentry  added  a  fourth  room.  His  neighbors 
thought  he  was  becoming  extravagant.  When  General  Gentrv  led  his  thousand 
mounted  Missourians  out  of  Columbia  for  the  long  journey  to  subdue  the  Semi- 
noles,  the  march  began  from  in  front  of  the  Gentry  tavern  where  the  farewell 
ceremony  took  place.  The  command  was  drawn  up  and  the  flag  made  by  the 
young  ladies  of  Miss  Wales'  academy  was  presented  with  its  stirring  inscription : 

Gird,  gird  for  the  conflict. 
Our  banner  wave  high ; 
For  our  country  we  live, 
For  our  country  we  die. 

Vol.  1-9  • 


130  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Tavern  keepers,  with  foresight  as  to  coming  settlement  and  as  to  ])rospec- 
tive.  main  traveled  roads,  located  their  houses  of  entertainment.  When  the 
patriotic  women  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  entered  upon 
their  patriotic  work  of  placing  monuments  to  mark  the  Boone's  Lick  road  from 
St.  Louis,  they  found  that  most  of  the  historic  spots  were  the  sites  of  the,  pioneer 
taverns.  In  St.  Charles  county,  Kenner's  tavern  shared  with  Daniel  Roone's 
judgment  tree  the  honor  of  a  monument.  In  Warren  county  Roger  Taylor's 
tavern  was  one  of  the  spots  chosen.  Saunders  tavern  was  another.  In  Mont- 
gomery county  the  monuments  were  placed  where  stood  Cross  Keys  tavern, 
Devault  tavern  and  Van  Bibber's  tavern.  Callaway  county's  section  of  the 
Boone's  Lick  road  was  marked  at  Drover's  inn  and  Grant's  stagestand.  Among 
the  Boone  county  sites  selected  were  Vivion's  stagestand  and  Van  Horn's  tav- 
ern.    In  Howard  county  Arnold's  inn  was  commemorated. 

Zadock  Martin,  Baron  at  the  Falls. 

The  Missouri  tavern  often  was  the  outpost  of  civilization.  When  Zadock 
Martin  built  in  1828.  on  the  bluff  at  the  Falls  of  the  Platte,  his  nearest  neighbor 
was  fifteen  miles  away.  Landlord  Martin  used  hewn  logs  for  the  main  part 
of  his  tavern  and  attached  shed  rooms  so  that  he  had  accommodations  for  a 
considerable  number  of  guests.  The  Martin  tavern  was  on  the  main  route 
to  Fort  Leavenworth.  Martin  was  not  lonesome.  He  had  half  a  dozen  sons, 
and  three  handsome  daughters.  A  retinue  of  slaves,  well  drilled,  enabled  him 
to  enforce  his  rights.  He  was  a  man  of  commanding  presence,  wore  a  broad- 
brimmed  hat,  had  flashing  eyes,  talked  loud  and  carried  a  stout  hickory  cane. 
His  word  was  law  at  the  Falls  whether  with  officers  or  soldiers  passing  to  or 
from  the  Fort,  and  also  with  the  fishing  parties  which  came  to  the  Falls  to 
carry  away  wagon  loads  of  catfish  and  buffalo  weighing  from  ten  to  seventy 
pounds.  Martin  raised  large  crops,  had  hogs  which  ran  wild  and  fattened  on 
acorns  and  nuts  while  his  herd  of  cattle  wintered  on  the  cane  along  the  streams. 
He  was  the  baron  of  the  Falls. 

One  of  Zadock  Martin's  boys  attempted  to  play  a  joke  on  an  Indian  and  got 
the  worst  of  it.  The  Indian  wanted  some  sugar.  Martin  agreed  to  furnish 
three  pounds  if  the  brave  would  agree  to  eat  all  of  it.  The  sugar  was  weighed 
and  the  eating  began.  The  Indian  went  on  until  he  had  swallowed  about  a 
pound.  Then  he  wrapped  up  the  rest  in  a  fold  of  his  blanket.  "Hold  on!"  said 
Martin,  you  promised  to  eat  all  of  it.  Stand  to  your  bargain."  ".-Ml  right!" 
said  the  Indian,  "me  eat  him  all, — maybe  some  today, — maybe  some  tomorrow, 
— maybe   some  one  odder  day, — Injun  no  lie, — me  eat  him  all, — goodby." 

Leonard  .Searcy's  tavern  in  Liberty  was  famed  for  its  dancing  parties  about 
1834.  Army  otificers  came  from  Fort  Leavenworth  and  Missourians  from  Rich- 
mond, Independence,  and  Lexington  to  participate  in  these  border  functions. 
To  one  of  these  parties  General  A.  S.  Hughes  brought  the  old  Indian  chief,  White 
Cloud  and  his  daughter-  Sally.  The  father  and  daughter  were  so  charmed  with 
their  introduction  to  Missouri  society  that  they  went  next  morning  to  the  stores 
and  outfitted  themselves.  Sally  bought  a  leghorn  bonnet,  trimmed  with  a  flam- 
ing red  ribbon.  The  chief  selected  a  fur  hat  fifteen  inches  high  with  narrow 
brim.  With  great  pride.  White  Cloud  and  Sally  put  on  their  purchases  and 
paraded  up  and  down  the  streets  of  Liberty. 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  131 

On  the  old  Boone's  Lick  road,  where  it  ran  through  the  northern  part  of 
Callaway  county,  a  man  named  Watson  kept  tavern.  He  made  a  great  deal  of 
money  for  a  few  years.  But  travelers  could  not  understand  why  their  horses 
seemed  to  fail  in  apjietite  when  they  put  up  with  Watson.  After  a  long  time  it 
was  discovered  that  AN'atson  rubbed  grease  in  between  the  rows  of  kernels  on 
the  com  cobs  to  such  an  extent  that  the  horses  left  much  of  the  corn  untouched. 

Stage  Driver  Ball's  RecoUectiona. 

Hampton  Ball,  one  of  the  best  known  of  the  Missouri  stage  drivers,  recalled 
that  James  Huntington,  a  wealthy  contractor,  put  $6,000  in  an  open  drawer  of 
the  public  room  of  a  Northeast  Missouri  tavern  and  left  it  there  until  morning. 

"I  told  him,"  said  Ball,  "that  it  would  be  dangerous ;  that  there  might  be  some 
stranger, — not  a  Missourian,  of  course, — who  would  steal  the  money." 

"You  don't  think  any  of  the  guests  of  this  hotel  would  be  mean  enough  to 
steal,  do  you?"  Huntington  said,  incredulously. 

Stage  stand  keepers,  the  tavern  men  were  called  where  the  stages  made 
their  regular  stops.  Hampton  Ball  said  that  "Kenner,  of  Paudingville,"  was  one 
of  the  greatest.  He  could  play  a  fiddle  that  would  almost  make  the  trees  dance. 
He  was  jovial  and  generous  and  one  of  the  most  profane  men  I  ever  knew. 
He  did  not  mean  to  be  profane  but  he  swore  almost  as  readily  as  some  people 
whistle.  Although  he  ran  a  public  house  there  was  never  any  meal  served  at 
his  table  on  which  he  did  not  ask  the  blessing.  The  great  pioneer  Methodist, 
Rev.  Andrew  Monroe,  stopped  one  day  at  his  house.  The  stage  coach  driver 
suggested  that  Kenner  ask  Parson  Monroe  to  say  the  blessing. 

"No,"  said  Kenner,  "I  ask  my  own  blessing  at  my  own  table." 

And  he  did.  On  another  occasion,  in  a  single  breath.  Kenner  concluded  the 
blessing  thus:  "And  foV  all  these  blessings,  we  thank  Thee,  O  Lord,  Amen; 
kick  that  blamed  dog  out  from  under  the  table." 

Court  Day  on  Blacksnake  HiUs. 

W.  M.  Paxton  attended  court  in  November,  1839,  at  what  is  now  St.  Joseph 
but  which  then  was  Robidoux,  named  for  the  first  settler.  He  stopped  with 
Robidoux.  who  kept  tavern.     He  left  this  recollection  of  his  entertainment : 

"His  house  was  perched  on  the  hillside.  It  was  of  logs  on  a  stone  basement.  I  was 
shown  to  my  bed  on  a  plank  frame  in  the  basement,  and  was  given  two  blankets.  I 
spread  one  blanket  on  the  boards  and  covered  with  the  other.  It  was  a  cold,  blustery 
night  and  I  nearly  froze.  In  the  morning,  before  day,  I  heard  Robidoux  stirring  in  the 
room  overhead,  and  I  went  up  the  rude  ladder.  He  asked  me  in  his  broken  English, 
French  and  Indian  how  I  passed  the  night.  I  told  him  I  had  suffered  from  the  cold. 
'What,'  lie  said,  'cold  with  two  blankets?'  I  explained  how  I  had  used  the  blankets.  He 
replied  witli  contemjU,  'You  haven't  got  even  Indian  sense  or  you  would  have  wrapped 
up  in  them.' 

"The  old  man  built  a  roaring  fire,  and  two  prairie  chickens  and  a  half  dozen  ears  of 
old  corn  on  the  cob  were  boiling  in  the  pot.  I  made  a  hearty  breakfast  on  these  viands. 
Before  court  met.  I  took  a  survey  of  the  future  site  of  St.  Joseph.  I  saw  but  two 
Houses ;  that  where  I  had  sjient  the  night  and  the  store  above  the  mouth  of  the  creek. 
The  Blacksnake  Hills  were  romantic.  They  seemed  to  be  composed  of  red  crumbling 
earth,  with  here  and  there  tufts  of  grass.  From  the  sides  of  the  hills,  at  intervals,  broke 
out   oozing   springs   of   pure   water    which   gathered    into   a   bold    stream   that   coursed   the 


132  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

prairie  bottom  to  the  river.  In  the  rear  of  the  house,  on  the  hillside,  stood  four  or  five 
scaffolds,  supported  by  poles.  On  these  scaffolds  lay  the  bodies  of  Robidoux's  children. 
His   wives   were   Indians,   and   he  buried   his   dead   in    Indian    fashion. 

"Court  was  held  in  one  room  and  the  elevated  porch.  The  docket  was  short.  The 
most  interesting  ca.ses  were  several  indictments  against  Robidou.\  for  gambling.  AH  the 
bar.  except  W.  T.  Wood,  the  circuit  attorney,  entered  our  names  on  the  margin  of  the 
docket  as  for  Robidoux.  We  got  the  old  man  clear  on  some  quibble  and  he  was  happy. 
We  charged  him  nothing,  hut  he  made  all  rti  us  pay  our  tavern  bills." 

Allan  Hinchey  is  authority  for  a  tavern  experience  of  Louis  Ilouck  when  tlie 
latter  was  building  his  gridiron  of  railroads  in  Southeast  Missouri.  Houck  built 
a  railroad  in  places  where  swamps  were  so  deep  "that  great  piles  of  logs  had  to 
be  thrown  into  the  water  to  make  resting  places  for  his  cross  ties  and  when 
the  first  trains  ran  the  water  would  "squish'  up  from  under  the  sinking  ties  as 
high  as  the  box  cars.  One  day,  soon  after  this  stretch  of  road  was  put  through 
tW'O  men  and  a  woman  were  riding  on  the  train.  They  had  been  given  a  pass, 
round  trip,  for  the  right  of  way  across  a  quarter  section  of  swamp  and  were 
riding  it  out.  The  old  lady  remarked  she  was  sorry  the  railroad  had  come 
through  her  land:  .she  "had  beam  tell  railroads  niade  a  country  mighty  sickly 
to  live  in.'  Mr.  Houck  reached  a  cross-roads  tavern  one  night  just  at  dusk, 
tired  out  after  a  hard  day's  prospecting  for  a  crossing  through  a  swamp.  It 
was  not  much  of  a  place  for  looks,  but  a  sign  on  the  front  of  the  shack 
announcing  "Travelers  Hostilely  Entertained'  was  sufficient  argument  to  cause 
him  to  accept  the  invitation,  lie  was  in  the  right  humor  just  then  to  scrap  for 
his  entertainment,  if  necessary." 

Isaac  H.  Sturgeon's  Distinction. 

"A  fish,"  Thoinas  H.  Benton  once  called  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon,  indulging  in 
his  fa\orite  form  of  sarcastic  hiniior  to  tickle  the  ears  of  a  crowd.  Yet  Mr. 
Sturgeon  had  the  distinction  of  holding  offices  in  greater  number  and  variety 
than  any  Missourian  of  his  time.  At  the  end  of  his  eighty-seven  years,  sixty- 
two  of  them  in  Missouri,  Mr.  Sturgeon  had  been  ap[)ointed  or  elected  to  posi- 
tions of  public  trust  during  fifty-three  of  them.  In  1848,  two  years  after  com- 
ing to  St.  Louis,  he  was  'elected  alderman  and  held  that  position  until  elected 
state  senator,  in  which  capacity  he  had  an  important  part  in  Missouri's  railroad 
legislation  before  the  Civil  war.  President  Pierce  made  Mr.  Sturgeon  assistant 
Unitpd  States  treasurer  at  St.  Louis.  .Although  of  southern  birth,  Mr.  Sturgeon 
was  a  Union  man  and  was  active  in  upholding  the  government's  interests  in 
Missouri  as  against  the  states'  rights  party.  Later,  Mr.  Sturgeon  was  a  special 
agent  looking  after  the  railroad  building  which  was  being  aided  by  government 
subsidies.  He  held  appointment  by  action  of  Presidents  Lincoln.  Johnson  and 
Grant.  The  last  named  made  him  collector  of  internal  revenue,  and  Presidents 
Garfield  and  Arthur  continued  him  in  that  office.  President  Harrison  made 
Mr.  Sturgeon  assistant  postmaster  at  St.  Louis.  The  next  ofiice  filled  in  this 
extraordinary  record  was  comptroller  of  St.  Louis  when  Cyrus  P.  Walbridge 
was  mayor.  Mr.  Sturgeon  was  reelected  in  the  Ziegenheim  admini.stration.  He 
retired  to  private  life  in  1901.  His  summing  up  of  all  of  this  experience  was 
advice  to  young  men  to  shun  office-seeking. 


■'^  aA- 


"JOWUKC.  GlJEEH  "IuJtN97»r 
0«E  OF  Tue  HlSTOBlC  at 


THE  OLD  TAVKKX  AT  ARROW  ROCK 

Rfstorpd  b_v  the  Daughters  of  the  American 

Revolution 


OLD  COrXTY  .TAIL  OP  ST.  LOUIS 

Locati'cl  (111  Sixtli  ami  ("liostiuit  streets.     From  this  jail  the  Montescjiiieiis  were  saved  h\   Isaac 

H.   Sturfjeon  ami   Rishop  Hawks   from   threatened   Ivm-hing 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERX  135 

The  City  Hotel  Tragedy. 

The  courage  and  resourcefulness  of  Mr.  Sturgeon  saved  St.  Louis  from  a 
stain  of  mob  violence  early  in  his  career.  When  St.  Louisans  regained  their 
poise  they  realized  what  a  miscarriage  of  justice  the  community  had  escaped 
through  the  prompt  action  of  Mr.  Sturgeon.  Thereafter  they  regarded  this 
suave,  cool  Kentuckian  as  a  man  to  be  trusted  in  emergencies.  In  an  address 
before  the  Missouri  Historical  Society,  in  1878,  Charles  Gibson,  then  the  only 
surviving  counsel,  said  of  the  Montesquieu  case : 

"No  event  in  the  criminal  annals  of  Si.  Louis  ever  created  such  an  intense  feeling 
in  the  community  as  the  Montesquieu  murder,  or  City  hotel  tragedy,  as  it  was  popu- 
larly called.  On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  Oct.  28,  1849,  two  young  French  noblemen, 
Gonsalve  and  Raymond  de  Montesquieu,  arrived  in  St.  Louis  and  stopped  at  Barnum's 
City  hotel.  They  had  come  to  this  country  the  preceding  June  for  recreation  and  pleas- 
ure, and  had  traveled  leisurely  westward,  Chicago  having  been  the  last  stopping  place. 
Gonsalve  was  about  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  his  brother  was  two  years  his  junior 
Both  were  liberally  supplied  with  money.  Among  their  effects  were  capacious  ward- 
robes, a  number  of  guns  and  an  extensive  hunting  equipment.  They  were  assigned  a 
room  situated  on  a  hall  leading  from  a  back  piazza.  Directly  opposite,  but  in  a  room 
opening  directly  on  the  piazza.  .-Mbert  Jones,  H.  M.  Henderson  and  Captain  William  Hub- 
liell  slept :  and  in  another  room,  the  window  of  which  overlooked  the  piazza,  were  T.  Kirl)y 
Barnum,  nephew  of  the  proprietor  of  the  hotel,  and  Mr.   Macomber,  the  steward. 

"Between  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock,  on  the  night  of  Monday,  October  29th,  while 
young  Barnum  and  Macomber  were  preparing  for  bed,  they  were  startled  by  a  tapping 
upon  the  window  pane,  and  the  curtains  being  drawn  aside  they  saw  the  two  young 
Frenchmen  on  the  piazza,  one  of  them  armed  with  a  gun.  Simultaneously  with  the  dis- 
covery, one  of  the  Frenchmen  fired,  the  contents  mortally  wounding  Barnum  and  giving 
Macomber  a  flesh-wound   on   the  wrist. 

"Aroused  by  the  report  of  the  gun,  Jones,  Henderson  and  Hubbell  opened  the  door 
of  their  room  and  were  immediately  fired  upon,  Jones  being  instantly  killed  and  the 
others  slightly  wounded.  The  brothers  returned  to  their  room  after  the  shooting,  and 
were  subsequently  arrested  there. 

"The  homicide  was  at  first  regarded  as  a  mystery,  as  the  Montesquieus  were  per- 
fectly sober,  and  had  no  intercourse  or  communication  whatever  with  the  five  men  who 
were  shot,  .^t  the  time  of  their  arrest  the  younger  brother  stated  that  Gonsalve  had 
recently  displayed  symptoms  of  insanity,  and  the  latter,  exculpating  his  brother  from  all 
blame,  said  he  was  controlled  by  an  irresistible  inclination  to  kill  two  men;  that  he 
started  out  to  do  so,  and  that  his  brother  merely  followed  to  prevent  a  tragedy,  but  it  was 
consummated   before   he    (Raymond)    could   interfere." 

How  Mr.  Stiirgeon  Thwarted  a  Mob. 

Gonsalve  said  later  that  God  told  him  to  do  the  shooting.  There  were  two 
trials,  the  first  occupying  four  weeks  resulted  in  a  hung  jury.  The  second  trial, 
after  the  jury  had  deliberated  forty  hours,  resulted  in  failure  to  agree.  -A.  few 
weeks  later,  the  governor  set  both  men  free,  Gonsalve  on  the  ground  of  insanity. 
Raymond  was  freed  because  of  "a  general  belief  that  he  did  not  participate 
in  the  homicide  whereof  he  stands  indicted,  and  that  a  further  prosecution  will 
not  accomplish  any  of  the  objects  of  public  justice,  but  will  result  only  in 
renewed  trouble  and  increased  e.Kpense  to  the  state."  The  brothers  left  for 
New  York  immediately  after  being  freed  and  sailed  for  1-^rance.  Gonsalve  died 
violently  insane.     The  vital  part   which   Isaac   11.   Sturgeon  had  in  the  Montes- 


136  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

quieu  case  was  told  by  him  a  few  days  after  Mr.  riibson  had  given  his  recollec- 
tions.    Mr.  Sturgeon  wrote: 

".•Mbcrt  Jones,  one  of  the  parties  shot  by  Gonsalve  Montesquieu,  was  a  personal 
friend  of  mine  and  a  patron  of  mine  in  business  when  I  was  in  the  lumber  trade  and  he 
a  manufacturer  in  carriages.  He,  as  well  as  Kirby  Barnum,  who  was  killed  at  the  same 
time  by  Gonsalve,  were  estimable  and  popular  young  men  and  their  improvoked  murder 
excited  the  deepest  sympathy  for  them  and  their  relatives  and  the  bitterest  feelings  for 
their  murderers  in  this  city.  On  the  night  of  their  murder,  before  Gonsalve  and  Ray- 
mond de  Montesquieu  could  be  got  into  the  hands  of  the  police  and  to  the  jail,  they  were 
kicked  and  cuflfed  and  very  roughly  handled,  as  reported  to  me. 

"I  satisfied  myself  the  day  after  the  murder  that  it  was  the  act  of  an  insane  man 
and  my  deepest  sympathy  was  aroused  for  the  poor  unfortunate  Raymond,  who  had  so 
suddenly  thrust  upon  him  the  insanity  of  his  brother  and  the  danger  of  losing  his  life 
for  the  act  of  his  insane  brother.  I  earnestly  thought,  what  can  I  do  to  help  these  un- 
fortunate men  and  save  my  city  from  the  lasting  disgrace  of  taking  the  life  by  mob 
violence  of  one  crazy  man  and  another  innocent  man  for  this  murder,  and  the  thought  was 
upon  my  heart,  how  terrible  it  was  for  a  poor  young  brother  like  Raymond  to  be  far 
from  home,  in  a  strange  land,  without  any  one  to  sympathize  with  him.  The  fact  that 
they  were  reported  to  be  counts,  to  be  of  the  nobility,  helped  to  fan  the  flame  of  preju- 
dice that  was  then  running  so  high  that  the  mob'  could  scarce  retain  their  impatient 
desire  for  the  blood  of  the  murderers  until  after  Barnum  and  Jones  were  buried.  I  at- 
tended the  funeral  of  my  friend  Jones  to  the  cemetery,  and  in  going  out  in  the  carriage 
with  three  others  one  of  the  party  revealed  that  a  well-organized  arrangement  was  per- 
fected for  mobbing  the  jail  that  night,  taking  them  out  and  hanging  them.  I  listened 
attentively  to  all  that  was  said,  and  without  revealing  it  to  anyone  resolved  within  my- 
self what  I  would  try  to  da  The  thought  crossed  my  mind  to  leave  the  carriage  under 
some  pretence  and  return  to  the  city  and  take  steps  for  the  removal  of  the  Montesquieus 
to  a  place  of  safety,  but  I  feared  that  this  would  arouse  suspicion,  and  I  went  on,  trust- 
ing that  I  might  get  back  in  time  to  save  the  lives  of  the  poor  innocent  Raymond  and  his 
crazy  brother,  and  save  my  city  the  disgrace  of  murdering  one  innocent  and  one  crazy 
man. 

"I  hastened  to  the  court-house,  and  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  my  friend  Louis  T. 
LaBcaume.  called  'Tat'  LaBcaume,  the  then  sherifT  of  the  county,  and  revealed  quickly  to 
him  all  I  had  learned.  We  at  once  ordered  a  carriage  and  drove  to  the  residence  of  Judge 
J.  B.  Colt,  then  judge  of  the  circuit  court,  and  were  fortunate  in  finding  him  in.  and  at 
once  explained  all  to  him  and  how  important  and  precious  every  moment  was,  as  the  sun 
was  down  and  the  shades  of  evening  gathering.  He  entered  the  carriage  with  us  and  at 
once  came  to  the  court-house  to  writ£  the  order  for  the  removal  of  the  Montesquieus 
irom  the  jail  to  a  place  of  safety. 

Bishop  Hawk's  Part  in  a  Good  Night's  Work. 

"Whilst  he  was  making  the  order  wc  sent  a  secret  mes.senger  to  the  jailer,  or  for 
him,  who  returned  in  breathless  excitement,  saying  it  was  useless  to  try  to  take  them 
out  of  jail,  as  it  was  surrounded  by  thousands  already,  and  they  would  be  taken  from 
the  officers  and  hanged.  That  to  attempt  to  bring  them  out  through  the  crowd  was  cer- 
tain death,  and  that  it  was  as  well  to  let  them  remain  and  abide  their  fate.  We  at  once 
sent  back  to  see  if  there  was  not  a  way  from  the  jail  into  the  alley  back  of  the  jail  to  get 
out,  and  found  that  there  was,  and  that  if  we  could  take  them  out  in  that  way,  and  get 
permission  to  take  them  into  the  back  yard  of  the  residence  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Hawkes, 
the  rear  end  of  the  lot  on  which  his  residence  stood  fronting  the  alley-gate  of  the  jail, 
.  and  then  let  them  go  up  into  Bishop  Hawkes'  residence,  and  two  at  one  time  come  down, 
and  after  a  little  two  more,  that  we  could  get  them  away.  Bishop  Hawkes"  family  were 
seen  and  all  arranged.  Tat.  LaBeaume.  the  sherif5f,  went  to  Bishop  Hawkes'  house  to 
meet  and  explain  to  the  sane  Montesquieu  their  terrible  danger,  and  'our  kindly  efforts 
to  save  them,  and  how  they  must  act.     He  being  a  Frenchman  could  explain  all  to  them 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  137 

• 

fully,  and  yet  I  think  the  sane  brother  felt  great  trepidation  and  fear  that  we  might  not 
be  the  friends  we  professed.  Whilst  LaBeaume  went  to  receive  the  prisoners  at  Bishop 
Hawkes'  residence.  I  by  arrangement  went  and  obtained  cabs  which  were  in  vogue  at  that 
day,  and  by  agreement  had  them  in  waiting  on  Walnut  street,  corner  of  Fourth  street. 
The  prisoners  were  safely  got  into  the  cabs  and  taken  to  the  arsenal.  When  we  arrived 
there  the  officer  in  charge  told  us  that  he  had  no  force  there  by  which  he  could  protect 
the  men  from  a  mob,  and  that  our  only  safety  was  to  take  them  to  Jefferson  barracks, 
where  United  States  troops  were  then  stationed.  This  was  a  great  disappointment  to 
us,  as  our  cabs  were  too  light  and  one  horse  in  each  not  deemed  strong  enough  to  make 
the  trip  of  near  thirty  miles  there  and  return,  so  we  got  aside  and  sent  back  to  Walton's 
livery  stable,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  city,  and  got  two  carriages,  seating  four  persons 
each,  and  proceeded  to  the  barracks,  getting  there  after  midnight.  The  garrison  was 
aroused,  and  we  were  ushered  into  the  presence  of  the  gentlemanly  officer  then  in  com- 
mand, who  very  kindly  agreed  to  take  charge  of  the  prisoners  and  protect  them  from  all 
harm  and  keep  them  safely,  and  we  returned  to  the  city,  getting  back  next  morning  about 
daylight. 

"I  was  informed  that  after  we  left  the  mob  demanded  the  keys  of  the  jailer  and 
examined  every  cell  to  satisfy  themselves  that  the  prisoners  had  really  been  removed  before 
they  would  disperse. 

"I  have  always  believed  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  my  prompt  action  and  my  good 
fortune  in  finding  both  the  sheriff  and  the  judge  at  home,  saving  all  delay,  there  would  have 
been  no  trial  or  pardon  of  the  Montesquieus.  as  the  mob  would  have  put  them  to  death. 

"When  the  prisoners  returned  I  caused  some  meals  to  be  sent  them  from  a  restaurant, 
but  soon  their  character  became  known  and  they  had  hosts  of  influental  friends  and  needed 
no  further  any  attention  from  me.  I  do  not  think  they  were  ever  aware  of  the  service 
I  rendered  them,  for  I  was  content  to  have  done  what  t  regarded  as  my  duty  to  them  and 
to  my  city,  and  never  informed  them  of  my  action.  In  some  way  they  seemed  to  have 
learned  that  I  had  taken  some  especial  interest  in  them,  and  after  their  pardon  Raymond 
Montesquieu  called  with  two  other  persons  at  my  office  to  thank  me  for  the  interest  I 
had  taken   for  them   in  their  troubles." 

Hotel  Hospitality  and  Andrew  Johnson. 

President  Andrew  Johnson  was  escorted  to  St.  Louis  September  8.  1866, 
by  a  fleet  of  thirty-six  steamboats,  which  met  the  party  at  Alton.  With  the 
President  were  General  Grant.  Admiral  Farrag^it,  Secretary'  of  State  Seward 
and  General  Hancock.  Andrew  Johnson  was  the  first  President  of  the  United 
States  to  visit   St.   Louis. 

.A.t  the  Lindell  hotel  there  was  a  welcoming  address  by  Mayor  Thomas, 
to  which  President  Johnson  responded.  This  took  place  on  the  portico  over 
the  main  entrance.  Then  followed  a  reception  in  the  drawing  room,  and 
President  Johnson  made  another  speech.  In  the  evening  a  banquet  was  given 
at  the  .Southern  hotel,  the  menu  for  whiclt  filled  a  half  column  in  the  news- 
papers. There  President  Johnson  spoke  again  at  considerable  lengtli.  These 
St.  Louis  speeches  were  used  by  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  impeachment  charges.  L.  L.  \\'albridge,  who  reported  the  speeches, 
was  summoned  to  Washington  to  testify  in  the  trial  to  the  accuracy  of  the 
report.  The  speech  which  gave  the  most  oflfense  to  the  Republican  party  in 
Congress  was  one  President  Johnson  delivered  from  the  Walnut  street  front 
of  the  Southern  hotel  shortly  before  going  in  to  the  banquet.  Stimulated  by 
the  Missouri  hotel  hospitality  of  that  day,  and  by  the  encouraging  interrup- 
tions  of  the   audience,   the    President   used   very   bitter   language    in   describing 


138  CENTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

his  controversy  with  the  Congress.     His  visit  to  St.  Louis,  the  President  described 
as  "swinging  'round  the  circle." 

The  Free  State  Hotel. 

An  historic  hotel  in  Kansas  City  was  known  variously  as  the  Western,  the 
American  and  the  Gillis.  It  was  built  by  Benoist  Troost  in  1849  and  was  on  the 
river  front,  between  Delaware  and  Wyandotte  streets.  In  two  years.  1856  and 
1857,  there  were  27,000  arrivals  at  the  hotel,  which  was  enlarged  by  additions 
until  it  was  an  architectural  curiosity.  In  May.  1S56.  this  hotel  was  the  hiding 
place  of  Governor  A.  H.  Reeder  of  Kansas,  when  he  was  a  fugitive,  trying  to 
escape  from  the  Missourians.  Friends  disguised  the  governor  as  a  laborer  and 
gave  him  an  ax  to  carry.  In  this  way  they  got  him  out  of  the  hotel  and  out  of 
town.  H.  W.  Chiles  kept  the  hotel  at  that  time.  He  was  a  strong  pro-slavery 
man  and  became  the  landlord  of  the  Gillis  house  to  save  it  from  dest-ruction. 
The  property  had  been  owned  by  the  New  Ei^gland  Emigrant  .Aid  Society  of 
Boston  and  was  intended  to  be  operated  to  encourage  migration  of  anti-slavery 
settlers  to  Kansas  in  order  to  make  that  a  free  state.  It  became  known  among 
Missourians  as  "the  Free  State  hotel."  .-Xs  the  border  troubles  increased,  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Society  fearing  that  the  property  would  be  destroyed  put  it  in 
the  hands  of  Chiles  under  a  lease. 

Pro-slavery  travelers  »made  another  historic  hotel  their  stopping  place  in 
Kansas  City.  That  was  the  Farmers'  hotel,  built  in  1S56  and  run  by  E.  M. 
McGee.  a  leader  of  the  pro-slavery  party.  "The  \\  ayside  Inn"  was  the  first 
name  of  this  tavern.  The  location  was  on  Sixteenth  street  between  the  river 
landing  and  Westjwrt.  Overland  stages  started  from  the  Gillis  House.  The 
purchase  of  the  Gillis  for  the  P>oston  people  was  made  by  S.  C.  Pomeroy.  after- 
wards a  United  States  senator  from  Kansas.  Pomeroy  had  come  out  with  the 
first  party  of  anti-slavery  immigrants  from  Xew  England.  The  colonizing  of 
Kansas  was  to  be  on  such  a  scale  that  it  seemed  to  the  leaders  in  the  movement 
necessary  to  have  a  headquarters  in  Kansas  City.  This  investment  by  the  Xew 
Englanders,  in  1854.  had  much  to  do  with  arousing  the  pro-slavery  Missourians 
to  the  magnitude  of  the   Boston   plans. 

About  the  time  that  the  Xew  Englanders  began  coming  to  Kansas  City. 
Thomas  H.  Benton  and  his  son-in-law,  John  C.  Fremont,  arrived  by  boat  and 
stopped  at  the  hotel.  They  were  on  one  of  the  strangest  business  propositions 
of  that  period.  Among  those  who  met  the  visitors  and  discussed  the  project 
with  them  was  Dr.  Johnston  Lykins.  The  wife  of  Dr.  Lykins.  afterwards  the 
wife  of  George  Bingham,  the  Missouri  artist,  told  this: 

"Benton  and  Fremont  had  arrived  in  order  to  complete  arrangements  for  an  experi- 
ment with  camels  as  beasts  of  burden  in  crossing  the  plains  during  the  hot  season.  Colonel 
Benton  entered  heartily  into  the  plan  and  gave  his  assistance  in  every  way  possible.  He 
thought  that  camels  would  stand  the  travel  over  the  sandy  plains  better  than  oxen  or 
horses.  Owing  to  the  shortness  of  the  season  in  this  northern  latitude  the  project  failed, 
although  camels  were  imported  for  the  purpose.  Late  in  the  evening  Dr.  Lykins  returned 
to  the  house  to  inform  me  that  he  had  invited  the  gentlemen  to  dine  with  us  the  follow- 
ing day.  Colonel  Benton  and  Mr.  Fremont  came,  also  Lieutenant  Head,  and  the  day 
was  one  long  to  be  remembered.  The  conversation  was  mainly  upon  the  great  possibilities 
•of   the   West,      ."^t   the   conclusion    of   the    diiuier    we    stepped   out   upon    the   porch,    which 


THE  MISSOURI  TAVERN  139 

commanded  a  delightful  view  of  the  river  and  surrounding  country.  Colonel  Benton  ap- 
peared in  the  height  of  good  spirits  and  turning  to  me  said:  "Mrs,  Lykins,  you  will  take  a 
trip  to  California  on  one  of  the  camels,  won't  you?' 

"  'Hardly,'   I   replied,   laughing,   "I   would  prefer   a  more   comfortable  mode   of   travel.' 

"The  great  statesman's  face  grew  solemn  as  if  in  a  spirit  of  prophecy;  he  said:  'You 
are  a  very  young  woman,  and  you  will  live  to  see  the  day  when  the  railroad  will  cross 
the  plains  and  mountains  to  the  Pacific  coast.' 

"  'Colonel  Benton,'  I  replied,  'with  all  due  deference  to  you  as  a  prophet,  your  pre- 
diction is  as  visionary  as  a  trip  to  the  moon.' 

"  'I  will  not  live  to  see  the  prophecy  verified,  hut  the  next  generation  will,'  he  re- 
sponded firmly.  That  was  the  last  visit  of  Colonel  Benton  to  Kansas  City.  The  party 
left  by  steamboat  for  St.  Louis  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day." 

The  Gillis  house,  in  the  da\s  when  it  was  known  as  the  .American,  was 
four  and  one-half  stories  in  height  and  had  a  cupola  or  lower  in  which  was  a 
bell.  The  tinging  of  the  bell  gave  notice  that  meals  were  ready.  Guests  sat  at 
a  table  sixty  feet  long  accommodatmg  .sixty  people.  Three  tiiues  that  number 
were  fed  frequently,  in  relays.  In  one  long  room  there  were  twenty  beds.  To 
take  care  of  the  overflows,  the  parlor  floor  was  covered  at  night  with  shake- 
downs. 

For  a  special  dinner,  in  i860,  the  National  hotel  in  St.  Louis  printed  on  silk 
the  bill  of  fare — menu  came  in  later  years — with  seven  courses,  including  sixty- 
three  entrees,  champagne  or  Rhine  wine,  all  for  one  dollar. 

The  McCarty  House  in  History. 

Through  two  generations  much  Missouri  history  was  made  in  the  McCarty 
house  of  Jefferson  City.    John  N.  Edwards  said  of  it : 

"W'liat  crowds  it  has  seen  and  combinations,  caucuses  and  conventions  I  Secesh, 
union,  claybank,  federal,  confederate,  radical,  democrat,  liberal,  republican.  prohil)ition, 
tadpole,  granger,  greenback,  and  female  suffrage,  have  all  had  their  delegates  there  who 
■wrought,  planned,  perfected  and  went  away  declaring  a  new  dispensation  in  the  shape 
of  a  hotel,  and  that  Burr  McCarty  was  its  anointed  prophet.  If  that  old  house  could 
think  and  write  what  a  wonderful  book  it  could  publish  of  two  generations  of  Missourians, 
the  first  generation  having  to  do  with  the  pioneers.  The  state  knows  it.  .^nd  to  the 
politicians  of  the  state  it  has  been  a  hill,  a  ravine,  or  a  skirt  of  timber  from  behind  which 
to  perfect  their  ambushnients.  Its  atmosphere  is  the  atmosphere  of  a  home  circle.  It 
lias   no  barroom   and   therein   lies   the   benediction   which    follows   the   prayer." 

Burr  Harrison  McCarty,  or  "McCarty  of  the  McCarty 's"  as  Judge  Henry 
I.amm  liked  to  call  him,  came  to  Missouri  when  the  state  was  only  fifteen  years 
old.  Interested  in  stage  lines  with  Thomas  L.  Price.  Mr.  McCarty  built  a  fine 
home  in  Jefferson  City  in  1836.  Of  \'irginia  birth  and  a  bom  host,  he  made  his 
home  such  a  favorite  and  popular  place  with  Benton  and  Linn  and  the  pioneer 
statesmen  and  lawyers,  that  he  drifted  into  the  hotel  keeping,  making  additions 
from  time  to  time  to  the  old  residence.  He  became  the  model  Missouri  host, 
with  a  friendly  greeting  to  all  comers.  He  set  the  pace  for  the  landlords  of  a 
whole  state  witli  what  one  of  his  guests  of  many  years  called  honest  coffee, 
honest  butter,  honest  eggs,  cornbread  baked  in  the  skillet,  poultry  and  game. 
From  the  McCarty  house  came  the  ways  of  making  chicken  dinners  for  which 
Missouri    landlords   gained    faiue    far   bevond    the    borders   of    the    state.      For 


140  CENTFA'XIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

more  than  half  a  century  Burr  Harrison  McCarty  made  the  McCarty  house  a 
Missouri  institution.  After  his  dcatli,  a  daughter,  whom  a  later  generation  of 
Missourians  knew  affectionately  as  "Miss  Ella,"  maintained  tlie  traditions. 
When  the  doors  closed  there  were  Missourians  in  every  part  of  the  state  who 
recalled  the  open  wood  fires,  the  scrupulous  cleanliness,  the  old-fashioned  cook- 
ing, and  asked  themselves,  as  did  Major  Edwards,  "Why  can't  a  landlord  like 
him  renew  his  youth  and  make  that  old  house  of  his  endure  forever." 

Experiences  of  Globe  Trotters. 

James  Stuart,  a  .Scotchman,  who  wrote  "Three  \'ears  in  Xorth  America," 
devoting  his  attention  to  "a  faithful  and  candid  representation  of  the  facts 
wliicJi  the  author  observed  and  noted  in  the  jilaces  where  they  presented  them- 
selves,"— those  are  his  words — said  : 

"Wc  arrived  in  St.  Louis  on  Siiiulay,  llic  Jith  iil  April  (i8,v>).  on  so  cold  a  morning 
that  the  fir.st  rc(|iicst  I  made  on  reachinf;  the  City  hotel,  in  the  upper  part  of  the  town, 
was  for  a  hre,  which  was  immediately  granted.  The  hotel  turned  out  a  very  comfortable 
one.  It  contains  a  great  deal  of  accommodation.  The  only  inconvenience  I  felt  arose 
from  the  people  not  being  accustomed,  as  seems  generally  the  case  'U  the  western  country, 
to  place  water  basins  and  a  towel  in  every  bedroom.  The  system  of  washing  at  some 
place  near  the  well  is  general,  but  the  vvaiters  or  chambermaids  never  refuse  to  bring 
everything  to  the  bedroom  that  is  desired.  It  is,  however,  so  little  the  practice  to  bring 
a  washing  apparatus  to  the  bedrooms  that  they  are  very  apt  to  forget  a  general  direction 
regularly  to  do  so.  We  had  a  great  quantity  of  fine  poultry  at  this  house;  and  the  table, 
upon   the  whole,   was  extremely  well   managed." 

Melish.  an  luiglish  traveler,  ga\c  high  praise  to  .American  taverns.  He 
told  of  one  place  he  \isited  where  there  were  sixty  houses  of  which  seven  were 
taverns.  He  described  a  breakfast  table  on  which  there  were  "table  cloth,  tea 
tray,  tea  pot.  milk  jiot,  bowls,  cujis,  sugar  tongs,  lea  spoons,  castors,  plates, 
knives,  forks,  tea,  sugar,  cream,  bread,  butter,  steak,  eggs,  cheese,  potatoes, 
oeets,  salt,  vinegar,  pejiper, — all  for  twenty-five  cents." 

Religious  services  were  held  in  taverns.  Not  infrequently  the  tavern  was 
conducted  by  a  woman,  usually  a  widow.  In  the  earliest  days  of  the  .\merican 
colonies  the  house  of  entertainment  was  known  as  "ihe  ordinary."  But  when 
that  term  went  out  of  use,  .Americans  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  English  name 
of  "inn."  "Tavern,"  of  good  full  vohniie  of  \owel  sound,  was  adopted  and  it 
was  applied  universally  in  Missouri  as  settlement  sj^read.  When  a  Missouri 
comniunitv  reached  nietro])oliian  jiretensions,  "tavern"  gradually  gave  place  to 
"hotel."  But  "tavern"  continued  to  bi-  the  po]nilar  term  ;Uong  the  rivers  and 
the   stage   coach   routes. 

.\n  im])ressive  structure  for  its  generation  was  the  Buchanan  t;ivern  iit 
Florida.  It  was  of  brick  and  equii)i)ed  on  a  scale  which  befitted  a  community 
with  strong  hopes  of  being  the  county  seat  of  one  of  the  rich  counties  of  Mis- 
souri. The  time  came  when  Florida  and  Paris  engaged  in  one  of  the  most 
exciting  county  seat  contests  in  the  history  of  the  state.  .\  compromise  settle- 
ment was  offered :  it  was  proposed  to  make  two  cotmties  out  of  Monroe  with 
Paris  and  Florida  as  county  seats.  One  of  the  Florida  boomers  was  John 
Marshall   Clemens,  the  father  of   Mark  Twain.     The  comjiromise  was  defeated. 


THE  MISSOURI  TA\ERX  141 

.Major  Howell  and  Dr.  Flannagan  were  members  of  the  legislature  and  both 
favorable  to  Paris.  They  got  through  an  act  cutting  off  a  slice  of  Monroe 
county  and  adding  it  to  Shelby.  This  reduced  Monroe  to  the  extent  that  it 
spoiled  the  argument  for  two  counties.  It  also  made  I'aris  the  more  natural 
location  for  the  county  seat.  It  was  a  great  victory  for  Paris  but  the  people  who 
were  mo\ed  into  Shelby  long  insisted  that  they  belonged  in  Monroe. 

A  Praying  Landlord. 

Ferdinand  Ernst  who  traveled  about  Missouri  and  Illinois  in  1819  had  this 
experience : 

"The  landlord  at  the  next  tavern  received  us  with  the  remark  that  tavern  keeping 
was  a  secondary  matter  with  him.  and  he  requested  of  his  guests  that  they  accommodate 
themselves  to  his  wishes,  and  whoever  would  not  consent  to  this  might  travel  on.  The 
company  of  travelers  regarded  tlie  words  of  the  landlord  as  very  strange,  but  resolved 
to  put  up  here  as  the  next  tavern  was  quite  a  distance  off  and  men  and  horses  were  very 
tired.  After  supper  the  landlord  and  his  family  began  to  pray  and  sing  so  that  the  ears 
of  us  tired  travelers  tingled.  Many  of  the  travelers  would  have  gladly  requested  them 
to  desist  from  this  entertainment  if  the  landlord  had  not  taken  the  precautions  upon  our 
entrance.  After  prayers  the  landlord  related  to  me  that  he  had  often  been  disturbed  in 
his  religious  exercises  and  even  been  shamefully  ridiculed  by  travelers.  He,  therefore, 
had  been  obliged  to  make  that  condition  upon  the  reception  of  guests.     He  was  a  Quaker." 

On  the  (irand  Pass,  in  the  thirties,  when  the  stream  of  migration  and  com- 
merce flowed  along  the  Santa  Fe  Trail,  John  and  William  Early,  cousins  of 
Bishop  Early  of  Kentucky,  kept  tavern.  Grand  Pass  was  a  stinp  of  high  land 
between  Salt  Fork  and  the  Missouri  bottoins.  Two  bodies  of  water  in  the 
bottoms  were  known  as  Grand  Pass  and  Davis  lakes.  Tavern  keepers  in  those 
days  included  Missourians  of  high  repute.  The  vocation  was  an  honorable 
one.  Lieutenant  Francis  Hall,  an  Englishman  traveling  in  .-Xmerica  in  1817. 
said : 

"The  innkeepers  of  America  arc,  in  most  villages,  what  wo  call  vulgarly,  topping 
men — field  officers  of  militia  with  good  farms  attached  to  their  taverns,  so  that  they  are 
apt  to  think  what,  perhaps,  in  a  newly  settled  country,  is  not  far  wide  of  the  truth,  that 
travelers  rather  receive  than  confer  a  favor  by  being  accommodated  at  their  homes.  The 
daughters  officiate  at  tea  and  breakfast  and  generally  wait  at  dinner." 

It  is  an  historic  fact  that  the  first  ta\ern  in  Cambridge.  .Massachusetts,  was 
kept  by  a  deacon  of  the  church  who  afterwards  was  steward  of  Harxard.  When 
Lafayette  made  his  triumphal  tour  in  1824.  his  party  stopped  at  fifty  taverns. 
One  who  was  of  that  party  wrote : 

"We  were  received  by  the  landlord  with  perfect  civility  but  without  the  slightest 
shade  of  obsequiousness.  The  deportment  of  the  innkeeper  was  niaidy.  ci)urteous.  and 
even  kind;  but  there  was  that  in  his  air  which  sutTiciently  proved  that  both  parties  were 
expected  to  manifest  the  same  qualities." 

Almost  contemporaneous  with  Missouri's  statehood  was  I.  S.  Haistead.  of 
Breckrenridge,  who  celebrated  his  one  hundredth  birthday  in  1918.  He  had 
been    eighty    years    a    resident    of    Missouri :    in    his    younger    days    he    was    in 


142  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  ^[ISSOURI 

close  relations  with  Henry  Clay.  He  carried  a  cane  presented  to  liiin  by 
Clay  wild  had  received  it  as  a  fjift  fnmi  Senator  Jenifer  of  Maryland.  The 
cane  had  a  history.  The  Maryland  senator  brought  it  from  an  olive  tree  near 
the  burial  place  of  Cicero.  He  gave  it  to  Mr.  Clay  on  the  occasion  of  the  lat- 
ter's  famous  speech  expounding  the  Missouri  Compromise.  One  day  a  dog 
attacked  Clay  on  the  .street  in  Washington.  Defending  himself  with  his  cane, 
Clay  hit  a  fence  and  broke  the  cane.  He  tried  to  have  it  repaired  but  was  dis- 
satislied  with  the  result  and  passed  the  historic  stick  along  to  his  young  friend. 
Halstead.  At  the  observance  of  his  centennial.  Mr.  Halstead  told  a  corre- 
.spondent  of  the  Kansas  City  Star  this  tavern  story  as  he  had  it  from  Mr.  Clay: 

An  English  nobleman  traveling  in  the  United  States  called  upon  Mr. 
Clay.  He  stopped  at  a  tavern,  having  with  him  his  valet.  The  tavern  keeper 
noticed  that  the  valet  seemed  to  keep  at  a  distance  but  did  not  take  into 
consideration  any  difference  in  station.  When  it  came  time  to  go  to  bed,  the 
ta\ern  keejjer  showed  milord  and  the  valet  to  the  same  room.  The  nobleman 
protested.  He  said :  "But  I  am  not  accustomed  to  being  in  the  same  room 
with  my  valet." 

"I  can't  help  that,"  said  the  tavern  keeper.  "It's  there  for  you.  You  will 
have  to  make  the  best  of  it." 

When  the  Englishman  got  away  from  Lexington  he  wrote  Mr.  Clay  a 
letter  telling  of  his  tavern  experience  and  commented  good  naturedlv  on  the 
democratic  ideas  of  American  tavern  keepers. 

An  Ozark  Menu. 

When  "Uad"  rang  the  dinner  bell  in  good  old-fashioned  way,  on  the 
porch  of  a  West  Plains  hotel  one  September  noon,  the  guests  who  gathered 
about  the  long  table  running  the  length  of  the  dining  room  counted  eleven 
forms  of  fruit  before  them.  In  the  center  was  a  pyramid  of  apples,  peaches, 
pears  and  grapes.  The  fried  chicken  was  in  a  setting  of  boiled  apples.  With 
the  pork  was  a  dish  of  fried  apples.  '  The  dessert  was-  a  choice  of  apple  dump- 
ling or  peach  cobbler,  or  both.  By  way  of  relishes  there  were  pickled  peaches, 
plum  butter  and  apple  jelly, — eleven  forms  of  fruit,  count  'em, — and  it  was 
no  e.xtra  occasion. 

Some  of  these  ]Missouri  taverns  outlived  the  stage  coach.  The  old  Ensign  tav- 
ern at  Medill  in  Clark  county  was  razed  within  the  past  half  decade.  It  w-as  a 
once  popular  stopping  place  on  the  road  from  Alexandria  to  Bloomington, 
by  which  the  traveler  journeyed  from  the  Mississippi  landing  into  the  in- 
terior of  Northeast  IMissouri.  At  Bloomington  Squire  Absalom  Lewis  kept 
tavern  in  what  was  the  first  house  in  that  part  of  the  state  with  the  chimneys 
inside  of  the  walls.  Squire  Lewis  came  honestly  by  his  judicial  title.  For 
years^  he  entertained  the  judge  and  the  lawyers  and  the  clients  during  court 
sessions.  A  rule  of  the  tavern  during  this  ])eriodical  congestion  of  custom  was 
that  only  the  judge  could  have  a  bed  to  himself.  From  years  of  close  asso- 
ciation with  his  guests.  Lew-is  came  to  have  such  familiarity  with  law  and  prac- 
tice that  he  was  prompted  to  run  for  justice  of  the  peace.  When  a  tavern 
keeper  went  out  for  office  he  was  generally  successful,  such  was  the  esteem 
in  which  the  vocation  was  held  by  Missouri  constituencies.     Squire  Lewis  was 


AX  OZARK  TAVERN 


•■  UA1»" 
An  old  tinio  tiivcrn  keeper  of  Missouri 


McGKE  HOTKL  OX   (!RAXD   AVENUE 
One  of  tlie  pioneer  tiiverns  of  Kansas  City 


.<^ 


THE  MISSOURI  TA\  ERX  145 

elected  and  proceeded  to  administer  justice  according  to  liis  pre\ious  observa- 
tion. In  one  of  his  earlier  cases  he  was  called  upon  to  pass  upon  many  ob- 
jections raised  by  opposing  counsel.  With  strict  impartiality,  the  squire  ruled 
in  favor  of  the  lawyers  alternately.  But  at  the  end  of  the  trial,  two  consecu- 
tive rulings  were  made  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff. 

"Look  here,"  said  the  lawyer  for  the  defense,  "squire,  you  decided  for 
the  other  side  last  time  and  this  was  our  turn  to  get  the  decision?" 

"I  know  how  I  done,"  said  the  squire,  with  dignity.  "In  order  to  be  fair 
to  you  fellows,  I  gave  half  the  pints  to  the  plaintilif  and  half  to  the  defendant, 
and  never  put  one  single  pint  for  myself  till  the  close  of  the  case.  .\nd  then 
you  kick.     Seems  to  me  you  don't  appreciate  fair  treatment." 

Squire  Lewis  believed  in  upiiolding  the  dignity  of  his  court.  ( )n  one 
occasion  he  left  the  bencli  and  whipped  a  lawyer  for  contempt. 

Captain  Kidd  Kidded  Vest. 

lie  was  a  Missouri  tavern  keeper  who  once  got  the  better  of  George  G. 
Vest  in  a  match  of  wits.  The  occasion  was  in  old  Georgetown,  once  the  county 
seat  of  Pettis,  where  \'est.  as  a  young  bachelor,  lived  at  the  tavern  while  he 
divided  his  time  between  practicing  law.  hunting  and  fishing.  Judge  IIenr\ 
Lamm  told  the  story: 

"In  1854,  Vest  went  back  tu  Kentucky  and  married,  bringing  bis  wife  to  Georgetown 
It  is  said  that  Vest  had  nettled  his  landlord  a  little  by  intimating  it  was  unsafe  to  eat 
his  pies  without  first  pounding  on  the  crust  with  a  knife  handle  to  scare  out  the  cock- 
roaches. Be  that  as  it  may,  the  said  landlord.  Captain  Kidd,  felt  no  occasion  to  be  other- 
wise than  frank,  and,  when  Vest  brought  his  bride  to  his  house  and  took  him  to  her 
for  an  introduction  and  proudly  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  her,  Kidd  replied :  'By 
gum,  George,  you  must  have  cotched  her  in  a  pinch   for  a  husband.'  " 

A  fine  representati\e  of  the  type  of  Mis.souri  landlords  was  "Weed" 
Marshall  who  furnished  "entertainment"  at  Mayview  for  twenty-nine  years. 
"Weed"  was  the  familiar  name  by  which  the  traveling  public  knew  him.  The 
proper  initials  were  "J.  W."  Marshall  was  courteous  to  a  punctilious  degree; 
but  it  did  not  do  to  presume  upon  his  good  nature.  A  young  traveling  man  left 
a  call  for  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  in  a  rather  unpleasant  manner  im- 
pressed the  importance  of  it.  Marshall  had  no  night  clerk  and  sat  up  to  make 
sure  that  the  guest  did  not  miss  the  train.  At  three  o'clock  to  the  minute  he 
pounded  on  the  door.  '  .\  grunt  was  the  response. 

"Get  up,"  shouted  Marshall.    "It's  three  o'clock." 

"I've  changed  my  mind,"  growled  the  traveling  ni;in.  "I'm  going  to  stay 
and  take  later  train." 

"No.  you're  not,"  said  Marshall.  "Confound  you!  \'ou  get  up  and  get 
out  this  minute.  You  can't  fool  me."  .Xnd  the  young  man  left  on  his  early 
train. 

Marshall  had  been  in  the  Confederate  army.  He  was  "with  Shelby"  and 
proud  of  it.  When  he  retired  from  the  Mayview  tavern  the  Kansas  City 
Star  told  this:  Traveling  men  found  it  entertaining  to  start  a  controversy  as 
to  the  war  record  of  Shelby's  brigade  just  to  arouse  the  ire  of  "Weed."  One 
night  a  big  driminier.  new  in  that  territory,  and  imder  the  prompting  of  other 

Vol.  I— 10 


146  CEXTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

traveling  men,  started  something.  He  began  with  a  reference  to  the  Civil  war 
and  his  own  alleged  part  in  it.  He  said  his  command  had  met  a  body  of 
Missouri  Confederates  under  Shelby. 

"We  not  only  made  them  run,"  he  said,  "but  we  captured  a  lot  of  them. 
I  captured  one  myself.  And  I  made  that  fellow  do  all  sorts  of  stunts.  He 
was  so  scared  he  would  do  anything  I  told  him.  1  made  him  roll  on  his  back 
like  a  dog  and  bark  when  he  wanted  food ;  and  lick  the  mud  off  my  boots. 
Funny  thing  about  it,  Mr.  Marshall;  you  somehow  remind  me  of  that  man. 
You  weren't  ever  with  Shelby,  were  you?" 

"Yes  sir.  I  was  with  Shelby.  I  was  that  very  man  you  captured.  I  have 
been  looking  for  you  ever  since.  I  made  a  vow  then  that  if  I  ever  met  you,  I'd 
kill  you." 

W'ith  that  Marshall  opened  a  drawer  of  his  desk  and  pulled  out  a  re- 
volver. The  big  traveling  man  apologized  hastily,  said  his  war  reminiscence 
was  all  a  joke  and  that  the  other  traveling  men  had  put  up  a  job  on  him.  The 
honors  of  the  hour  were  w-ith  Marshall. 

Far  and  wide  in  that  part  of  Missouri  the  Mayview  house  of  entertain- 
ment under  Marshall  was  famed  for  immaculately  clean  beds  and  good  living. 

In  a  reminiscent  letter  to  the  Saline  County  Index  published  in  1900. 
Dr.  Glenn  O.  Hardeman  testified  to  the  modest  charges  at  a  famous  old  Mis- 
souri tavern : 

"On  my  first  visit  to  Saline,  in  1840,  I  landed  at  .\rro\v  Rock  from  a  steamboat  in  the 
nipht,  and  as  I  intended  going  to  the  country  in  the  morning,  I  took  lodging  only  at  the 
hotel  kept  l)y  that  well  known  and  popular  citizen,  Joseph  Huston,  Sr.,  for  which  I  was 
charged  the  sum  of  I2'4  cents,  or  I  should  say  a  'bit.'  On  my  return  in  a  few  days  I 
dined  at  the  sarqe  hotel  and  was  charged  another  'bit'  for  an  excellent  dinner.  The 
currency  of   that  day  was  exclusively  Mexican  or  Spanish  coin." 

One  Missouri  tavern  has  not  only  survived,  but,  with  the  marking  of 
historic  trails  and  the  promise  of  good  roads  to  encourage  the  motor  travel, 
has  entered  upon  a  new  period  of  popularity.  The  fame  of  the  tavern  of 
Arrow  Rock  is  growing  rapidly  with  the  tourist.  Built  of  brick  burned  by 
slaves  in  1840,  with  wide  fireplaces,  with  solid  walnut  finish,  with  antlers  of 
■  Missouri  elks.  Arrow  Rock  tavern  charms  the  visitor  today.  Patriotic  women 
have  added  relics,  such  as  Daniel  Boone's  fiddle,  and  dainty  draperies. 

What  has  been  done  at  Arrow  Rock  suggests  the  possibilities  of  the  re- 
naissance of  the  Missouri  tavern  as  the  era  of  leisurely  and  independent  tour- 
ing opens  with  Missouri's  second  century. 


CHAPTER  V 
WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS 

The  Campmccting  in  Missouri  History — Jl'hen  McKendrcc  Became  a  Bishop — Jesse 
IVallccr,  the  Pioneer — Thrilling  Scenes  at  Three  Springs — Bush  Arbors  and  Egg  Shell 
Lamps — The  Ministerial  Attire — Old  Antioch — "Dei'il's  Camp  Ground" — A  Sermon 
a  Day  for  a  Year — The  Programme — Old  Time  Hymns — "God  Greater  Than  Tom 
Benton" — Sni  Grove's  Vast  Assemblages — Old  Freedom — Physical  Manifestations  of 
Conz'iction — "The  Jerks" — Law  and  Order  Regulations — Pioneer  Church  Discipline — 
Rucker  Tanner — A  First  Covenant  in  Boone — Perils  of  the  Itinerants — "Mectinn 
House"  Architecture — Theology  of  the  Pioneers — Rev.  Moses  E.  Lard's  Recollections — 
Shackleford  on  the  Wave  of  Infidelity — The  Saving  Influence  of  Good  Women — 
Marvin's  First  Sermon — The  Bishop  on  the  Early  Settlers — A  Colaborer  tfith  Cart- 
uright — Matrimonial  Fees — Militant  Men  of  the  Church — A  Dry  Land  Baptist — "Snag- 
boat"  Williams — Baptism  at  Old  Nebo — Bonnet  Show  Day  in  Clay  County — Immersions 
in  Midwinter — The  First  Communion  at  Zumwalt's — Conversion  at  Hen-egg  Revival — 
Services  in  a  Pike  County  Cabin — Eccentric  Henry  Clay  Dean — An  Ozark  Preacher's 
Prayer  for  Rattlesnakes — Fanatical  Pilgrims — The  Millerite  "Last  Day" — Champ 
Clark  on  the  Chaplain — Beginnings  of  the  Christian  Church — "Brush  CoHege"  Train- 
ing— The  Missouri  "Marthas" — Stribling's  Gift — Mr.  Barger's  Astonishing  Text — First 
Meeting  on  Ba.vter  Ground — Saving  Grace  of  Humor  in  the  Pulpit — Preachers' 
Nicknames. 

4.  That  all  men  have  a  natural  and  indefeasible  right  to  worship  almighty  God  according  to  the 
dictates  of  their  own  consciences:  that  no  man  can  be  compelled  to  erect,  support  or  attend  any  place  of 
worship,  or  to  maintain  any  minister  of  the  gospel  or  teacher  of  religion;  that  no  human  authority  can 
control  or  interfere  with  the  rights  of  conscience;  that  no  person  can  ever  be  hurt,  molested  or  restrained 
in  his  religious  professions  or  sentiments,  if  he  do  not  disturb  others  in  their  religious  worship; 

5.  That  no  person  on  account  of  his  religious  opinions  can  be  rendered  ineligible  to  any  office  of 
trust  or  profit  under  this  state;  that  no  preference  can  ever  be  given  by  law  to  any  sect  or  mode  of 
worship;  and  that  no  religious  corporation  can  ever  he  established  in  this  state. — From  tlic  first  Constitution 
of  Missouri,  adopted  1830. 

One  of  the  first  cainpmeetings  in  Missouri,  according  to  Rev.  J.  W.  Cun- 
ningham, church  historian  of  fifty  years  ago,  was  held  somewhere  between  the 
Meramec  and  the  Missouri  rivers.  Four  ministers,  McKendree,  Gwin.  God- 
dard  and  Travis,  came  from  Illinois  and  walked  forty  miles  to  preach  at  that 
gathering.  McKendree  went  on  to  Baltimore  to  attend  the  genera!  conference 
of  the  Methodist  church.  He  was  "clothed  in  very  coarse  and  homely  gar- 
ments which  he  had  worn  in  the  woods  of  the  West."  He  preached  to  the 
conference  with  such  power  that  Bishop  Asbury  said  "that  sermon  will  make 
him  a  bishop."  And  it  did.  McKendree  was  elected  a  bi.shop  a  few  days 
later.  He  came  back  and  was  in  Missouri  the  next  year  to  attend  the  first 
campmeeting  north  of  the  Missouri  river.  The  meeting  was  held  on  the  Peruque 
near   what   is  now  O'Fallon.     Settlers  came   from  long  distances  to  "hear  the 

147 


148  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

bishop  preach."  A  tent  was  constructed  for  the  bishop.  The  saddle  blankets 
iif  several  preachers  were  .sewed  together  and  spread  over  a  pole  which  was 
luld  up  by  forked  posts.  One  end  of  the  tent  was  closed  with  green  branches. 
The  other  was  left  open,  with  a  fire  in  front  of  it.  The  food  prepared  for 
the  bishop  consisted  of  meat.  l)r()iled  at  the  end  of  a  stick,  and  bread. 

The  First  Missouri  Campmeeting. 

Fiishop  McKendrce  left  a  written  record  of  his  visit  to  Missouri  to  hold 
campnieeting,  "the  first  meeting  of  the  kind  ever  held  northwest  of  the  Mis- 
si>sippi  river."  He  said  that  his  i)arty  "walked  about  forty  miles  in  getting 
to  it."  With  McKendree  were  Jesse  Walker,  who  had  arranged  the  Missouri 
tri]),  lames  ( Iwin  and  .\.  (ioddard.  (Iwin  was  a  man  six  feet  high,  lie  had 
been  in  the  expedition  which  Ijroke  up  the  Cherokee  pirates  at  Nickajack  and 
inade  navigation  safe  on  the  Tennessee  river.  Further  than  that,  (iwin  had 
been  Jackson's  favorite  chaplain  at  the  Battle  of  .\'ew  Orleans  and  had  been 
put  in  charge  of  the  wounded  and  the  hospital  there,  (iwin  left  an  accoinU 
of  tiiat  trip  to  Missouri  to  hold  the  first  campnieeting: 

"We  crossed  the  Ohio  river,  tuok  the  wikleriicss.  and  traveled  until  night.  N'ot  heing 
ahle  to  get  any  habitation,  we  camped  out.  Brother  McKendree  made  us  some  tea,  and 
we  lay  down  under  the  branches  of  a  friendly  beech,  and  had  a  pleasant  night's  rest. 
Next  morning  we  set  out  early,  traveled  hard,  and  got  some  distance  into  the  prairie,  and 
here  we  took  up  for  the  night.  The  next  night  we  reached  the  first  settlement,  tarried 
a  day  there,  and  crossing  the  Kaskaskia  river,  lodged  with  an  old  Brother  Scott.  Hece 
we  met  with  Jesse  Walker,  who  had  formed  a  circuit  and  had  three  campnieetings  ap- 
pointed for  us.  After  resting  a  few  days  we  set  out  for  the  first  campmeeting.  In  twelve 
miles  we  reached  the  Mississippi  river,  and,  having  no  means  of  taking  our  horses  across.' 
we  sent  them  hack,  crossed  the  river,  and.  with  our  baggage  on  our  shoulders,  'went  to 
the  campground,  having  fallen  in  with  Brother  Travis  on  the  way.  .About  forty  were 
converted   at   this   meeting. 

Thrilling  Scenes  at  Three  Springs. 

"From  this  campmeeting  we  returned  across  the  river  to  Judge  S 's,  who  re- 
freshed us  and  sent  forward  our  baggage  in  a  cart  to  Brother  Garettson's  where  our  next 
meeting  was  to  be  held,  which  was  called  Three  Springs.  We  arrived  on  Friday  morning 
at  the  camjjground,  which  was  situated  in  a  lieautiful  grove  surrounded  by  a  prairie.  .A 
considerable  congregation  had  collected,  for  the  news  of  the  other  meeting  had  .gone 
abroad  and  produced  much  excitement.  Some  were  in  favor  of  the  work,  and  others 
were  opposed  to  it.  A  certain  major  had  raised  a  'company  of  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser 
sort'  to  drive  us  from  the  ground.  Saturday,  while  I  was  preaching,  the  major  and  his 
company  rode  into  the  congregation  and  halted,  which  produced  confusion  and  alarm. 
1  stopped  preaching  for  a  moment  and  invited  them  to  be  off  with  themselves,  and  they 
retired  to  the  spring  for  a  fresh  drink  of  brandy.  The  major  said  he  had  heard  of  these 
Methodists  before;  that  they  always  broke  up  the  peace  of  the  people  wherever  they  went: 
that  they  preached  against  horse  racing,  card  playing,  and  every  other  kind  of  amusement. 
.■\t  three  o'clock,  while  Brother  Goddard  and  I  were  singing  a  hymn,  an  awful  sense  nf 
the  divine  power  fell  on  the  congregation,  when  a  man  with  a  terrified  look  ran  to  me 
and  said,  '.\re  you  the  man  that  keeps  the  roll?'  I  asked  him  what  roll.  'That  roll,'  he 
replied,  'that  people  put  their  names  to  who  are  going  to  heaven."  I  supposed  he  meant 
the  class  paper,  and  sent  him  to  Brother  Walker.  Turning  to  Jesse  Walker,  he  said, 
'Put  my  name  down  if  you  please,"  and  then  fell  to  the  ground.  Others  started  to  run 
off  and   fell:   some  escaped.     We  were  bu-iy  in   getting  the   fallen  to   one  place,   which   we 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  149 

effected  alx)ut  sunset,  when  the  man  who  wished  his  name  on  the  roll  arose  and  ran 
off  like  a  wild  beast.  Looking  around  upon  the  scene  reminded  me  of  a  battle-field  after 
a  heavy  battle.  All  night  the  struggle  went  on.  Victory  was  on  the  Lord's  side ;  many 
were  converted  and  about  sunrise  next  morning  there  was  a  shout  of  a  king  in  the  camp. 
It  was  Sabbatli  morning,  and  I  tliought  it  was  the  most  beautiful  morning  I  had  ever  seen 
A  little  after  sunrise,  the  man  that  had  run  off  came  back,  wet  with  the  dews  of  the  night 
and  with  strong  sv-mptoms  of  derangement.  At  eleven  o'clock  Brother  McKendrce  admin- 
istered the  holy  sacrament,  and  while  he  was  dwelling  upon  its  origin,  nature,  and  design, 
some  of  the  major's  company  were  affected,  and  we  had  a  melting  time.  After  sacra- 
ment. Brother  McKendree  preached,  all  the  principal  men  of  the  country  and  all  in 
reach  who  could  get  there,  .being  present.  His  text  was.  'Come,  let  us  reason  together'; 
and  perhaps  no  man  ever  managed  the  subject  better,  or  with  more  effect.  His  reasoning 
on  the  atonement,  the  great  plan  of  salvation,  and  the  love  of  God.  was  so  clear  and 
strong,  and  was  delivered  with  such  pathos,  that  the  congregation  involuntarily  arose  to 
tTieir  feet  and  pressed  toward  him  from  all  parts.  While  he  was  preaching  he  very 
ingeniously  adverted  to  the  conduct  of  the  major,  and  remarked.  "We  are  .•\mericans, 
and  some  of  us  have  fought  for  our  liberty,  and  have  come  here  to  teach  men  the  way 
to  heaven.'  This  seemed  to  strike  the  major,  and  lie  became  friendly,  and  has  remained 
so  ever  since. 

"This  was  a  great  day.  The  work  became  general — tlie  place  was  awful,  and  many 
souls  were  born  to  God.  Among  the  rest  was  our  wild  man.  His  history  is  a  peculiar 
one.  He  lived  in  the  .Xmerican  Bottom,  had  a  fine  estate,  and  was  a  professed  deist. 
He  told  us  that  a  few  nights  before  we  passed  his  house  he  dreamed  that  the  day  of 
judgment  was  at  hand,  and  that  three  men  had  come  from  the  East  to  A'arn  the  people 
to  prepare  for  it;  that  so  soon  as  he  saw  us  he  became  alarmed,  believing  we  were  those 
men :  and  having  ascertained  who  we  were,  he  came  to  the  campmeeting.  He  became  a 
reformed   and   good   man.  " 

Jesse  Walker,  the  Pioneer  Preacher. 

Pi'-^hop  McTyeire  describes  Jesse  Walker  as  "a  church  extension  society 
witliiti  liimself."  He  >aid  that  there  was  no  man  whose  name  was  more  fre- 
quently mentioned  by  Bishop  McKendree  than  Jesse  ^\'alker.  The  bisho]) 
<liioti^d  one  who  knew  Walker  intimately  as  giving  this  description  of  him: 

"He  was  to  the  church  what  Daniel  Boone  was  to  the  early  settler — always  first,  always 
ahead  of  everybody  else,  preceding  all  others  long  enough  to  be  the  pilot  of  the  new- 
comer. Brother  Walker  is  found  first  in  Davidson  county,  Tennessee.  He  lived  within 
three  miles  of  the  then  village  of  N'ashville,  and  was  at  that  time  a  man  of  family,  poor 
and  to  a  considerable  extent  without  education.  He  was  sent  by  the  bishops  and  presiding 
elders  in  every  direction  where  new  work  was  to  he  cut  out.  His  natural  vigor  was 
almost  superhuman.  He  did  not  seem  to  require  food  and  rest  as  other  men ;  no  day's 
journey  was  long  enough  to  tire  him,  no  fare  too  poor  for  him  to  live  upon;  to  him,  in 
traveling,  roads  and  paths  were  useless  things — he  blazed  out  his  own  course;  no  way 
was  too  bad  for  him  to  travel — if  his  horse  could  not  carry  him  he  led  him.  and  when  his 
horse  could  not  follow  he  would  leave  him  and  take  it  on  foot;  and  if  night  and  a  cabin 
did  not  come  together,  he  would  pass  the  night  alone  in  the  wilderness,  which  with  him 
was  no  uncommon  occurrence.  Looking  up  the  frontier  settler  was  his  chief  delight; 
and  he  found  his  way  through  hill  and  brake  as  by  instinct — he  was  never  lost ;  and, 
as  Bishop  McKendree  once  said  of  him.  in  addressing  an  aiuiual  conference,  he  never 
complained ;  and  as  the  church  moved  west  and  north,  it  seemed  to  bear  Walker  before 
it.  Every  time  you  would  hear  of  him  he  was  still  farther  on ;  and  when  the  settlements 
of  the  white  man  seemed  to  take  shape  and  form,  he  was  next  heard  of  among  the  Indian 
tribes  of  the   Northwest." 


150  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Egg  Shell  Lamps  and  Bee-gums. 

"Bush  arbors"  were  the  first  places  of  vvorshij)  in  many  parts  of  Missouri 
before  churches  of  logs  were  built.  They  were  especially  popular  in  Southern 
Missouri  where  the  seasons  were  mildest.  A  step  in  advance  of  the  bush  arbor 
was  the  "clapboard  shanty."  Dumklin  county  had  one  of  these.  The  pulpit 
was  "two  blackjack  poles  driven  in  the  dirt  floor  with  a  cypress  board  pinned 
on  their  tops."  When  tallow  candles  could  not  be  provided,  these  primitive 
places  of  worship  were  lighted  at  night  with  egg  shell  lamps.  A  hole  was 
punched  carefully  in  tlie  little  end  of  the  shell.  The  white  and  yolk  were 
drained  out.  The  shell  was  filled  with  bear's  grease  or  oil  from  the  raccoon.  A 
cotton  string  was  put  in  for  a  wick.  The  egg  shell  was  propped  up  in  a  saucet^ 
of  salt.  These  lamps  burned  so  well  that  the  preacher  standing  l)c-hin(l  the 
cvpress  board  pulpit,  easily  read  the  scripture  lessons  from  the  Bible. 

Preachers  in  those  days  wore  copperas  and  black  trousers,  shirts  of  copperas 
and  white,  suspenders  of  the  same  and  in  summer  no  coat  while  conducting 
service.  The  distingui.shing  thing  for  preachers,  in  the  way  of  apparel,  was 
the  tall  hat,  called  the  "bee-gum." 

Old  Antioch. 

Uld  Antioch  church  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians  was  the  camp  meeting 
center  for  three  or  four  Northeast  Missouri  counties,  and  Rev.  James  W. 
Campbell  was  the  chief  attraction.  The  grounds  were  on  the  west  side  of  a 
creek  which  emptied  into  the  Cuivre.  The  old  log  church  was  at  one  end.  The 
other  end  and  the  two  sides  were  bounded  by  the  cabins  of  the  principal  campers. 
Beyond  the  cabins  were  the  tents.  In  the  space  surrounded  by  the  church  and 
cabins  was  a  large  arbor  to  supplement  the  shade  of  the  forest  trees.  .\  gentle 
slope  led  down  to  the  pulpit  and  the  mourners'  bench.  Across  the  creek  and 
over  a  hill  was  "the  Devil's  camp  ground."  where  watermelons  and  other  things 
were  on  sale,  and  where  those  who  came  for  other  purposes  than  for  worship 
congregated.     Describing  the  Devil's  camp  ground,  Judge  Fagg  said : 

"There  was  one  object  which  I  always  looked  for  and  never  failed  to  find.  Tliat 
was  a  two-horse  wagon  with  a  white  cover.  It  was  a  prominent  object,  conspicuously 
located,  easy  of  access  and  recognized  as  belonging  to  Joe  Hagood.  Joe  seemed  to  have 
an  inexhaustible  supply  of  good  things  concealed  in  that  wagon  bed.  There  was  any 
quantity  of  sliced  ham,  roast  pig,  broiled  chicken,  hard  boiled  eggs,  bread  and  butter 
without  limit,  a  great  variety  of  pies  and  cakes,  and,  if  desired,  a  delicious  mug  of  cider. 
As  old  Major  Pearce,  of  Boonville,  said  to  me  on  one  occasion  when  he  helped  me  to 
one  of  his  famous  beefsteaks,  'What  more  could  heart  wish  ?' 

"Joe's  face,  black  as  it  was,  was  always  an  interesting  study.  When  the  question 
was  put  to  him  squarely,  as  it  frequently  was,  'Joe,  have  you  got  anything  stronger  than 
cider?'  his  face  was  as  destitute  of  e.xpression  as  that  of  the  Sphinx  gazing  into  the 
•desert.  Looking  straight  in  the  direction  of  a  tall  tree  that  towered  far  above  the  pinoaks 
and  underbrush,  Joe  would  answer  that  he'd  'heard  a  man  say  that  some  could  be  had 
out  in  that  direction,  but  he  didn't  know  anything  about  it  himself  '  Just  what  the  busi- 
ness relation  was  between  Joe  and  the  man  in  the  brush  I  never  knew,  but  I  was  always 
satisfied  that  it  was  a  close  and  confidential  one." 

In  the  itinerant  period  of  his  career,  Mr.  Campbell  preached  365  sermons 
in  a  year,  an  average  of  one  daily.    Judge  Fagg  said :  "He  performed  more  mar- 


t'otirtesy  Missouri  Hlstorlral  Society 

SIGXERS   OF   the"  AtiREEMEXT   TO   BflLD   THE    FIRST   CHrHCH    IN    ST.    I-OVIS, 
1770,   SIX    YEARS    AFTER    THE    FOrXDIXG 

Autograjihs  of  Laeledo  and  the  Sjiaiiisli  (iovenior,  Piernas,  at  tlic  hottoiii 


WORSHIP  IX  WOODS  AND  CABINS  153 

riage  ceremonies  and  preached  a  larger  number  of  funeral  sermons  than  all  the 
rest  of  the  ministers  in  the  county  put  together.  He  was  a  man  of  exceptionally 
good  business  talents  and  by  diligent  attention  to  his  business  and  labor  on  his 
"  farm,  he  supported  his  family  in  comfortable  circumstances,  notwithstanding 
his  meagre  salary  as  a  minister." 

Sni  Grove  and  Old  Freedom. 

The  .Sni  (irove  oamijuiceting  drew  annual  gatherings  of  lo.txjo.  It  occupied 
a  tract  of  160  acres,  a  quarter  section,  about  five  miles  southwest  of  Lexington. 
It  had  a  tabernacle  of  permanent  construction  in  the  midst  of  twenty-two  com- 
modious cabins  of  hewed  logs,  .\round  about  these  central  buildings,  the  w-or- 
shippers  dwelt  in  tents  and  arbors.  Nicholas  Houx,  a  Missouri  pioneer  coming 
from  Lexington.  Kentucky,  in  1S18.  w-as  one  of  the  principal  organizers  of  the 
first  Cumberland  I'resbyterian  church,  under  the  auspices  of  which  the  Sni 
(Irene  campmeeting  was  held.  In  1S27  the  congregation  built  a  brick  church,  re- 
taining the  name  of  Sni  (jrove,  one  of  the  earliest  brick  churches  of  Western 
Missouri.  When  Johnson  county  was  organized  the  first  session  of  court  was 
iicld  in  his  house. 

Of  later  date  a  campmeeting  which  became  famous  was  established  by  Rev. 
( 'ireen\ille  .Sj^encer  in  Jasper  county.  This  campmeeting  drew  people  from  forty 
miles  around.  It  was  conducted  in  connection  with  r)ld  Freedom  Baptist  church 
on  Jones  creek  in  Union  township. 

The  Day's  Programme. 

.Some  of  these  Missouri  campmeetings  followed  a  well  established  routine. 
.\t  simrise  a  horn  was  blown  as  notice  to  all  to  rise  and  prepare  for  the  day. 
P.ut  few  minutes  were  given  for  dressing  and  face  washing.  Family  prayer 
in  each  tent  or  cabin  came  next.  This  consisted  of  scripture  reading  and 
singing  as  well  as  prayer.  There  might  be  forty  or  fifty  groups  in  as  many  tents 
or  cabins,  each  singing  a  different  tune  at  one  time.  Breakfast  followed  and 
at  nine  o'clock  the  horn  sounded  for  another  ])rayer  meeting.  Preaching  in 
the  arbor  or  enclosure  filled  in  the  time  from  ten  o'clock  until  noon.  Two 
hours  were  allowed  for  dinner  and  rest.  -At  two  o'clock  the  horn  called  together 
the  entire  congregation  for  another  sermon,  to  be  followed  by  exhortations  to 
those'  repentant  to  come  forward  to  the  mourners'  benches  in  the  altar  enclosure. 
.\s  those  convicted  catne  forward  ;ni(l  knelt,  older  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion joined  them  and  prayed  with  llieni.  Meantime  the  congregation  sang  h}Tnn 
after  hymn;  at  frequent  intervals  the  leader  standing  on  a  bench  and  urging 
nihers  to  come  forward.  The  class  leaders  and  preachers  and  lay  exhorters 
moved  about  in  the  congregation,  approaching  those  known  to  be  unconverted 
to  come  forward.  This  work  with  the  mourners  went  on  until  it  was  time  for 
sii])])er.  .\n  hour  later,  at  what  was  commonly  called  "early  candle  light,"  the 
services  in  the  auditoriinn  were  resumed  and  these  led  U])  to  the  most  impressive 
•md  emotional  scenes  of  the  day. 

Campmeeting  Hymns. 

rile  singing  was  a  strong  feature  of  these  campmeetings  to  sway  the  un- 
re]ientant.      When   the   hymn   book    was   used   the   leader   "lined   out"   two   lines 


154  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  the  congregation  sang  them,  stopping  for  the  calhng  of  the  next  two  Hnes. 
But  when  some  one  started  what  were  known  as  the  regular  campmeeting  hymns, 
the  singing  went  on  from  stanza  to  stanza  with  tremendous  vokmie.  An  ahnost 
endless  favorite  was : 

"  The  old  time  roligitin. 
The  old  time  religion. 
The  old  time  religion. 
Is  good  enough  for  me. 

"  It  was  good  for  our  fathers, 
h  was  good  for  our  fathers, 
It  was  good  for  our  fathers. 
It  is  good  enough  for  me." 

A  Strong  favorite  with  Missouri  campmeetings  was  "I  am  a  soldier  of  the 
Cross."    Another  favorite  rang  the  changes  on  various  Bihlical  characters: 

"  Where  now  is  good  old  Daniel  ? 
Where  now  is  good  old  Daniel, 
Who  was  cast  in  the  den  of  lions  ? 
Safely  in   the   Promised  Land. 

"Where  now  is  good  Elijah? 
Where  now  is  good  Elijah, 
Wh5  went  up  in  a  fiery  chariot? 
Safely   in   the    Promised   Land." 

The  Eloquence  of  Marvin. 

John  1".  Jordin,  who  wrote  a  story  of  early  times  in  Daviess  coimty,  placed 
the  first  campmeeting  in  the  ( Irand  river  country  at  some  time  in  the  thirties. 
The  campers  built  log  cabins  so  as  to  enclose  three  sides  of  a  square  piece  of 
ground  of  an  acre  or  more  in  extent.  The  south  side  was  left  open.  In  the 
center  a  sort  of  arbor,  covered  with  brush,  was  cf)nstructed.  The  seats  were 
hewed  timbers  called  jjuncheons  and  elevated  on  logs.  The  meetings  were  held 
yearly  in  August  until  about  the  Civil  war  time.  Several  prominent  citizens 
resisted  all  attempts  to  convert  them  until  Miller,  in  184,^,  predicted  the  coming 
end  of  the  world.  Then  they  joined.  It  is  said  to  have  been  at  this  campmeet- 
ing that  Dr.  Caples  first  met  Marvin  and  received  the  impression  which  led 
him  to  write : 

"It  was  a  gloomy  morning  and  a  drizzling  rain  was  falling,  but  the  people  insisted 
on  having  services  at  the  regular  hour.  In  this  dilemma  I  suddenly  recalled  the  fact  that 
a  young  man  had  been  introduced  to  me  the  evening  before  as  a  preaching  brother,  and 
I  at  once  sent  for  him  and  told  him  I  would  expect  him  to  conduct  the  morning  services. 
He  offered  no  objection  and  at  the  appointed  time  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
young  man  mount  the  rostrum  in  that  dripping  arbor  while  I  viewed  the  scene  from  the 
inside  of  a  comfortable  cabin  near  by.  Marvin  gave  out  the  hymn,  which  the  people  sang 
with  considerable  spirit,  offered  up  a  short  prayer  and  soon  was  preaching.  I  could  hear 
him  fairly  well  from  where  I  sat,  hut  soon  I  was  seized  with  a  desire  to  get  nearer  and 
presently  I  found  myself  standing  out  there  in  the  rain,  oblivious  to  physical  discomforts, 
completely  charmed  by  tlie  matchless  eloquence  of  this  unknown  youth." 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  155 

A  story  which  the  Rev.  John  S.  P.arger  did  not  outlive  related  to  his  second 
year  in  the  pulpit.  Mr.  Barger  had  become  very  much  interested  in  a  young 
Methodist  lady,  Mi.ss  Sarah  L.  Baker.  He  arose  to  preach  one  Sunday  and  had 
just  started  to  announce  his  subject  when  the  young  lady  came  into  the  church. 
Instead  of  giving  out  Matt.  XVIII,  3,  Mr.  Barger  said:  "My  text  is  the  eight- 
eenth chapter  and  third  verse  of  Sally  Baker." 

Immersion  Incidents. 

Methodist  preachers  in  Missouri  did  not  hesitate  to  administer  immersion 
if  converts  felt  it  was  necessary.  Of  Rev.  Henry  W.  Webster,  who  preached 
at- Pleasant  Grove  in  Clay  county  and  other  places  in  the  state,  this  was  told: 
"Once  he  was-  in  the  act  of  immersing  a  man  in  a  sluggish  stream  of  muddy 
water.  As  he  put  his  subject  under  the  water,  in  order  to  obtain  purchase  to 
lift  iiim  out  again  he  moved  one  of  his  feet  farther  out  in  the  stream,  but,  un- 
aware of  it,  he  was  standing  on  a  bank,  and  when  he  threw  his  weight  on  his 
moved  foot,  it  found  no  bottom,  and  he,  with  his  subject,  went  under  the  'yield- 
ing wave.'  As  they  both  arose  and  "pulled  for  the  shore'  he  completed  the 
scene  by  quoting,  'And  they  both  came  up  out  of  the-water.'  " 

Another  Missouri  preacher.  Rev.  W.  S.  Woodard  had  this  ex{)erience : 

"111  1856,  a  very  large  fleshy  woman,  advanced  in  years,  wished  me  to  immerse  her, 
but  slie  was  afraid  I  would  not  be  al)le  to  lift  her  out  of  the  water  and  would  let  her 
drown.  She  worried  over  it  a  month  or  more,  when  she  proposed  the  following  plan 
to  me.  It  was  lier  own  invention.  She  had  never  seen  anything  like  it.  neither  had  I. 
She  had  a  man  take  a  chair  into  the  water  in  which  she  seated  herself,  the  water  coming 
up  to  her  arms.  The  man  stood  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  chair  from  myself  with  his 
hands  on  one  post  and  mine  on  the  other.  All  that  remained  to  be  done  was,  at  the 
proper  time,  to  tilt  the  chair  liackward  and  raise  it  up  again.  It  is  a  capital  way  to  immerse 
a  person." 

When  Rev.  Stephen  R.  Beggs  was  assigned  to  the  I'ishing  River  circuit  he 
w-as  confronted  with  the  absolute  necessity  for  some  clothing.  He  had  been 
sent  out  to  Missouri  by  the  bishoj)  to  get  his  early  training  in  "Brush  College." 
as  the  Methodists  further  east  called  this  itinerating  experience  west  of  the 
Mississip])i.  The  conference  on  the  Illinois  side  had  adopted  a  "resolution  that, 
"we.  the  members  of  the  Illinois  conference,  do  agree  to  .wear  hereafter  plain, 
straight-breasted  coats."  But  Mr.  Beggs,  who  was  afterward  to  become  an  his- 
toric figure  in  the  Methodist  church,  and  to  build  the  first  Methodist  church  in 
Peoria,  besides  doing  many  other  notable  things,  did  not  have  any  kind  of  a 
coat  with  which  to  enter  upon  his  travels  in  Fishing  River  circuit.  I-ong  after- 
\v;ird  he  told  how  he  replenished  his  wardrobe: 

"Some  of  the  sisters  spun  wool,  and  tnade  me  a  coat  of  blue  and  white,  a  pair  of 
wliite  cotton  pants,  and  one  of  mixed.  (Ine  of  the  brothers  gave  me  his  old  hat,  which 
1  got  pressed,  and  then  I  was  fitted  out  for  conference.  It  was  held  on  the  fourth  of 
August,  1825,  at  Bailey's  meeting-house.  Saline  creek,  Missouri.  The  weather  was  very 
warm  and  the  roads  dusty,  and,  by  the  time  I  had  reached  my  journey's  end,  my  new 
coat  had  changed  from  its  original  color  to  a  dusty  brown.  There  were,  however,  kind 
hands  and  willing  hearts  who  soon  set  me  to  rights.  Under  the  combined  influence  of 
soap  and  water  my  coat  came  out  as  good  as  new.  and.  thanks  to  the  "Marthas'  of  modern 
times,  'who  care  for  many  things."  I  appeared  in  the  conference  room  next  morning,  look- 
ing quite   respectable." 


156  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Physical  Manifestations  of  the  Convicted. 

Vhv  tarlifsi  canipnic'ctings  in  Missouri  were  attenck-d  with  physical  mani- 
festations which  were  called  "jerks."  Not  many  persons  were  susceptible  to 
this  nervous  affection,  but  occasionally,  when  the  excitement  became  intense 
some  one  in  the  audience  would  lose  self  control  and  begin  to  sway  forward  and 
backward  and  from  side  to  side.  The  motions  would  increase  in  vigor  until  it 
seemed  as  if  joints  would  be  dislocated.  While  Jes.se  Walker,  a  Methodist 
preacher,  and  David  Clark,  a  Baptist,  were  conducting  a  campmeeting  at 
Pcruque  creek,  a  scoffer.  Leonard  Harrow,  who  had  been  laughing  at  some  of 
the  converts  was  taken  suddenly  with  the  jerks  of  such  violence  that  he  had  to 
be  held  to  save  him  from  butting  his  head  against  a  tree.  .\t  a  Flint  1  lill  camp- 
meeting  a  man  began  to  jump  up  and  down,  snapping  his  fingers  and  shouting 
"Slick  as  a  peeled  onion!  Slick  as  a  peeled  onion!"  .\fter  a  short  time  he  be- 
came rational  and  said  he  had  been  converted  so  easily  that  he  could  liken  the 
experience  only  to  the  slickness  of  a  peeled  onion.  .\t  a  campmeeting  in  War- 
ren county  a  young  girl  fell  to  the  ground  and  was  crawling  like  a  worm  until 
her  friends  lifted  her  and  carried  her  to  a  tent.  Rev.  James  E.  Welch  told  of 
having  witnessed  the  performance  of  four  women  who  were  taken  with  the 
jerks  after  they  had  done  up  their  hair  and  apparently  made  all  arrangements 
to  be  affected.  He  said  they  danced  forward  and  backward  across  a  sjjace  of 
about  ten  feet  giving  short  and  peculiar  jerks  w'ith  the  head.  The  hair  of  one 
woman  came  down,  whereupon  she  stopped  long  enough  to  put  it  up  and  then 
went  on  with  the  jerks.  Mr.  Welch  oh.served  that  when  the  horn  blew-  for 
dinner  the  four  women  sus])cnded  the  jerking,  went  to  the  table  and  ate  as 
heartilv  as  anvbodv.  This  same  minister,  Mr.  Welch,  was  holding  religious  serv- 
ices at  a  place  on  the  St.  I-Vancois  river  when  a  young  girl  in  his  auflience,  sit- 
ting immediately  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  began  to  jerk.  Mr.  Welch  slopped 
prcu'liing  and  the  jerks  subsided.  Three  times  this  occurred  before  the  sermon 
was  ended.  The  girl  bent  forward  and  backward  so  far  that  it  seemed  as  if 
her  head  would  strike  the  bench  in  front  and  the  bench  behind.  She  moved 
so  swiftlv  that  Mr.  Welch  could  iiear  her  hair,  which  had  become  loose,  swish.  It 
seemed  to  the  minister  as  if  her  back  would  be  broken  but  the  girl  came  out  of 
it  unhurt.  PersoHs  affected  with  the  jerks  acc|uircd  unnatural  strength,  so  much 
so  that  they  could  be  held  only  b.\'  the  exercise  of  much  force. 

The  Variety  of  "Bodily  Agitations." 

Tliese  "bodily  agitations,"  as  they  were  sometimes  called,  took  on  a  variety 
of  forms.  They  were  described  as  "the  falling  exercise,  the  jerks,  the  dancing 
exercise,  the  laughing  exercise,  and  so  on."  Rev.  Barton  W.  Stone,  a  Presby- 
terian minister,  of  Kentucky,  wrote  of  them: 

"When  the  head  aUmc  was  affected,  it  would  be  jerked  haekward  and  Inrward.  or 
I'rom  .side  to  side,  so  quickly  that  the  features  of  the  face  could  not  he  distinguished. 
When  the  whole  system  was  affected,  I  have  seen  the  person  stand  in  one  place  and  jerk 
backward  and  forward  in  quick  succession,  the  head  nearly  touching  the  floor  behind 
and  before.  .Ml  classes— saints  and  sinners,  the  strong  as  well  as  the  weak— were  thus 
affected.  I  have  inquired  of  those  thus  affected  if  they  could  not  account  for  it.  but 
some   have   told   nie   that   those   were   among   the   happiest   seasons   of   their   lives.      I    have 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  157 

seen  some  wicked  persons  thus  affected,  and  all  the  time  cursing  the  jerks,  while  they 
were  thrown  to  the  earth  with  violence.  Though  so  awful  to  behold.  1  do  not  remember 
that  any  one  of  the  thousands  1  have  seen  thus  affected  ever  sustained  any  injury  in 
body.     This  was  as  strange  as  the  exercise  itself. 

"The  laughing  exercise  was  frequent,  confined  solely  to  the  religious.  It  was  a  loud, 
hearty  laughter,  but  it  excited  laughter  in  none  that  saw  it.  The  subject  appeared 
rapturously  solemn,  and  his  laughter  excited  scilemnity  in  saints  and  sinners.  It  was 
truly  indescribable. 

"The  running  exercise  was  nothing  more  than  that  persons,  feeling  something  of 
these  bodily  agitations,  through  fear  attempted  to  run  away,  and  thus  escape  from  them ; 
but  it  commonly  happened  that  they  ran  not  far  l)efore  tlu>  fill,  where  they  became  so 
agitated  that  they  could  not  proceed  any   farther. 

"I  knew  a  young  physician,  of  a  celebrated  family,  who  came  some  distance  to  a 
big  meeting  to  see  the  strange  things  he  had  heard  of.  He  and  a  young  lady  had 
sportively  agreed  to  watch  over  and  take  care  of  each  other  if  either  should  fall.  At 
length  the  physician  felt  something  very  uncommon,  and  started  from  the  congregation 
to  run  into  the  woods.  He  was  discovered  running  as  for  life,  but  did  not  proceed  far 
before  he  fell  down,  and  there  lay  until  he  submitted  to  the  Lord,  and  afterward  became 
a  zealous  member  of  the  church.     Such  cases  were  common. 

"That  there  were  many\  eccentricities  and  much  fanaticism  in  this  excitement  was 
acknowledged  by  its  warmest  advocates;  indeed  it  would  have  been  a  wonder  if  such 
things  had  not  appeared  in  the  circumstances  of  that  time.  Yet  the  good  effects  were 
seen  and  acknowledged   in  every  neightinrhood  and  among  different  sects." 

Good  Order  at  Chalybeate  Spring, 

.Se\en  miles  soutliwe^t  (if  \\'nrrfii,sl)ur_^  was  the  Chalybeate  Spring  canip- 
ground.  The  aiiiuial  iiieetiiijis  were  continued  long  after  most  of  the  other 
canipmeetings  in  iMissouri  had  heen  abandoned.  The  religious  people  of  not 
only  Johnson  county  but  of  surrouiuling  coimties  were  accustomed  to  go  there. 
Rev.  Dr.  J.  B.  Morrow,  preaching  from  such  .Scripture  as' the  Prodigal  Son,  de- 
livered impassioned  appeals  that  brought  hundreds  to  the  altar.  Gradually 
these  camjimeetings  at  the  Spring  drew  such  large  numbers  of  the  evil  minded, 
that  liquor  was  sold  on  the  outskirts.  Dr.  Morrow  hit  upon  an  expedient  which 
checked  this  evil.  He  appointed  a  resolute  brother  and  made  him  responsible 
for  tile  morals  of  the  camp.  This  brother  was  an  organizer.  He  selected  twenty 
young  fellows  who  were  not  church  members  and  made  them  a  posse.  These 
voung  men  ])atrolle(l  the  roads  leading  to  the  camp  and  from  their  wide  ac- 
quaintance were  able  to  confiscate  the  liqiun-  being  brought  to  camp.  They 
went  around  the  camp,  visiting  i)laces  under  suspicion  and  carried  away  the 
jugs.  A  knowledge  of  the  ways  of  the  world  in  Johnson  county  enabled  the 
posse  to  clean  up  the  blind  tigers  elYectually  and  the  cam])meeting  was  con- 
ducted without  any  disturliance  that  year.     The  old  saying  came  to  nought : 

Wherever  God  erects  a  house  of  prayer. 
The   Devil   always   builds  a  chapel   there. 

Mormon  preachers  met  with  scant  courtesy  among  Missouri  pioneers.'  One 
fif  tluiii  went  out  to  Sni  creek  to  make  converts.  .Among  his  hearers  was  Joseph 
liojiper  from  over  near  Basin  Kiiol).  The  Mormon  became  warmed  up  and  be- 
gan to  make  startling  statements.  He  told  of  a  new  rexelation  that  the  saints 
would  receive,  lie  wanunl  his  hearers  that  "after  awhile  a  fly  would  come  and 
the  person  on  whom  it  would  light  would  die."    Wliereuiion  James  Hopper  arose 


158  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  closed  the  meeting  with.   "Preacher,  that's  a  he.     Take  my  chair  and  sit 
down." 

Church  Discipline  One  Hundred  Years  Ago. 

The  first  Baptists  to  settle  in  Missouri  are  said  to  have  been  Thomas  Bull 
and  his  wife  and  mother-in-law,  Mrs.  Lee,  who  settled  near  what  is  now  Jack- 
son, in  1796.  Two  or  three  years  later  Rev.  Thomas  Johnson,  a  Baptist  preacher, 
came  to  the  Cape  Girardeau  district  on  a  visit.  lie  baptized  Mrs.  Agnes  Ballcw 
in  Randol's  creek.  This  was  said  to  have  been  the  first  Protestant  baptism  west 
of  the  Mississippi.  Bethel  Baptist  church  was  organized  in  Cape  Girardeau  dis- 
trict, July  10,  1806,  at  the  home  of  Thomas  Bull  by  Rev.  David  Green,  who  had 
moved  from  Virginia.  In  1807  \\'illiam  Matthews  was  chosen  "singing  clerk." 
The  next  year  Thomas  Wright  and  two  members  of  his  family  were  excluded  for 
holding  "Armenian  views."  In  181 1  John  Reynolds  was  excluded  for  joining  a 
Masonic  lodge.  In  1818  it  was  resolved  by  the  church  that  Hannah  Edwards  be 
allowed  to  wear  gold  earrings  for  the  benefit  of  her  health.  An  entry  in  the 
church  minutes  in  1818  read: 

"Church  in  conference.  Query:  If  a  member  is  constrained  to  shout  shall 
the  church  bear  with  it?    Answer:    Yes." 

A  noted  Methodist  preacher  in  Southeast  Missouri  about  1817  was  Rucker 
Tanner.  He  was  a  man  of  very  dark  complexion  and  when  young  was  wild. 
The  story  was  told  of  him  that  when  a  boy  he  went  with  an  older  brother  to 
New  Orleans.  The  two  spent  all  of  their  money.  The  older  one  persuaded  the 
other  to  let  him  sell  him  as  a  negro  slave<  got  the  money  and  disappeared.  After 
some  time  the  boy  convinced  his  master  that  he  was  white  and  was  freed.  He 
started  to  walk  home  to  Missouri,  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  local  preacher  and 
hired  out  to  him.  In  the  course  of  time  he  was  converted  and  decided  to  become 
a  preacher.  His  employer  encouraged  him.  Years  after  he  had  been  given  up  for 
dead.  Rucker  Tanner  came  back  to  the  New  Madrid  district  and  made  himself 
known  to  relatives.  He  accepted  an  appointment  to  preach.  The  congregation 
that  assembled  to  hear  him  was  the  largest  that  had  assembled  in  that  part  of 
Missouri. 

Boone  County's  First  Church  Covenant. 

The  first  church  organized  in  Boone  county  came  into  existence  in  1817  under 
this  church  covenant : 

"We,  the  Baptist  church  called  Bethel,  was  constituted  by  William  Thorp  and 
David  McClain  on  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  believing  them 
to  be  the  infallible  word  of  God  and  only  rule  of  practice.  Believing  that  salva- 
tion is  of  God  alone,  also  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  eternal  Son  of  God ;  the 
Father — three  persons  in  one  God-head — the  Father  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
these  three  are  one.  We  believe  in  particular  and  unconditional  election  by 
grace,  baptism  by  immersion,  believers  to  be  the  only  subjects ;  and  the  final 
preservation  of  the  saints." 

E.  W.  Stephens  says,  in  his  admirable  historical  sketches  of  Boone  county, 
that  David  Dovle  "preached  the  Gospel  and  labored  in  ministerial  duties  in  Boone 


WORSHIP   TN   THE  WOODS 
A   pioneer   family   on   tlieir   way   to   Sunday   servieos 


OLD  FREKDOM  BAPTIST  CHURCH 

Located  on  Jones  Creek,  Union  Township,  Jasper  County.     One  of  the  famous  cauip  meeting 
centers   of   Jfissouri.      Worshipers   eanie    from    forty    miles   around 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  161 

county  for  a  period  of  forty  years  for  which,  it  is  said,  he  never  received  one 
penny  of  remuneration." 

The  Rev.  Timothy  Flint  preached  in  Jackson  in  1819.  He  had  trouble  with 
the  people  and  went  away  under  a  cloud.  Later,  in  a  manifest  effort  to  get  even, 
he  wrote;  "Among  these  people  I  sojourned  and  preached  more  than  a  year,  and 
my  time  passed  more  devoid  of  interest  or  attachment  or  comfort  or  utility  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  country.  The  people  are  extremely  rough.  Their  country 
is  a  fine  range  for  all  species  of  sectarianism,  furnishing  the  sort  of  people  in 
abundance  who  are  ignorant,  bigoted  and  think  by  devotion  tO  some  favored 
preacher  or  sect  to  atone  for  the  want  of  morals  and  decency,  and  everything  that 
pertains  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity." 

Itinerating  in  Missouri. 

It  is  told  of  Rev.  Robert  R.  Witten  that  he  traversed  the  swamps  of  South- 
east Missouri  in  the  pioneer  period,  "itinerating"  for  the  Methodist  church  on 
a  salary  of  $150  a  year.  This  stipend  was  cut  to  $50  one  year  when  the  funds 
of  the  missionary  society  ran  low.  The  preacher  fed  not  only  himself  but  his 
horse  on  a  dollar  a  week  and  what  "support"  came'  from  the  struggling  churches. 
This  support  during  twenty  years,  Mr.  Witten  said,  never  reached  $100  a  year. 
But  he  kept  on,  subsisting  at  times,  according  to  his  own  account,  mainly  on 
imagination. 

When  Rev.  James  V.  Watson,  afterwards  editor  of  the  Northwestern  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  "itinerated"  in  Southeast  Missouri,  he  lost  his  way  and  after  a 
heavy  rain  wandered  around  until  dark  came  on.  Then  he  perched  on  a  log, 
holding  his  horse  with  one  hand  and  fighting  mosquitoes  with  the  other  until 
dawn.  When  the  morning  star  told  of  approaching  sunrise,  the  marooned 
missionary  raised  the  hymn,  "The  Morning  Light  is  Breaking." 

A  pamphlet  called  "Pioneer  Methodism  in  Missouri"  tells  the  experience  of 
Rev.  R.  R.  Witten  on  a  circuit  in  1856.  There  were  twenty-seven  appointments 
to  make.    They  required  a  journey  of  300  miles. 

"The  field  was  one  vast  spiritual  wilderness — not  a  church,  not  a  parsonage,  and  no 
part  of  the  Methodist  machinery  was  at  work  except  the  preacher,  his  horse,  and  a  few 
scattered  members ;  but  at  this  date  we  have  in  that  same  territory  three  thousand  mem- 
bers, and  $50,000  worth  of  church  property.  If  I  did  the  planting,  others  did  the  watering, 
and  great  is  the  increase. 

"I  started  one  cold  afternoon,  when  the  sun  was  about  an  hour  high,  to  go  from 
Black  Oak  to  the  present  site  of  Procterville.  I  had  to  face  a  dreadful  wind  storm  all 
the  way.  There  was  but  one  house  on  the  road,  and  that  not  a  place  where  entertain- 
ment could  be  had.  I  soon  found  that  it  would  be  almost  a  miracle  to  avoid  freezing 
to  death.  I  was  well  wrapped,  and  e.xerted  myself  in  every  possible  way,  but  suddenly 
a  sense  of  drowsiness  come  over  me,  and  I  almost  fell  from  my  horse.  I  was  alarmed 
at  the  sensation,  and  I  instantly  dismounted,  and  leaped  and  ran  until  the  drowsiness 
left  me.  I  reached  the  house  of  my  good  friend.  Dr.  Procter,  with  frozen  toes,  ears  and 
fingers,  but  inexpressibly  glad  to  have  escaped  such  a  shocking  death. 

"There  was  but  one  bridge  in  all  this  territory,  and  that  was  at  Kingston.  On  one 
occasion,  after  having  traveled  all  day,  the  last  four  miles  across  Shoal  creek  bottom  I 
found  to  be  almost  impassable.  I  finallj^cached  the  stream,  which  was  nearly  bank 
full.  I  could  not  recross  the  bottom  to  find  a  shelter — the  sun  was  almost  down,  and 
half  a  mile  further  was  the  place  of  my  appointment,  and  I  must  reach  it  at  all  hazards. 
Vol.  I— 11 


162  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

I  was  in  a  'strait  betwixt  two,'  but  was  not  long  in  deciding  which  one  I  would  accept. 
The  path  of  duty  led  me  forward,  not  backward,  and  in  a  moment  my  faithful  horse 
was  breasting  the  waves,  and  in  due  time  brought  mc  to  the  shore  in  safety.  I  soon 
reached  my  objective  point,  and  found  a  good  fire,  and  a  chance  to  change  my  -frozen 
clothes  for  dry  ones.  The  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  railroad  w-as  that  year  being  graded. 
There  was  a  group  of  shanties  at  one  place  called  Breckenridge.  One  building  stood  at 
another  place,  which  was  called  Hamilton.  Kidder  was  a  city  of  stakes.  A  family  near 
this  place  said  to  me:  'Stop  and  see  us.'  There  was  nothing  of  Cameron  then  but 
stakes,  but  one  month  from  that  time  I  found  a  number  of  little  bo.K  houses,  in  one  of 
which  lived  the  family  referred  to;  that  night  I  preached  in  their  house,  and  organized 
the  church  in  that  city.    That  was  the  day  of  small  things,  and  was  in  the  year  1857." 

The  Missouri  Meeting  House,      y 

"Meeting  houses"  was  what  the  early  Missourians  called  their  churches. 
These  houses  had  a  form  of  architecture  which  differed  materially  from  the 
homes  of  the  settlers.  It  was  an  architecture  adapted  to  meet  the  uses.  Judge 
Fagg  thought  the  form  must  have  originated  in  the  inventive  mind  of  some  Mis- 
souri pioneer,  or  that  it  might  have  been  brought  from  Kentucky  or  Tennessee. 

"When  the  location  was  agreed  upon,  the  members  of  the  congregation  cut  and 
hewed  logs  sufficient  to  construct  a  double  house,  one-story  in  height  and  forty  feet  or 
more  in  length.  But,  instead  of  constructing  a  middle  wall  or  partition,  a  sufficient 
number  of  logs  was  prepared  some  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  length,  which  were  used  in 
erecting  three  sides  to  two  pens  located  at  the  center  of  the  house  and  made  part  of 
the  rear  and  front  walls  of  the  building.  A  recess  was  thus  formed  on  each  side  of  the 
house.  The  main  entrance  was  through  a  door  cut  in  the  recess  in  front,  whilst  the  one 
in  the  rear  was  used  as  a  pulpit.  There  were  two  aisles  in  the  building,  one  running 
from  the  front  door  to  the  pulpit  and  the  other  running  the  entire  length  of  the  house, 
crossing  each  other  at  right  angles.  The  house  thus  divided  into  four  equal  parts  was 
finished  with  a  board  roof,  a  plain  rough  floor  and  rudely  constructed  benches  for  seats. 
I  have  never  seen  any  structures  so  simple  and  so  utterly  destitute  of  ornament  as  one 
of  these  country  meeting  houses." 

Pioneer  Theology. 

Judge  Fagg  described  in  a  graphic  way  the  service  in  one  of  these  Missouri 
houses  of  worship.  He  was  in  search  of  a  stray  horse,  and  knowing  that  almost 
everybody  in  the  neighborhood  would  be  there  on  Sunday,  he  went  to  a  meet- 
ing house  in  a  remote  part  of  Pike  county,  to  make  inquiry : 

"I  was  too  late  to  get  the  benefit  of  the  introductory  services,  but  as  I  approached 
near  the  church,  I  found  an  immense  number  of  saddle  horses  hitched  in  the  surround- 
ing woods.     Very  soon  my  ear  caught  the  ringing  sound  of  the  old  familiar  hymn  : 

"  "How  firm  a  foundation  ye  saints  of  the  Lord 
Is  laid  for  your  faith  in  his  excellent  word.' 

"There  was  no  hesitating,  faltering  voice,  no  discordant  sounds  or  organ  to  mar 
the  simple  beauty  and  effect  of  that  wonderful  song.  The  house  was  crowded  and  a 
large  number  of  people  were  standing  about  the  windows  and  doors  to  get  the  benefit 
of  the  sermon  which  was  to  follow.  I  noticed  that  one-quarter  of  the  house,  near  the 
pulpit,  was  given  up  to  the  colored  brothers  and  sisters, — no  white  person  being  per- 
mitted to  intrude  upon  them.  The  preacher  -^-as  an  old  intimate  friend  of  almost  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  audience.  There  was  no  speculation  or  inquiry  in  their 
minds  as  to  his  sincerity.     He  was  of  slender  physique,   sharp   features   and  had  a  clear 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  163 

ringing  voice;  and  it  was  evident  from  liis  appearance  that  he  had  a  will-power  suf- 
ficient to  hold  his  followers  in  due  subordination  and  to  run  things  generally  to  suit 
himself.  His  text  I  do  not  remember,  but  the  subject  was  Noah's  Ark  as  a  type  of 
Christ.  The  picture  would  be  incomplete  without  mentioning  the  figure  and  deportment 
of  an  elderly  colored  lady  who  took  her  position  at  the  side  of  the  pulpit  and  remained 
standing  to  the  end  of  the  sermon.  She  went  through  a  sort  of  pantomime  performance, 
swaying  her  body  backwards  and  forwards,  clapping  her  hands  and  occasionally  respond- 
ing audibly  to  the  sentiments  of  the  preacher.  The  .^rk  with  all  its  appointments  and 
equipments  was  described  as  the  speaker  was  enabled  to  do  from  the  Bible  account  of 
it.  The  flood  with  its  terrible  consequences  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe  was  pic- 
tured in  all  the  exaggerated  colors  of  which  he  was  capable ;  but  the  climax  was  reached 
when  he  came  to  a  delineation  of  the  character  of  the  faithful  servant  of  God  who  had 
labored  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  in  executing  the  commands  that  had  been  given 
him,  with  a  faith  that  never  faltered  and  a  courage  equal  to  every  emergency  and  every 
obstacle  that  lay  in  his  pathway.  There  was  an  unmistakable  thread  of  Calvinism  that 
ran  through  the  entire  discourse,  but  the  peroration  pushed  the  principles  of  the  great 
champion  of  the  doctrine  of  election  to  its  utmost  limit.  The  preacher  said  that  'dur- 
ing all  the  long  and  weary  years  that  Noah  was  building  the  Ark.  he  was  faithfully  at- 
tending to  his  own  business.  He  wasn't  like  one  of  these  Methodist  preachers  with  his 
saddlebags  on  his  arm  going  around  the  country  inviting  everybody  to  come  into  th« 
Ark.  There  was  a  certain  few  to  be  saved  and  all  the  rest  to  be  damned.'  Bringing 
her  hands  together  with  great  force,  the  old  negro  woman  exclaimed,  'Thank  God  for 
dat!'" 

Pike  county  settlers  carried  their  guns  with  them  to  church.  The  ministers, 
according  to  Judge  Fagg,  would  lean  their  guns  in  one  corner  and  then  ascend 
the  pulpit.  It  was  quite  the  usual  thing  to  announce  after  the  sermon  the  ren- 
dezvous for  the  next  bear  hunt. 

Preachers  of  Northeast  Missouri, 

Holcombe,  in  his  history  of  Marion  county,  tells  of  some  of  the  pioneer 
preachers.  On  one  occasion  services  were  held  in  Marion  when  the  preacher's 
hands  and  clothing  were  almost  covered  with  blood  from  a  deer  he  had  killed 
and  dressed  that  morning  on  his  way  to  the  meeting.  "The  circumstance  did 
not  tie  his  tongue  or  cause  his  hearers  to  abate  one  jot  or  tittle  of  their  atten- 
tion." Another  of  these  pioneer  preachers  of  Northeast  Missouri  was  long  re- 
membered for  his  cotton  clothes  colored  blue,  his  cowhide  boots  and  his  straw  hat 
two  sizes  too  large.  He  tied  a  coarse  string  around  the  hat  and  twisted  a  short 
stick  in  the  string  so  as  to  reduce  the  size  of  the  hat  to  his  head.  Early  settlers 
told  of  this  man's  powerful  sermons.  "Nearly  every  pioneer  preacher  was  as  ex- 
pert in  the  use  of  the  rifle  as  any  of  the  laity."  The  first  sermon  preached  in 
Marion  county  was  in  1820  by  the  Rev.  John  Riddle,  a  Baptist.  While  a  soldier  in 
the  war  of  181 2,  Riddle  had  been  taken  prisoner  by  the  Shawnees.  The  Indians 
cut  his  ears  so  that  they  hung  down  in  strips,  "giving  him  a  singular  appearance." 
On  the  occasion  of  this  first  sermon  in  Marion,  Mr.  Riddle  took  as  his  text, 
"For  we  must  needs  die  and  are  as  water  spilt  on  the  ground,  which  cannot  be 
gathered  up  again." 

Missouri's  Past  and  Present  in  1856. 

Rev.  Moses  E.  Lard  was  a  tailor  in  Liberty  when  General  Doniphan  became 
interested  in  him  and  sent  him  to  college  to  be  trained  for  a  minister.    In  Lard's 


164  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Quarterly,  published  in  1856,  this  minister  gave  an  account  of  "My  First  Meet- 
ing," which  he  held  in  Haynesville,  Clinton  county.  In  later  years  Mr.  Lard 
preached  in  St.  Joseph  and  became  widely  known.  His  father  had  been  a  Mis- 
souri pioneer  and  famed  as  a  hunter: 

"Most  men  in  the  neighborhood  could  read  Chronicles  by  spelling  half  the  words, 
while  all  had  either  read  Bunyan  and  eighth  Romans,  or  had  heard  them  read.  Bunyan 
supplied  them  with  experiences,  Romans  with  texts  to  prove  predestination;  the  former 
enjoyed  the  favor  and  affection;  the  latter,  the  authority.  On  Sundays  most  of  the 
country  population  flocked  to  the  meeting,  the  wags  to  swap  horses  and  whittle,  and  to 
bet  on  the  coming  races ;  the  Christians,  as  was  fitting,  to  hear  the  sermon,  and  relate 
their  experiences.  The  sermon  was  sure  to  be  on  foreknowledge  or  free-will,  and  to 
contain  a  definition  of  eternity;  the  e.xperiences  embraced  reminiscences  of  headless  ap- 
paritions, or  voices  of  pulseless  corpses  wrapped  in  coffin  sheets. 

"The  corn-shucking  of  those  days  'lang  syne'  must  not  be  forgotten  in  this  brief 
sketch.  This  was  an  occasion  which  always  brought  the  whole  neighborhood  together. 
The  women  met  to  brag  on  their  babies,  drink  stew,  knit,  and  discuss  the  best  method 
of  setting  blue-dye;  the  men  to  shuck  corn,  take  rye.  recount  battles  witli  bruin,  and 
tell  of  long  shots  at  deer;  the  boys  to  spark  and  blush;  the  girls  to  ogle  and  fall  in 
love. 

"Next  to  corn-shucking,  the  winter  quilting  and  hoe-downs  were  the  pride  of  this 
long  past.  These  w-cre  my  delight.  In  the  quilting  you  sat  close  beside  your  bonnie 
lassie ;  in  the  hoe-down  you  touched  her  hand  and  saw  her  ankle.  This  over,  you  made 
love  to  her  in  the  corner,  while  she  slapped  your  jaws  and  pouted.  But  to  me  the  chief 
attraction  at  the  quilting  was  the  huge  stacks  of  pumpkin  pies  which  graced  it,  of  which 
I  am  not  conscious  at  this  sitting  that  I  ever  had  enough. 

"The  coimtry  pedagogue  of  those  unregenerate  days  also  merjts  a  paragraph.  He 
was  generally  a  chuffy  man,  five  feet,  six,  with  gray  hair,  and  fine  girth — a  man  who 
cracked  off  definite  articles,  copulative  conjunction,  Hoogley's  bay,  and  ciphering;  could 
tell  the  day  of  the  month  by  the  almanac ;  and  brogue  your  moccasins ;  pulled  teeth,  bled 
and  puked  the  neighbors ;  took  grog  with  you  when  dry ;  wrote  your  will  and  prayed 
for  you  when  dying.  He  was  deacon  in  the  church,  justice  of  the  peace,  auctioneer  and 
general  counselor  at  law ;  prescribed  fpr  gout  and  cancer,  and  was  a  robust  believer  in 
witchcraft;  he  was  always  elected  captain  on  muster  day;  gave  advice  in  bad  cases  of 
rupture  and  hair-lip;  was  president  of  the  debating  club,  judge  at  shooting  matches, 
held  children  when  christened,  and  gave  lectures  as  to  the  best  time  in  the  moon  to 
salt  meat  and  plant  snaps.  In  the  schoolroom  he  was  a  philosopher  and  a  tyrant,  made 
but  few  impressions  on  the  mind  and  left  many  on  the  back,  taught  the  boys  to  make 
manners,  and  the  girls  to  courtesy;  at  noon  played  bullpen,  knucks  and  hull-gull;  and 
at  all  other  times  was  a  gentleman  and  an  astrologer." 

The  Advance  of  Civilization. 

With  these  reminiscences  of  Missouri  life  as  he  had  known  it  in  his  boyhood, 
Rev.  Mr.  Lard  drew  the  picture  of  Missouri's  advance  in  civilization  at  the  time 
he  held  his  first  meeting. 

"At  the  time  of  my  meeting  great  advances  had  been  made  on  these  times.  The 
men  had  ceased  to  wear  buckskin ;  the  women  dressed  in  calico,  and  drank  green  tea ; 
ghosts  were  more  rare,  and  Doew  had  migrated.  Tents  covered  with  elm  bark  were  now 
quite  out  of  fashion;  boots  were  occasionally  seen.  The  men  used  handkerchiefs  and 
the  women  side-combs.  Soap  was  no  longer  a  myth  to  children,  though  starched  bosoms 
still  attracted  much  attention.  The  boys  had  now  begun  to  carry  riding  whips,  to  chew; 
and  the  girls  to  flirt.  The  more  able  families  could  afford  tables  and  biscuit  on  Sun- 
day morning,   while  almost  all   had  learned   what   sausage   and   spareribs   mean.     Buggies 


MOSES  E.  LAKD 

Author   of   "Review   of   Campbellism   Exam- 
ined" and  clianipiou  of  the  Disciples 


ELDER  ALLEX  WRIGHT 


A  TEMPLE  OF  THE  PIONEERS 
Camp  niecting  architecture  in  the  earlv  days  of  Missouri 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  167 

and  steamships  were  still   fabulous   things ;   while  cock-fighting  and   log-rolling  ha<l   fallen 
into  desuetude. 

"A  shingled  roof  and  a  brick  stack  were  not  now  abso^jitely  unknown,  and  men  used 
chains  instead  of  withes  in  plowing.  The  use  of  pins  was  altogether  abandoned,  and 
fish  were  caught  with  hooks  as  in  other  countries.  Balls  had  taken  the  place  of  the 
hoe-down;  the  fiddle  that  of  the  juber;  horns  were  all  the  fashion,  and  grog  was  never 
named.  The  Christians  discussed  the  mode  of  baptism,  the  operation  of  the  spirit,  and 
infant  church  membership,  as  in  other  decent  countries ;  they  only  denied  the  existence 
of  Sty.x,  and  the  revolution  of  the  earth.  The  preachers  kept  on  their  coats  while  preach- 
ing, and  took  a  little  only  when  feeling  bad.  .\  young  man  no  longer  consulted  a  witch 
when  he  wanted  a  wife,  but  went  directly  to  his  sweetheart :  invalids  took  henbane,  bone- 
set,  and  composition  for  diseases  of  the  spine  and  fits:  weekly  Dale  cured  warts  by  hocus- 
pocus." 

Religious  Influence  on  the  Pioneers. 

In  his  recollections  given  tu  the  -Mis>oiiri  Historical  Society.  Thomas  Shack- 
leford  said : 

"I  cannot  close  these  reflections  without  calling  attention  to  the  influence  of  the 
church  of  Christ,  in  moulding  the  character  of  the  early  pioneers  of  Missouri.  The 
Baptist  denomination  was  the  first,  then  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian,  and  then  the 
Methodist.  I  have  intimated  heretofore  what  a  strong  influence  the  writings  of  Vol- 
taire and  Thomas  Paine  had  upon  the  first  residents  of  Missouri.  It  was  a  great  con- 
flict. A.  P.  Williams  of  the  Baptist  church  was  a  man  of  giant  intellect,  and  I  witnessed 
in  an  early  day  a  great  debate  between  him  and  Jesse  Green,  a  great  Methodist  who  had 
come  to  Missouri  after  the  failure  of  Sevier  to  establish  the  State  of  Franklin  west  of 
the   Allegheny   Mountains — then   a   part   of   North   Carolina,   now   Tennessee. 

"I  want  to  mention  an  incident  connected  with  the  indictment  of  A.  P.  Williams 
for  preaching  without  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  under  the  Drake  constitution.  I 
mention  it  to  show  how  much  influence  men  of  my  profession  exerted  in  behalf  of 
civil  liberty.  When  Williams  was  indicted,  Horace  B.  Johnson  was  circuit  attorney.  He 
wrote  the  indictments  at  the  behest  of  a  Radical  grand  jury  (let  me  premise  that  none 
but  Radicals  could  sit  on  a  jury),  and  when  the  case  was  called  for  trial,  Johnson  came 
to  me  and  said :  1  don't  mean  to  prosecute  a  man  like  A.  P.  Williams  for  preaching. 
You  get  your  client  to  come  in  and  give  bond  and  the  case  will  be  postponed  until  the 
excitement  is  over.'  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Rev.  A.  P.  Williams  was  never  tried 
under  that  indictment.  The  Methodist  denomination,  by  reason  of  their  self-sacrificing 
ministers  in  the  traveling  connection,  exerted  a  great  influence  on  society.  Willis  A. 
Dockery,  the  father  of  A.  M.  Dockery,  the  governor,  was  one  of  these  pioneer  min- 
isters. I  remember  once,  in  attending  conference,  sitting  on  the  seat  beside  the  mother 
of  our  governor,  and  that  as  we  sped  in  the  cars  through  the  prairies,  this  mother  said 
to  me:  'Oh,  Brother  Shackleford,  you  don't  know  what  a  trial  it  is  to  be  moving  so 
often;  to  have  no  home.  I  sometimes  feel  that  I  can  hate  the  yellow  flowers  of  the 
prairie  which  are  in  bloom  when  moving  time  comes.'  Ah,  that  noble  mother  little 
thought  that  while  she  had  no  'cottage  in  the  wilderness,'  she  was  training  a  boy  to  be 
the  future  governor  of  the  great  State  of  Missouri. 

"The  Christian  world  was  startled  with  the  publications  of  Voltaire,  and  Paine's 
'Age  of  Reason,'  and  the  men  in  Saline  county  often  got  together  to  discuss  the  prob- 
lems of  life  as  indicated  by  these  infidel  writers.  I  have  often  heard  them  in  animated" 
discussion  as  they  read  and  commented  on  the  wonderful  productions.  My  mother  never 
permitted  me  to  read  these  works,  and  after  my  father's  death  destroyed  them.  With 
all  these  prominent  men  imbued  with  this  spirit  of  infidelity,  it  is  not  strange  that  they 
should  leave  their  opinion  impressed  upon  the  rising  generation." 

Marvin's  First  Sermon. 

Bishop  Mai-vin's  first  sermon  was  preached  in  old  Bethlehem  church,  near 
Flint  Hill  in  St.  Charles  countv.     His  text  was :   "Sav  ve  to  the  risrhteous,  that 


168  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

it  shall  be  well  with  him;  for  they  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  their  doings.  Woe  unto 
the  wicked !  It  shall  be  ill  with  him ;  for  the  reward  of  his  hands  shall  be  given 
him."  Rev.  J.  W.  Cunningham,  the  historian  of  early  Methodism  in  Missouri, 
gave  this  account  of  Marvin's  maiden  effort  to  the  St.  Charles  News  many  years 
ago:  '  ^ 

"It  was  young  Marvin's  first  sermon.  People  who  were  present  say  his  appearance 
was  that  of  an  awkward  country  boy,  dressed  in  home-spun,  home-cut,  home-made,  well- 
worn  clothes.  The  bishop  says  his  pantaloons  were  of  blue  cotton,'  when  new,  but  many 
washings  had  largely  relieved  them  of  the  original  color.  They  were  sadly  faded  and 
worn  into  holes  at  the  knees,  and  to  hide  the  openings,  a  tender  mother's  hand  had 
placed  patches  over  them,  with  pieces  of  the  original  blue.  Said  he,  'The  pale  was  very 
pale  and  the  blue  was  very  blue.'  With  little  or  no  thought  of  his  parti-colored  panta- 
loons and  other  faded  and  worn  apparel,  the  young  preacher  entered  the  church  and 
pulpit,  and  did  as  best  he  could.  Mr.  Ben  Pierce  remembers  that  he  said :  'When  man 
came  from  the  plastic  band  of  his  Creator.'  That  is  all  he  recollects  of  that  'first  ser- 
mon,' and  it  is  probably  the  only  relic  that  survives  in  the  neighborhood  in  which  he 
preached.  The  preacher  was  neither  greatly  embarrassed  nor  over  confident.  He  was 
earnest  and  boisterous  without  much  of  the  emotional.  As  the  service  closed,  John  P. 
Allen  took  John  B.  Allen  by  the  arm,  and  gave  it  a  severe  grip  by  way  of  emphasizing 
his  whispered  words,  as  he  said :  'That  youth  had  better  quit  preaching  and  continue 
to  work  on  the  farm.  He  will  never  make  a  preacher.'  John  B.  replied:  'He  may  be 
a  bishop  yet.' 

"The  service  ended,  the  people  retired  and  no  one  was  thoughtful  enough  to  invite 
the  young  preacher  to  dinner.  He  mounted  his  horse  and  started  homeward.  He  had 
left  home  early  in  the  morning,  had  eaten  but  little,  'was  very  hungry,'  and  was  de- 
termined not  to  stand  on  formalities.  '  H  no  one  would  invite  him  he  would  invite  him- 
self. He  soon  rode  up  beside  Warren  Walker,  who  was  traveling  the  same  road,  and 
said  to  him:  'Brother,  how  far  do  you  live  from  here?'  On  being  told  the  distance, 
he  said :  'Well,  I  am  going  home  with  you  to  get  my  dinner.'  'Certainly,'  said  Mr. 
Walker,  'I  will  be  glad  to  have  you  do  so.'  .^nd  to  Mr.  Walker's  he  went  and  was  cor- 
dially entertained." 

Bishop  Marvin  on  the  Pioneers. 

A  few  years  before  his  death  Bishop  Marvin  wrote  from  his  home  in  St. 
Louis  to  an  old  settlers'  reunion  in  St.  Joseph : 

"In  1842  I  passed  the  present  site  of  St.  Joseph  on  my  way  to  a  field  of  labor  quite 
on  the  frontier.  It  embraced  all  the  country  west  of  Nodaway  river.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  uncalculating,  unbounded  hospitality  of  the  'old  settlers.'  Many  of  them 
were  in  their  first  rude  cabins,  but  those  cabins  had  the  rarest  capacity  for  entertaining 
both  friend  and  stranger  of  any  houses  of  their  size  I  ever  saw.  I  often  saw  them 
crowded,  but  to  the  best  of  my  recollection  I  never  saw  one  of  them  full ;  there  was 
always  room  for  a  fresh  comer.  I  recollect  once  in  the  Platte  Purchase,  I  was  wedging 
myself  into  a  bed  already  occupied  by  five  children,  when  one  of  them  awakened  sufli- 
ciently  to  e.xclaim,   'Mamma,  mamma,  he's   a  scrougin'  me !' 

"At  that  time  I  knew  many  men  who  did  not  know  me  for  I  was  a  mere  youth.  I 
knew  they  were  great  as  compared  with  other  men  I  knew,  but  I  had  a  fancy  that  the 
great  men  were  in  the  East.  But  after  many  years  of  extended  observation  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  I  heard  as  fine  a  specimen  of  political  speaking  in  Liberty, 
in  1844,  by  Colonel  Doniphan,  as  I  have  ever  heard  since,  and  that  the  country  would 
be  happier  if  the  balances  were  everywhere  held  by  hands  as  intelligent  and  firm  as  those 
of  the  pioneer  jurist,  David  R.  Atchison.  Among  my  own  class  there  was  the  laborious 
Redman,  the  scholarly  Tutt,  the  impetuous  and  saintly  Roberts,  and  many  others  now 
dead.     There  was  a  man,  a  minister  of   Christ,  a  large  portion  of   whose  career  belongs 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  169 

to  the  Platte  Purchase,  of  whom  I  must  say  he  was  in  some  respects  the  most  remark- 
able man  I  ever  saw.  I  refer  to  W.  G.  Caples.  Now  I  proceed  to  say  that  the  people 
of  the  Platte  Purchase  have  heard  as  great  preaching  as  any  other  people  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent,  and  from  the  lips  of  the  man  Caples." 

Bishop  Marvin  was  famous  for  saying  much  in  few  words.  He  once  paid 
the  highest  possible  tribute  to  a  man  in  this  way,  "He  is  as  good  as  he  .knows 
how  to  be  and  he  knows  how  as  well  as  any  man  God  ever  made." 

A  Missouri  Associate  of  Peter  Cartwright. 

One  of  the  chaplains  of  the  Missouri  state  senate  soon  after  the  Civil  war  was 
Rev.  Dr.  R.  H.  ^lanier,  who  afterwards  went  to  Spokane  as  a  pioneer  in  the 
march  of  A\'esleyanism  into  the  Northwest.  In  his  early  years  Dr.  ]Manier  had 
been  associated  with  Peter  Cartwright  and  liked  to  tell  of  him : 

"Many  miles  have  I  traveled  horseback  with  Peter  Cartwright.  There  are  no  preachers 
living  now  who  are  at  all  like  him.  Perhaps  they  are  not  needed  in  this  age,  but  they 
laid  the  foundation  stones  of  Methodism  well  and  strong  in  this  country.  In  many  back- 
woods settlements  where  he  preached  gangs  of  toughs  organized  themselves  to  break 
up  Mr.  Cartwright's  meetings,  and  more  than  once  this  tall,  sturdy  defender  of  the  faith 
stepped  down  out  of  the  pulpit  and  routed  the  disturbers  with  his  fists.  He  was  abso- 
lutely fearless,  and  upon  entering  a  community  would  in  his  first  sermon  scorch  the 
people  for  their  sins,  particularizing  the  vices  of  that  neighborhood,  "^'ou  are  hair- 
hung  and  breeze-shaken  over  hell,'  he  would  say,  with  indescribable  force  and  emphasis, 
shaking  his  great  fist  at  his  congregation;  'and  when  you  get  there  your  ribs  will  only 
be  a  gridiron  for  the  devil  to  roast  your  souls  in.'  He  literally  scared  thousands  of  his 
hearers  into  salvation." 

The  Church  Militant. 

The  division  of  the  pioneer  Baptists  into  the  Primifive,  or  Hardshell  as  they 
were  sometimes  called  in  sarcasm,  and  Missionary  Baptists  did  not  come  about 
peaceably  in  all  parts  of  the  state.  In  Pike  county  at  Siloani  church,  Uncle 
Jimmie  Moore  took  his  station  in  the  door  of  the  meeting  house,  holding  an  axe. 
The  other  faction  headed  by  Rev.  Amos  Beck  arrived  later  and  demanded  pos- 
session of  the  building.  Uncle  Jimmie  stood  his  ground.  Rev.  Amos  Beck,  a 
man  of  courage,  nished  at  Moore  in  the  attempt  to  take  the  axe  away  from  him. 
He  was  cut  down  and  dangerously  wounded.  It  took  all  of  the  eloquence  of 
Uriel  Wright  to  acquit  Moore  who  was  indicted  for  assault  with  intent  to  kill. 

Rev.  Jabez  Ham,  who  founded  New  Providence  church  on  Loutre  creek,  was. 
a  large  stout  man  who  could  use  his  fists  if  occasion  required.  He  was  plain 
of  speech.  Charles  B.  Harper,  coming  back  from  Callaway  county  where  he 
had  been  for  a  load  of  corn,  stopped  to  hear  Mr.  Ham  preach.  The  congrega- 
tion was  called  upon  to  kneel  in  prayer.  Harper  didn't  get  down.  The  preacher 
called  upon  the  Lord  to  bless  "that  Virginia  man  who  had  on  store  clothes  and 
was  afraid  or  too  proud  to  get  down  on  his  knees." 

An  eccentric  preacher  of  Randolph  county  was  Rev.  Johnson  \\^right,  who 
once  justified  the  playing  of  euchre  because  the  Bible  mentioned  the  word 
"eucharist."  As  he  grew  old  his  eccentricities  became  so  marked  that  people 
thought  he  was  insane.  At  an  election  in  Huntsville,  Johnson  ofltered  a  ballot 
which  read,  "Jesus  Christ,  for  the  office  of  Head  of  the  Church."    \\'hen  some- 


170  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

body  said  that  Christ  had  been  elected  to  that  position  more  than  1800  years  ago, 
the  preacher  repHed,  "Well,  if  it  has  been  that  long  it  is  time  he  was  reelected." 

Rev.  Isaiah  Spurgin,  who  served  Baptist  churches  in  Central  Missouri  many 
years  previous  to  the  war,  was  famed  for  his  knowledge  of  the  Bible  which  he 
read  through  once  a  year.  Following  the  practice  of  the  anti-missionarj'  branch 
of  the  church,  although  he  did  not  confine  his  work  to  that  body,  he  never  re- 
quired any  compensation  for  his  preaching. 

Like  many  others  of  the  clerical  profession  in  the  early  days,  William  B. 
Douglass,  of  Audrain  county,  taught  school.  The  family  preserved  the  recollec- 
tion that  grown  men  and  women  were  included  among  the  pupils.  The  studying 
was  aloud  and  sometimes  the  zeal  of  the  students  created  a  volume  of  sound 
which  could  be  heard  half  a  inile.  The  performance  of  the  marriage  ceremony 
was  an  important  duty  of  the  preachers.  Rev.  Mr.  Douglass,  in  one  case,  went 
seven  miles  to  marry  a  couple,  through  a  heavy  rain  which  swelled  the  creeks  so 
that  he  had  to  swim  them.  He  received  for  a  fee  the  sum  of  fifty  cents.  The 
trip  required  two  days.  Another  day  was  taken  to  go  thirteen  miles  and  have 
the  marriage  recorded,  and  the  fee  for  that  took  the  fifty  cents. 

Rev.  John  Reid  and  Rev.  Finis  Ewing  were  two  of  the  pioneer  preachers  of 
Cooper  county.  They  had  this  experience :  When  Ewing  was  moving  into  the 
county  he  had  ear  bells  on  his  six-horse  team.  Reid,  then  a  young  man,  was 
driving  a  team  for  another  family  in  the  party.  He  was  greatly  taken  with  the 
jingling  of  the  bells  and  wanted  Mr.  Ewing  to  tell  his  teamster  to  divide  with 
him.  Mr.  Ewing  declined  to  share  his  bells,  whereupon  Reid  bought  some 
cowbells  and  hung  one  on  every  horse  in  his  team.  Ewing  was  so  annoyed  at 
the  jangling  of  the  cowbells  that  he  gave  Reid  some  of  the  ear  bells  on  condition 
that  he  would  stop  using  his  instruments  of  discord. 

The  Dry  Land  Baptist. 

A  pioneer  in  Callaway  county  was  Thomas  Kitchen.  He  attended  the  old 
Baptist  church  at  Salem,  of  which  his  wife  was  a  member.  He  never  joined  the 
church  because,  as  he  explained  to  the  members,  he  could  not  tell  his  experience, 
never  having  had  any.  He  went  by  the  description  of  the  "dry  land"  Baptist 
for  years,  until  one  day  he  fell  from  the  top  of  a  mill  Captain  John  Baker  was 
building  on  Loutre  creek.  Kitchen  dropped  into  the  creek,  killing  a  big  catfish 
by  the  impact  but  sustaining  no  injury.  After  that  he  argued  that  he  had  been 
baptized  and  ought  not  to  be  called  a  dry  land  member  of  the  church.  He  also 
enlarged  his  name  to  Thomas  Jonah  Kitchen,  because  he  said  that  like  Jonah  of 
old  he  had  been  saved  by  a  fish. 

Rev.  Felix  Broun,  a  soldier  of  the  War  of  1812,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of 
Callaway.  He  made  himself  a  familiar  figure  by  dressing  in  a  buckskin  garment 
of  unusual  length,  reaching  almost  to  his  heels.  This  robe  he  wore  in  the  pulpit. 
He  was  a  man  of  most  positive  opinions,  never  admitting  that  he  was  in  the 
wrong  if  he  could  help  it.  He  thought  he  could  do  anything  that  another  man 
could.  This  disposition  prompted  him  to  try  to  temper  a  crosscut  saw,  a  process 
about  which  he  was  ignorant.  The  saw  was  spoiled.  The  owner  sued  the 
preacher.    The  case  was  fought  over  in  the  courts  for  a  long  time. 

The  Rev.  Williams  was  long  remembered  along  the  Osage  as  "a  powerful 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  171 

preacher."  He  was  commonly  known  as  "Snagboat"  Williams,  "from  his  vig- 
orous manner  of  attacking  snags  to  the  Christian  faith  along  the  great  stream 
of  life." 

The  First  Baptism  at  Old  Nebo. 

"Old  Nebo  church"  in  Cooper  county  was  prosperous  until  the  members 
divided,  as  was  the  case  in  a  number  of  other  Missouri  churches,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  paying  ministers  and  sending  missionaries  to  the  heathen.  After  some 
stormy  discussions  the  majority  withdrew  and  built  New  Nebo  church.  The 
first  baptism  at  Old  Nebo  drew  an  immense  crowd  to  the  river.  Immersion 
was  something  new  in  Missouri.  Some  of  the  curious  climbed  trees  to  get  a 
better  view.  One  man,  Jake  Simons,  chose  a  small  tree  which  leaned  over  the 
water.  While  Simons  was  intensely  interested  in  the  proceedings,  John  H. 
Hutchinson  hacked  away  at  the  tree.  Simons  didn't  realize  that  he  was  grad- 
ually bending  lower  until  the  tree  cracked  and  went  down  into  the  water.  The 
crowd  made  such  an  uproar  that  the  preacher  was  compelled  to  stop  the  ceremony 
and  postpone  the  baptism  of  those  who  had  not  received  it.  Simons  swam  ashore, 
pulled  off  his  coat  and  tried  to  find  the  man  who  played  such  a  trick  on  him. 

Bonnet  Show  Sunday  at  Big  Shoal. 

''The  bonnet  show"  at  Big  Shoal  Meeting  house  in  Clay  county  became  an 
annual  event  which  continued  three-quarters  of  a  century.  Judge  D.  C.  Allen 
said  that  the  show  became  a  custom  earlier  than  1835 ;  that  it  took  place  on  the 
second  Sunday  in  May;  and  that  there  was  no  other  church  in  Clay  county  that 
attracted  so  many  people  on  that  day. 

"Merchants  left  Liberty  in  midwinter  and  went  to  Philadelphia  for  their  fine  goods 
and  to  Baltimore  for  their  groceries.  The  purchases  began  arriving  toward  the  end  of 
March,  There  was  great  rivalry  among  the  women  folks  to  select  the  most  becoming 
bonnets  but  the  display  in  public  was  held  back  until  the  annual  meeting  at  Big  Shoal 
church  in  May.  The  services  were  not  brief.  Worshippers  took  their  dinners  and  made 
a  day  of  it.  For  weeks  in  advance  this  gathering  was  talked  of  and  prepared  for.  Peo- 
ple came   from  many  miles  to  see  the  bonnet  show." 

What  old  settlers  remembered  as  the  greatest  revival  in  Clay  county  occurred 
at  Liberty  in  185 1.  It  was  conducted  in  the  Baptist  church  but  directed  by  Rev. 
Nathan  Hall,  a  Presbyterian  evangelist  of  unusual  power,  whose  home  was  in 
Boonville.  William  Jewell  college  had  been  established  only  a  year  or  so  earlier. 
The  revival  converted  many  of  the  students.  Baptism  by  immersion  followed  in 
a  natural  baptismal  pool  in  Rush  creek,  which  Judge  D.  C.  Allen  described  as  a 
remarkable  work  of  nature  : 

"The  water  of  the  creek  in  time  of  flood,  by  its  impact  against  the  high  bank,  de- 
veloped a  rotary  motion.  This  had  scoured  the  bottom  of  the  pool  t«  a  depth  beyond 
the  height  of  any  man.  .\t  the  upper  end,  the  stream  had  created  a  pebbly  peninsula, 
with  the  water  gradually  deepening.  Art  could  not  have  better  adapted  conditions  to 
baptismal  uses.  The  ministrant  and  subject  walked  out  on  the  peninsula  and  thence 
into  the  water.  The  road  ran  along  north  of  the  pool  leaving  ample  space  for  spectators 
between  it  and  the  pool.  On  the  south  side  of  the  pool  was  a  grassy  bank  with  a  back- 
ground of  rose  bushes  and   forest  trees." 


172  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Benton  at  Campmeeting. 

Two  of  the  pioneer  preachers  of  Saline  county  were  Rev.  Peyton  Nowlin, 
and  Rev.  Thomas  Kinney.  The  former  was  a  very  serious-minded  man,  while 
Kinney  had  a  sense  of  humor  which  he  did  not  lay  aside  entirely  while  in  the 
pulpit.  Nowlin  rebuked  his  brother  Baptist  for  making  too  much  fun  in  his 
sermons.  Kinney  retorted:  "Well,  I'd  rather  preach  to  laughinj^  devils  than  to 
sleepy  ones  as  you  do.  You  make  them  sleep  and  I  make  them  laugh.  My  con- 
gregations will  pass  yours  on  the  way  to  heaven ;  I'll  bet  you  a  coonskin  they 
will." 

When  Benton  was  campaigning  against  the  Jackson  resolutions,  he  dropped  in 
at  a  campmeeting  in  Saline  county.  The  ministers  were  rather  overcome  by  the 
presence  of  the  greatest  Missourian  and  one  after  another  passed  up  the  ques- 
tion of  who  should  preach  the  next  sermon.  At  length  one  of  the  oldest  in  the 
party  said  to  his  associates:  "Brethren,  we  ought  to  be  ashamed:  Tom  Benton 
is  a  greater  man  than  any  of  us,  but  God  Almighty  is  greater  than  Tom  Benton. 
Let  Brother  Blank,  whose  turn  it  is  to  preach,  get  right  up  and  preach,  and 
the  Lord  will  strengthen  him.  From  what  I  can  learn,  Tom  Benton  needs  preach- 
ing to  about  as  bad  as  anybody  on  this  ground,  and  who  knows  but  that  the 
sermon  of  today  may  save  his  soul." 

Immersions  in  Hog  Creek. 

Of  the  ])i(jnetr  religious  life  in  Adair  county,  Peyton  F.  Greenwood  told 
this: 

"In  January,  1856,  Lewis  Conner,  a  Missionary  Baptist  minister,  held  a  revival  meet- 
ing at  the  Brashear  school  house  when  quite  a  number  were  converted.  According  to 
the  requirements  they  had  to  be  immersed.  It  became  necessary  to  cut  the  ice  on  Hog 
creek,  near  Uncle  Billy  Brashear's  residence.  Among  the  candidates  for  immersion  was 
Uncle  Reuben  Long.  He  was  taken  into  the  water  and  ice  and  immersed  by  the  min- 
ister, Lewis  Conner.  When  the  minister  helped  him  out  of  the  water.  Uncle  Reuben 
never  stopped  to  shake  hands  and  e.xtend  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  but  lit  out  on  a 
lively  trot  up  the  hill  to  Mr.  Brashear's  house.  It  made  an  impression  on  my  mind  at 
that  time  to  see  the  ice  and  water  dripping  from  his  garments  as  he  ran  up  the  hill. 
Another  instance  in  connection  with  this  service  was  the  immersion  of  Aunt  Charlotte 
Smith.  After  she  was  immersed  and  rose  up,  she  came  out  shouting  and  clasping  the 
hands  of  every  one  near  her  and  then  it  flashed  up  in  my  mind  that  she  had  true  religion 
and  that  hers  was  a  true  conversion. 

"In  the  early  fifties  there  moved  into  what  was  known  as  South  prairie  Rev.  John 
C.  Gibson,  a  minister  in  the  Missionary  Baptist  church.  He  was  low  in  stature  but 
broad  and  bulky  in  build.  On  one  occasion  he  invited  my  brother  and  I  to  attend  a 
church  trial  in  what  was  known  as  the  Houk  school  house,  wherein  he  was  charged  with 
some  offense  against  the  ordinances  of  the  church.  He  wanted  us  to  see  him  clean  out 
the  opposition  who  had  brought  charges  against  him.  After  the  moderator  was  chosen 
they  proceeded  with  the  trial  and  the  evidence  they  were  introducing  was  pretty  hot 
and  heavy  against  Brother  Gibson.  He  was  fighting  to  keep  it  out  and  was  making 
considerable  noise  and  a  good  many  statements,  when  finally  old  Brother  Denton,  who 
was  seated  in  the  south  end  of  the  school  house,  a  very  tall,  well  built  athletic  man, 
began  to  rise  up,  and  as  I  would  express  it,  link  by  link,  said :  'Brother  Moderator,  if 
you  ever  heard  cats  mew,  you  will  hear  them  mew  now.'  With  that  he  made  a  dive 
at  Brother  Gibson,  and  Brother  Gibson  made  a  lunge  for  the  door  and  down  through 
the  prairie  grass.  This  was  the  way  Brother  Gibson  'cleaned  out  the  opposition.'  and 
ended  the  church  trial." 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  173 

The  First  Methodist  Sacrament. 

The  first  Methodist  sacrament  in  Missouri  was  administered  at  Jacob  Zum- 
walt's  in  the  first  house  built  of  hewn  logs  north  of  the  Missouri  river.  Rev. 
Jesse  Walker  conducted  the  service.  Preparation  for  the  event  taxed  the  in- 
genuity of  Mrs.  Zumwalt  and  Mrs.  Colonel  David  Bailey.  These  good  Methodist 
ladies  made  the  wine  from  poke  berries,  sweetening  it  with  maple  sugar.  For  the 
crumbs  they  used  the  crusts  of  corn  bread.  Like  some  other  Missourians,  Jacob 
Zumwalt  left  religious  observance  largely  to  his  wife.  He  made  whiskey  which 
he  sold  to  the  Indians,  one  of  his  best  customers  being  Blackhawk.  But  Zum- 
walt's  whiskey  was  so  low  in  alcohol  percentage  that  in  cold  weather  it  froze  and 
was  sold  in  chunks  to  the  Indians,  sales  reaching  in  a  single  day  as  much  as  $ick). 
This  traffic  did  not  interfere  with  the  exercise  of  hospitality  toward  the  trav- 
eling preachers  by  Zumwalt.  Whenever  preachers  were  in  the  vicinity  they  held 
service  at  the  house  of  hewn  logs.  Most  of  the  Zumwalt  children  were  given 
Biblical  names.  Andrew  Zumwalt  was  so  strong  in  the  Methodist  doctrine  that 
he  took  great  ofifense  when  three  daughters  became  Baptists,  to  the  delight  of 
their  mother.  The  father  commented  on  the  action  of  the  girls  by  saying  he 
hoped  some  of  his  family  would  find  the  right  church,  get  to  heaven  and  be 
contented  there  without  wanting  to  go  somewhere  else.  The  Zumwalts  were  very 
numerous.  There  were  five  Jacob  Zumwalts,  distinguished  as  Big  Jake,  Little 
Jake,  Calico  Jake,  St.  Charles  Jake  and  Lying  Jake. 

The  Hen-egg  Revival. 

Rev.  Theodoric  Boulware,  who  became  one  of  the  most  successful  of  pioneer 
Baptist  preachers,  attributed  his  own  conversion  to  what  was  known  as  "the 
hen-egg  revival"  in  Tennessee.  Some  one  had  taken  an  egg  and  inscribed  on  it, 
"The  day  of  judgment  is  close  at  hand."  The  story  was  given  out  that  the  in- 
scription was  on  the  egg  when  found  in  the  nest.  A  revivalist  produced  the  egg 
in  the  pulpit,  read  the  inscription,  and,  while  he  did  not  claim  that  there  was 
supernatural  agency,  he  showed  the  egg  and  preached  powerfully  on  the  doctrine 
of  salvation.  Among  the  many  converts  was  Mr.  Boulware  who  came  to  Mis- 
souri and  settled  in  Callaway.  Mr.  Boulware  often  told  the  story  of  "the  hen- 
egg  revival."  He  had  his  own  extraordinary  experiences  in  the  pulpit.  Once  he 
preached  to  a"  Callaway  audience  from  the  text,  "And  Peter's  wife's  mother  lay 
sick  of  a  fever."  Among  his  most  attentive  listeners  was  a  man  who  seemed 
much  impressed.  Years  afterwards,  Mr.  Boulware  preached  in  the  same  neigh- 
borhood, and  by  coincidence  from  the  same  text.  He  said  he  was  astonished  to 
see  the  same  man  in  the  audience.  That  man,  he  said,  came  to  him  after  the 
sermon  and  said :  "For  the  Lord's  sake!  Ain't  that  old  woman  dead  yet ?  How 
long  do  you  think  she  will  live?  Poor  old  critter!  What  a  lot  she  must  have 
suffered  these  forty  years.  I'll  warrant  she  is  needy.  Really  the  people  ought 
to  send  her  something  to  help  her  along." 

A  reminiscent  writer  in  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  told  this  story  of 
the  "big  meeting"  at  Mt.  Nebo  in  the  pioneer  days : 

"It  was  a  blazing  hot  day,  the  kind  of  weatlier  when  dogs  are  in  a  fighting  mood. 
The  fight  began  over  on  the  ladies'  side.  Old  Farmer  Corbin's  spotted  cur  crawled 
under   the    bench   and   assaulted   Sister   Hayden's   yellow    fice   by   biting   him   through    the 


174  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ear.  Every  dog  took  sides.  The  fight  began  right  in  the  middle  of  Brother  Davis'  ser- 
mon, and  if  the  sermon  was  ever  finished  I  have  no  recollection  of  it.  All  of  the  dogs 
went  to  church  in  the  country.  All  hands,  except  the  women  and  children  who  occupied 
standing  positions  on  the  benches,  were  soon  busy  trying  to  settle  the  dog  fight.  Some 
brother  finally  got  the  insulted  fice  to  the  front  door  and  kicked  him  into  the  yard.  But 
the  infuriated  little  beast  bounced  through  a  window  beside  the  pulpit  in  the  rear  of  the 
house.  Again  he  was  started  down  the  aisle  and  out  at  the  front  with  many  a  kick. 
But  in  a  flash  he  would  come  through  the  window  beside  the  pulpit.  This  was  repeated 
until  some  active  brother  stationed  himself  at  the  window  with  a  hymnbook.  Regard- 
less of  his  size  compared  with  the  big  dogs,  and  of  the  kicks  of  the  farmers'  boots,  the 
fice  would  return  repeatedly  to  the  fight.  Well,  when  the  disturbance  was  finally  quelled, 
there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  adjourn   for  dinner." 

A  Pike  County  Church  Meeting. 

Millard  Fillmore  Stipes,  the  author  of  "Gleanings  in  Missouri  History," 
gives  on  the  authority  of  Judge  Fagg  this  description  of  a  Pike  county  religious 
service : 

"One  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  Pike  county  was  John  Mackey,  who  erected  his  cabin 
near  a  line  of  bluffs  which  marked  the  western  boundary  of  Calumet  creek  valley.  It 
was  one  of  the  usual  pioneer  style — unhewn  logs  and  puncheon  floor.  There  was  one 
room  below,  and  a  loft  above  where  the  older  children  slept.  On  the  afternoon  of  a 
bitterly  cold  day  in  1821,  an  itinerant  preacher  rode  into  the  little  settlement  that  had 
sprung  up  about  the  Mackey  cabin.  Notwithstanding  the  inclemency  of  the  evening, 
Aunt  Nancy  Mackey,  devout  and  hospitable,  induced  the  itinerant  to  preach  at  her  cabin 
that  night.  Couriers  went  through  the  snowstorm  to  the  neighbors,  and  a  goodly  num- 
ber trailed  through  the  drifts  to  the  appointed  place.  The  storm  had  driven  a  score  or 
more  of  hogs  beneath  the  cabin  for  shelter,  and  when  the  preacher  arose  to  announce 
his  text,  the  porkers,  in  their  individual  efforts  to  secure  a  warm  berth  near  the  great 
fireplace,  set  up  such  a  squealing  that  the  eflForts  of  the  preacher  to  make  himself  heard 
were  unavailing.  Presently  some  degree  of  quiet  was  obtained  and  the  services  began. 
But  a  little  later,  a  gust  of  wind  blew  open  the  door  which  some  late  comer  had  not 
securely  fastened,  and  in  strode  an  old  sow  with  a  nonchalance  that  indicated  perfect 
familiarity  with  the  room.  The  small  boy  01  the  family  gave  her  a  welcoming  shout,  and. 
jumping  astride  her  back,  with  one  of  her  ears  grasped  in  each  hand,  rode  the  squealing 
animal  around  the  room,  much  to  the  consternation  of  the  female  portion  of  the  audience. 

"After  several  circuits  of  the  room,  the  boy  and  his  steed  passed  out  the  door.  But 
not  yet  were  the  interruptions  over.  A  flock  of  geese  had,  in  the  meantime,  walked  in 
at  the  open  door,  and.  keeping  up  a  loud  hissing  and  scattering,  refused  to  withdraw. 
But  Aunt  Nancy  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  Taking  an  ear  of  corn  from  the  jamb,  she 
walked  backwards  through  the  open  door,  shelling  the  corn  and  coaxing  the  fowls  in 
her  most  persuasive  tones.  The  flock  once  outside,  the  door  was  closed,  and  the  inter- 
rupted discourse  concluded.  It  is  said  that  these  occurrences  were  accepted  as  a  matter 
unavoidable.  The  audience  was  patient  and  the  equanimity  of  the  preacher  undisturbed, 
while  Aunt  Nancy  folded  her  arms  as  complacently  as  if  such  annoyances  were  not  out 
of  the  usual  routine." 

Henry  Clay  Dean,  Rebel's  Cove,  Mo. 

Missouri's  most  eccentric  minister  was  Rev.  Henry  Clay  Dean.  He  was  at 
one  time  chaplain  of  the  United  States  Senate.  There  was  no  question  about 
his  intellectual  ability.  As  an  exhorter  he  perhaps  had  no  equal  in  his  day. 
Sympathizing  strongly  with  the  South,  Mr.  Dean  left  the  Methodist  ministry 
and  went  into  politics.     After  the  war  he  practiced  law  and  became  famotis  as 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  175 

a  campaign  spellbinder.  To  his  home  in  North  Missouri  he  gave  the  name  of 
"Rebel's  Cove."  One  characteristic  which  brought  him  into  disrepute  with  the 
church  was  the  abuse  of  the  opposite  political  party  in  anathemas  which  bordered 
on  profanity.  Dean  had  no  regard  for  personal  appearance.  He  was  not  an 
entirely  welcome  guest.  A  good  Methodist  woman  known  throughout  Missouri 
told  this : 

"Mr.  Dean  always  traveled  with  a  black  satchel  whicli  never  seemed  to  hold  clean 
linen,  but  always  contained  a  pint  bottle  filled  with  paregoric,  as  he  apologetically  ex- 
plained. Truly,  one  would  have  believed  it  bourbon  but  for  this  statement ;  and  very 
regular,  liberal  doses  did  the  reverend  gentleman  take.  Upon  one  occasion  he  came  to 
my  home  early  in  the  morning.  It  was  summer,  and  he  wore  a  white  linen  suit,  but  hav- 
ing walked  in  the  rain  some  distance  he  was  thoroughly  drenched.  After  breakfast  he 
said:  'Madam,  if  you  don't  mind,  I  will  go  to  your  spare  room  and  take  a  little  rest, 
as  I  have  been  up  all  night.'  Without  ado  he  was  shown  to  the  guest  chamber.  Four 
hours  afterward  he  came  downstairs  to  take  his  departure,  and  my  eyes  rested  upon  the 
most  ridiculous  sight  ever  presented.  It  was  not,  apparently,  the  great  man's  custom  to 
disrobe  upon  retiring,  and  in  his  wet  linen  suit  he  had  crawled  between  two  new  com- 
forts, which,  not  being  warranted  to  wash,  had  left  big  red  figures  all  over  his  clothes. 
No  circus  clown  was  ever  more  gaudily  costumed.  The  scene  was  overpowering,  and 
I  fJed.  The  old  gentleman,  entirely  oblivious,  walked  quietly  down  the  street,  his  ap- 
pearance causing  merriment  for  all  the  boys  of  the  village,  until  he  met  a  friend,  who, 
gazing  with  horror  upon  Mr.  Dean's  rotund  form  brilliantly  figured  with  red  poppies 
and  pink  hollyhocks,  exclaimed:  'In  heaven's  name,  Mr.  Dean,  what  is  the  matter? 
You  look  just  like  an  Easter  egg.' " 

Mr.  Dean  left  the  unpublished  manuscript  of  what  he  called  "The  Voice  of 
the  People  in  the  Federal  Government."  He  described  this  as  "Being  an  inquiry' 
into  the  abolition  of  executive  patronage  and  the  election  of  all  the  chief  officers  of 
the  Federal  government  by  the  direct  vote  of  the  people  whom  they  serve."  He 
quoted  on  the  title  page  from  Neckar,  "Liberty  will  be  ruined  by  providing  any 
kind  of  substitute  for  popular  election." 

A  Prayer  for  Rattlesnakes. 

Plain  spoken  men  were  the  pioneer  preachers  of  Missouri.  Down  in  the 
Ozarks  is  preserved  the  tradition  of  the  prayer  which  was  offered  at  the  bed- 
side of  a  young  man  who  had  been  bitten  by  a  snake  and  was  in  desperate 
straits.  The  family  to  which  the  preacher  was  called  was  unregenerate,  and  no 
credit  to  the  community.  But  when  John  lay  sick  from  the  snake  bite,  the 
preacher  was  sent  for,  and  this,  according  to  the  tradition,  was  the  way  he 
prayed : 

"We  thank  Thee,  Almighty  God,  for  Thy  watchful  care  over  us  and  for  Thy  good- 
ness and  tender  mercj',  and  especially  we  thank  Thee  for  rattlesnakes.  Thou  hast  sent 
one  to  bite  John  Weaver.  We  pray  Thee  to  send  one  to  bite  Jim,  one  to  bite  Henry, 
one  to  bite  Sam,  one  to  bite  Bill;  and  we  pray  Thee  to  send  the  biggest  kind  of  a  rat- 
tlesnake to  bite  the  old  man,  for  nothing  but  rattlesnakes  will  ever  bring  the  Weaver 
family  to  repentance.  There  are  others  in  Missouri  just  as  bad  as  the  Weavers.  We 
pray  Thee  to  stir  up  Missouri,  and,  if  nothing  else  will  bring  the  people  to  repentance, 
we  pray  Thee   to  shower  down   more  rattlesnakes.     .\men !" 


176  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Fanatical  Pilgrims. 

Headed  by  an  aged  "prophet,"  as  they  called  him.  the  "Fanatical  Pil- 
grims," landed  at  New  Madrid  in  1817.  They  walked  in  single  file,  men  in 
front,  women  and  children  bringing  up  the  rear.  As  the  long  line  moved  the 
Pilgrims  chanted  "Praise  God !  Praise  God !  Fast  and  Pray !"  A  peculiar  garb  of 
horizontal  stripes  added  to  the  strangeness  of  the  procession.  The  Pilgrims 
had  started  from  somewhere  in  Canada  and  had  moved  slowly  in  a  southwesterly 
direction  until  they  reached  Missouri.  Their  destination  was  a  "New  Jerusalem" 
which  they  had  been  told  by  their  prophet  was  in  the  Southwest.  When  these 
fanatics  reached  Missouri  they  included  some  people  who  had  sold  farms  and 
other  property  and  put  the  proceeds  in  a  common  fund  amounting  to  several 
thousand  dollars.  There  were  some  desertions  from  the  party  when  it  reached 
Missouri.  For  a  time  the  Pilgrims  lived  on  what  became  known  as  Pilgrim 
Island.  The  chief  food  was  corn  meal  mush  and  milk  which  was  put  in  a  trough 
from  which  the  people  fed.  Fasting  was  practiced  to  such  an  extent  that  chil- 
dren suffered  and  cried  for  food.  At  one  time  the  officials  of  New  Madrid  took  a 
boatload  of  food  to  the  island.  The  prophet  ordered  the  sheriff  and  his  party 
away.  The  fond  was  landed,  the  prophet  was  driven  back  by  a  show  of  arms 
and  the  children  ale  as  if  starved.  Gradually  the  followers  deserted  the  prophet 
and  scattered  in  the  Ozarks.  A  few  of  the  faithful  moved  away  to  Arkansas. 
When  the  New  Madrid  people  were  feeding  the  children,  the  prophet  declared 
the  creed  of  the  strange  sect. 

".\way  with  your  food.  We  are  commanded  to  fast  and  pray.  Better  that 
their  bodies  perish  than  that  their  souFs  shall  be  cast  into  hell  fire." 

Boonville's  "Last  Day." 

IMillerites  had  obtained  quite  a  following  in  Missouri  as  early  as  1844. 
They  predicted  the  "last  day"  of  the  world  with  confident  definiteness.  .\  comet 
of  that  year  was  interpreted  as  heralding  the  end  of  the  world.  Captain  F.  M. 
Posegate  told  in  the  St.  Joseph  News-Press  some  years  ago  his  recollections, 
as  a  boy  in  Boonville,  of  the  deep  impression  made  upon  the  people  when  the 
last  day  fixed  by  the  Millerites  came: 

"One  man  concluded  he  would  make  an  effort  to  forestall  the  flying  chariot  in  which 
the  elect  were  to  ascend  to  the  presence  of  the  Judge,  by  using  a  flying  machine,  or 
bird  machine  as  he  styled  it.  He  worked  faithfully  for  weeks  upon  the  contrivance  and 
only  a  few  days  before  the  all-absorbing  event  was  expected  to  materialize  hauled  it  out 
onto  a  platform  on  top  of  his  barn  to  give  it  a  trial.  At  the  first  flop  the  machine  fell 
to  the  ground,  resulting  in  a  broken  neck  for  the  man.  To  him  the  end  of  the  world 
had  come,  the  consolation  to  his  relatives  and  friends  being  that  he  had  at  least  escaped 
any  possible  suflfering  that  the  flames  might  inflict.  At  last  the  day  upon  which  the 
prophecy  was  expected  to  culminate  dawned — clear,  soft,  beautiful. — typical  of  an  old- 
fashioned  Missouri  'Indian  summer'  day.  (We  do  not  seem  to  have  such  days  now.) 
'Old  Sol'  manifested  no  desire  to  hurry  matters — the  hours  dragged  slowly — the  usual 
activities  of  everyday  life  seemed  almost  paralyzed,  while  a  nervous  uneasiness  involv- 
ing the  entire  community  was  apparent.  As  the  sun,  seemingly  a  glowing,  flashing  ball 
of  fire,  sank  below  the  horizon  and  twilight  began  to  shadow  the  earth,  the  suspense 
became  almost  unbearable,  and  it  would  be  idle  to  say  that  a  feeling  of  doubt,  of  un- 
certainty, of  unspeakable  awe  did  not  pervade  the  whole  community.  The  head  of  the 
comet  soon  made  its  appearance  and  before  its  fleecy  tail  disappeared  behind  the  western 


First   Congregational   Church,   Tenth   and   Locust   streets 


First  Methodist  Episcopal  CTiurch,  South,  Eighth  Street  and  Washington  Avenue 
ST.  LOUTS   CHtJRCHES   IX   1861 


'  WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  179 

horizon,  the  moon,  nearly  at  its  full,  was  shedding  its  si>£t,  silvery,  steady  light,  render- 
ing all  things  visible  for  miles  around.  Only  one  hour — sixty  short  minutes — remained 
during  which  the  prophecy  must  materialize,  if  at  all.  The  main  street  of  the  village 
was  thronged  with  humanity — the  believer,  the  unbeliever,  the  doubter  and  the  scoffer. 
The  elect,  and  there  were  many  of  them,  arrayed  in  their  ascension  robes,  stood  joyously 
together  all  in  readiness  to  be  taken  up.  Suddenly,  from  out  in  the  direction  of  Gib- 
son's hill,  a  spear  of  light  harsher  than  that  emitted  by  the  moon  sprang  up.  As  it  grew, 
spread,  flared,  no  mortal  pen  could  have  given  a  fair  idea  of  the  silence  that  prevailed. 
No  mortal  artist  could  have  painted  the  various  expressions  shown  upon  the  countenances 
of  individuals.  Just  at  the  moment  when  hope,  joy,  doubt  and  fear  were  most  strongly 
depicted  a  mounted  messenger  came  clattering  down  Gibson  hill.  .\s  he  passed  the  Wyan 
residence,  hat  in  hand,  he  yelled :  'It  is  only  an  old  haystack  in  Gibson's  outfield  that 
is  burning.'  All  along  the  Main  street,  from  the  brick  house  in  which  Todd  and  Loomis 
afterwards  taught  school  to  the  Powell  residence,  overlooking  the  Missouri  river,  he 
proclaimed  the  message.  With  its  close  and  the  exhaustion  of  the  fire  from  the  hay- 
stack, the  suspense  ended ;  seemingly  an  audible  sigh  of  relief  rose  from  the  souls  of 
the  overstrained  throng  of  people  who  had  so  feverishly  awaited  the  denouement.  In 
the  shortest  time  possible  the  streets  were  deserted  and  the  little  city  was  wrapped  in 
a  silence  so  profound  as  to  be  almost  startling.  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  me  now  that  I 
cannot  recall  a  single  instance  where  some  thoughtless  individual  twitted  a  Millerite 
with  the  saying,  old  at  that  time,  'I  told  you  so.'  Neither  do  I  remember  to  have  heard 
any  Millerite   express   any  regret   at  the  nonfulfillment   of   the   prophecy.'' 

One  of  Champ  Clark's  Maiden  Speeches. 

\\'hen  Champ  Clark  was  in  the  legislature,  in  18S9,  he  named  the  chaplain 
in  this  irresistible  nominating  speech : 

"Born  on  the  soil  of  Virginia,  his  parents  brought  him,  as  a  babe  in  arms,  to  Mis- 
souri, when  it  was  still  the  habitat  of  the  red  Indian  and  the  wild  beast,  and  he  has  done 
his  full  part  in  laying  the  broad  foundations  of  this  mighty  state.  He  was  a  pioneer 
farmer  and  a  frontier  blacksmith.  .\  leonine  soldier  of  Jo.  Shelby,  the  bosom  friend  of 
Major  Edwards,  honored  and  beloved  by  all  who  ever  looked  into  his  honest  eyes,  at  the 
close  of  the  war  he  returned  to  his  little  farm,  poor  as  Lazarus,  to  find  his  home  in 
ashes  and  his  wife  and  children  huddled  in  a  negro  cabin.  He  didn't  whine.  He  doesn't 
belong  to  that  school  of  soldiers.  He  spent  no  time  in  crying  over  spilt  milk ;  he  had 
too  much  sense  for  that.  Bravely  and  resolutely,  he  took  up  the  burdens  of  life — 
without  vain  regrets  on  account  of  the  inevitable.  Early  and  late  upon  his  anvil  he 
celebrated  the  jubilee  of  peace.  Industriously  he  tickled  with  the  hoe  the  rich  face  of 
a  Henry  county  farm  and  it  smiled  with  abundant  harvest.  Joyfully  and  liberally  obey- 
ing the  scriptural  injunction  to  "multiply  and  replenish  the  earth'  he  has  the  honor  to 
be  the  proud  and  happy  father  of  eleven  Missouri  Democrats. 

"In  naming  him,  placid  and  majestic  Northeast  Missouri  sends  hearty  greeting 
to  the  glowing  and  gorgeous  Southwest ;  the  old  and  historic  county  of  Pike  clasps  hands 
with  the  young  and  ambitious  county  of  Henry ;  the  kid  Democrats  bow  their  profoundest 
acknowledgments  to  the  veterans  of  the  Old  Guard ;  the  running  water  Campbellite  backs 
the  shouting  Methodist.  I  present  for  your  suffrages  the  name  of  Reverend  Peter  H. 
Trone." 


Preacher  Stribling's  Gift. 

Bishop  Kavenaugh  said  the  Rev.  William  C.  Stribling  was  "the  most  remark- 
able preacher  he  had  ever  known."  Mr.  Stribling's  command  of  language  was 
the  marvel  of  the  Missouri  Methodist  circuits.  The  annals  of  the  church  quote 
him  as  having  taken  a  young  man  to  task  for  smoking  in  his  presence: 


180  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURf 

"Sir,  the  deleterious  effluvia  emanatiug  from  your  tobacconistic  reservoir  so  obfus- 
cates my  ocular  optics,  and  so  distributes  its  infectious  particles  with  the  atmospheric 
fluidity  surrounding  me,  that  my  respirable  apparatus  must  shortly  be  obtunded,  unless 
through  the  abundant  suavity  of  your  pre-eminent  politeness,  you  will  disembogue  that 
luminous  tube  from  the  pungent,  stimulating  and  sternatory  ingredient  which  replenishes 
the  rotundity  of  the  vastness  of   its  cavity." 

Another  illustration  of  Mr.  Strihling's  gift  which  has  been  preser\-ed  in  Mis- 
souri's Methodist  traditions  was  his  rendition  of  "you  can't  make  a  silk  purse  out 
of  a  sow's  ear."    The  minister  expressed  it  in  this  way: 

"At  the  present  era  of  the  world  it  has  been  found  impracticable  to  fabricate  a 
sufficiently  convenient  pecuniary   receptacle   from  the  auricular  organ  of  the  genus   suo." 

The  First  Campmeeting  at  Baxter. 

Rev.  Stephen  R.  Beggs  left  this  account  of  the  first  campmeeting  held  on  the 
Baxter  ground  near  Liberty  : 

"Brother  Harris  and  myself  were  the  only  preachers  present;  and  we  both  preached 
and  exhorted,  each  in  turn.  The  meeting  grew  in  interest  until  Monday.  I  tried  to 
preach  on  that  day,  and  brother  Harris  vi'as  to  preach  a  funeral  sermon.  W'hen  I  closed, 
he  commenced  giving  out  the  hymn, 

"  'And  am  I  born  to  die, 
To  lay  this  body  down?' 

"When  he  came  to  the  second  verse, 

"  'Soon  a^  from  earth  I  go, 
What  will  become  of  me?' 

the  power  of  the  Almighty  came  down  in  such  a  wonderful  manner  as  is  seldom  wit- 
nessed. Brother  Harris  fell  back  in  the  pulpit,  overcome  by  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  called  upon  me  to  invite  the  people  forward  for  prayers.  During  my  sermon 
I  had  noticed  that  one  powerfully  built  man  in  the  congregation  was  so  filled  with  the 
power  of  God,  that  it  was  with  difficulty  he  restrained  his  feelings ;  now  was  the  time 
for  him  to  give  vent  to  his  feelings,  and  his  shouts  of  'Glory  to  God  in  the  highest!'  were 
such  that  the  whole  congregation  seemed  thrilled  with  the  'power  of  God.'  It  was  as  if 
a  current  of  electricity  ran  through  the  assembly,  setting  on  fire  with  the  love  of  Jesus 
each  soul  in  Divine  presence. 

"It  was  a  memorable  time.  The  whole  campground  was  convulsed,  and  the  invita- 
tion was  no  sooner  extended  than  the  mourners  came  pouring  forward  in  a  body  for 
prayers,  till  the  altar  was  filled  with  weeping  penitents.  It  was  as  if  the  shouts  of  his 
'sacramental  hosts  were  heard  afar  off.'  The  meeting  continued  that  afternoon  and  all 
night.  Late  in  the  night  I  went  to  Brother  Baxter's  house  to  get  some  rest;  but  the 
work  was  so  urgent — sinners  weeping  all  over  the  campground — that  I  was  sent  for  to 
come  back  and  continue  my  exertions;  and  there  we  wrestled,  the  Christian  and  the 
sinner,  in  one  common  interest,  like  Jacob  of  old,  'till  the  break  of  day.'  On  Tuesday 
morning  scarcely  a  soul  remained  unconverted,  or  seeking  pardon." 

The  saving  grace  of  humor  was  employed  with  telling  eflfect  by  these  preachers 
of  the  Missouri  campmeeting.  Abraham  Millice  was  one  of  the  preachers  who 
exercised  astonishing  power  over  his  outdoor  audiences.  Once  at  Hickory  Grove 
campmeeting  he  illustrated  the  power  to  banish  evil  thoughts  from  the  mind  by 
pointing  to  the  birds  in  the  trees  overhead  and  saying  "I   cannot  prevent  the 


WORSHIP  IN  WOODS  AND  CABINS  181 

birds  from  flying  over  my  head,  but  I  can  keep  them  from  building  nests  in  my 
hair."     At  the  same  time  he  rubbed  his  hand  over  a  head  entirely  bald. 

Constituting  a  Christian  Church. 

The  beginnings  of  the  Christian  church  in  Missouri  were  characterized 
by  liberality  in  doctrine  of  such  degree  that  for  a  time  some  of  the  other  denom- 
inations were  not  inclined  to  look  with  favor  upon  "the  Campbelliles"  as  they 
called  them.  There  were  prolonged  and  heated  controversies.  One  of  the 
early  records,  preserved  by  Jesse  Boulton,  gave  the  action  on  which  the  Chris- 
tian church  of  Bear  creek  in  Boone  county  was  "constituted,"  in  June,  1824. 
This  record  read : 

"We,  the  undersigned  subscribers,  being  called  upon  to  examine  into  the  faith  and 
ability  of  the  brethren  living  on  and  near  Bear  creek  desiring  to  be  constituted,  find 
them,  in  our  opinion,  sound  in  the  faith  and  possessing  the  abilities  of  keeping  in  order 
the  house  of  God.  We  have  therefore  pronounced  them  a  church  of  Jesus  Christ  under 
no  other  discipline  or  ritual  of  faith  and  practice,  but  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  pro- 
fessing at  the  same  time  to  have  charity  enough  as  a  church  to  let  each  other  judge  of 
the  doctrines  contained  in  the  Scriptures  for  ourselves.  Given  under  our  hands,  who  are 
elders  and  have  constituted,   the  undersigned  names. 

Thomas  McBride, 
William  Roberts, 
John  M.  Thomas." 

As  late  as  1850,  a  presbytery  in  the  interior  of  Missouri  sent  east  for  min- 
isters and  stipulated  that  what  was  wanted  was  men  of  the  right  stamp  "rough 
and  ready,  who  could  preach  at  all  tiines  and  let  slavery  alone,  leave  their 
eastern  prejudices  at  home.  Western  people  are  born  and  grow  up  in  excite- 
ment and  their  religion  must  have  more  or  less  of  that  ingredient." 

It  detracted  nothing  from  the  dignity  or  effectiveness  of  these  pioneer 
preachers  that  they  were  given  nicknames  by  the  scattered  worshipers.  Thus, 
one  of  the  popular  ministers  of  the  Christian  church  in  Missouri  was  known  far 
and  wide  as  "Raccoon  John"  Smith. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS 

Missouri's  Constitutions — The  Framers  in  1820 — Three  Bartons  and  Two  Bates  Brothers — 
Their  Effective  Activities  in  State  Making — Personal  Characteristics — "Little  Red" — 
David  Barton's  Marriage  Ceremony — "Yankee"  Smith — Missouri  Follows  Kentucky 
— The  Cloth  Ineligible  for  Office — An  "Immortal  Instrument" — Benton  Turned  Down — 
Caucus  and  Cudgel — Fathers  of  the  State — "Missouriopolis" — Distinctive  Provisions — 
Judge  Tucker's  "Armorial  Achievement"— George  D.  Reynold's  Interpretation — The 
Rights  of  Congress — The  Second  Constitutional  Convention — The  Framers  in  1845 — 
Their  Work  Rejected  by  a  Decisive  Vote — Proposition  to  Make  St.  Louis  the  Na- 
tional Capital — "A  Ridiculous  Blunder" — First  Plan  of  Constitutional  Emancipation 
— Too  Slow  for  the  Radicals — Convention  of  1865— Slavery  Abolished— Dr.  Eliofs 
Prayer  of  Thanksgiving — The  "Oath  of  Loyalty" — Charles  D.  Drake — Wholesale  Dis- 
franchisement of  Southern  Sympathisers — Educational  Test  of  Suffrage — "Girondists" 
and  "Jacobins" — Senator  Vest's  Description — Blair's  Denunci<ition — Supreme  Court  De- 
cision— The  Test  Oath  Unconstitutional— Rapid  Reaction  from  the  Policy  of  Proscrip- 
tion— Political  Downfall  of  Drake  Planned — How  Schurs  Became  a  Candidate — "The 
Feeler^'  Worked — An  Oratorical  Trap  Which  Settled  a  Senatorship — Convention  of 
1875 — An  Able  Body — William  F.  Switzler's  Distinction — The  "Strait  Jacket  Constitu- 
tion"— Judge  Woodson  on  the  Supreme  Court's  Construction — Harm  Done  by  Judicial 
Legislation — Judge  Norton's  Pride  in  the  Results — An  Octogenarian's  Recollections — 
The  New  Constitution  Association. 

No  person  while  he  continues  to  exercise  the  functions  of  a  bishop,  priest,  cler^man,  or  teacher  of 
any  religious  persuasion,  denomination,  society  or  sect  whatsoever,  shall  be  eligible  to  either  bouse  of  the 
general  assembly;  nor  shall  he  be  appointed  to  any  office  of  profit  within  the  state,  the  office  of  justice  of 
the   peace   excepted. — First   Constitution   of   Missouri. 

Missouri  has  had  three  organic  acts.  Missourians  lived  under  their  first  con- 
stitution forty-five  years.  The  third  constitution  has  worn  fairly  well  through 
forty-five  years.  Between  these  two  the  state  struggled  with  a  misfit.  David 
Barton  was  president  of  the  first  constitutional  convention.  Edward  Bates  was 
a  member.  He  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  framing  that  in  after  years  the  instru- 
ment was  called  "the  Bates  constitution."  It  is  tradition  that  many  of  the  sec- 
tions of  the  original  draft  were  in  the  handwriting  of  Barton.  Three  Bartons 
and  two  Bates  brothers  had  a  great  deal  to  do  in  various  ways  with  the  making 
of  Missouri,  the  state.  Their  activities  even  in  the  territorial  period  were 
notable. 

Constitution  Framers. 

Edward  and  Frederick  Bates  were  from  Goochland  county,  Virginia.  The 
Quaker  descent  did  not  restraia  their  father  from  serving  under  Washington 
in  the  Revolution.  Neither  did  it  stand  in  the  way  of  the  son  of  Edward  Bates, 
Lieutenant   General  John  C.  Bates,  choosing  the  profession  of  a  soldier  and 

183 


184  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

rising  to  the  highest  rank  in  the  United  States  army.  When  not  of  age  Edward 
Bates  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier  and  served  in  the  war  of  1812.  After  his 
discharge  from  the  army  he  came  to  St.  Louis,  following  his  brother,  Frederick, 
who  had  come  some  years  earlier.  It  is  one  of  the  traditions  that  Frederick 
Bates  was  given  one  of  the  earliest  Federal  appointments  at  St.  Louis  and  was 
sent  here  by  Thomas  Jefferson  to  watch  Aaron  Burr  and  to  report  confidentially 
what  he  was  acomplishing  in  the  new  territory. 

Edward  Bates  was  a  seventh  son.  There  were  twelve  children  in  his  father's 
family.  The  genealogical  tree  of  the  Bates  family  in  this  country  went  back 
to  the  colony  at  Jamestown.  Edward  wanted  to  go  into  the  navy.  His  mother 
opposed  him.  He  compromised  with  her  by  serving  six  months  in  the  army 
during  the  war  of  1812.  When  he  was  twenty  he  came  to  St.  Louis.  With  a 
good  academic  education  obtained  at  Charlotte  Hall,  with  but  little  means,  he 
went  into  a  law  office,  Rufus  Easton's  on  Third  street,  and  studied  law.  His 
rise  to  distinction  after  his  admission  in  1816  was  very  rapid.  In  1823  Judge 
Bates  was  married  to  Miss  Julia  D.  Coalter.  He  had  seventeen  children.  Within 
a  short  time  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  was  district  attorney  for  Mis- 
souri. Among  the  positions  he  filled  while  a  young  man  were  delegate  to  the 
constitutional  convention,  attorney  general  for  the  state,  member  of  the  legis- 
lature, United  States  district  attorney,  and  member  of  Congress.  He  held  other 
official  positions  afterwards,  but  he  refused  many,  preferring  to  practice  his 
profession.  President  Millard  Fillmore  nominated  Edward  Bates  to  be  his 
secretary  of  war  and  the  Senate  unanimously  confirmed  the  appointment  but  it 
was  declined.  Devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  prompted  acceptance  of  the 
place  in  the  Lincoln  cabinet.  Missouri  had  presented  the  name  of  Edward 
Bates  for  the  Presidential  nomination  at  Chicago  in  i860. 

The  manners  of  Edward  Bates  were  most  pleasing.  In  stature  the  great 
advocate  was  not  large.  He  wore  ruffles,  blue  broadcloth  and  brass  buttons  in 
the  days  when  that  style  of  dress  was  fashionable  in  the  legal  profession.  He 
was  smooth  shaven,  had  bright  black  eyes  and  made  friends  who  were  devoted 
to  him.  With  all  of  his  years  at  the  bar  and  in  politics,  Edward  Bates  never 
fought  a  duel  nor  was  challenged.  When  he  was  in  Congress,  Bates  was  the 
recipient  of  attention  which  seemed  insulting  from  McDufifie,  the  South  Car- 
olinian. He  sent  a  demand  for  an  explanation  and  was  given  one  that 
friends  deemed  entirely  satisfactor)'. 

David,  Joshua  and  Isaac  Barton  were'  three  of  the  six  sons  of  a  Baptist 
minister  of  North  Carolina.  The  Rev.  Isaac  Barton  was  an  associate  of  John 
Sevier's  patriots  who  won  the  victory  at  King's  Mountain,  a  battle  of  the  Revolu- 
tion which  impressed  the  British  government  more  than  almost  any  other  engage- 
ment with  the  invincible  courage  of  the  Americans.  David  Barton  became  the 
first  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  St.  Louis;  Joshua  the  first  United  States  district 
attorney  of  St.  Louis;  and  Isaac  the  first  clerk  of  the  United  States  district 
court  of  St.  I-ouis.  David  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate.  Joshua 
Barton  was  killed  in  the  duel  with  Rector.  Isaac  Barton  continued  clerk  of  the 
United  States  district  court  more  than  twenty-one  years.  The  brothers  had 
read  common  law  and  were  acquainted  with  the  English  system.  When  they 
arrived  in  St.   Louis  they  found  themselves   disqualified  to  practice  under  the 


!5jjf|B  s  s  |i!ntrii|i 


■  ■  MANSION  HOUSE  ' ' 
Where  first  organic  act  of  Missouri  was 
drafted  in  1820.    Located  at  Third  and  Vine 
Streets,  St.  Louis. 


WILLIAM  G.  PETTUS 

Secretary  of  first  Constitutional  Convention 

of  Missouri 


DAVID  BARTON 
President  of  the  convention  which  drafted 
the  state  constitution  of  Missouri  in   1820. 
X'nited  States  senator  from  Missouri,  1821- 
1831. 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  187 

civil  law  which  had  been  continued  in  force.  A  territorial  legislature  was  elected. 
The  Bartons  with  the  half  dozen  other  American  lawyers  who  had  come  to 
St.  Louis  had  influence  enough  to  wipe  out  the  old  code.  They  got  through 
an  act  which  was  made  the  basis  upon  which  the  statutes  of  Missouri  are 
founded.  What  they  did  was  to  pass  an  act  making  the  common  law  of  Eng- 
land and  certain  British  statutes  not  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution  and 
statutes  of  the  United  States,  the  law  of  Missouri  territory.  That  was  done 
in  1816.    The  American  lawyers  were  then  ready  for  clients. 

Circuit  judges  were  authorized  to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  when  the 
courts  were  established  under  American  authority.  David  Barton,  the  first  cir- 
cuit judge,  had  a  form  which  was  marvelously  brief.    The  parties  stood  up. 

The  judge — " ,  do  you  take to  be  your  wife?" 

The  man— "I  do." 

The  judge — " do  you  take to  be  your  husband?" 

The  woman — "I   do." 

The  judge — "The  contract  is  complete.     I  pronounce  you  man  and  wife." 

David  Barton  came  to  St.  Louis  just  about  the  time  the  rangers,  who  were 
the  rough  riders  of  the  war  of  1812,  were  being  organized.  He  joined  the 
command  and  served  with  it.  Barton  was  chosen  without  oppwsition  the  first 
United  States  senator.  The  legislature  deadlocked  on  the  second  place.  Barton 
was  allowed  to  name  his  associate  and  chose  Benton.  Thus  it  occurred  that, 
although  there  were  several  strong  men  from  other  states,  the  two  United  States 
senators  chosen  at  St.  Louis  were  from  North  Carolina. 

Barton  was  known  as  "Little  Red."  He  got  the  name  when  he  delivered  a 
speech  which  made  him  famous  throughout  the  country.  The  senate  chamber 
was  crowded.  Barton  had  taken  sides  against  the  Jackson  policies.  His  arraign- 
ment and  condemnation  of  the  administration  for  years  ranked  as  one  of  the 
greatest  speeches  heard  in  the  senate.  The  audience  became  intensely  excited. 
At  the  close,  while  people  were  crowding  out  of  the  gallery,  there  came  a  mighty 
shout,  "Hurrah  for  the  little  red !"  This  was  repeated  again  and  again  in  the 
corridors  of  the  capitol  by  the  Missouri  frontiersman  who  had  been  a  listener. 
When  the  man  became  calm  enough  to  explain,  he  said  the  original  "little  red" 
was  a  game  rooster  he  owned  which  could  whip  any  fighting  cock  pitted 
against  him.  When  he  heard  Senator  Barton  "putting  his  licks"  in  the  Jackson 
crowd  and  "bringing  them  down  every  flutter"  he  couldn't  help  thinking  of  the 
victories  of  his  "little  red."  The  newspapers  took  up  the  application.  Barton 
went  by  the  name  of  "Little  Red." 

The  Free  Soilers  of  Smithville. 

Feeling  ran  high  in  Howard  county  when  the  delegates  were  elected  to  the 
first  constitutional  convention.  Humphrey  Smith,  a  miller  from  New  York 
state,  had  settled  in  Howard.  He  was  for  a  free  state.  He  had  a  controversy 
with  Burckhartt  who  was  a  candidate  for  delegate  to  the  convention.  A  few- 
days  later,  a  band  of  fifteen  or  twenty  men  came  to  Smith's  cabin  and  sent 
one  of  their  number  to  the  door  to  ask  for  a  night's  lodging.  Smith  protested 
he  had  no  room.  The  stranger  said  he  would  have  to  stop  there;  he  could 
go  no  farther.     Smith  turned  to  get  a  rope  to  hitch  the  man's  horse,  when  he 


188  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

was  Seized  and  thrown  to  the  ground.  The  mob  came  from  behind  the  cabin 
and  began  to  whip  Smith  with  hickory  sprouts.  They  raised  welts  and  brought 
blood.  Smith  was  dragged  away  from  the  cabin  to  a  fence  where  one  man 
held  his  head  down  while  the  whipping  was  continued.  Mrs.  Smith,  hearing 
the  shouts  and  oaths,  ran  out  of  the  cabin,  picked  up  what  was  known  in  those 
days  as  a  "swinging  block"  and  struck  the  man  who  was  holding  her  husband, 
knocking  him  down.  Smith  thus  released  ran.  The  man  who  had  been  struck, 
got  up,  jumped  the  fence  and  started  after  Smith.  Mrs.  Smith  got  in  his  way. 
This  so  angered  the  man  that  he  struck  Mrs.  Smith  over  the  head,  smashing 
a  brass  comb  which  she  wore  and  so  injuring  one  eye  that  it  gave  her  trouble 
as  long  as  she  lived.  Smith  made  his  escape.  The  mob  reassembled  and  issued 
a  declaration  that  Smith  must  leave  Missouri  territorj-  within  three  days  or  die. 
Smith  remained  in  hiding  while  his  family  moved  to  Carroll  county  where  he 
joined  them.— far  out  on  what  was  then  frontier.  Calvin  Smith,  son  of  Hum- 
phrey, in  his  autobiography,  says  that  in  that  campaign  "Hell  was  turned  loose" 
in  Howard  county;  that  "the  free  state  men  fled  from  the  territory  and  that 
half  of  them  never  returned." 

Smith  estimated  that  mob  violence  and  the  fear  of  it  drove  3,000  citizens  out 
of  Missouri  territory  between  1816  and  1821  on  account  of  their  free  soil 
views.  Smith  and  his  brothers  owned  slaves.  He  said  that  in  the  time  of  slavery 
it  was  "a  matter  of  compulsion  and  necessity"  to  keep  slaves  in  Missouri  for 
work,  but  that  the  Smiths  never  sold  a  slave,  setting  those  they  owned  free 
when  the  Civil  war  came  on.  The  Smiths  of  Smithville  became, widely  known 
as  free  soilers.  The  head  of  the  family,  Humphrey  Smith,  commonly  called 
"Yankee"  Smith,  never  forgot  his  early  experiences  with  the  mob  in  Howard 
county.  When  he  was  nearing  the  end  of  his  life  in  1857,  he  left  to  his  sons 
this  injunction :  "Never  let  the  nigger  thieves  know  where  I  am  buried,  until 
my  state  is  free :  then  write  my  epitaph." 

"Yankee"  Smith's  Epitaph. 

Frequently  "Yankee".  Smith  was  knocked  down  for  the  expression  of  his 
anti-slavery  sentiments.  Some  one  would  ask,  "Smith,  are  you  an  abolitionist?" 
"I  am,"  the  old  man  would  answer  promptly.  Then  would  come  the  knock- 
down. As  he  arose  from  the  ground  and  brushed  off  the  dust,  the  old  man 
would  say  calmly: 

"O,  that's  no  argument.  You  are  stronger  than  I  am,  but  that  don't  prove 
you  are  right." 

Smith  died  of  smallpox  and  the  story  circulated  in  the  neighborhood  was 
that  infection  was  carried  by  a  newspaper  called  "The  Herald  of  Freedom" 
which  came  through  the  mail  from  Lawrence,  Kansas,  to  Smith.  The  tomb- 
stone, reared  after  the  Civil  war,  bears  this  inscription: 

"This  patriot  came  to  Missouri  in  1816,  from  the  State  of  New  York;  labored  to 
make  the  territory  into  a  free  state,  for  which  he  was  mobbed  by  armed  slaveholders, 
scourged,  bruised  and  dragged  at  midnight  from  his  house.  His  ever  faithful  wife,  com- 
ing to  his  assistance,  received  injuries  at  the  hands  of  the  mob  which  caused  her  years 
of  affliction.  He  was  compelled  to  leave  the  state.  His  wife  and  family  fled  from  Howard 
to   Carroll   county;   there  joining  his   family  he   moved   to   Clay  county,   where   for  many 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  189 

years  he  kept  up  the  struggle  against  the  'negro  thieves  or  man  stealers.'  They  denounced 
him  as  an  abolitionist,  because  he  was  in  favor  of  human  liberty  for  all  men.  His  re- 
quest was,  'Never  let  men  stealers  know  where  I  am  buried  until  my  state  is  free,  then 
write  my  epitaph :  Here  lies  Humphrey  Smith,  who  was  in  favor  of  human  rights, 
universal  liberty,  equal  and  exact  justice,  no  union  with  slaveholders,  free  states,  free 
peoples,  union  of  states,  and  one  and  universal  republic'  " 

Politics  at  a  Campmeeting. 

In  the  midst  of  the  statehood  agitation  the  grand  jury  of  Howard  county 
returned  an  indictment  against  Humphrey  Smith.  This  was  made  pubHc  on 
the  2oth  day  of  October,  1820.  The  indictment  was  signed  by  J.  S.  Findley. 
foreman,  and  set  forth  that — 

"He,  the  said  Humphrey  Smith,  wished  that  the  negroes  would  raise  an  insurrec- 
tion ;  that  he,  the  said  Smith,  would  volunteer  in  their  cause  and  head  them  as  their 
general,  that  he  would  rejoice  to  see  an  hundred  thousand  lives  lost  in  effecting  their 
emancipation,  thereby  endangering  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  good  citizens  of  said,  coun- 
ty, in  violation  of  the  duty  of  a  good  citizen,  and  contrary  to  the  peace  and  dignity  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  and  the  laws  and  sovereignty  thereof." 

This  indictment  of  Humphrey  Smith  grew  out  of  a  campmeeting  trouble 
which  was  reported  in  the  St.  Louis  Enquirer  some  time  before  the  finding 
of  the  grand  jury.  The  newspaper  headed  the  trouble  "A  Mob  at  Boone's 
Lick"  and  went  on : 

'The  circumstance  transpired  at  a  campmeeting  where  there  was  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  people  collected.  Smith  was  discovered  to  be  very  busy  among  the  blacks,  even  so 
tar  as  to  encourage  them  to  mutinize;  some  of  the  citizens  remonstrated  with  him  upon 
the  impropriety  of  such  conduct.  In  reply  Smith  used  insulting  language,  and  declared 
that  if  the  negroes  in  the  territory  would  revolt  and  embody  themselves,  he  would  lead 
them  to  'oattle,  if  necessary.  On  his  uttering  these  expressions,  he  was  immediately  chas- 
tised, as  he  would  have  been  anywhere  else  for  similar  conduct — there  was  not  the  least 
violence  used  toward  his  family." 

The  First  Constitution. 

In  the  general  provisions  of  its  first  constitution  Missouri  followed  closely 
Kentucky  which  state  had  been  admitted  in  1792.  Universal  suffrage  was  one 
of  the  provisions  of  the  Missouri  constitution.  The  purpose  of  the  framers  to 
maintain  strictly  separation  of  church  and  state  was  shown  in  the  disqualification 
of  clergymen  for  offices.  The  legislature  was  prohibited  from  granting  a  charter 
for  more  than  one  bank.  St.  Louis  had  just  passed  through  an  uncomfortable 
experience  resulting  from  the  competition  of  two  banks  in  the  issue  of  paper 
currency  and  the  extension  of  credit.  Both  the  Bank  of  Missouri  and  the  Bank 
of  St.  Louis  had  been  compelled  to  suspend.  The  issue  of  slavery  was  not  raised 
seriously  in  the  constitutional  convention.  The  members  seem  to  have  taken 
position  unanimously  against  restriction  of  slavery.  Previous  to  the  presentation 
of  Missouri's  petition  for  statehood  in  1818  there  had  been  some  sentiment 
against  slavery.  When  the  petition  was  delayed  by  Congress  and  the  "Tall- 
madge"  resolution  sought  to  impose  conditions  on  admission.  Missourians  quite 
generally  resented  that  action.  The  framers  inserted  in  the  constitution  a 
declaration  that  the  legislature  should  have  no  power  to  emancipate  slaves  with- 


190  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

out  tlie  consent  of  the  owners.  The  constitution  further  stipulated  that  the  legis- 
lature might  provide  for  emancipation  with  the  consent  of  the  owners,  but 
if  this  was  done  it  became  the  duty  of  the  state  to  insure  humane  treatment  of 
the  freed  slaves.  Furthermore  the  legislature  was  directed  to  provide  by  neces- 
sary legislation  that  all  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  be  excluded  from  the  state. 

Half  a  score  of  sections  were  devoted  to  slavery.  One  of  them  provided  for 
jury  trial  in  case  a  slave  was. charged  with  a  serious  crime.  Another  forbade 
any  more  severe  penalty  for  a  convicted  negro  than  for  a  convicted  white  man. 
A  third  section  required  the  legislature  "to  oblige  the  owners  of  slaves  to  treat 
them  with  humanity  and  abstain  from  all  injuries  to  them  extending  to  life  and 
limb." 

Benton  afterwards  held  that  the  clause  in  the  constitution  depriving  the 
legislature  of  any  power  to  emancipate  slaves  without  the  consent  of  their 
owners  had  its  origin  in  the  purpose  of  the  fr^amers  to  keep  the  slavery  ques- 
tion put  of  state  politics.  Resentment  on  the  part  of  the  Missourians  toward 
Congress  had  considerable  influence  upon  the  framers  of  the  constitution.  When 
Congress  refused  to  accept  the  constitution  and  to  admit  the  state,  the  indigna- 
tion increased  and  was  general  throughout  the  state.  The  St.  Louis  Enquirer, 
Benton's  organ,  pronounced  the  constitution  "immortal." 

Benton  "Accidentally"  Turned  Down. 

Benton  was  not  a  member  of  the  constitutional  convention.  He  expected  to 
be.  A  caucus  to  decide  on  "candidates  opposed  to  restrictions  on  slavery"  was 
held  the  loth  of  April.  It  was  a  secret  afTair.  Benton  supposed  that  he  would 
be  one  of  the  eight  agreed  upon.  He  had  led  the  fight  as  writer  of  the  Editorials 
in  the  St.  Louis  Enquirer.  But  when  the  vote  was  taken  in  the  caucus  the 
eight  men  selected  were  William  Rector,  David  Barton,  John  C.  Sullivan,  Alex- 
ander McNair,  Bernard  Pratte,  Edward  Bates,  Wilson  P.  Hunt  and  Pierre 
Chouteau,  Jr.  St.  Louis  county  was  entitled  to  eight  members  in  the  conven- 
tion. The  caucus  ticket  went  through  with  a  single  exception.  Thomas  F.  Rid- 
dick  was  elected  instead  of  Wilson  P.  Hunt.. 

Following  the  announcement  of  the  caucus  action,  the  absence  of  the  name 
of  Benton  caused  a  good  deal  of  talk.  A  call  was  issued  upon  Benton  to  become 
a  candidate.    It  referred  to  the  "accidental  result"  of  the  caucus. 

"The  undersigned  have  long  calculated  on  your  services  in  the  state  con- 
vention, and  wish  to  avail  themselves  of  them.  We  do  not  consider  ourselves 
bound  by  the  accidental  result  of  the  late  meeting  of  the  friends  of  those 
opposed  to  the  restriction  or  limitation  of  slavery;  especially  in  point  of  fact, 
the  voters  are  not  bound  by  it ;  and  many  others  are  still  before  the  public  who 
were  not  represented  in  that  meeting;  so  the  end  in  view  has  not  been  attained, 
and  we  are  still  .subjected  to  the  danger  of  division  and  want  of  concert  in 
voting,  without  having  our  choice  of  candidates — under  these  circumstances  we 
request  you  let  your  name  be  used  as  a  candidate  for  the  convention." 

The  call  had  138  signatures.  Benton  replied,  acknowledging  the  letter  "in 
which  you  request  me  to  let  my  name  be  used  as  a  candidate  for  the  convention." 

"Until  the  loth  inst.  it  was  my  expectation  that  it  would  have  been  so  used.  On  that 
day   the    friends   of   the    candidates   met   to   agree    upon    the    names    which    should   be    sup- 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  191 

ported.  My  name  was  not  so  agreed  upon : — You  have  the  kindness  to  advert  to  the 
circumstance  and  to  say  that  you  do  not  consider  yourselves  bound  by  the  accidental 
.  result  of  that  meeting.  Neither  do  I.  But  it  has  operated  upon  me  with  the  effect  of 
an  obligation,  because  I,  could  not  afterwards  stand  a  poll  without  dividing  the  strength 
of  our  own  side,  and  endangering  the  success  of  a  cause  which  I  have  long  labored  to 
promote." 

The  Cudgel  Argnment. 

The  Missouri  Gazette  cotilcl  not  let  go  by  the  oppoilunity  to  hold  up  to  ridi- 
cule the  "co-editor"  of  the  Enquirer  for  having  been  turned  down  by  the  acci- 
dental result  of  the  caucus.  Referring  to  the  call  upon.  Mr.  Benton  to  run, 
the  editor  of  the  Gazette  said :  "I  should  have  been  glad  that  a  list  had  been  also 
made  of  the  persons  who  refused  to  sign  in  favor  of  Mr.  Benton.  Some  say 
that  their  number  and  respectability  would  have  disclosed  the  secret  and  satis- 
fied every  one  that  prudence  had  also  some  share  in  actuating  him  to  decline 
standing  the  poll." 

This  and  more  the  Gazette  printed  upon  Benton's  relations  to  the  conven- 
tion campaign.  Two  hours  after  the  Gazette  was  oflf  the  press  the  following 
occurred,  as  told  in  the  next  issue  of  the  paper: 

"The  editor  of  the  Missouri  Gazette  whilst  on  the  way  from  his  office  to  his  house, 
between  one  and  two  o'clock,  on  Wednesday,  was  assailed  without  any  previous  intima- 
tion, warning  or  apparent  quarrel  by  Isaac  N.  Henry,  one  of  the  editors  of  the  St.  Louis 
Enquirer,  and  received  several  blows  with  a  heavy  cudgel,  which  blows  he  returned  with 
a  stick  disproportionately  small ;  the  combatants  closed,  fell  and  struggled  for  awhile. 
The  Rev.  Joseph  Piggot,  who  was  accompanying  Mr.  Charless  and  was  going  to  dine 
with  him,  twice  endeavored  to  part  them,  but  was  as  often  prevented  by  a  certain  Wharton 
Rector,  who  drew  a  pistol  from  his  bosom,  and  declared  he  would  blow  him  through  if 
he  interfered.  Mr.  Piggot  then  called  for  help,  being  determined  to  part  them ;  presently 
two  men  came  up  and  the  contest  ended." 

The  Gazette  attributed  the  attack  to  Benton  and  quoted  him  as  having  said 
there  were  "two  or  thre%  hundred  citizens  who"  at  one  word  would  tear  to  pieces 
any  person  whom  he  would  point  out. 

Fathers  of  the  State. 

Who  were  the  fathers  of  the  state?  Mr.  Shoemaker  has  laid  Missourians 
under  obligations  many  times  for  the  information  he  has  assembled  in  his 
"Missouri's  Struggle  for  Statehood."  His  personal  data  respecting  the  framers 
of  the  constitution  is  not  only  interesting ;  it  is  significant.  The  members  of 
the  constitutional  convention  were  forty-one  in  ntimber.  Most  of  them  were 
of  English  descent;  two  were  Welsh;  two  were  Scotch;  four  were  Irish;  four 
were  Scotch-Irish ;  two  were  French ;  one  was  German.  As  regarded  nativity, 
these  founders  of  the  new  state  were  better  distributed  in  respect  to  the  rest 
of  the  United  States  than  is  generally  understood.  Mr.  Shoemaker,  by  exhaus- 
tive inquiry,  learned  that  the  convention  membership  included  native  sons  of 
Virginia,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  Upper 
Louisiana  as  it  was  under  Spanish  dominion,  Indiana,  New  York,  Vermont, 
South  Carolina,  \^'ales,  and  Ireland.     While  the  \''irginia-born   led  in  number. 


192  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

only  three  of  them  had  come  directly  from  that  state  to  settle  in  Missouri.  The 
important  and  impressive  fact  is  that  these  forty-one  fathers  of  the  state  rep- 
resented all  sections  of  the  United  States,  as  this  nation  then  existed,  and  the 
principal  countries  of  Europe. 

Representative  government  found  its  perfect  expression  in  the  making  of 
this  first  constitution  of  Missouri.  The  constitution  was  not  submitted  to  popu- 
lar vote.  It  went  into  effect  at  once.  There  was  nothing  in  the  enabling  act 
that  required  submission.  The  convention  made  no  provision  to  have  the  con- 
stitution passed  upon  by  popular  vote.  The  people  had  named  their  best  men 
to  do  the  work  and  were  satisfied,  so  well  satisfied  indeed  that  the  constitution 
endured  forty-five  years. 

Why  Benton  Favored  Missouriopolis. 

While  the  constitutional  convention  was  working  on  that  part  of  the  organic 
act  providing  for  the  permanent  capital  of  the  state.  Delegate  McFerron  pro- 
posed that  the  name  be  "Missouriopolis,"  instead  of  Jeflferson"City.  This  sug- 
gestion struck  the  classical  taste  of  Benton  as  eminently  fitting.  The  St.  Louis 
Enquirer  supported  the  proposition,  mentioning  several  European  cities  which 
bore  names  of  like  derivation  and  referring  to  Galliopolis,  Demopolis  and  An- 
napolis in  the  United  States.  The  Enquirer  said  that  the  name  ofi^ered  for  the 
capital  of  the  new  state  "translated  means  City  of  Missouri" : 

"Men  of  letters  throughout  Europe  and  America,  hearing  it  pronounced,  will  know 
what  is  spoken  of  and  where  it  is.  Letters  started  from  London,  Paris  or  Boston,  will 
arrive  at  their  destination  without  mistakes,  and  without  the  circumlocution  of  a  tedious 
address,  without  making  a  pilgrimage  to  forty  places  of  like  names,  or  having  a  tre^itise  of 
geography  written  on  their  backs  to  keep  on  the  right  road." 

Distinctive  Provisions  of  the  First  Organic  Act. 

One  of  the  distinctive  features  of  Missouri's  first  organic  act  was  the  facile 
method  provided  for  making  changes.  The  legislature  could  by  a  two-thirds 
vote  propose  an  amendment.  This  proposition  was  published  three  times  within 
the  twelve  months  before  the  next  general  election.  At  the  first  session  following 
the  general  election  the  legislature  could,  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  adopt  the  amend- 
ment. As  Missourians  had  in  1820  left  to  the  convention  the  forming  of  the 
organic  act  without  a  vote  of  the  people,  so  they  carried  out  the  theory  of  rep- 
resentative government  by  giving  to  the  legislature  the  power  to  make  changes 
on  which  the  people  had  been  informed  by  the  publication.  At  the  time  Mis- 
souri entered  statehood  with  the  first  organic  act  only  one  other  state  had  this 
method  of  making  changes  in  the  constitution.  Subsequently,  Missouri  abandoned 
the  method  and  required  ratification  of  the  new  constitution  by  popular  vote. 

One  feature  of  the  first  organic  act  was  continued  in  the  subsequent  consti- 
tutions of  Missouri.  That  provision  forbade  the  right  of  suffrage  to  any  soldier, 
seaman  or  marine  of  the  regular  army  and  navy.  This  prohibition  was  continued 
through  the  century  of  statehood.  Missouri  stood  with  seven  other  states  in 
this  prohibition  against  military  influence  in  elections. 


Alexander  McNair,  1820-1824 


Frederick  Bates,  1824-1826 


John    Miller,    1826-1832 


Daniel   DunkUn,    1832-1836 


Lilburn  W.  Boggs,  1836-1840  Thomas  RejTiolds,  1840-1844 

GOVERXOES   OF  MISSOURI 


Vol.1— IS 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  195 

Missouri's  "Armorial  Achievement." 

The  first  organic  act  provided  for  a  state  seal,  or,  as  the  description  had 
it,  "an  armorial  achievement  for  the  State  of  Missouri."  The  section  of  the 
constitution  of  1S20  read:  "The  secretary  of  state  shall,  is  soon  as  may  be, 
procure  a  seal  of  state,  with  such  emblems  and  devices  as  shall  be  directed  by 
law,  which  shall  not  be  subject  to  change.  It  shall  be  called  the  "Great  seal  of 
the  State  of  Missouri" ;  shall  be  kept  by  the  secretary  of  state,  and  all  official 
acts  of  the  governor,  his  approbation  of  the  laws  excepted,  shall  be  thereafter 
authenticated."  The  constitutions  of  1865  and  1875  followed  that  of  1820  in 
respect  to  the  seal  and  provided  that  "the  emblems  and  devices  thereof,  hereto- 
fore prescibed  by  law,  shall  not  be  subject  to  change."  Missouri's  armorial 
achievement,  or  coat  of  arms  as  it  might  be  more  commonly  called  has  stood 
for  a  century  without  change  and  cannot  be  changed  save  by  constitutional 
amendment  or  a  new  constitution. 

When  the  legislature  met  in  St.  Charles,  November,  1821,  Governor  McNair 
called  attention  to  the  constitutional  requirement  of  a  great  seal  and  the  law 
makers  referred  the  subject  to  a  special  committee  composed  of  Chauncey 
Smith,  Alcorn  and  Elliot.  Action  was  prompt.  On  the  nth  of  January,  1822, 
the  act  providing  for  the  great  seal,  with  the  armorial  achievement,  was  ap- 
proved by  the  governor.  Presumably  the  real  work  had  been  done  before  the 
legislature  met.  Tradition  attributes  the  authorship  of  Missouri's  rather  elab- 
orate coat  of  arms  to  Judge  Nathaniel  Beverly  Tucker  whom  Louis  Houck 
pronounced  "one  of  the  most  learned  and  accomplished  residents  of  Missouri.'' 
Probably  there  was  no  other  citizen  of  the  new  state  who  could  have  put  so 
much  of  heraldic  significance  in  a  seal.  Judge  Tucker  presided  in  the  famous 
Stokes  case,  the  most  sensational  litigation  in  the  early  history  of  Missouri.  He 
went  back  to  Virginia  where  his  scholarly  qualities  won  him  the  presidency  of 
William  and  Mary  college. 

A  Masterpiece  in  Heraldry. 

The  specifications  for  the  great  seal,  as  adopted  by  the  legislature  in  Jan- 
uary, 1822,  are  mystifying  to  the  average  democratic  American  but  a  delight  to 
the  students  of  heraldry.     They  provided: 

"That  the  device  for  an  armorial  achievement  for  the  state  of  Missouri  shall  be  as 
follows,  to-wit : 

"Arms — Parted  per  pale;  on  the  dexter  side,  gules,  the  white  or  grizzly  bear  of  Mis- 
souri, passant,  guardant,  proper;  on  a  chief  engrailed,  azure,  a  crescent,  argent;  on  the 
sinister  side,  argent,  the  arms  of  the  United  States,  the  whole  within  a  band  inscribed 
with  the  words,  'United  we  stand,  divided  we  fall.' 

"For  the  Crest — Over  a  helmet  full  faced,  grated  with  six  bars,  or  (gold),  a  cloud 
proper,  from  which  ascends  a  star  argent,  and  above  it  a  constellation  of  twenty-three 
smaller  stars,  argent,  on  an  azure  field,   surrounded  by  a  cloud  proper. 

"Supporters — On  each  side,  a  white  or  grizzly  bear  of  Missouri,  rampailt,  guardant, 
standing  on  a  scroll  inscribed  with  the  motto,  'Salus  Populi  Snprema  Lex  Esto,'  and 
under  the  scroll   in   numerical   letters   MDCCCXX." 


196  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Great  Seal  Interpreted. 

Tliat  the  Missourians  of  one  hundred  years  ago  and  those  who  came  after 
might  be  informed  of  what  the  designer  of  the  coat  of  arms  had  in  mind,  an 
explanation,  or  interpretation,  more  or  less  informative  was  printed  about  the 
time  of  the  adoption.     Tradition  attributes  the  interpretation  to  Judge  Tucker: 

"The  arms  of  the  State  of  Missouri  and  of  the  United  States,  empaled  together  yet 
separated  by  a  pale,  denote  the  connection  existing  between  the  two  governments,  and 
show  that  although  connected  by  a  compact,  yet  we  are  independent  as  to  internal  con- 
cerns; the  words  surrounding  the  shield  denote  the  necessity  of  the  union.  Quadrupeds 
are  the  most  honorable  bearing.  The  great  grizzly  bear  being  almost  peculiar  to  the 
Missouri  river  and  its  tributaries,  and  remarkable  for  its  prodigious  size,  strength  and 
courage,  is  borne  as  the  principal  charge  of  our  shield.  The  color  of  the  shield  is  red 
and  denotes  hardihood  and  valor.    The  chief'  is  most  honorable  of  all  ordinaries. 

"The  color  blue  signifies  vigilance,  perseverance  and  justice.  The  crescent  in  heraldry 
is  borne  on  the  shield  by  the  second  son,  and  on  our  shield  denotes  that  we  are  the  sec- 
ond state  (Louisiana  being  the  first)  formed  out  of  the  territory  not  within  the  original 
territorial  limits  of  the  United  States.  The  crescent  also  denotes  the  growing  situation 
of  the  state  as  to  its  inhabitants,  wealth  and  power.  The  color  white  signifies  purity 
and  innocence.  The  helmet  indicates  enterprise  and  hardihood.  The  one  blazoned  on 
this  coat  of  arms  that  assigned  to  sovereigns  only.  The  star  ascending  from  a  cloud  to 
join  the  constellation  shows  Missouri  surmounting  her  difficulties  and  taking  her  rank 
among  the  states  of  the  Union.  The  supporters,  the  same  powerful  animals  borne  on 
the  shield,  on  which  are  emblazoned  the  arms  of  the  state  and  of  the  United  States, 
denote  that  while  we  support  ourselves  by  internal  strength  we  are  also  in  support  of 
the  general  government.  The  motto  shows  that  the  good  of  the  people  is  the  supreme 
law  of  the  state.     The  numerals  under  the  scroll  show  the  date  of  the  constitution." 

The  Lawmakers  Wanted  a  Cock  or  an  Eagle. 

The  legislators  accepted  the  design  of  the  great  seal  without  much  discus- 
sion. The  House  favored  "a  cock  close  around,  resting  on  a  sheaf  of  wheat." 
The  senate  voted  to  strike  out  "cock''  and  insert  "an  eagle,"  but  in  the  end  the 
"armorial  achievement"  of  Tucker  was  adopted.  It  is  a  rather  curious  fact 
that  in  the  olfitial  description  of  the  seal  the  word  designating  the  bear  is  spelled 
"grizzly." 

Ten  years  ago,  when  the  St.  Louis  court  of  appeals  decided  to  have  the  great 
seal  painted  in  proper  colors  over  the  bench  of  the  court,  Judge  George  D. 
Reynolds  made  an  investigation  in  detail  of  Missouri's  armorial  achievement. 
He  quoted  the  law  and  interworded  it  in  such  manner  as  to  make  it  intelligible  and 
interesting  to  the  man  on  the  street  having  historical  leaning : 

"The  terms  'right'  (dexter)  and  'left'  (sinister)  refer  to  the  right  or  left  of  the 
bearer  of  the  shield,  not  to  the  right  or  left  of  the  one  in  front  of  and  looking  at  it. 
The  armorial  bearings  (arms)  shall  be  'parted  per  pale,'  that  is  to  say,  not  by  a  pale, 
but  as  if  by,  or  in  the  manner  of,  a  pale.  The  pale  is  a  band  or  stripe,  running  longi- 
tudinally through  the  center  of  the  shield,  and  one-third  of  its  width.  'Parted  per  pale' 
does  not  mean  a  division  of  the  bearings  by  'a  pale,'  but  a  division  by  a  line  drawn  down 
the  center  of  the  shield,  as  in  the  'pale'  but  not  of  the  width  of  a  pale  proper,  and  it  is 
usually  the  sixteenth  of  an  inch  or  less  wide.  To  put  it  more  clearly,  this  rather  heavy 
line  is  drawn  through  the  center  of  the  shield,  from  top  to  bottom,  and  the  bearings  placed 
to  the  right  and  left  of  it.  That  is  what  is  meant  by  the  term  'arms  parted  per  pale.' 
The    thirteen    strips    alternating    red    and    white    on    the    shield    of   the    United    States    are 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  197 

called  'paleways'  or   'paly,'  as   when  the  shield   is  divided  into  equal   parts — four  or  more 
— by  perpendicular   lines. 

"The  "bearings'  are  the  figures  or  devices  included  within  the  circular  band;  they 
are  also  called  'arms.' 

"On  the  dexter  (right)  side  of  this  line,  and  on  a  red  (gules)  field,  the  white  or 
grizzly  bear  of  Missouri  walking  (passant),  with  face  turned  outward  (guardant),  and 
in  natural  color  (proper).  On  the  upper  third  (chief)  of  that  half  of  the  shield  to  the 
right  of  the  center  line,  and  on  a  blue  (azure)  field,  engrailed  (that  is  with  an  indented 
line  on  the  lower  border),  a  'crescent,'  which,  in  heraldry,  is  the  half  moon  with  horns 
turned  upward,  in  silver  (argent)  ;  on  the  left  (sinister)  side  of  the  dividing  line,  and 
on  a  silver  (argent)  field,  the  arms  of  the  United  States.  All  of  these  bearings  to  be 
within  a  band  inscribed  with  the  words,  'United  We   Stand,  Divided  We  Fall.' 

"Above  this  achievement  is  the  'crest,'  which  comprises  the  devices  or  emblems  over 
the  arms.  Our  crest  consists  of  a  full-faced  gold  (or)  helmet,  with  six  gold  bars;  above 
the  helmet,  a  cloud  in  natural  color  (proper)  from  which  ascends  a  silver  (argent)  star; 
above  this  star  a  constellation  of  twenty-three  smaller  stars,  also  silver,  on  a  blue  (azure) 
field,   surrounded   by  a  cloud   in   natural   color    (proper). 

"As    'supporters,'   that    is    to   say,    figures,   usually   of   animals,    on    either    side    of    the 
shield  appears  'a  white  grizzly  bear  of  Missouri.'  standing  upright  on  his  hind  legs   (ram- 
pant),   and    with    face    turned    outward    (guardant),    and    in    natural    color    (proper),    the 
bears  standing  on  a  scroll  inscribed  with  the  motto,  'Salus  Populi  Suprema  Lex  Esto'   (Let  • 
the  Safety  of  the  People  be  the  Supreme  Law)." 

Did  Judge  Tucker  Put  One  Over? 

Was  there  deep  political  significance  in  the  "armorial  achievement"  of  Mis- 
souri ?  Was  Judge  Tucker's  carefully  devised  coat  of  arms  for  the  new  state 
loaded?  The  judge  was  intense  in  his  devotion  to  state  sovereignty.  Louis 
Houck.  in  his  History  of  Missouri,  says  that  Judge  Tucker  "was  a  pronounced 
advocate  of  the  rights  of  the  states,  an  idea  that  seems  to  pervade  the  entire 
armorial  bearings  of  Missouri."  Judge  Tucker  lived  until  about  1851.  He  pre- 
dicted the  Civil  war  and  wrote  a  wonderful  prophetic  novel,  "The  Partisan 
Leader."  In  his  interpretation  of  the  coat  of  arms  he  called  the  connection  be- 
tween Missouri  and  the  Union  a  "compact"  and  said,  "yet  we  are  independent  as 
to  internal  concerns."  But  Judge  Reynolds'  study  of  the  seal  led  him  to  this 
conclusion : 

"If  the  idea  of  state  sovereignty,  as  paramount  over  national  unity  and  allegiance, 
was  in  the  mind  of  the  designer  of  our  armorial  bearings,  he  was  unfortunate  in  his 
choice  of  heraldic  symbols,  w-hich  should  be  expressive  of  that  idea.  The  arms  of  the 
state  are  not  separated  from  those  of  the  United  States  'by  a  pale,'  as  we  have  before 
noted,  but  'as  by  a  (per)  pale,'  a  mere  line,  employed  in  heraldry,  for  example,  to  sep- 
arate the  armorial  devices  of  the  husband  from  the  wife  when  both  are  displayed  on 
the  same  shield;  so  as  to  emphasize  a  complete  union.  The  use  of  the  expression  'em- 
paled together'  is  also  unfortunate  for  the  contention  of  state  sovereignty.  The  term 
means  'placed  side  by  side  each  occupying  one-half  the  shield,'  not  separated  by  a  pale 
one-third  the  width  of  the  shield,  but  by  a  thin  line. 

"Furthermore,  the  idea  of  state  sovereignty  apart  from  national  union  is  emphatically 
negatived  by  the  motto,  'United  We  Stand,  Divided  We  Fall.'  This  motto  surrounds  the 
arms  of  the  state  and  of  the  nation.  The  great  grizzlies  are  standing  upon  the  scroll 
which  proclaims  the  safety  of  the  people  to  be  the  supreme  law.  These  grizzlies,  ram- 
pant and  watchful,  are  guarding  the  declaration  of  union  and  nationality.  But  the  motto 
enforcing  the  necessity  of  union  is  not  the  motto  of  the  bears;  bears,  especially  grizzlies, 
stand  alone.  They  here  stand  as  pledging  their  valor  and  that  of  the  state  they  repre- 
sent to  that  union." 


198  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Marshall  on  the  Rights  of  Congress. 

Was  there  ground  for  Jefferson's  apprehension  that  "the  Missouri  question 
is  a  breaker  on  which  we  lose  the  Missouri  country  by  revolt  and  what  more 
God  only  knows?"  What  basis  had  Benton  on  which  to  build  his  threat  in  the 
Enquirer  after  the  enabling  act  had  passed  that  if  Congress  had  imposed  "the 
odious  restriction,"  Missourians  would  have  "proceeded  to  the  formation  of  a 
republican  constitution  in  the  fulness  of  the  people's  powers."  The  prolonged 
debates  in  Congress,  the  columns  upon  columns  of  argument  and  opinion  in  the 
newspapers  of  that  period  show  that  it  was  an  open  question  what  power  the 
United  States  had  "to  acquire  foreign  territory  and  to  govern  the  iiihahitaiits  of 
the  same."  Ten  years  later  the  question  was  settled  1)\-  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  and  in  a  way  which  seems  to  have  left  little  foundaion  for 
either  Jefferson  or  Benton  in  the  views  expressed  as  to  what  Missouri  could 
have  done. 

There  came  before  the  court  of  last  resort  in  1828  the  case  of  The  .\merican 
Insurance  company  vs.  Canter.  While  the  case  invoK  ed  the  status  of  a  territorial 
court  in  Florida  which  had  been  acquired  under  treaty,  the  real  issue  was  the 
relation  of  Florida,  then  a  territory,  to  the  United  States.  It  involved  the  rights  of 
the  inhabitants  of  acquired  territory  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  rendered  one  of  his  most  celebrated  opinions  and  it  be- 
came the  law  of  the  land.  That  opinion  declared  "the  authority  and  power  of 
the  United  .States  to  acqmre  foreign  territory  and  to  deal  with  its  inhabitants 
according  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty  under  which  such  territory  was  acquired,  as 
the  Congress  of  the  United  .States  might  decide." 

Beveridge's  Comments  on  Marshall. 

Beveridge,  in  his  Life  of  John  Marshall,  devoted  painstaking  inquirv  into 
this  issue  of  the  right  of  Congress  to  impose  the  slavery  condition  on  Missouri. 
He  quoted  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  \'irginia  legislature  in  1820,  which  de- 
clared that  "Virginia  will  support  the  good  people  of  Missouri  in  their  just 
rights  and  will  cooperate  with  them  in  resisting  with  manly  fortituile  any  at- 
tempt which  Congress  may  make  to  impose  restraints  or  restrictions  as  the  price 
of  their  admission  to  the  Union." 

At  that  time  Marshall  was  taking  his  stand,  in  successive  Supreme  Court  de- 
cisions, for  nationalism.  Beveridge  quoted  from  a  decision  in  the  case  of  McCul- 
loch  vs.  Maryland  wherein  the  court  held  that  Maryland's  law  taxing  the  Balti- 
more branch  of  the  United  States  bank  was  contrary  to  the  Constitution.  Mar- 
shall declared  for  "the  general  right  of  sovereignty  which  exists  in  the  govern- 
ment." As  Beveridge  pointed  out,  Marshall  held  at  the  period  of  the  Missouri 
question,  that  in  legislating  for  the  territories,  "Congress  exercises  the  combined 
powers  of  the  general  and  a  state  government." 

"Ceded  territory  becomes  a  part  of  the  nation  to  which  it  is  annexed ;  but 
the  relations  of  the  inhabitants  to  each  other  (do  not)  undergo  any  change." 
Their  allegiance  is  transferred :  but  the  law  "which  regulates  the  intercourse  and 
general  conduct  of  individuals  remains  in  force  until  altered  by  the  newly  created 
power  of  the  state." 

Marshall  settled,  by  the  Supreme  Court  decisions,  the  question  which  had 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  199 

arisen  with  Thomas  Jefferson  about  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  He  held  that 
under  the  Constitution  the  United  States  "possesses  the  power  of  acquiring  ter- 
ritory' either  by  purchase  or  conquest."    Beveridge  concluded : 

"For  it  should  be  repeated,  in  announcing  the  principles  by  virtue  -of  which  Congress 
could  establish  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  the  chief  justice  had  also  asserted,  by 
necessary  inference,  the  power  of  the  national  legislature  to  exact  the  exclusion  of  slavery 
as  a  condition  upon  which  a  state  could  be  admitted  to  the  Union." 

Second  Constitutional  Convention. 

In  1844  many  Missourians  thought  the  state  had  outlived  the  work  of  Bar- 
ton, Bates  and  their  associates.  Under  the  old,  each  county  was  entitled  to  one 
member  in  the  lower  house.  One  of  the  chief  arguments  for  a  new  instrument 
was  that  the  populous  counties  ought  to  have  more  than  one  representative.  The 
legislature  provided  for  the  election  of  delegates  by  districts.  The  convention  sat 
in  1845.  Among  the  framers  were  Missourians  who  had  held  or  were  to  hold 
high  official  station.  The  roll  included  James  H.  Green,  Thomas  L.  Anderson. 
Hancock  Jackson,  Uriel  Wright,  Claiborne  F.  Jackson  and  Trusten  Polk.  Two  of 
the  younger  members,  James  O.  Broadhead  and  B.  F.  Massey,  were  to  participate 
in  the  making  of  another  constitution  just  thirty  years  later.  Robert  W.  Wells 
was  president.  When  the  proposed  constitution  was  submitted  in  1846  it  was 
beaten  by  9,ocx)  adverse  majority.  The  total  vote  polled  was  only  45,000.  Walter 
Williams  said  this  was  "an  excellent  instrument.  The  rejection  was  largely  the 
result  of  the  objection  of  William  Campbell  and  his  newspaper,  the  New  Era.  of 
St.  Louis.  Mr.  Campbell  was  opposed  to  the  section  of  the  constitution  which 
changed  the  plan  of  the  choice  of  supreme  judges  from  appointment  by  the 
governor  to  election  by  the  people.  Though  they  rejected  the  new  constitution 
the  people  at  the  next  election  ratified  an  amendment  to  the  old  constitution  making 
the  supreme  judges  elective." 

Some  Missourians  began  to  talk  "national  capital  removal"  as  early  as  1845. 
The  suggestion  to  cede  the  site  of  St.  Louis  to  the  United  States  with  that  object 
in  view  led  to  what  the  newspapers  called  "a  ridiculous  blunder."  St.  Louis  sent 
delegates  to  the  constitutional  convention.  A  proposition  was  made  to  offer  certain 
described  territory  in  Missouri  "for  the  purpose  of  locating  and  keeping  thereon 
the  seat  of  government  of  the  United  States."  In  the  debate  it  was  given  out 
that  the  proposed  cession  included  St.  Louis  and  considerable  contiguous  territorj-. 
But,  when  the  language  was  examined  carefully  it  appeared  that  St.  Louis,  as  then 
bounded,  was  not  included  in  the  territory  to  be  ceded.  The  northern  boundar}' 
of  the  proposed  cession  was  about  where  Arsenal  street  is  now.  The  framers 
had,  as  a  matter  of  geographical  definition,  offered  the  present  workhouse  site. 
Carondelet  and  the  ground  north  of  Jefferson  Barracks  for  a  new  District  of 
Columbia.  One  of  the  St.  Louis  papers  commenting  upon  the  "ridiculous  blun- 
der" said : 

"The  nearest  approach  to  our  city  is  the  township  line  which  strikes  the 
United  States  arsenal  tract  below  the  city.  The  section  of  country  ceded  takes 
in  the  ancient  and  renowned  city  of  Vide  Poche,  otherwise  denominated  Empty 
Pocket,  and  reaches  nearly  to  Jefferson  Barracks.  What  effect  this  strange 
blunder  may  have  upon  the  two  towns  we  leave  to  those  interested  to  find  out. 


200  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

certain  of  one  thing  only,  that  \'ide  Poche  and  not  St.  Louis  is  to  be  the  future 
seat  of  the  national  government  if  the  terms  of  our  constitution  are  to  be-  re- 
garded." 

Third  Constitutional  Convention. 

The  state  convention  which  had  created  the  provisional  state  government 
met  in  the  summer  of  1863  and  passed  an  ordinance  to  provide  for  amendments 
to  the  state  constitution  emancipating  slaves.  Under  this  ordinance  slavery  in 
Missouri  was  to  cease  on  the  4th  day  of  July,  1870.  Those  over  forty  years  of 
age  were  to  remain  subject  to  their  late  owners  the  rest  of  their  lives.  Those 
under  twelve  years  of  age  were  to  remain  subject  to  their  owners  until  they  arrived 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three.  Those  of  all  other  ages  were  to  be  emancipated 
on  the  4th  day  of  July,  1870.  After  the  4th  of  July.  1870.  no  Missouri  slave  could 
be  sold  to  a  non-resident  or  removed  from  the  state.  The  proposed  ordinance  was 
attacked  in  mass  meetings  held  in  different  parts  of  the  state.  On  the  13th  of 
February,  1864.  the  legislature,  in  response  to  petitions,  passed  an  act  authoriz- 
ing the  assembling  of  a  convention  on  January  6,  1865,  to  deal  with  the  emanci- 
pation question.  The  act  provided  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  conven- 
tion from  each  congressional  district.  These  delegates  were  "to  consider,  first, 
such  amendments  to  the  constitution  of  the  state  as  may  be  by  them  deemed 
necessary  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves;  second,  such  amendments  to  the 
constitution  of  the  state  as  may  be  by  them  deemed  necessary  to  preserve  in 
purity  the  'elective  franchise  to  loyal  citizens ;  and  such  other  amendments  as 
may  be  by  them  deemed  essential  to  the  promotion  of  the  public  good." 

At  the  November  election  the  delegates  were  chosen.  They  were  with  very 
few  exceptions  new  men  in  Missouri  politics.  Most  of  them  had  come  to  the 
front  with  the  growth  of  the  Radical  party  and  the  disfranchisement  of  Southern 
sympathizers.  But  of  the  sixty-nine  delegates  it  was  a  rather  curious  fact  that 
more  than  half  had  been  born  in  slave  states.  Several  of  the  most  radical  of 
the  Radicals  had  been  originally  pro-slavery  men.  Lawyers  did  not  predominate 
in  this  as  in  the  Unconditional  Union  convention  which  had  given  Missouri  the 
Hamilton  Gamble  government.  There  were  more  farmers  than  lawyers.  Mer- 
chants and  doctors  were  well  represented.  Ten  of  the  delegates  were  of  European 
birth.  It  was  a  young  man's  convention.  Twenty-five  were  under  forty.  The 
issue  on  which  mo.st  of  these  delegates  were  elected  was  immediate  emancipation. 
Among  those  chosen  were  Chauncey  I.  Filley,  Gustavus  St.  Gem,  and  \V.  F. 
Switzler. 

Immediate  Emancipation  Ordained. 

The  convention  met  in  Mercantile  Library  hall  at  St.  Louis  on  the  6th  of 
January.  Arnold  Krekel,  an  able  lawyer  and  a  leader  among  the  German  Rad- 
icals, afterwards  appointed  United  States  district  judge,  was  chosen  president. 
Before  the  end  of  the  first  week  the  convention  adopted  the  following: 

"Be  it  ordained  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  in  convention  assembled: 
"That  hereafter,  in  this  state,  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
e.xcept  in  punishment  of  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted ;  and  all 
persons  held  to  service  or  labor  as  slaves  are  hereby  declared   free." 


HENEY  CLAY 

From  a  Dagnerreotype  taken  in  St.  Louis 
about  1850.  Author  "of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise. 


DANIEL  BOONE 
Bv  Enid  Yandell 


RESIDENCE  OF  THOMAS  F.  BIDDICK,  OF  ST.  LOUIS,  1818 
Hero  of  Riddifk's  ride  to  Washington  to  secure  the  sehool  lands 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  203 

There  were  polled  on  the  roll  call  only  four  votes  in  the  negative.  As  soon  as 
the  result  was  announced  there  was  a  great  demonstration.  The  cheering  spread 
from  the  crowded  hall  to  the  throng  gathered  on  Fifth  street.  As  soon  as  order 
was  restored  Rev.  Dr.  William  G.  Eliot  was  escorted  to  the  platform.  He  de- 
livered this  prayer  of  thanksgiving: 

"Most  merciful  God,  before  whom  we  are  all  equal,  we  look  up  to  Thee  who  hast 
declared  Thyself  our  Father  and  our  helper  and  our  strong  defense,  to  thank  Thee  that 
Thou  art  no  respecter  of  persons,  to  thank  Thee  that  Thou  didst  send  Jesus  Christ  into  the 
world  to  redeem  the  world  from  sin  and  that  He  was  the  friend  of  the  poor,  that  He  came 
to  break  the  manacles  of  the  slaves,  that  the  oppressed  might  go  free.  We  thank  Thee 
that  this  day  the  people  of  this  state  have  had  grace  given  them  to  do  as  tliey  would 
be  done  by.  We  pray  that  Thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  the  proceedings  of  this  conven- 
tion, that  no  evil  may  come  to  this  state  from  the  wrong  position  of  those  who  do  not 
a^ree  with  the  action  of  today,  but  that  we,  all  of  us,  may  be  united  to  sustain  this  which 
is  the  law  of  the  land.  We  pray.  O  God  I  but  our  hearts  are  too  full  to  express  our  thanks- 
giving I  Thanks  be  to  God  for  this  day  that  light  has  now  come  out  of  darkness,  that 
all  things  are  now  promising  a  future  of  peace  and  quietness  to  our  distracted  state. 
Grant  that  this  voice  may  go  over  the  whole  land  until  the  ordinance  of  emancipation 
;s  made  perfect  throughout  the  states.  We  ask  through  the  name  of  our  dear  Lord  and 
Redeemer.     Amen." 

Encouraged  by  the  popular  approval  of  the  emancipation  act  the  delegates 
proceeded  to  draft  not  amendments  to  the  constitution  of  1820,  but  an  entirely 
new  constitution.  They  incorporated  an  ironclad  "Oath  of  Loyalty."  .\  minority 
in  the  constitutional  convention  led  by  Dr.  Linton  fought  the  test  oath.  They 
assailed  it  as  not  only  a  political  blunder,  but  as  unjust  to  thousands  of  Mis- 
sourians  who  had  at  first  sympathized  with  the  South  and  who  had,  when  hos- 
tilities catne,  taken  sides  with  the  North  and  continued  loyal  to  the  end.  Charles 
D.  Drake,  a  southerner  by  birth,  led  the  majority  in  favor  of  the  test  oath. 

The  convention  was  in  session  seventy-eight  days.  The  constitution  was 
submitted  to  vote  on  the  6th  of  June.  The  total  number  of  votes  cast  was  85,878, 
not  much  more  than  one-half  of  those  polled  in  i860.  The  majority  for  the  con- 
stitution was  only  1,862.  The  ironclad  provisions,  intended  to  ostracise  for  all 
time  not  only  Confederates  but  all  who  had  sympathized  with  the  South,  were 
imposed  by  fewer  than  45,000  voters. 

The  Drake  Constitution. 

.Seine  oi  the  provisions  of  the  Drake  constitution  were  highly  commendable. 
No  man  who  could  not  read  and  write  could  be  a  \ oter.  The  provisions  for  public 
education  of  all  grades  were  strongly  expressed.  Not  all  of  the  sweeping,  strin- 
gent, suggestions  made  during  the  convention  found  place  in  the  instrument  as 
finally  adopted.  For  example,  there  was  at  one  time  offered  an  amendment 
under  which  any  citizen  of  the  state,  white  or  colored,  male  or  female,  would  be 
eligible  to  the  office  of  governor.  This  amendment  was  rejected  only  by  a  tic  vote. 
Similarly  it  was  proposed  to  make  white  or  colored,  male  or  female,  eligible  to 
legislative  election,  but  this  failed.  The  argument  of  those  who  supported  the 
Drake  constitution  was  that  Missourians  who  had  attempted  to  destroy  the  gov- 
ernment either  by  open  acts  or  by  encouragement,  sympathy  and  aid  given  to 


204  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  Confederates  in  any  form  or  manner,  had  forfeited  all  right  to  participate  in 
the  affairs  of  state. 

Not  until  the  provisions  were  put  in  force  did  the  people  realize  what  had  been 
done.  No  official  of  state,  city  or  county,  no  judge  of  any  court,  no  teacher  of 
either  sex,  no  attorney,  no  preacher,  could  perform  official  duty  or  practice  the 
profession  without  taking  the  oath.  To  refuse  the  oath  and  to  preach,  or  teach, 
or  practice  law,  or  perform  any  official  duty  made  the  offender  liable  to  $500  fine 
or  six  months  in  jail  or  both.  To  take  the  oath  and  then  have  it  proven  that  in 
some  of  the  ways  set  forth  in  the  third  section  there  had  been  false  swearing 
meant  perjury  with  a  penitentiary  term  of  not  less  than  two  years.  The  protest 
against  this  "persecution"  went  up  from  all  parts  of  the  state.  Ministers  of  the 
Gospel  took  the  ground  that  the  test  oath  was  a  blow  at  religious  liberty.  And 
it  was.  Arrests  and  indictments  followed  many  refusals  to  abide  by  the  oath 
requirements.     The  "Oath  of  Loyalty"  as  the  constitution  titled  it  was  this: 

"I,  A.  B.,  do  solemnly  swear,  that  I  am  well  acquainted  witli  tlie  terms  of  the  third 
section  of  the  second  article  of  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  adopted  in  the 
year  eighteen  hundred  and  si.xty-five,  and  have  carefully  considered  the  same,  that  I  have 
never,  directly  or  indirectly,  done  any  of  the  acts  in  said  section  specified ;  that  I  have 
always  been  truly  and  loyally  on  the  side  of  the  United  States  against  all  enemies 
thereof,  foreign  and  domestic,  that  I  will  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to  the  United 
States,  and  will  support  the  constitution  and  laws  thereof,  as  the  supreme  law  of  the; 
land,  any  law  or  ordinance  of  any  state  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding;  that  I  will, 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  protect  and  defend  the  Union  of  the  United  States,  and  not 
allow  the  same  to  be  broken  up  and  dissolved,  or  the  government  thereof  to  be  de- 
stroyed or  overthrown,  under  any  circumstances,  if  in  my  power  to  prevent  it;  thai  I 
will  support  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Missouri;  and  that  I  make  this  oath  with- 
out any  mental  reservation  or  evasion,  and  hold  it  to  he  binding  on  me." 

The  Test  Oath. 

The  "Oath  of  Loyalty"  became  known  immediately  as  the  "test  oath."  Speed- 
ily the  qualifying  adjective  of  "infamous"  was  prefi.xed.  The  words  of  the  oath 
give  no  adequate  impression  of  what  a  test  it  was  designed  to  be.  In  Section 
3,  referred  to  at  the  beginning  of  the  oath,  was  the  interpretation  and  application. 
As  the  people  of  Missouri  coupled  the  section  with  the  oath  they  realized  that 
sweeping  political  disfranchisement  was  only  one  of  the  consequences.  The  con- 
vention had  handed  out  a  Pandora  box  of  trouble.  Section  3  must  be  given  in  its 
entirety  for  the  understanding  of  the  full  meaning  of  the  test  oath. 

"Section  3.  At  any  election  hekl  by  the  people  under  this  constitution,  or  in  pursuance 
of  any  law  of  this  state,  or  under  any  ordinance  or  by-law  of  any  municipal  corporation, 
no  person  shall  be  deemed  a  qualified  voter,  who  has  ever  been  in  armed  hostility  to  the 
United  States,  or  to  the  lawful  authorities  thereof,  or  to  the  government  of  this  state,  or 
has  ever  given  aid,  comfort,  countenance,  or  support  to  persons  engaged  in  any  such 
hostility;  or  has  ever  in  any  manner  adhered  to  the  enemies,  foreign  or  domestic,  of  the 
United  States,  either  by  contributing  to  them,  or  by  unlawfully  sending  within  their  lines, 
money,  goods,  letter,  or  information;  or  has  ever  disloyally  held  communication  with 
such  enemies;  or  has  ever  advised  or  aided  any  person  to  enter  the  service  of  such  enemies; 
or  has  ever,  by  act  or  word,  manifested  his  adherence  to  the  cause  of  such  enemies,  or 
his  desire  for  their  triumph  over  the  arms  of  the  United  States,  or  his  sympathy  with 
those  engaged  in  exciting  or  carrying  on  rebellion  against  the  United  States ;  or  has 
ever,   except   under  overpowering  compulsion,   submitted   to  the  authority,   or  been    in   the 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  205 

service  of  the  so-called  'Confederate  States  of  America,'  or  has  left  this  state  and  gone 
within  the  lines  of  the  armies  of  the  so-called  'Confederate  States  of  America,'  with 
tlie  purpose  of  adhering  to  said  states  or  armies;  or  has  ever  been  a  member  of,  or  con- 
nected with,  any  order,  society,  or  organization,  inimical  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  or  to  the  government  of  this  state;  or  has  ever  been  engaged  in  guerrilla  war- 
tare  against  loyal  inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  or  in  that  description  of  marauding 
commonly  known  as  'bushwhacking' ;  or  has  ever  knowingly  and  willingly  harbored, 
aided,  or  countenanced,  any  person  so  engaged;  or  has  ever  come  into  or  left  this  state 
for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  enrollment  for  or  draft  into  the  military  service  of  the 
United  States ;  or  has  ever,  with  a  view  to  avoid  enrollment  in  the  militia  of  this  state, 
or  to  escape  the  performance  o£  duty  therein,  or  for  any  other  purpose,  enrolled  him- 
self, or  authorized  himself  to  be  enrolled,  by  or  before  any  officer,  as  disloyal,  or  as  a 
Southern  sympathizer,  or  in  any  other  terms  indicating  his  disaffection  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  Slates  in  its  contest  with  rebellion,  or  his  sympathy  with  those  en- 
gaged in  such  rebellion;  or,  having  ever  voted  at  any  election  by  the  people  of  this  state, 
or  in  any  other  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  of  their  territories,  or  held  office  in  this 
state,  or  in  any  other  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  of  their  territories,  or  under  the 
United  States,  shall  thereafter  have  sought,  or  received,  under  claim  of  alienage,  the  pro- 
tection of  any  foreign  government,  through  any  consul  or  other  officer  thereof,  in  order 
to  secure  exemption  from  military  duty  in  the  militia  of  this  state,  or  in  the  army  of  the 
United  States;  nor  shall  any  such  person  be  capable  of  holding,  in  this  state,  any  office 
of  honor,  trust,  or  profit,  under  its  authority ;  or  of  being  an  officer,  councilman,  director. 
trustee,  or  other  manager  of  any  corporation,  public  or  private  now  existing  or  hereafter 
established  by  its  authority ;  or  of  acting  as  a  professor  or  teacher  in  any  educational  in- 
stitution, or  in  any  common  or  other  school ;  or  of  holding  any  real  estate,  or  other  prop- 
erty, in  trust  for  the  use  of  any  church,  religious  society,  or  congregation.  But  the  fore- 
going provisions  in  relation  to  acts  done  against  the  United  States  shall  not  apply  to  any 
person  not  a  citizen  thereof,  who  shall  have  committed  such  acts  while  in  the  service  of 
some  foreign  country  at  war  with  the  United  States,  and  who  has.  since  such  acts,  been 
naturalized,  or  may  hereafter  be  naturalized,  under  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  oath  of  loyalty  hereinafter  prescriljed,  when  taken  by  such  person,  shall  be  considered 
as  taken  in  such  sense." 

There  are  forty-five  different  offenses  in  the  foregoing  article.  The  Mis- 
sourian  who  wished  to  vote,  to  hold  office,  to  teach,  to  practice  law,  to  preach 
was  required  to  swear  he  had  not  been  guiUy  of  any  one  of  them.  Under  the  ninth 
section  of  Article  XI,  which  was  entitled  the  "Right  of  Stiffrage,"  it  was  declared 
that  no  person  shall  be  permitted  to  practice  law  "or  be  competent  as  a  bishop, 
priest,  deacon,  minister,  elder  or  other  clergyman  of  either  religiotis  persuasion, 
sect  or  denomination  to  teacli  or  preach  unless  such  person  shall  have  first  taken, 
subscribed  and  filed  said  oath." 

Section  II  prescribed  that  "Every  court  in  which  any  person  shall  be  sum- 
moned to  serve  as  grand  or  petit  juror,  shall  require  him,  before  he  is  sworn  as  a 
iuror.  to  take  said  oath  in  open  court ;  and  no  person  refusing  to  take  the  same 
shall  serve  as  a  jiu-or." 

Senator  Drake,  as  Schurz  Saw  Him. 

Carl  Schurz  in  his  "Reminiscences"  drew  this  pen  picture  of  the  man  who 
dominated  the  convention  and  who  dictated  the  spirit  of  the  constitution  of  1865: 

"Senator  Drake  was  an  able  lawyer  and  an  unquestionably  honest  man,  but  narrow- 
minded,  dogmatic  and  intolerant  to  a  degree.  He  aspired  to  be  the  Republican  'boss'  of 
the   state — not,  indeed,  as   if   he  had   intended  to  organize  a  niacliine   for   the  purpose   of 


206  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

enriching  himself  or  his  henchmen.  Corrupt  schemes  were  absolutely  foreign  to  his 
mind.  He  merely  wished  to  be  the  recognized  authority  dictating  the  policies  of  his 
party  and  controlling  the  federal  offices  in  Missouri.  This  ambition  overruled  with  him 
all  others.  His  appearance  was  not  imposing,  but  when  you  approached  him.  he  made 
you  feel  that  you  had  to  do  with  a  man  full  of  the  consciousness  of  power.  He  was  of 
small  stature,  but  he  planted  his  feet  upon  the  ground  with  demonstrative  firmness.  His 
face  framed  with  gray  hair  and  a  short  stubby  white  beard,  and  marked  with  heavy  eye- 
brows, usually  wore  a  stern,  and  often  even  a  surly  expression.  His  voice  had  a  rasp- 
ing sound,  and  his  speech,  slow  and  peremptory,  was  constantly  accompanied  with  a. 
vigorous  shake  of  the  forefinger  which  meant  laying  down  the  law.  I  do  not  know  to 
what  religious  denomination  he  belonged ;  but  he  made  the  impression  as  if  no  religion 
could  be  satisfactory  to  him  that  did  not  provide  for  a  well-kept  hell  fire  to  roast  sinners 
and  heretics.  Still  he  was  said  to  be  very  kind  and  genial  with  his  family  and  in  his 
circle   of   intimate    friends.     But   in   politics   he  was   inexorable." 

Senator  Vest  described  the  situation  in  Missouri  vividly: 

"The  Girondists,  under  the  leadership  of  Hamilton  R.  Gamble,  had  disappeared,  and 
the  Jacobins,  under  the  leadership  of  Charles  D.  Drake,  were  in  possession  of  the  state. 
The  Drake  constitution  had  been  enacted — the  most  drastic,  the  most  cruel,  the  most  out- 
rageous enactment  ever  known  in  a  civilized  countrj'.  No  man  could  practise  law,  teach 
school,  preach  the  Gospel,  act  as  trustee,  hold  any  office  of  honor,  trust,  or  profit,  or  vote 
at  any  election,  unless  he  swore  he  had  never  sympathized  with  the  cause  of  the  Con- 
federacy or  any  person  fighting  for  it.  The  father  who  had  given  a  drink  of  water  or  a 
crust  of  bread  to  his  son  who  belonged  to  the  Confederate  forces  was  ostracised  and  put 
under  the  ban  of  the  law.  Blair  came  back  and  went  to  the  polls,  dressed  in  his  major- 
general's  uniform,  and  demanded  the  right  to  vote  without  taking  the  oath.  It  was  de- 
nied, and  he  immediately  commenced  suit  against  the  election  officials.  Pending  the  suit, 
a  Catholic  priest  named  Cummings,  who  had  instituted  a  similar  proceeding,  had  his  case 
adjudicated  by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  it  was  decided  that  the  Drake  constitution  violated 
that  of  the  United  States  and  was  a  bill  of  attainder  and  ex  post  facto  law.  General 
Blair,  not  satisfied,  attacked  the  Drake  party  throughout  the  commonwealth,  and  can- 
vassed it  from  one  end  to  the  other,  denouncing  the  men  who  were  perpetrating  these 
iniquities  upon  the  people  of  the  state." 

Upset  by  the  Supreme  Court. 

In  reversing  the  decision  of  the  supreme  court  of  Missouri  and  in  declaring 
the  test  oath  in  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  court  of 
last  resort  said : 

"The  counsel  from  Missouri  closed  his  arguments  in  this  case  by  presenting  a  strik- 
ing picture  of  the  struggle  for  the  ascendency  in  that  state  during  the  recent  revolution 
between  the  forces  and  the  enemies  of  the  Union,  and  the  fierce  passions  which  that 
struggle  raised.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle  that  the  present  constitution  was 
framed,  although  it  was  not  adopted  by  the  people  until  the  war  was  closed.  It  would  have 
been  strange,  therefore,  had  it  not  exhibited  in  its  provisions  some  traces  of  the  excite- 
ment under  which  the  convention  held  its  deliberations.  It  was  against  the  excited  action 
of  the  states,  under  such  influences  as  these,  that  the  Federal  Constitution  was  intended 
to  guard." 

The  section  applying  to  ministers,  lawyers  and  teachers  aroused  the  earliest 
and  greatest  opposition.  While  the  constitution  went  into  effect  on  the  4th  of 
July.  1865,  Carl  Schurz,  B.  Gratz  Brown  and  other  prominent  Republicans 
formally  started  a  movement  for  universal  amnesty  and  enfranchisement  in  Mis- 


Courtesy    Missouri    Historical   Soclely 

CHARLES  GRATIOT 

Who  led  the  cheering  when  the   American   flag 

was  raised  at  St.  Louis  in  March,  1804 


ifJN 

Kn 

^^^0 

^3 

^^^^ 

,-iSll'' 

i_^-  ^  -   •  - 

TOWN  HOrSK  OF  CHARLES  GRATIOT 
Corner  of  Main  and  Cliestnut  Streets,  St.  Louis 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  209 

souri.  So  widespread  was  the  opposition  to  the  ninth  section  that  Governor 
Fletcher,  in  January,  1867,  recommended  the  constitution  be  amended  to  strike 
out  these  obnoxious  provisions.  Reaction  from  the  test  oath  was  rapid.  Its  first 
practical  effect  was  the  political  downfall  of  Drake.  That  came  within  three 
years.  Alissouri  went  Republican  in  1868,  but  the  legislature  refused  to  accept 
Drake's  candidate,  Ben  F.  Loan,  for  the  Senate  and  elected  Carl  Schurz,  who  was 
the  editor  of  the  Westliche  Post  and  had  been  a  resident  of  the  state  a  short 
time. 

How  Schurz  Became  Sen&tor. 

In  his  ''Reminiscences"  Carl  Schurz  tells  the  story  of  his  candidacj-  for  the 
Senate : 

"I  was  a  member  of  a  little  club  consisting  of  a  few  gentlemen  of  the  same  way  of 
thinking  in  politics  and  who  dined  together  and  then  discussed  current  events  once  or 
twice  a  month.  At  one  of  those  dinners,  soon  after  the  Presidential  election  of  1868,  the 
conversation  turned  upon  the  impending  election  of  Senator  Henderson's  successor  and 
the  candidacy  of  Mr.  Drake's  favorite.  General  Loan.  We  were  all  agreed  in  heartily 
disliking  Mr.  Drake's  kind  of  statesmanship.  We  likewise  agreed  in  disliking  the  prospect 
of  seeing  Mr.  Drake  duplicated  in  the  Senate — indeed  fully  duplicated — by  the  election 
of  Mr.  Loan.  But  how  to  prevent  it?  We  all  recognized,  regretfully,  the  absolute  im- 
possibility of  getting  the  legislature  to  re-elect  Mr.  Henderson.  But  what  other  candidate 
was  there  to  oppose  Mr.  Loan  '1  One  of  our  table-round  turned  to  me  and  said :  'Vou !' 
The  others  instantly  and  warmly  applauded.  The  thought  that  L  a  comparatively  newcomer 
in  Missouri,  should  be  elected  senator  in  preference  to  others  who  had  been  among  the 
leaders  in  the  great  crisis  of  the  state  only  a  few  years  ago7  seemed  to  me  extravagant, 
and  I  was  by  no  means  eager  to  expose  myself  to  what  I  considered  almost  certain  defeat. 
But  my  coinpanions  insisted,  and  I  finally  agreed  that  a  'feeler'  might  be  put  out  in  the 
Democrat,  the  leading  Republican  journal  in  St.  Louis,  of  which  Colonel  William  M. 
Grosvenor,  a  member  of  our  little  table  company,  was  the  editor-in-chief." 

A  Trap  Set  for  Drake. 

The  "feeler"  took  well.  Newspaper  notices  of  Schurz  were  favorable.  As- 
surances of  support  came  from  the  interior  of  the  state.  The  legislature  met  in 
January,  1869.  Schurz  went  to  Jefferson  City  with  a  few  friends.  Senator 
Drake  came  on  froin  \\'ashington  full  of  confidence  that  Loan  would  be  elected 
when  the  caucus  was  held.  He  freely  expressed  his  opinion  that  there  was  noth- 
ing in  the  candidacy  of  Schurz.  When  the  suggestion  was  made  that  the  caucus 
hear  the  two  candidates  and  himself,  Senator  Drake  readily  agreed.  The  ar- 
rangement was  made  that  two  evenings  should  be  given  to  the  speeches.  By  the 
program  Schurz  was  to  open  and  Loan  was  to  follow.  Then  Senator  Drake  was 
to  speak.  The  argumentative  tournament  was  to  be  closed  by  Schurz.  This 
program -was  carried  out  to  the  great  interest  of  the  legislators.  It  was  opened 
rather  indifferently.  Some  who  had  been  told  much  of  the  German's  oratorical 
power  were  disappointed.  When  the  senator's  turn  came,  he  made  a  strong 
appeal  but  it  was  in  a  more  liberal  and  conciliator)'  spirit  than  might  have  been 
expected  from  the  author  of  the  test  oath.  In  closing  Schurz  was  at  his  best.  He 
captivated  the  caucus.  He  sprung  a  trap  on  Senator  Drake  in  one  of  the  most 
dramatic  incidents  of  Missouri  politics.  He  read  what  he  said  was  formerly  the 
position  of  Drake  on  state  issues.    He  contrasted  those  drastic  opinions  with  the 

Vol.  1—14 


210  CENTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

more  conciliatory  utterances  just  heard  by  the  caucus.  Charles  E.  W'ellcr,  one  of 
the  veteran  stenographers  of  Missouri,  well  described  how  the  trap  which 
determined  a  senatorship  was  set  and  sprung: 

"L.  L.  Walbridge  had  reported  tlie  constitutional  convention  of  1865,  but  by  reason 
of  lack  of  state  funds  it  was  never  ordered  written  out,  and  the  notes  were  finally  con- 
signed to  the  junk  pile  as  a  'dead  horse'  with  no  hope  of  ever  being  called  upon  to  write  it 
up.  The  senatorial  contest  waxed  warin,  and  in  the  midst  of  it  somebody  who  was 
present  at  the  constitutional  convention  called  Schurz's  attention  to  the  fact  that  Drake 
had  made  a  certain  speech  in  that  convention  in  which  he  took  a  stand  on  an  important 
question  which  was  totally  at  variance  with  his  later  attitude.  It  became  very  important 
for  Mr.  Schurz  to  obtain  a  transcript  of  that  speech  and  he  called  on  Walbridge  and 
asked  him  to  make  a  thorough  search  for  his  notes,  which  Walbridge  proceeded  to  do. 
with  little  hope  of  finding  it  among  a  mass  of  old  note  books  covered  with  the  soot  and 
dust  of  past  years;  but,  fortunately  for  Mr.  Schurz,  Walbridge  found  tlie  notes  of  the 
speech  and  wrote  it  out  for  him.  Two  months  later,  after  the  usual  preliminary  caucuses, 
the  legislature  met  in  joint  session,  at  which  they  were  to  be  addressed  at  length  by  each 
candidate  in  his  own  behalf.  It  was  a  battle  royal.  Drake,  who  had  for  years  been  the 
autocrat  of  his  party  in  Missouri,  with  his  ponderous  utterances,  his  dogmatic  demeanor, 
which  was  characteristic  of  the  man ;  Schurz,  on  the  other  hand,  always  cool  and  collected, 
polite  and  courteous  to  his  opponent,  which  gave  him  a  decided  advantage  over  his  fiery 
antagonist. 

"During  Schurz's  speech,  which  closed  the  debate  before  the  legislative  caucus,  he 
drew  from  his  pocket  Walbridge's  transcript  and  began  reading  therefrom.  Drake  started 
up,  as  the  fatal  words  fell  upon  his  ear,  and  his  former  utterances  rose  before  him  like 
Banquo's  ghost,  and  harshly  demanded  of  Schurz,  "What  are  you  reading,  <ir?'  'From  a 
report  of  your  speech  delivered  at  the  constitutional  convention  in  1865,'  blandly  re|)lied 
Schurz.  'Reported  by  whom  ?'  demanded  Drake.  'Reported  by  Mr.  Walbridge,  who  sits 
at  the  table  here,  and  is  reporting  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting,'  replied  Schurz.  Drake 
looked  despairingly  at  Walbridge,  whom  he  knew  too  well  to  question  his  accuracy  as  a 
reporter,  and  sank  back  in  his  chair,  and  shortly  afterward  the  legislature  proceeded  to 
I)alIot,  resulting  in  the  election  of  Carl  Schurz  to  the  United  States  Senate.  It  was  an 
embarrassing  position  for  Walbridge,  who  was  a  personal  friend  of  Drake's,  and  regretted 
to  have  been  the  means  of  inflicting  the  final  blow  which  resulted  in  his  downfall." 

When  Schurz  ended  his  speech,  Drake  recognized  his  defeat.  He  left  Jeffer- 
son City  that  night.  Before  his  senatorial  term  expired  he  resigned  and  accepted 
the  appointment  of  chief  justice  of  the  court  of  claims  at  Washington.  Mis- 
souri knew  him  no  more. 

The  Constitution  Makers  of  1875. 

Even  with  the  test  oath  eliminated  "the  Drake  Constitution"  could  not  get  rid 
of  its  bad  name.  In  1874  a  movement  in  favor  of  another  constitutional  conven- 
tion, the  fourth' in  the  history  of  the  state,  was  inaugurated.  It  was  carried  by  a 
popular  vote. 

The  men  who  drafted  this  enduring  constitution  of  Missouri  were:  J.  C. 
Roberts,  Henry  Boone,  E.  H.  Norton.  D.  C.  Allen,  J.  L.  Farris.  J.  A.  Holliday, 
J.  B.  Hale,  J.  H.  Shanklin,  C.  H.  Hammond,  W.  Halliburton,  Thomas  Shackle- 
ford,  A.  M.  Alexander,  Benjamin  R.  Dysart,  John  R.  Ripley,  Williain  F.  Switzler, 
J.  F.  Bncker,  H.  C.  Lackland,  L.  J.  Dryden,  N.  C.  Hardin,  H.  V.  McKee,  Levi 
Wagner.  Lewis  F.  Cotty,  \\'illiam  Priest,  F.  M.  Black,  William  Chrisman,  Wal- 
do P.  lohnson,  F.  .A.  Xickerson.  S.  R.  Crockett,  John  H.  Taylor,  H.  C.  Wallace, 


TIIKI'E  ORGANIC  ACTS  211 

W.  II.  Letcher,  B.  F.  Massey,  John  Kay,  C.  B.  M'Afee,  G.  W.  Bradfield,  John 
W.  Koss.  T.  W.  B.  Crews,  John  Hyer.  J.  H.  Maxey,  Philip  Pipkin.  E.  V.  Con- 
way, J.  F.  T.  Edwards,  P.  Mabrey,  N.  W.  Watkins,  G.  W.  Carlton,  L.  H.  Davis, 
J.  H.  Rider,  A.  M.  Lay,  T.  J.  Kelley,  James  P.  Ross,  Wash  Adams.  James  O. 
Broadhead,  Albert  Todd,  Joseph  Pulitzer,  T.  T.  Gantt,  A.  R.  Taylor,  H.  J. 
Spaunhurst,  X.  J.  Mortell,  H.  C.  Brocknieyer,  James  C.  Edwards. 

All  of  the  foregoing,  according  to  Mr.  Switzler's  classification,  were  elected 
as  Democrats.  This  goes  to  show  how  far  the  political  pendulum  in  Missouri 
had  swung  backward  from  the  control  of  the  radical  elements  which  had  given 
to  Missouri  the  so-called  Drake  constitution  only  ten  years  before.  There  were 
only  six  Republicans  in  the  constitutional  convention  of  1875, — M.  McKellop, 
T  J.  Johnson.  C.  D.  Eitzen,  Llenry  T.  Mudd,  George  H.  Shields, — and  two 
Liberals,  R.  W.  Fyan  and  L.  Gottschalk. 

One  of  the  Democrats,  T.  J.  Kelley.  it  should  be  stated,  died  before  the  con- 
vention got  to  work  and  his  place  was  taken  by  Horace  B.  Johnson,  a  Repub- 
lican. One  man  who  sat  in  the  constitutional  convention  of  1865  was  in  that  of 
1875 — Mr.  Switzler. 

C)ne  of  the  remarkable  facts  about  the  work  of  this  convention  was  that  the 
draft  of  the  constitution  was  adopted  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  members.  The 
action  of  the  voters  was  almost  as  notable.  The  state  adopted  the  constitution  by 
91,205  for  to  14.517  against,  a  majority  of  76,688.  The  New  York  Nation  pro- 
nounced this  new  constitution  for  Missouri  fifty  years  ahead  of  its  time.  Later, 
some  of  the  provisions  were  criticised  as  too  restrictive.  The  name  of  "the 
strait  jacket  constitution"  was  applied. 

Switzler's  Analysis  of  the  Organic  Act. 

Analyzing  the  work  and  results  of  the  convention,  Mr.  Switzler  said  of  this 
constitution  of  1875 : 

"The  bill  of  rights  occupied  much  time  and  was  a  fruitful  theme  of  di.sciissioii.  Tlie 
subject  of  representation,  a  knotty  problem  in  all  similar  bodies  in  all  states,  disclosed 
wide  antagonisms  of  opinion,  and  elicited  protracted  debate.  In  the  face  of  all  opposition 
county  representation  was  maintained.  It  found  a  place  in  the  first  constitution  of  the 
state,  and  in  all  others  since  adopted  by  conventions  of  the  people  of  Missouri.  The 
argument,  that,  to  a  certain  extent,  it  perpetuates  the  representation  of  sub-divisions  of 
territory,  and  not  population,  did  not  avail  to  interdict  it.  New  and  vitally  important 
provisions  were  adopted  in  regard  to  legislative  proceedings.  Carefully  prepared  and 
stringent  limitations  on  powers  of  the  general  assembly  were  engrafted  on  the  new  instru- 
ment. Sessions  of  the  legislature  were  made  biennial,  and  the  gubernatorial  term  was 
changed  from  two  to  four  years.  The  formation  of  new  counties  was  made  more 
difficult,  perhaps  impossible.  The  taxing  and  debt  contracting  power  of  the  legislature 
and  of  counties,  cities  and  towns,  and  all  other  municipalities,  was  hedged  about  with 
limitations  and  safe-guards.  Kxtra  mileage  and  perquisites  to  officials  were  laid  under 
embargo.  Our  system  of  free  public  schools,  embracing  a  liberal  policy  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  university  of  the  state,  received  recognition  in  the  article  on  education." 

The  Conditions  in  1875. 

Tiiat  conditions  then  existing  called  for  such  a  constitution,  the  pojiular  vote 
on  adoption  is  good  evidence.  A  third  generation  is  now  living  uiuler  this  or- 
ganic act.      Missourians   with   definite   recollections  of   forty-five  vears  ago  are 


212  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

not  inimerous.  Robert  P.  C.  Wilson,  speaking  to  the  Missouri  Bar  Association, 
some  years  since,  of  the  public  services  rendered  by  Judge  Elijah  Hise  Norton, 
recalled  vividly  the  circumstances  attending  the  constitutional  convention  of  1875, 
and  described  the  intense  satisfaction  the  restrictive  and  preventive  provisions 
gave  to  the  people  generally  when  the  constitution  went  into  effect: 

"The  laws  of  Missouri  had  been  silent  since  1861,  and  the  exigencies  of  the  Civil  war 
had  been  so  paralyzing  that  after  the  people,  with  unrestricted  suffrage,  had  come  into 
their  own,  they  lost  no  time  in  calling  a  constitutional  convention.  Indeed,  they  seem  to 
have  risen  fully  to  the  occasion.  Many  of  the  counties  had  been  so  fraudulently  ravished 
and  plundered  under  doubtful  forms  of  law,  that  the  people  of  the  state  hailed  the 
calling  of  that  convention  as  a  promise  for  redemption  of  wrongs  many  of  them  had 
suffered,  and  as  a  guaranty  against  their  repetition  in  the  future.  What  infinite  care 
they  displayed  in  the  selection  of  its  members!  It  was  by  all  odds  the  ablest  body  of 
men  ever  gathered  in  this  state  for  a  similar  purpose.  The  districts  seemed  to  vie  with 
each  other  as  to  which  should  send  the  ablest,  purest  and  best  of  its  citizens  as  members. 
In  reading  the  roll  of  that  body  you  will  find  the  names  of  many  lawyers  who  afterwards 
became  illustrious  in  the  annals  of  our  profession.  There  you  will  see  the  honored  names 
of  James  O.  Broadhead,  Thomas  T.  Gantt,  Albert  Todd.  Joseph  Pulitzer,  A.  R.  Taylor. 
Henry  C.  Brockmeyer,  T.  W.  B.  Crews,  Waldo  P.  Johnson.  George  H.  Shields.  H.  C. 
Lackland,  W.  H.  Letcher.  F.  M.  Black.  Elijah  H.  Norton,  Dewitt  C.  Allen  and  others 
of  distinction  worthy  to  be  classed  with  those  mentioned.  Their  work  proved  to  be  a 
marvel  of  wisdom.  Judge  Norton,  from  the  beginning,  took  a  prominent  and  leading 
part  in  that  convention.  The  members  of  that  assembly,  now  nearly  all  in  the  shadows, 
builded  better  than  they  knew — 'their  works  do  live  after  them.'  It  was  indeed  the  people's 
constitution,  and  from  that  day  to  this  they  and  their  descendants  have  sacredly  guarded 
it  a.gainst  the  designs  of  those  who  would  supplant  it  in  its  entirety.  During  his  declining 
years  I  have  heard  him  often  remark  that  his  work  in  that  convention  was  his  chief 
monument  of  title  to  the  gratitude  of  the  state. 

"I  distinctly  recall  the  wave  of  satisfaction  which  rolled  over  rural  Missouri,  when 
assured  that  the  grafter,  repeater,  promoter  and  dishonest  county  judges  could  no  longer 
use  the  forms  of  law  to  take  from  them  in  iniquitous  taxes  their  hard-earned  substance. 
The  people  hailed  the  coming  era  as  the  rising  of  the  sun.  Sowing,  they  would  now  reap 
undisturbed  the  fruits  of  their  labors.  Their  wives  and  daughters  sang  new  songs  of 
good  cheer  as  they  busied  about  household  duties,  while  sons.  Inisbands  and  fathers  were 
gay  as  revellers  as  they  resumed  with  buoyant  hearts  their  subjugation  of  the  wilderness. 
Indeed,  the  scars  of  cruel  conflict  were  being  rapidly  healed;  the  wild  grand  music  of 
war  was  stilled  into  softly  murmuring  cadenzas  of  Content,  and  Peace  tinkled  upon  the 
shepherd's  bell,  and  sang  among  the  reapers.  Happy,  thrice  happy,  was  this  grand  man 
as  he  reviewed  his  conspicuous  contribution  to  the  tuneful  melody  of  the  times." 

The  Constitution  of  1875  and  Its  Interpretation. 

The  Missouri  constitution  of  1875  has  attracted  no  little  attention  beyond 
the  borders  of  the  state.  It  goes  into  much  detail.  The  rule  of  the  supreme 
court  of  Missouri  has  been  to  construe  the  provisions  of  the  constitution  with 
such  literalness  as  to  cause  considerable  criticism.  For  example,  a  provision 
of  the  constitution  says  that  all  indictments  shall  conclude  with  the  words, 
"against  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  state."  Indictments  have  been  drawn 
omitting  the  word  "the"  before  the  word  state.  The  supreme  court  has  held  that 
this  omission  invalidates  the  indictment.  These  and  somewhat  similar  rulings 
on  technicalities  have  been  the  subject  of  criticisin,  not  only  by  newspapers  and 
magazines  but  by  courts  in  other  states.  Judge  A.  M.  Woodson  some  years  ago 
set  forth  the  position  of  the  Missouri  court  in  liolding  to  the  view  that  the  con- 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  213 

stitution  of   1875  was  to  be  viewed  and  interpreted  as  mandatory  rather  than 
directory.    He  said: 

"I  might  state  that  the  fundamental  principle  underlying  such  rulings  is  to  prevent 
courts  from  tearing  down  by  piecemeal  the  great  bulwarks  of  liberty  and  shield  of  indi- 
vidual security  which  they  would  not  dare  do  openly  and  at  one  stroke. 

"Nor  is  that  idea  a  novel  one  in  this  court.  Mr.  Justice  Cooley,  who,  it  is  conceded 
by  the  bench  and  the  bar  of  the  entire  country,  was  the  peer,  if  not  the  superior,  of  any 
constitutional  lawyer  who  ever  graced  the  bench,  or  lent  honor  and  dignity  to  the  bar, 
in  his  matchless  work  on  constitutional  limitations  (pp.  93-98),  in  discussing  the  question 
of  whether  rules  which  distinguish  directory  and  mandatory  statutes  apply  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  written  constitution,  after  a  careful   review   of  the  authorities,   said: 

"'It  will  be  found  upon  full  consideration  to  be  difficult  to  treat  any  constitutional 
provision  as   merely  directory  and   not  mandatory.' 

"And  the  same  eminent  authority,  on  page  72,  in  speaking  of  the  statutory  rule,  which 
requires  that  full  force  and  effect  be  given  to  every  clause  and  word  of  a  statute,  and 
that  no  word  shall  be  treated  as  meaningless  if  a  construction  can  be  legitimately  found 
which  will  preserve  and  make  it  effectual,  said : 

"  'The  rule  is  applicable  with  special  force  to  written  constitutions  on  which  the 
people  will  be  presumed  to  have  expressed  themselves  in  careful  and  measured  terms 
corresponding  with  the  immense  importance  of  the  powers  delegated,  leaving  as  little  as 
possible  to  implication.' 

"Before  leaving  the  question,  let  me  state,"  said  Judge  Woodson,  "to  my 
law-loving  neighbors  that, — after  spending  the  best  part  of  my  life  on  the 
bench,  and  after  having  observed  and  read  quite  extensively  regarding  the  fomi 
and  modes  of  administering  justice, — the  courts  have  done  far  more  harm  and 
injustice  by  judicial  legislation,  that  is,  by  interpolating  into  statutes  and  con- 
stitutions words  and  phrases  which  the  lawmakers  never  placed  therein,  and  by 
striking  therefrom  words  and  phrases  which  were  placed  there  by  the  lawmakers, 
than  they  have  by  clinging  to  the  so-called  .'technicalities'." 

This  position  of  the  supreme  court  was  maintained  from  the  time  the  con- 
stitution went  into  effect  until  December  i,  1920.  when  by  a  unanimous  vote  the 
court  made  a  specific  ruling  that  the  omission  of  the  word  "the"  in  the  final  clause 
of  an  indictment  was  not  ground  for  setting  aside  a  verdict  of  guilty  under  that 
indictment.  Not  only  did  the  court  reverse  the  previous  position  that  had  been 
held  in  Missouri  but  it  departed  from  technical  precedents  established  by  supreme 
courts  in  several  other  states.  The  court  held  that  the  provision  in  the  constitu- 
tion was  not  mandatory  but  called  for  substantial  compliance.  Judge  Williamson 
said  it  would  be  to  sacrifice  substance  to  form  to  allow  a  trivial  omission  of  a 
minor  word  in  a  subordinate  paragraph  of  procedure  to  outweigh  the  very  funda- 
mentals of  the  constitution. 

"Much  musty  learning  might  be  dug  from  forgotten  books  did  time  and  space  permit, 
to  show  the  various  endings  of  the  indictments  at  common  law  and  why  it  may  have  been 
thought  advisable,  45  years  ago,  when  our  Constitution  was  written,  to  provide  that  there 
should  be  but  one  ending,  and,  but  for  the  same  limitations,  many  authorities  might  be 
cited  in  support  of  the  views  herein  announced.  It  seems  sufficient  to  say  that  in  the  case 
at  bar  there  was  a  substantial  compliance  with  the  requirements  of  the  Constitution,  and 
that  is  all  that  is  necessary.  To  so  hold  does  not  deprive  the  appellant  of  any  right,  nor 
impair  any  valid  defense  which  he  may  have,  nor  alter  the  meaning  of  the  charge,  nor  in 
any  wise  interfere  with  the  orderly  administration  of  justice." 


214  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Individual  vs.  Corporation. 

"An  advanced  position,"  as  the  lawyers  called  it,  was  taken  by  the  con- 
stitntion  of  1S75  for  the  protection  of  the  individual  against  the  corporation.  In 
that  respect  the  franiers  went  farther  than  the  constitution  makers  of  many  other 
states.  They  put  in  provisions  especially  relating  to  the  rights  of  property.  The 
Missouri  constitution  of  1865  had  followed  the  course  of  most  other  states  with 
general  provisions  governing  the  use  of  private  property  for  public  purposes. 
That  instrument  in  its  first  article  had  provided :  "No  private  property  ought 
to  be  taken  or  applied  to  public  use  without  just  compensation." 

This  was  the  common  form  of  property  protection.  It  was  supplemented  by 
statutes,  as  was  the  custom  in  other  states.  These  statutes  by  the  legislature  set 
forth  the  method  of  determining  the  value  of  private  pro])erty  taken  for  public 
use  and  of  paying  the  owner.  But  the  constitution  of  1S73  was  quite  dift'erent 
from  that  of  1865  in  this  feature.  It  was  drafted  l)y  men  of  independent  thought 
and  considerable  originality.  It  dc])arted  in  many  ways  from  the  constitutions  of 
other  states.  The  framers  exalted  the  individual  and  put  the  curb  on  the  cor- 
porations. They  provided  in  mandatory  language:  "Private  property  shall  not 
be  taken  or  damaged  for  public  use  without  just  compensation." 

They  went  farther.  They  took  away  from  the  legislature  the  broad  function 
which  the  constitution  of  1865  had  left.  The  constitution  of  1875  prescribed  that 
the  "just  compensation"  must  be  paid  in  advance  of  the  taking  or  the  damage  of 
private  property.  This  compensation,  the  constitution  declared,  should  be  ascer- 
tained "in  such  manner  as  may  be  prescribed  by  law.  and.  until  the  same  shall  be 
paid  to  the  owner,  the  property  shall  not  be  disturbed,  or  the  proprietary  rights 
of  the  owner  therein  be  divested." 

The  practical  effects  of  this  constitutional  provision  were  soon  seen.  In  1870 
the  statutes  were  revised  and  the  method  of  ascertaining  "just  compensation" 
for  property  taken  was  set  forth,  but  not  for  property  damaged.  In  1887,  the 
legislature  enacted  what  was  called  the  Shaw  law  providing  the  method  for  ascer- 
taining just  compensation  for  property  damaged.  This  method  took  into  con- 
sideration an  issue  which  had  arisen  in  St.  Louis.  The  new  law  stipulated  that 
before  an  elevated  road  can  be  built  the  damage  it  may  be  to  private  property 
"shall  be  paid  to  the  owner,  or  into  the  court  for  the  owner,  before  his  prop- 
erty shall  be  disturbed  or  his  proprietary  rights  therein  divested."  One  section 
of  the  Shaw  law  defined  what  was  meant  by  damages.     It  read : 

"Damages  in  this  act  is  hereby  defined  to  be  the  depreciation  in  the  value  of 
the  propertv  that  may  result  from  the  construction  and  operation  of  the  proposed 
railroad  " 

Five  different  movements  to  build  elevated  railroads  in  St.  Louis  have  pro- 
gressed in  the  planning  and  have  been  effectually  blocked  by  the  constitutional 
provision. 

Recollections  of  Major  Dysart. 

Four  members  of  the  constitutional  convention  of  1875  were  living  in  1919. 
They  were  George  H.  Shields,  of  the  circuit  bench  of  St.  Louis;  B.  R.  Dysart, 
of  Macon  county;  Judge  D.  C.  Allen,  of  Clay  county:  and  L.  F.  Cotty,  of  Knox 
county.     Amos  R.  Taylor,  one  of  the  St.  Louis  members  died  in  1919.     Major 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  215 

Dysart.  then  past  eighty  years,  was  president  and  the  oldest  member  of  the  bar 
association  of  Macon.  He  recalled  for  the  Missouri  Historical  Review  these 
interesting  facts  about  the  constitution  makers  of  1875: 

"That  was  a  time  when  patriotism  meant  personal  economy.  We  received  five  dollars 
a  day,  and  out  of  that  we  paid  our  hotel  bills  and  all  other  expenses.  There  were  no 
bells  to  ring  for  stenographers.  Each  man  did  his  own  writing,  using  a  quill  pen.  In  sign- 
ing the  final  draft  each  member  affixed  his  name  with  a  quill.  The  men  of  the  constitu- 
tional convention  were  ardent  in  their  ambition  to  give  the  state  a  code  that  would  stand 
the  test  and  that  would  be  economically  administered.  They  were  head  set  on  not  squan- 
dering any  of  the  state's  money,  needlessly.  There  were  even  objections  to  employing 
a  chaplain  on  the  ground  of  expense,  but  Judge  Thomas  T.  Gantt  solved  that  question. 
He  said  William  Priest,  of  Marion  county,  was  a  good  old  'Hardshell'  Baptist  preacher, 
who  didn't  believe  in  salaries  for  preaching,  and  that  he  would  do  as  fine  a  job  at 
chaplaining  as  any  man  on  a  regular  wage,  and  he'd  come  and  pray  for  us.  So  Brother 
Priest  was  elected,  and  he  made  Judge  Gantt's  word  gooj. 

"When  the  matter  of  placing  the  word  'Creator'  in  the  constitution  came  up.  Judge 
Gantt  opposed  it,  because  he  didn't  believe  it  was  wise  to  drag  the  Deity  into  public 
affairs.  He  wanted  church  and  state  affairs  kept  separate,  he  said.  He  was  outvoted, 
however,  and  the  first  three  lines  of  the  preamble  read :  '^Ve,  the  people  of  ^f  issouri. 
with  profound  reverence  for  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  Universe,'  and  so  on. 

"To  show  how  strong  the  spirit  of  economy  was  abroad  among  public  servants  in 
those  days,  the  matter  of  the  convention's  purchasing  and  paying  for  the  daily  papers, 
so  as  to  keep  tab  on  the  proceedings,  was  long  and  earnestly  discussed,  and  it  was  finally 
decreed  that  this  expense  should  not  be  borne  by  the  public  funds,  but  by  each  member 
going  down  into  his  individual   pocket  and  producing  the  cash   for  the  paper. 

"That  convention  made  a  radical  change  in  trials  for  murder.  Until  then,  if  a  man 
were  convicted  of  murder  or  some  degree  of  man-slaughter,  appealed  and  got  a  new 
trial,  he  could  not  be  tried  for  a  higher  degree  than  the  jury's  verdict  at  the  first  trial. 
The  change  in  the  constitution  provided  that  the  second  trial  should  be  conducted  re- 
gardless of  the  jury's  verdict  the  first  time.  There  have  been  cases  since  where  men 
were  tried  for  murder,  convicted  in  the  second  degree,  got  a  new  trial  and  were  then 
convicted  in  the  first  degree." 

The  New  Constitution  Movement. 

The  movement  for  a  fourth  organic  law  of  the  state  came  to  definite  form 
in  the  organization  of  the  "New  Constitution  Association."  This  league  pre- 
sented the  matter  to  the  general  assembly  in  1919,  after  a  vigorous  campaign  in 
the  state,  asking  the  legislature  to  submit  to  the  popular  vote  the  question  whether 
a  constitutional  convention  shall  be  held.  C)bjections  to  the  present  constitution 
and  changed  conditions  which  called  tor  new  organic  provisions  may  be  sum- 
marized  from  the  address  of   William   S.   Southern,  of  Independence: 

The  present  constitution  was  written  forty-three  years  ago,  before  the  era  of  electric 
light,  telephones,  automobiles,  and  present  business  conditions.  The  present  constitution 
was  too  long,  and  was  more  a  code  of  laws  than  a  declaration  of  fundamental  principles. 
It  contained  more  than  30,000  words,  while  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  con- 
tained only  about  4.000.  Since  the  present  state  constitution  was  adopted  eight>--six 
amendments  had  been  submitted  to  vote,  and  only  twenty-three  had  been  adopted,  and 
of  these  only  one  in  the  past  ten  years.  This  showed  the  hopelessness  of  trying  to  amend 
the  present  constitution  to  meet  present-day  needs.  .Administration  of  justice  was  im- 
possible and  the  restrictions  as  to  the  number  of  judges  of  the  supreme  court  had  re- 
sulted in  such  delays  in  litigation  as  practically  to  deprive  the  poor  man  of  his  right  of 
appeal.     The  revenue  and  taxation   laws  were  the  "craziest   set"  any  state  had.  and  they 


21B  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

had  made  fully  fifty  per  cent  of  the  taxpayers  perjurers.  A  new  constitution  need  not 
mean  increased  taxes;  it  need  only  provide  for  the  equalization  of  taxes.  Public  educa- 
tion had  been  hampered  by  the  restrictions  of  the  present  constitution,  and,  as  a  result, 
Missouri  was  thirty-second  among  the  states  in  the  literacy  rank.  More  liberal  constitu- 
tional provisions  for  the  building  of  roads  were  necessary. 

Perhaps  the  strongest  argument  put  forward  by  the  advocates  of  a  convention 
to  fraiTie  a  new  constitution  for  Missouri,  and  the  one  Hkely  to  command  the 
most  general  popular  support  was  the  need  of  more  liberal  expenditures  for 
education.  That  Missouri  was  ranked  thirty-second  of  the  states  in  literacy  and 
first  in  mules  was  galling.  Dr.  W.  S.  McDearmont,  president  of  the  Cape  Girar- 
deau Teachers'  College  pointed  out  that,  under  constitutional  limitations,  it  was 
impossible  to  levy  a  tax  of  more  than  sixty-five  cents  on  the  $iOO  for  rural 
schools,  although  a  tax  of  one  dollar  on  the  $ioo  could  be  levied  in  the  cities.  He 
could  not  luiderstand  why  the  framers  of  the  constitution  of  1875  figured  that  it 
would  cost  less  to  educate  a  country  child  than  a  city  child. 

The  movement  favoring  a  new  constitution  for  Missouri  reached  positive 
strength  in  1920,  with  officers,  headquarters  and  aggressive  propaganda.  It  un- 
dertook to  remove  one  of  the  chief  hindrances  to  the  call  for  a  constitutional  con- 
vention. This,  it  was  proposed  to  do  by  an  amendment  to  the  existing  organic  act. 
The  constitution  of  1875  provided  that  when  a  convention  was  called  to  re- 
vise that  constitution  it  should  be  composed  of  two  delegates  from  each  of  the  sen- 
atorial districts ;  and  their  election  must  be  conducted  "in  conformity  with  the 
laws  regtilating  the  election  of  senators."  As  the  senatorial  districts  of  the 
state  were  so  bounded  as  to  insure  a  majority  of  Democrats  in  that  body  under 
ordinary  divisions  of  the  voters  on  party  lines,  the  Republicans  opposed  the  call- 
ing of  a  constitutional  convention  because  it  was  almost  certain  to  mean  a  strong 
preponderance  of  the  opposition.  The  Republicans  in  the  general  assembly  for 
some  years  stood  out  against  a  constitutional  convention,  insisting  on  a  rear- 
rangement of  the  senatorial  district  boundaries.  To  meet  this  objection  the  New 
Constitution  Association  proposed  to  change  the  method  of  electing  delegates 
to  a  constitutional  convention  in  such  manner  as  to  create  a  bi-partisan  body.  To 
"do  this  required  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  of  1875.  The  draft  of  such 
an  amendment  was  framed  by  a  committee  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the  state.  The 
suggested  amendment  provided  for  two  delegates  from  each  senatorial  district, 
each  of  the  two  political  parties  to  name  one  delegate.  This  would  mean  an 
equal  representation  of  Republicans  and  Democrats  to  the  extent  of  the  number 
of  senatorial  districts.  There  was  a  further  provision  that  a  party  movement 
outside  of  the  two  old  parties  might  elect  a  delegate  if  it  outvoted  one  of  the 
old  parties.  In  addition  to  the  district  delegates  the  plan  contemplated  fifteen 
delegates-at-large  to  be  nominated  by  initiative  petitions  and  "to  be  voted  for 
uporJ  one  independent  and  separate  ballot  without  any  emblem  or  party  designa- 
tion whatever."  The  plan  of  the  organization  contemplated  a  vote  of  the  people 
upon  this  amendment  at  the  November  election  of  1920.  If  adopted,  the  amend- 
ment called  for  an  election  the  first  Tuesday  in  August,  1821,  to  submit  to  the 
voters  of  the  state  the  question:  "Shall  there  be  a  convention  to  revise  and 
amend  the  constitution."  If  this  passed  in  the  affirmative,  the  plan  provided  for 
an  election  of  delegates  in  from  three  to  six  months  later;  the  constitutional  con- 


THREE  ORGANIC  ACTS  217 

vention  to  be  called  by  the  governor  within  six  months  after  the  election  of 
the  delegates.  The  plan  seemed  to  meet  with  considerable  favor  as  the  details 
were  made  clear  to  the  people  of  Missouri.  On  the  1st  day  of  July,-  1920,  pe- 
titions having  59,021  signatures  were  filed  with  the  secretary  of  state,  asking  for 
submission,  at  the  November  election,  of  the  proposed  amendment  providing  the 
new  plan  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  a  constitutional  convention. 

At  the  November  election  the  proposed  amendment  was  carried  by  76,622 
majority,  thus  insuring  submission  to  vote  in  August,  1921,  of  the  question,  "Shall 
there  be  a  convention  to  revise  and  amend  the  constitution?" 


COURTHOUSE,  ST.  LOUIS,  IN  1840 

The  old  Planters'  House  on  the  right,  finest  hotel  west  of  the  Mississippi  before  the  Civil  War. 

Slave  auctions  took  place  at  the  front  of  the  courthouse. 


THE  ST.  LOUIS  COURTHOUSE  AT  ITS  BEST,  ABOUT   1870 


CHAPTER   VII 
LAW  AND  LAWYERS 

The  Golden  Thread  of  Civilication's  Fabric — Hempstead's  Adfice  to  His  Brother — When 
Bench  Split  and  Jury  Hung — The  Peck  Impeachment  Trial — Ethics  in  the  Thirties — 
Judge  Carr's  Public  Spirit — Court  Days  in  Saline — Sheriff  Bill  Job's  Sense  of  Humor — 
The  Missouri  Echo  of  a  Royal  Scandal — Public  Morals  from  the  Bench — The  Chariton 
County  Calf  Case — Journalism,  Lazv  and  Medicine — New  Madrid  Titles — Mullanphy 
on  Court  Proprieties — The  Story  That  Beat  Uriel  Wright's  Oratory — Torrey  ott  the 
Evolution  of  the  Judicial  System — Missouri's  Odd  Cases — Judge  Barclay's  Remi- 
niscences— Thomas  T.  Gantt's  Learning — Groundhog  Day — From  Printer  to  Supreme 
Court  Bench — Tompkins'  Plain  Speech — Court  Days  in  Kewton — Latnm  on  the  Lait/s 
Delays — When  Vest  Found  a  Needed  Friend — Writers  of  Law  Books — The  Dred  Scott 
Judge  Who  Was  Right — Laivyers  of  the  Platte  Country — Four  Governors  from  the 
Bar — Missouri  Lawyers  Abroad — Pike  County  Cases — Missouri's  Legal  Classics — How 
Femme  Sole  Gained  Her  Rights — Judge.  Witness  and  Counsel  in  One — Burckhartt's 
Solomonic  Decision — Jackson  County's  Bar  and  Bench — H''hcn  a  King  Brought  Suit — ■ 
Early  Laxity  on  Admission — Krekel's  Definition  of  Law — Missouri  and  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court — Missouri  in  the  American  Bar  Association. 

But  we  do  not  see  the  work  of  the  lawyer.  On  Monday  morning,  when  the  American  Bar  Association 
was  in  session  in  this  hall,  a  lady  came  to  one  of  the  entrances  and  asked  the  guide,  "What  is  in  there?" 
The  reply  was,  "The  American  Bar  Association  is  in  session.'*  "Is  there  anything  to  see?"  "Not  a  thing." 
was  the  reply.  Evidently  the  guide  forgot  my  friend,  Mr.  Hagerman,  and  the  other  distinguished  gentlemen 
who  were  on  exhibition  on  this  platform.  The  incident,  though  amusing,  suggests  a  thought  worth  con- 
sidering. The  work  of  the  lawyer  is  not  visible.  We  see  all  the  mighty  things  that  Westinghouse  and  Bell 
and  other  discoverers  and  inventors  have  placed  before  us.  and  which  are  so  useful  in  our  lives,  but  we 
do  not  see  the  thought  of  the  lawyer  which  fashioned  into  shape  the  legislation  that  secured  to  them  com- 
pensation for  their  contributions  to  our  twentieth  century  civilization.  .\t  this  exposition  you  can  sec 
twenty  acres  of  Philippine  life,  but  you  do  not  see  a  square  rod  of  the  Constitution.  And  yet  in  the  presence 
of  this  marvelous  appeal  of  material  things,  I  affirm  that  the  work  of  the  lawyer  and  jurist,  invisible  as  it 
may  be  to  the  physical  eye.  is  of  far  greater  value  to  humanity,  for  of  what  avail  would  be  all  the 
achievements  of  science  if  life,  liberty  and  property  were  not  made  sacred  by  the  just  administration  of 
law?  The  fabric  of  our  civilization  is  indeed  a  thing  of  beauty,  but  it  is  made  strong  and  eniluring  only 
by  the  golden  thread  of  equal,  exact,  and  universal  justice. — Mr.  Justice  DtK-id  J.  Brewer,  of  tlie  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  as  president,  opening  the  Universal  Congress  of  Lawyers  and  Jurists  at  lite 
World's   Fair,    St.    Louis,    1904. 

The  advice  of  Edward  Hempstead,  who  began  the  practice  of  law  in  St. 
Louis  in  1805  to  a  younger  brother  was  this: 

"Fall  not  into  the  habit  many  have  of  drinking.  Be  free  and  sociable  with  your  equals 
in  age  and  standing,  but  be  circumspect  with  those  older  than  yourself.  Be  careful  in 
avoiding  a  misunderstanding  with  any  man.  If,  however,  it  cannot  be  prevented,  when 
you  are  right,  stick  to  it  to  the  end. 

"Touching  your  profession,  close  and  constant  study  and  reflection  are  now  very- 
necessary,  more  especially,  as  j'ou  will  have  to  contend  with  gentlemen  of  long  standing 
and  of  high  reputation  at  the  bar.  Trust  more  to  books  for  forms  and  to  memory  for 
principles.  Let  all  your  declar»tions  and  pleadings  be  taken  from  established  precedents. 
Encourage  no  one  to  commence  a  suit   when  he  is  wrong,  nor  where  he  cannot  succeed. 

221 


222  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Edward  Hempstead  and  Thomas  H.  Benton  were  close  friends.  Benton,  in 
a  conversation  with  F.lihu  B.  \\'ashburne  at  Washington  in  1856,  said: 

"Missouri  met  an  irreparable  loss  when  Edward  Hempstead  died.  No  man  could  have 
stood  higher  in  public  or  private  estimation,  and  had  he  lived  he  would  have  received 
every  honor  that  the  state  could  bestow,  and  would  certainly  have  been  the  first  United 
States  senator.  He  lost  his  life  in  serving  a  friend,  Mr.  Scott.  I  was  with  htm  the  night 
of  his  death." 

When  Bench  and  Jury  Split. 

Henry  M.  Brackenridge  told  of  a  Missouri  court  decision  rendered  by  terri- 
torial judges  not  long  ago  before  statehood.  The  third  judge  was  absent  from 
the  bench  that  day.  No  jury  was  required.  The  case  was  elaborately  presented, 
and  exhaustively  argued.  The  judges  retired  for  consultation.  When  they  came 
back  there  was  an  embarrassing  pause.  The  counsel  looked  expectantly  toward 
the  bench.  The  judges  bent  over  the  papers.  At  length  one  of  them  said :  "We 
are  prepared  to  announce  the  finding  of  the  court.    We've  split." 

^^'hen  John  F.  Darby  was  a  young  lawyer  he  had  a  case  before  Justice  Patrick 
Walsh.  The  court  was  on  Olive  street  near  Main.  John  Newman  was  the  op- 
posing counsel.  Constable  Dan  Busby  went  out  to  get  a  jury.  He  reported  that 
everybody  he  asked  refused  to  come.  In  those  days  the  constable  could  not  com- 
pel attendance.  The  lawyers  offered  to  waive  the  jury.  Old  Judge  Walsh  said 
the  record  called  for  a  jury;  he  wouldn't  try  the  case  otherwise.  Constable 
Busby  said  he  had  seen  "Big  Bob"  Moore  on  the  corner;  he  thought  he  could  get 
"Big  Bob"  to  serve.  The  trouble  with  the  rest  of  the  people  was  they  wanted 
to  see  the  St.  Louis  Grays,  a  parade  having  been  announced  for  that  day.  The 
lawyers  agreed  to  go  ahead  with  one  man  for  the  jury  if  "Big  Bob"  Moore  would 
serve.  "Big  Bob"  was  vi'illing.  The  case  was  tried  and  submitted.  As  the  justice 
had  only  one  room  the  court,  counsel  and  witnesses  went  out  on  the  sidewalk  to 
let  "Big  Bob"  make  up  the  verdict.  Time  slipped  by  with  no  call  from  the  lone 
juryman.  Constable  Bu.sby  opened  the  door  and  asked  Moore  if  he  had  agreed  on 
a  verdict.  "Not  exactly,"  replied  "Big  Bob."  The  delay  ceased  to  be  humorous 
The  justice  led  the  way  back  into  the  rtjom  and  reopened  court.  Mr.  Moore  was 
called  on  to  explain. 

"Squire,"  he  said  seriously,  "the  jury  is  hung.  When  I  look  at  one  side  of 
the  case  I  think  I  ought  to  give  it  that  way;  but  when  I  come  to  look  at  the 
evidence  on  the  other  side,  I  see  I  cannot  give  the  verdict  for  that  side,  and  so 
the  jury  is  hung,  for  I  cannot  make  up  a  verdict." 

"I'ig  Bob"  was  discharged  and  the  case  was  continued. 

Some  Early  Judges. 

By  nativity,  by  education,  by  previous  ])ractice  at  the  bar.  the  circuit  judges 
of  St.  Louis  were  widely  representative.  They  brought  to  the  bench  tempera- 
ment, knowledge  and  experience  of  great  range.  These  judges  have  been  as 
cosmopolitan  as  the  legal  profession  of  St.  Louis.  The  first  occupant  of  the  cir- 
cuit bench  was  a  North  Carolinian  :  the  second  was  a  Virginian  and  the  third 
was  a  Kentuckian.     After  Barton  and  Tucker  came  Alexander  Grav.  who  was  a 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  223 

captain  in  the  Twenty-fourth  Infantry  during  the  War  of  1812,  before  he  en- 
tered upon  the  practice  of  hiw  in  St.  Louis.  The  fourth  circuit  judge  was  a  Vir- 
ginian, Alexander  Stuart.  After  he  retired  from  active  practice  he  hved  on  a 
farm  near  Belief ontaine.  It  was  quite  the  custom  for  judges  and  lawyers  in  the 
earlier  history  of  St.  Louis  to  resort  to  country  life  for  recreation. 

The  bar  of  St.  Louis  early  came  into  national  prominence  through  an  impeach- 
ment trial.  Luke  E.  Lawless,  a  Dublin  University  man,  who  had  served  in  the 
British  Navy  and  who  had  been  a  colonel  in  Napoleon's  army  came  to  St.  Louis 
to  practice  law  in  1826.  Mr.  Lawless  felt  prompted  to  publish  a  criticism  of  a 
federal  judge,  James  H.  Peck.  The  judge  declared  Lawless  guilty  of  contempt 
of  court,  sent  him  to  jail  for  a  day  and  a  night,  and  suspended  him  from  practice 
for  eighteen  months.  When  Congress  met  in  December,  John  Scott,  the  member 
from  Missouri,  presented  a  memorial  from  Lawless,  charging  Judge  Peck  with 
tyranny,  oppression  and  usurpation  of  power.  Articles  of  impeachment  were 
reported  by  the  House,  and  the  Senate  tried  the  judge.  Lawless  prepared  the 
pleadings.  Half  of  the  lawyers  in  St.  Louis  went  to  Washington  to  give  testi- 
mony. The  trial  lasted  six  weeks.  The  judge  was  acquitted.  Precedents  as  to 
the  powers  of  the  United  States  courts  to  punish  contempt  were  established. 
The  vote  of  the  Senate  was  21  for  conviction  and  22  for  acquittal.  One  of  the 
managers  on  the  part  of  the  House  was  James  Buchanan,  afterwards  President. 
The  argument  of  William  Wirt  is  said  to  have  saved  Peck. 

Luke  E.  Lawless  had  a  variety  of  sensational  experiences  in  his  profes- 
sional career.  On  one  occasion  he  challenged  the  right  of  Judge  J.  B.  C.  Lucas 
to  appear  in  court  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not  a  licensed  member  of  the  bar. 
Lucas  had  admitted  Lawless  to  practice  some  time  previously  when  he  was  a 
member  of  the  court  appointed  from  Washington.  To  Lawless'  objection  Judge 
Lucas  replied:  "If  the  court  please,  I  am  licensed.  1  am  licensed  by  the  God 
of  heaven.  He  has  given  me  a  head  to  judge  and  determine,  and  a  tongue 
to  speak  and  explain."  After  he  had  spoken  at  some  length  Judge  Lucas  closed 
his  response  to  Lawless  with  this:  "May  it  please  the  court,  I  did  not  come  to 
this  country  as  a  fugitive  and  an  outcast  from  my  native  land.  I  came  as  a 
scholar  and  a  gentleman  on  the  invitation  of  Dr.  Franklin." 

Professional  Ethics  in  the  Thirties. 

From  the  early  days  the  bar  of  St.  Louis  has  held  to  high  standards  of  pro- 
fessional ethics.  When  Luke  E.  Lawless  was  the  circuit  judge  his  reappoint- 
ment by  the  governor  of  the  state  was  foreshadowed.  A  meeting  of  the  members 
of  the  bar  of  St.  Louis  was  called  "to  get  an  expression  of  opinion  concerning 
the  judicial  qualifications  of  Judge  Lawless."  TIi^  meeting  was  presided  over 
by  Henry  S.  Geyer.  The  secretary  was  Thomas  B.  Hudson.  This  meeting  de- 
clared belief  that  valid  objections  existed  to  the  reappointment  of  Judge  Law- 
less.   These  objections  were  stated  as  follows: 

1.  That  the  said  Luke  E.  Lawless,  Esq..  is  too  much  under  the  influence  of  first 
impressions,  to  give  to  each  case  submitted  to  his  judgment  a  deliberate  consideration. 

2.  That  he  is  too  passionate  and  impatient  while  on  the  bench,  to  admit  a  calm  and 
full  examination  of  cases. 


224  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

3.  That  on  the  trial  of  issues  of  fact  before  juries,  his  mind  receives  an  early  bias, 
plainly  perceivable  by  the  jury,  to  the  prejudice  of  parties. 

4.  That  he  invades  the  right  of  juries,  by  assuming  the  decision  of  questions  of  fact 
exclusively  within  their  province. 

5.  That  his  impatience  and  arbitrariness  lead  him  to  interrupt  counsel  unnecessarily, 
and  frequently  to  preclude  argument. 

6.  That  he  is  wanting  in  punctuality  in  attending  to  the  duties  of  the  office. 

7.  That  he  is  imperious,  overbearing,  and  disrespectful  in  his  manner  to  the  members 
of  the  bar. 

8.  That  he  is  indifferent  to  the  faithful  recording  of  the  acts  of  the  court  wherein 
he   is  judge. 

The  governor,  it  seeins,  took  the  view  that  the  opposition  to  Judge  Lawless 
was  largely  on  account  of  pohtics.  He  reappointed  him.  After  serving  a  part  of 
the  term.  Judge  Lawless  retired  to  private  life. 

A  Public  Spirited  Jurist. 

A  movement  to  impeach  a  circuit  judge  was  made  in  1833.  William  C.  Carr 
was  the  judge,  having  held  the  position  seven  years.  Investigation  showed  that 
the  charges  were  prompted  by  personal  enemies.  The  legislature  went  through 
with  the  trial  and  acquitted.  William  C.  Carr  was  described  by  those  who 
knew  him  as  being  somewhat  taciturn  in  temperament.  He  was  sober  and  re- 
ligiously inclined,  being  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  leading  Presbyterians  of  his 
day.  Having  no  acquaintance  with  the  French  language  when  he  came  to  St. 
Louis  among  the  first  arrivals  after  the  American  occupation,  he  made  rather 
slow  progress  in  the  early  years.  But  he  advanced  to  a  high  position  in  the  com- 
munity. He  built  the  first  brick  residence.  He  gave  a  block  of  ground  for  a  park. 
He  was  among  the  most  active  in  organizing  associations  for  charitable,  agri- 
cultural, religious  and  scientific  purposes.  When  he  moved  to  the  suburbs  his 
farm  and  the  mansion  thereon  were  considered  one  of  the  show  places  of  St. 
Louis.  Of  Judge  William  C.  Carr  it  was  said  that  he  crossed  the  Mississippi 
river  one  winter  on  floating  cakes  of  ice  at  the  imminent  hazard  of  his  life, 
floating  down  stream  for  miles  before  he  could  make  the  landing.  He  was  com- 
ing from  the  cast  and  was  prompted  to  this  act  in  order  to  be  with  his  dying 
wife. 

Early  Court  Days  in  Saline. 

Thomas  Shackleford,  in  his  early  recollections  of  Missouri,  given  to  the 
Missouri  Historical  Society,  told  these  stories  of  early  court  days  in  Salitie 
county : 

"Colonel  Benjamin  Chamb'fers,  a  revolutionary  soldier,  was  the  first  clerk  of  the 
county  and  circuit  courts ;  he  was  a  strict  old  school  Presbyterian  and  a  very  positive 
character.  While  the  court  was  being  held  at  old  Jefferson  in  a  one-roomed  cabin,  an 
original  genius,  named  William  Job,  was  sheriff,  and  lived  on  a  parcel  of  land  as  a 
squatter.  He  was  called  Bill  Job,  and  was  hardly  able  to  write  intelligibly,  but  was  a 
man  of  great  humor.  He  had  handed  the  panel  of  the  grand  jury  to  Col.  Chambers,  who 
was  at  his  desk,  and  Job  stood  in  the  door  to  call  the  jurors  as  indicated  by  the  colonel. 
The  judge  was  on  the  box,  elevated  a  little,  the  lawyers  sitting  around;  Chambers  could 
not  make  out  the  full  names  of  the  jurors.  He  called  to  Job,  'Jacolj — who  is  this?'  Job 
called  out  from  the  door  three  times,  'Jacob  Who-is-this.'     Col.  Chambers,  much  irritated 


CHARLES  P.  JOHNSON 

For  fifty  years  a  leading  lawyer  in  many  of 

Missouri's  most  noted  criminal  cases 


ELMER  B.  ADAMS 
Judge   of   the   Federal   court;    author   of 
"The  Man  Higher  Up,"  and  of  noted  do 
cisions  on  capital  and  labor. 


CHIEF  JUSTICE  HENRY  W.  BOND 

Member  of  Supreme  court  of  Missouri  from 

1912  to  1919 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  227 

at  the  burst  of  laughter  from  the  lawyers,  then  said  angrily,  'Xow  you  have  done  it.'  Job 
immediately  caused  increased  merriment  by  exclaiming  three  times,  'Now-you-have-done-it.' 
Job  was  a  very  poor  man.  As  a  boy  I  often  heard  the  expression,  'As  poor  as  Job's 
turkey,'  which  I  thought  was  in  reference  to  Bill  Job's  turkey.  As  I  had  never  heard 
that  the  original  Job  of  the  Bible  had  a  turkey,  the  expression  must  have  originated  from 
the  old  Bill  Job,  sheriff  of  Saline  county.  When  a  boy,  I  was  riding  with  Col.  Chambers. 
I  had  placed  the  ball  of  my  foot  in  the  stirrup  when  the  colonel  said  to  me:  'Young 
man,  don't  ride  in  that  way.'  I  said :  'But,  colonel,  I  might  get  thrown  and  would  not 
like  to  have  my  feet  hang  in  the  stirrup.'  'Young  man,  when  you  mount  a  horse,  you 
must  not  expect  to  be  thrown.  Ride  with  the  middle  of  the  foot  in  the  stirrup,  and  sit 
upright.  I  have  often  in  my  experience  in  life,  found  that  when  a  man  expects  to  fail  in 
life's  battle,  he  generally  fails.' 

A  Wetting  Escaped. 

"While  Dr.  Penn  was  going  to  see  his  daughter,  and  the  court  was  then  held  at 
Jonesburg,  Col.  Chambers  and  Dr.  Penn  were  riding  on  the  prairie  a  long  distance  from 
any  house.  A  sudden  shower  came  up,  which  promised  to  be  of  short  duration.  The 
colonel,  to  the  astonishment  of  Dr.  Penn,  it  being  a  sultry  hot  day,  deliberately  got  off 
his  horse,  took  off  his  saddle,  and  then  took  off  all  his  own  clothes,  put  them  all  under 
the  saddle,  covered  the  whole  with  the  blanket,  and  stood  in  the  shower  without  his 
clothing  until  the  shower  had  passed;  then  he  dressed  and  rode  comfortably  home,  while 
Dr.  Penn  had  to  go  to  the  house  of  his  sv/eetheart  perfectly  saturated  with  water. 

"Such  were  some  of  the  characteristics  of  this  old  soldier,  who  lived  to  be  over  80 
years  of  age.  During  the  term  of  his  service  as  clerk,  my  grandfather,  Drury  Pulliam, 
was  sheriff,  and  his  son,  John  C.  Pulliam,  who  afterwards  married  a  daughter  of  Col. 
Chambers,  carried  the  whole  of  the  state  revenue,  in  silver,  for  one  year,  to  Jefferson 
City  in  a  pair  of  saddlebags. 

"When  Saline  county  was  organized;  old  Jefferson  on  the  Missouri  river  was  chosen 
the  county  seat.  The  court  was  held  in  a  one-roomed  cabin,  and  the  juries  in  the  summer 
held  their  consultations  in  the  shade  of  the  trees.  Judge  David  Todd,  of  Columbia, 
Boone  county,  was  judge,  and  his  circuit  extended  to  the  state  line  west.  The  lawyers 
and  the  judge  frequently  came  to  remain  all  night  at  my  father's  house.  There  often 
came  Peyton  R.  Hayden,  John  B.  Clark,  Abiel  Leonard,  Hamilton  R.  Gamble,  John  F*. 
Ryland,  and  Charles  French  and  others.  I  listened  to  these  men  with  wonder.  Judge 
Todd  and  Gamble  were  the  only  professors  of  religion.  All  these  men  were  Whigs. 
Col.  Thomas  H.  Benton  had  assumed  prominence  as  a  leader  of  the  Jacksonian  Democ- 
racy, party  lines  were  distinctly  drawn,  and  the  Democracy  was  in  the  ascendant,  and  as 
most  of  the  judges  of  the  state  were  Whigs,  a  constitutional  amendment  was  adopted 
legislating  them  out  of  office,  and  the  appointment  of  Democrats  to  fill  their  places. 

Pioneer  Justice. 

"These  early  pioneers  had  a  strong  sense  of  justice.  An  incident  in  point :  We  had 
a  limitation  law,  which  barred  all  accounts  in  two  years.  I  was  a  young  man  just  begin- 
ning to  practice ;  a  client  came  to  me  with  an  account  for  flour  sold  over  two  years 
preceding.  I  said  to  him:  'It  is  barred  by  law.'  'I  know  it,'  he  said,  'but  I  want  him  to 
plead  the  act  if  he  dares.'  I  brought  the  suit,  the  trial  came  on.  The  defendant  said: 
'Squire,  I  plead  limitation  on  this  account.'  The  squire  said:  'Before  you  do  this,  let 
me  ask  you  some  questions.  Did  you  buy  this  flour?'  'Yes.'  'Did  you  eat  it  in  your 
family?"  'Yes.'  'Did,  you  ever  pay  for  it?'  'No.'  'Then  you  can't  plead  limitation  in 
my  court.  I  give  judgment  against  you.'  The  defendant  paid  the  debt.  Another  inci- 
dent: A  purchaser  of  tobacco  had  made  a  purchase  of  a  farmer  by  verbal  contract. 
Tobacco  jaised  in  price,  and,  his  covetousness  getting  the  better  of  him,  he  refused  to 
deliver.  The  purchaser  asked  me  to  sue  him.  I  told  him  I  could  not  recover  if  the  man 
pleaded  the  statute  of  frauds.  'He  dare  not  do  it  and  put  it  on  record.  I  will  give  you 
five  dollars  to  bring  the  suit.'     I  did  so,  the  writ  was  served;  the  next  day  the  purchaser 


228  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

came  into  my  office  with  a  five  dollar  bill  in  his  hand.     'Here,  S.,'  he  said,  'we  shot  at  the 
bush  and  got  the  game.     A.  has  delivered  his  tobacco.' " 

The  Stokes  Scandal. 

The  scandal  of  George  IV  and  Caroline  had  an  echo  in  the  St.  Louis  courts. 
The  Prince  Regent  repudiated  his  wife.  He  charged  her  with  infidelity.  Princess 
Caroline  was  living  away  from  England.  When  the  Prince  became  George  IV 
the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  declare  his  charges  against  his  wife,  and  to  call 
upon  parliament  to  dissolve  the  marriage.  Caroline  returned  to  England,  claimed 
her  royal  rights,  and  appealed  to  the  public.  Sympathy  was  with  her.  It  was 
stimulated  by  the  methods  employed  to  collect  evidence  of  Caroline's  alleged 
wrongdoing.  The  prosecution  failed  utterly  and  was  abandoned.  Not  long 
after  this  there  appeared  in  St.  Louis  an  Englishman  who  was  introduced  as 
William  Stokes.  He  brought  with  him  a  credit  of  28,000  pounds  sterling.  That 
was  a  great  deal  of  money  in  the  eyes  of  St.  Louis  people.  '  Stokes  announced 
that  he  had  selected  this  as  his  future  home.  Through  General  William  H. 
Ashley  and  others  he  began  to  make  large  purchases  of  real  estate.  Away 
to  the  westward  of  the  city  as  it  was  then,  near  what  is  now  Olive  street, 
he  bought  two  hundred  acres  of  ground.  This  was  laid  out  as  the  country 
home  of  an  English  gentleman.  Extensive  stables  and  outbuildings  supplemented 
the  mansion.  Orchard  and  garden,  a  tree-bordered  driveway,  a  park  were  added 
at  lavish  cost.  Stokes  was  made  welcome.  His  family  was  shown  the  social 
courtesies  which  St.  Louis  people  so  well  knew  how  to  bestow.  This  family 
consisted  of  Miss  Stokes,  the  sister,  and  a  lady  who  was  presented  as  Mrs. 
Stokes,  the  wife.  Miss  Stokes  was  a  young  woman  of  fine  education  and  good 
breeding.  In  time  she  became  the  wife  of  John  O'Fallon.  Stokes  had  become 
well  settled  in  St.  Louis.  Four  years  had  elapsed  since  his  coming.  Mrs.  Mari- 
anne Stokes  arrived.  She  announced  that  she  was  the  real  wife  of  \\'illiam 
Stokes.  She  told  the  story  of  his  desertion  in  England.  Her  version  was  that 
Stokes  had  been  employed  by  the  crown  to  furnish  evidence  against  Queen  Caro- 
line. For  this  she  said  his  reward  had  been  50,000  pounds.  But  the  conduct  of 
Stokes,  when  the  evidence  was  presented,  appeared  so  disreputable  that  he  was 
compelled  to  exile  himself.  He  had  taken  his  housekeeper  with  him.  That 
he  was  in  St.  Louis  had  been  learned  through  the  Barings,  bankers. 

Mrs.  Marianne  Stokes  took  board  in  St.  Louis  and  employed  lawyers.  She 
wanted  alimony;  she  also  wanted  a  divorce.  Her  chief  counsel  was  Luke  E. 
Lawless.  Stokes  was  defended  by  an  array  of  talent  headed  by  Thomas  H. 
Benton.  A  jury  was  summoned  to  report  on  the  facts.  It  was  composed  of 
George  Martin,  Gabriel  Cerre,  Joseph  White,  John  R.  Guy,  Joseph  Liggett, 
Jonathan  Johnson,  James  J.  Purdy,  John  Sutton,  Dempsey  Jackson,  William 
Anderson,  James  Loker,  James  B.  Lewis. 

St.  Louis  was  shocked  at  the  revelations.  Stokes  was  shunned.  But  there 
was  not  much  sympathy  for  Mrs.  Marianne  Stokes.  That  lady  was  too  plainly 
out  for  revenge.  Moreover,  she  took  pains  to  show  that  she  considered  herself 
vjery  much  above  the  society  of  St.  Louis.  It  was  her  custom  to  carry  to  the 
table  her  own  knife,  fork  and  spoon,  enclosed  in  a  beautiful  case,  and  to  use 
them  in  preference  to  those  furnished  by  the  landlady  where  she  boarded. 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  229 

A  Sensible  Missouri  Judge. 

Lawless  pressed  the  case  with  a  great  deal  of  bitterness.  He  got  an  order 
for  $90  a  month  alimony  while  the  case  was  pending.  The  law  officers  were  set 
upon  Stokes  every  month  for  the  alimony.  If  there  was  a  delay,  Lawless  would 
go  before  a  justice  and  get  a  judgment;  then  Stokes  would  be  threatened  with 
•arrest  unless  he  paid.  The  litigation  got  into  the  supreme  court.  An  opinion 
rendered  there  shows  that  the  course  of  the  prosecution  was  not  viewed  as 
entirely  praiseworthy.     Judge  Pettibone,  announcing  the  decision,  said  sensibly: 

"It  appears  by  the  complainant's  own  showing  that  she  and  her  husband  separated  by 
consent  in  1807,  and  that  they  had  never  since  lived  together;  that  in  1816  she  left  the 
neighborhood  in  England  and  went  over  to  France.  The  laws  of  England  afforded  her 
redress ;  she  was  free  to  seek  it  there  if  she  wished  it ;  she  was  under  no  coercion  of  her 
husband,  for  she  lived  separate  from  him;  she  was  not  forced  away  by  him  before  she  could 
have  an  opportunity  to  make  her  complaints.  If  for  nine  years  she  could  behold  the  open 
adultery  and  profligacy  of  her  husband,  I  see  no  reason  why  the  courts  of  this  country 
should  at  this  hour  be  called  upon  to  interfere  in  her  behalf.  It  is  against  good  policy 
and  good  morals  to  do  it.  Investigating  cases  of  this  kind  leaves  a  bad  impression  upon 
the  public  mind  and  has  a  tendency  to  deprave  the  public  morals,  and  ought  to  be  resorted 
to  only  when  the  due  administration  of  justice  imperiously  requires  it.  Every  offense 
committed  within  our  own  country  against  the  morals  and  manners  of  society  we  are 
bound  to  notice  and  punish,  whenever  we  can  get  opportunity.  But  it  is  carrying  our 
comity  very  far  to  say  that  we  must  investigate  the  adulteries  and  family  quarrels  which 
took  place  in  England  perhaps  ten  years  ago,  when  the  parties  had  an  opportunity  of 
applying  to  their  own  courts.  And  I  am  unwilling  to  establish  the  principle  that  parties 
may  lie  by  in  their  own  country  under  injuries  of  this  kind,  and  then  come  here  and 
ask  us   for  the  redress  which  they  might  and  ought  to  have  obtained  there." 

In  the  end  Marianne  .Stokes  was  given  judgiuent  for  a  considerable  sum. 
.Stokes'  property  was  seized  and  sold.  Some  pieces  went  for  one-tenth  what  he 
had  paid.  The  Mrs.  .Stokes  who  had  first  appeared  in  St.  Louis  died.  The 
wife  of  John  O'Fallon  died,  leaving  no  children.  .Stokes  died  and  was  buried 
in  a  little  grave  not  far  from  where  the  mansion  stood.  For  a  time  the  grave 
was  surrounded  by  a  wooden  fence.  ^\  half  century  later  when  grading  was 
being  done  near  the  line  of  Olive  street,  the  workmen  came  upon  a  part  of  a 
skull  and  thigh  bones.  The  coffin  and  other  parts  of  the  body  had  gone  to  dust. 
The  bones  were  loaded  into  the  cart,  hauled  away  and  thrown  into  the  depres- 
sion which  was  being  filled.  There  isn't  so  much  as  a  grave  left  as  a  reminder 
of  the   Stokes   family  tragedy  of  ninety  years  ago. 

Early  Law  Givers. 

Thomas  C.  Burch  caiue  upon  the  bench  in  Chariton  county  about  1839.  The 
legislature  had  created  the  eleventh  judicial  circuit.  It  was  told  of  him  that 
he  had  little  patience  with  the  delays  of  litigation.  One,  the  calf  case,  in  which 
a  poor  woman  was  claiming  an  animal  which  a  neighbor  had  taken,  was  brought 
before  him.  The  judge  looked  over  the  papers  and  cairie  to  the  conclusion  from 
the  array  of  witnesses  that  the  trial  would  require  several  days.  He  rebuked 
the  lawyer  of  the  poor  w'oman  for  bringing  such  a  suit.  The  lawyer  replied 
"That  it  was  not  so  much  the  value  of  the  calf  that  was  prompting  the  suit  but 
a  desire  for  justice." 


230  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Well,"  said  the  judge  addressing  the  defendant's  counsel,  "what  are  you 
fighting  for?" 

"For  the  same  that  my  learned  brother  is  professing  to  seek — the  ever  living 
and  eternal  principles  of  right." 

"Mr.  Clerk,"  said  the  judge,  "how  many  witnesses  have  been  subpoenaed  in 
this  case?" 

"Forty,  your  Honor." 

"Do  you  want  your  fees  in  the  case?" 

"No,  sir;  I  will  relinquish  them  if  it  will  tend  to  settle  the  case." 

"Mr.  Sheriff,  have  you  any  claim  for  your  services?" 

"No,  sir;  like  the  clerk,  I  will  abandon  my  fees  if  the  case  stops  here." 

Coming  down  from  the  bench  and  approaching  the  plaintiff,  the  judge  said : 

"Madame,  how  much  do  you  want  for  your  calf?" 

"It  is  worth  four  dollars,"  replied  the  widow. 

The  judge  thereupon  took  from  his  pocket  four  dollars,  and,  handing  the 
money  to  the  widow,  said:     "Mr.  Clerk,  strike  this  case  from  the  docket." 

The  Darnes  Trial 

Three  professions — journalism,  the  law  and  medicine — were  concerned  in  a 
celebrated  case  which  monopolized  public  interest  for  several  weeks  in  1840. 
The  beginning  was  a  newspaper  controversy.  In  the  Argus,  which  was  the 
Democratic  organ,  appeared  an  article  criticising  severely  the  participants  of  a 
meeting  where  William  P.  Dames  was  secretary.  The  Argus  was  edited  by 
William  Gilpin,  the  owner  was  Andrew  J.  Davis.  Dames  had  been  the  subject 
of  severe  criticism  in  the  columns  of  the  Argus  before  the  publication  about 
the  meeting.  He  wrote  to  Mr.  Davis,  asking  if  the  criticism  of  the  meeting  was 
intended  to  apply  to  him  personally.  At  the  same  time  Darnes  referred  to 
Gilpin  with  some  contemptuous  expression.  Davis  replied  sharply.  Gilpin  came 
out  in  the  Argus  declaring  he  alone  was  responsible  for  what  appeared  in  the 
paper.     He  denounced  Darnes.     This  meant  physical  violence. 

Darnes  decided  to  hold  Davis  responsible,  notwithstanding  what  Gilpin  had 
written.  He  bought  a  cane,  a  small  iron  rod.  Meeting  Davis  near  the  comer 
of  Third  and  Market  streets,  he  struck  him  upon  the  head  with  the  cane.  Davis 
was  taken  to  the  hospital.  Three  of  the  leading  physicians  of  the  city  were 
called  in.  They  determined  to  perform  an  operation  to  uncover  the  brain  and 
take  out  any  broken  pieces  that  might  be  found.  As  a  result  of  the  operation, 
several  fragments  were  removed.  Davis  died  a  few  days  afterward.  The  med- 
ical profession  divided  upon  the  question  whether  the  operation  was  necessary. 

Darnes  came  to  trial.  He  had  friends.  Supporters  of  Davis  were  anxious 
that  conviction  should  follow  prosecution.  As  a  result,  able  counsel  were  em- 
ployed on  both  sides.  Gantt  was  one  of  the  prosecutors.  Geyer  defended  in  a 
two  days'  speech.  The  trial  lasted  two  weeks.  It  turned  on  the  medical  testi- 
mony whether  Davis  died  from  blows  of  the  cane  or  from  the  surgical  opera- 
tion. Among  the  doctors  who  took  the  ground  that  the  symptoms  did  not  require 
trephining  was  Dr.  William  Carr  Lane,  the  first  mayor  of  St.  Louis.  The  opera- 
tion had  been  performed  by  Dr.  Beaumont,  who  was  a  surgeon  in  the  United 
States  army  and  who  obtained  world-wide  reputation  as  a  writer  and  authority 


OLDEST  HOUSE  IX  LKXIXGTON 
Built  of  logs  and  used  originally  as  the  court- 
house of  Lafayette  County 


JTIDGE  JOHN  W.  HENKT 


JX'DGE  HENRY  CLAY  McDOTJGAL 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  233 

upon  the  stomach  and  the  functions  of  gastric  juice.  About  the  same  number  of 
doctors  testified  on  one  side  as  on  the  other.  The  court  room  was  crowded 
throughout  the  trial.  The  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty  of  manslaughter  in 
the  fourth  degree.  Dames  was  fined  $500.  At  that  time  personal  journalism 
of  the  most  aggravated  type  prevailed  among  the  newspapers  of  St.  Louis,  and 
editors  indulged  in  very  sweeping  and  bitter  criticism  of  political  opponents.  It 
was  public  comment  that  the  lightness  of  the  verdict  against  Dames  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  editors  went  too  far  in  their  comments. 

Judge  Henry  and  the  New  Madrid  Titles. 

Judge  John  ^^'.  Henry  drew  a  graphic  picture  ut  life  in  Missouri  as  he  found 
it  when  he  came  in  1845.  He  was  twenty  years  old  and  fresh  from  Transyl- 
vania law  school.  He  first  tried  practice  in  Boonville.  In  1847  'i^  ^^'^s  niade 
attorney  for  the  branch  of  the  state  bank  at  Fayette  and  moved  there.  The  ap- 
pointment was  given,  he  said,  "because  I  was  a  Democrat  and  for  no  other  rea- 
son. I  was  a  perfect  stranger  in  Fayette.  One  night  I  wandered  into  the  local 
tavern  where  the  fellows  were  wont  to  gather.  There  was  a  crowd  there  and 
among  them  was  'Captain  Jack'  Moon,  a  plasterer  by  trade,  who  owned  a  farm 
near  town.  He  had  a  game  leg  and  was  blind  in  one  eye.  He  had  been  in  the 
war  of  1812  and  was  as  game  a  man  as  ever  was,  although  I  didn't  know  it.  It 
seems  that  a  Frenchman  named  Bogliole  had  been  buying  up  New  Madrid  land 
titles  in  that  neighborhood  and  ousting  people  from  their  land  through  the 
courts.    As  I  stepped  in  somebod)'  just  for  a  joke  spoke  up  and  said: 

"  'Here  comes  Bogliole's  lawyer  now.  He  is  down  here  to  get  possession  of  Captain 
Jack's    farm.' 

"At  this  the  captain  hobbled  to  the  center  of  the  room  and  asked  me  if  I  was  Bogliole's 
lawyer.     Thinking  I'd  carry  out  the  joke,  I  answered  yes. 

"  'Are  you  going  to  get  my   farm  ?'  he  asked. 

"'Yes.'  said   I. 

"  'Well,  you'd  better  bring  your  coffin  and  shroud  with  you  when  you  come,'  said 
the  captain. 

""Well,"  said  I,  'if  you  want  to  kill  me  we  can  settle  that  right  now.  I  haven't  any 
weapons  with  me,  but  come  up  to  my  office  and  we'll  see  about  it.' 

"Captain  Jack  said  'all  right'  and  followed  by  the  crowd,  we  went  to  my  office,  a 
short  distance  away.  There  was  a  fireplace  in  the  room  and  the  uncertain  light  made  a 
weird  effect.  As  I  entered  the  door  I  took  down  a  large  brass  key  hanging  by  the  door, 
wheeled  around  and  pointed  it  squarely  at  Captain  Jack's  breast.  'Now,'  said  I,  gruffly, 
'what  are  you  going  to  do?' 

"Before  I  had  the  words  out  of  my  mouth  Captain  Jack  reached  into  a  hind  pocket 
and  pulled  out  a  sharp  trowel  that  looked  two   feet  long  in  the  firelight. 

"  'Make  a  center  shot,   then,'  he  roared  as  he  lunged  at  me. 

"That  took  all  the  joke  out  of  it  for  me  and  I  made  a  leap  for  the  door  and  bounded 
down  the  stairs  without  waiting  to  see  if  the  captain  w-as  behind  me.  There  isn't  any 
doubt  about  it;  1  was  scared  'most  to  death  and  it  was  a  long  time  before  the  fellows 
at  Fayette  let  up  on  me  for  my  encounter  with  'Captain  Jack'  Moon.  Moon  and  I,  how- 
ever, were  afterwards  the  best  of   friends." 

Judge  Mullanphy  on  the  Proprieties. 

When  Bryan  Mullanphy  was  judge  of  the  circuit  court  in  St.  Louis,  he  was 
charged  with  oppression.     The  complaint  was  made  by  Ferdinand  W.  Risque. 


234  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  judge  had  ruled  unfavorably  to  Mr.  Risque  in  the  case  that  was  pending. 
The  lawyer  showed  his  disgust  in  the  judge's  presence.  Three  times  in  quick 
succession  the  judge  imposed  a  fine  of  $50.  Mr.  Risque  for  the  fourth  time 
showed  his  contempt.  Judge  Mullanphy  ordered  the  lawyer  removed  by  the 
sheriff  from  the  court  room.  On  this  the  lawyer  based  his  charges.  The  judge 
was  tried  before  the  criminal  court  and  acquitted. 

Judge  Mullanphy  had  a  keen  sense  of  the  proprieties  when  the  honor  of  the 
bench  was  assailed.  Information  that  he  had  been  indicted  was  brought  to  him 
while  he  was  trying  a  case.  The  marshal  went  to  the  judge  and  told  him  he 
had  a  capias  for  him.  He  asked  that  as  soon  as  the  trial  was  concluded,  the 
judge  come  into  the  office  and  sign  the  acknowledgment  of  the  service  with  prom- 
ise to  appear.  Judge  Mullanphy  promptly  decUned  the  courtesy.  Interrupting 
the  lawyer  who  was  addressing  the  jury,  the  judge  said: 

"Stop,  stop :  I  can't  go  any  further  now, — the  court  is  indicted.  Mr.  Sheriff,  discharge 
the  jury  and  adjourn  the  court;  the  court  is  indicted.  The  court  will  not  continue  in 
session  one  minute  after  being  indicted." 

The  Risque  aflfair  had  both  comedy  and  tragedy  passages.  After  the  judge 
had  ordered  the  lawyer  from  the  court  room,  Risque  stood  outside  the  open  door, 
shook  his  fist  and  made  grimaces  at  the  court.  Thereupon  the  judge  told  the 
sheriff  to  shut  the  door,  remarking  that  he  would  not  "have  the  light  of  his 
countenance  shine  upon  the  lawyer." 

Subsequently  Judge  Mullanphy  and  Risque  met  on  Chestnut  street  at  the 
south  entrance  to  the  Planters'  house.  George  H.  Kennerly,  then  coimty  marshal, 
was  present.  Risque  struck  at  the  judge.  Mullanphy  drew  the  sword  from  his 
cane  and  started  towards  Risque.  The  marshal  stepped  between  and  "commanded 
the  peace"  after  the  form  of  those  days.  "Do  you  command  the  peace  in  your 
official  capacity?"  asked  Mullanphy.  The  marshal  said  he  did.  "I  always  obey 
the  officers  of  the  law,"  said  iMullanphy,  sheathing  his  sword  in  the  cane  and 
walking  away. 

A  case  to  which  the  Bank  of  the  State  of  Missouri  was  a  party  came  before 
Judge  Mullanphy.  The  lawyer  on  the  other  side  questioned  the  legal  competency 
of  the  court  to  sit.  He  said  Judge  Mullanphy  was  a  stockholder.  The  judge 
sustained  the  point  and  ruled  himself  off  the  bench  for  that  cause.  He  said  that 
"the  court  was  not  a  stockholder  in  the  bank;  but  the  court's  mother  was  a  stock- 
holder, and  therefore  he  would  not  try  the  case." 

When  Judge  Mullanphy  was  examining  a  candidate  for  admission  to  the  bar 
he  asked  a  number  of  questions  calculated  to  test  the  power  of  recollection.  He 
announced  his  finding  in  these  words:  "You  have  a  very  particular  memory,  sir 
—very  particular,  and  I  shall  grant  your  license  with  much  pleasure."  Judge 
Mullanphy  was  the  seventh  circuit  judge,  succeeding  Lawless.  He  was  a  native 
of  Baltimore  and  had  been  educated  at  the  Jesuit  college  in  Paris,  with  four 
years  at  Stonyhurst,  England.  Notwithstanding  his  eccentricities  Judge  Mul- 
lanphy was  so  painstaking  and  thorough  on  the  bench  that  very  few  of  his  deci- 
sions were  reversed.  When  he  died  the  bar  of  St.  Louis  resolved  that  "all  his 
oddities  are  but  as  dust  in  the  balance  when  weighed  against  the  uprightness  of 
his  life  and  the  succession  of  his  charities." 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  235 

When  "Abby"  Got  the  Best  of  Uriel  Wright. 

When  J.  R.  Abemathy  was  teaching  school  in  Audrain,  one  of  the  neighbors 
came  to  him  with  a  complaint  that  some  one  had  taken  his  "bee-gum."  Aber- 
nathy  consulted  a  law  book  and  finding  nothing  in  there  about  bee-gums  or  bees, 
he  turned  over  the  pages  until  he  came  to  the  form  of  procedure  for  "forcible 
entry  and  detainer."  This  gave  him  the  suggestion  and  he  started  a  suit  for 
the  recovery  of  the  bee-gum  by  forcible  entry  and  detainer.  He  was  so  success- 
ful that  he  decided  to  be  a  lawyer  and  prepared  himself  for  admission  to  the 
bar.  The  court  referred  the  application  to  Judge  Jack  Gordon,  himself  a  lead- 
ing lawyer.  Gordon  asked  Abemathy,  so  the  tradition  to  the  Audrain  bar  goes, 
if  he  could  sing  and  dance.  The  examination  was  satisfactory.  Gordon  re- 
ported to  the  court  that  Abemathy  might  not  be  very  strong  on  common  law, 
but  he  was  on  the  statutes.    Abemathy  was  admitted. 

Abemathy,  or  "Abby" -as  he  was  commonly  called,  got  the  best  of  the  elo- 
quent Uriel  Wright  in  the  prosecution  of  a  man  for  horse  stealing.  Wright  was 
the  terror  of  the  lawyers  less  gifted  with  speech.  The  side  which  secured  his 
services  entered  upon  the  trial  with  much  confidence.  Judge  Fagg,  of  Pike 
county,  in  his  charming  reminiscences  written  for  the  Pike  County  News  nearly 
twenty  years  ago,  gave  this  account  of  Wright's  defeat  by  Abemathy: 

"The  one  great  fault  in  Major  Wright's  defense  of  a  criminal  was  the  length  of  his 
speech.  He  was  very  fascinating  in  manner  as  well  as  in  diction.  He  was  a  good  judge 
of  humanity  and  knew  how  to  play  upon  the  sympathies  and  feelings  of  an  ordinary 
juror,  but  he  did  not  understand  the  art  of  quitting  when  he  was  through.  Consequently 
he  sometimes  became  a  little  tedious.  On  this  occasion  he  had  been  very  successful  in 
keeping  both  the  jurors  and  the  audience  in  a  high  state  of  merriment  and  good  humor. 

"Abby  felt  that  he  had  to  exert  himself  to  the  full  measure  of  his  capacity  to  meet 
the  counsel  for  the  defense  upon  his  chosen  ground.  He  commenced  by  telling  the  jury 
that  no  one  knew  better  than  he  did  his  inability  to  cope  with  Major  Wright  in  learning 
or  ability  to  talk;  that  he  had  been  raised  a  very  poor  boy  in  the  mountains  of  West 
Virginia ;  that  he  had  only  been  able  to  get  a  very  limited  education  and  that  he  had 
had  a  hard  fight  with  poverty  from  his  earliest  recollection.  He  succeeded  at  once  in 
securing  the  closest  attention  and  s>'mpathy  of  the  jury  and  he  proceeded  with  much 
greater  confidence  in  his  ability  to  secure  a  conviction.  He  said  there  were  two  things 
that  he  found  very  difficult  to  understand  in  his  boyhood.  He  didn't  understand  how  it 
was  possible  for  a  man  to  know  enough  to  enable  him  to  talk  four  hours  in  succession, 
and,  as  there  wasn't  level  enough  country  in  those  mountains  to  make  a  race  track  four 
miles  in  length,  he  could  not  understand  how  a  four-mile  race  could  be  run.  His  father, 
however,  moved  to  Kentucky  while  he  was  a  boy  and  settled  some  little  distance  from 
Lexington.  It  was  not  long  before  he  heard  of  a  four-mile  race  to  be  run  over  the 
celebrated  race  course  at  that  place.  He  had  to  walk  the  entire  distance  and  he  labored 
hard  and  patiently  until  it  was  reached.  To  his  utter  amazement,  he  said,  the  four-mile 
I  ace  was  made  by  running  around  the  same  track  four  times.  The  idea  had  never  struck 
him,  and  without  this  practical  demonstration  he  could  never  have  been  able  to  solve  the 
mystery.  He  said  he  never  found  out  how  four-hour  speeches  could  be  made  until  he 
listened  to  his  friend.  Major  Wright,  and  he  found  out  they  were  made  in  precisely  the 
same  way  that  they  run  four-mile  races, — by  running  round  the  same  track  four  times. 
His  victory  was  assured  without  another  word.  The  fellow  went  to  the  penitcntiarj-  for 
the  longest  term  authorized  by  the  statute." 

Evolution  of  Missouri's  Judicial  System. 

At  the  first  annual  meeting  of  the  Missouri  Bar  Association,  held  in  St. 
Louis,  in  1881,  Jay  L.  Torrcy,  afterwards  of  national  fame  as  the  colonel  of 


236  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Torrey's  Rough  Riders  in  the  Spanish-American  war,  told  in  succinct  form  the 
beginning  and  development  of  the  judicial  system  of  Missouri : 

"The  constitution  of  1820  vested  the  judicial  power  of  the  new  state  in  a  supreme 
court,  a  chancellor  and  three  circuit  courts.  The  supreme  court  was  composed  of  three 
judges,  and  held  sessions  in  different  parts  of  the  state.  The  chancellor  held  an  equity 
intermediate  court  of  appeal.  The  circuit  courts  exercised  original  equity  and  the  supreme 
court  final  equity  jurisdiction.  The  judges  were  appointed  during  good  behavior  by  the 
governor,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  senate,  were  required  to  be  thirty 
years  of  age  at  the  time  of  appointment,  and  to  retire  upon  attaining  the  age  of  sixty-five 
years,  and  were  to  receive  a  salary  of  not  to  exceed  $2,000  per  annum. 

"In  1822  the  office  of  chancellor  was  abolished  by  constitutional  amendment ;  limitation 
as  to  salaries  was  stricken  out.  In  1849  the  constitution  was  further  amended  to  make 
the  term  of  judges  for  the  supreme  court  twelve  years  and  that  of  the  circuit  judges  eight 
years.  At  the  same  time  it  was  provided  that  all  of  the  judgeships  he  vacated  on  March 
I,  1849. 

"In  1850,  Missouri,  through  further  amendment  of  the  constitution,  provided  that 
judges  be  elected  instead  of  appointed.  The  constitution  of  1865  reconstructed  the  judicial 
system  of  Mis.souri.  It  changed  the  terms  of  the  supremo  judges  so  that  one  judge  should 
go  out  every  three  years.  It  established  intermediate  courts  of  appeal,  called  district 
courts.  The  state  outside  of  St.  Louis  county  was  divided  into  districts  of  three  circuits 
each,  the  circuit  judges  in  each  district  constituting  the  district  court  to  hear  appeals. 
In  St.  Louis,  the  three  circuit  judges  met  in  what  was  called  'general  term'  and  performed 
the  same  function  as  the  district  courts  out  in  the  state.  All  appeals  and  writs  of  error 
from  lower  jurisdictions  were  heard  at  these  district  court  sessions  and  might,  without 
restriction,  be  appealed  to  and  prosecuted  in  the  supreme  court.  The  qualification  of 
thirty  years  of  age  was  retained  and  residence  of  five  years  in  the  United  States  and 
three   in   Missouri   was   required   but  no   retirement   age   was   fixed. 

"In  1870,  the  district  courts  were  abolished,  by  amendment,  and  in  1875  the  judges  of 
the  supreme  court  were  increased  to  five ;  the  term  was  made  ten  instead  of  six  years. 

"Then  came  the  present  state  constitution  of  1875  creating  the  St.  Louis  court  of 
appeals  with  jurisdiction  in  St.  Louis  city  and  county  and  the  counties  of  St.  Charles, 
Warren  and  Lincoln,  with  final  jurisdiction  except  that  'appeals  shall  lie  from  the  decisions 
of  the  St.  Louis  court  of  appeals  to  the  supreme  court  and  writs  of  error  may  issue  from 
the  supreme  court  in  all  cases  where  the  amount  in  dispute,  exclusive  of  costs,  exceeds  the 
sum  of  $2,500;  in  cases  involving  construction  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  or  of 
this  state ;  in  cases  where  the  validity  of  a  treaty  or  statute  of,  or  authority  exercised  under 
the  United  States  is  draAvn  in  question ;  in  cases  involving  the  construction  of  the  revenue 
laws  of  this  state,  or  the  title  to  any  office  under  this  state ;  in  cases  involving  the  title  to 
real  estate ;  in  cases  where  a  county  or  other  political  subdivision  of  the  state  or  any  state 
officer  is  a  party  and  in  all  cases  of  felony.'  The  term  of  office  was  made  twelve  years  and 
divided  so  that  one  judge  would  go  out  every  four  years." 

Missouri's  "Odd  CEise." 

In  the  Missouri  reports  is  recorded  a  case  which  C.  O.  Tichenor  embalmed  as 
one  of  the  "Odd  Cases"  of  the  world's  litigation.  A  doctor  brought  suit  for 
two  dollars  for  medical  services.  The  patient  filed  a  set-off  for  one  dollar  and 
a  half.  He  deposited  in  court  fifty  cents  and  the  costs  which  had  accrued.  The 
doctor  wasn't  satisfied  with  the  judgment  given  him  for  the  fifty  cents  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  circuit  court.  One  of  the  parties  lo  the  litigation  took  a  change  of 
venue  to  another  circuit  judge.  The  case  was  tried  by  jury  which  found  against 
the  doctor,  who  appealed  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  state.  There  was  no  dis- 
pute about  the  amount  of  the  bill.     Xeither  was  it  di.sputed  that  the  patient  had 


ROGER  NORTH  TODD 
First  circuit  clerk  and  recorder  of  Boone  County 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  239 

loaned  the  doctor  one  dollar  and  a  half  but  the  doctor  set  up  that  the  loan  was 
made  in  poker  chips  while  the  patient  and  he  were  sitting  in  the  game.  He  set 
up,  or  his  lawyer  did  for  him,  that  the  patient  should  not  be  given  credit  for  the 
dollar  and  a  half  because  flie  chips  were  given  "for  the  purpose  of  being  used  in 
betting  on  said  game  and  defendant  knew  the  purpose  of  the  loan."  The  su- 
preme court  reversed  the  decision  of  the  lower  court,  holding  that  the  jury  had 
not  been  properly  instructed  as  to  the  law  of  the  case.  The  litigants  seemed  to 
have  settled  out  of  court  for  the  case  did  not  get  back  to  the  supreme  court. 

The  contest  over  the  will  of  Colonel  Philip  Williams  was  one  of  the  cele- 
brated cases  of  Missouri.  It  was  tried  at  Paris.  Judge  Henry  S.  Priest,  after- 
wards of  St.  Louis,  had  his  baptism  of  fire  in  court  at  that  time,  pitted  against 
some  of  the  most  famous  men  at  the  Missouri  bar.  There  were  extraordinary 
features  in  the  colonel's  will.  He  mentioned  a  woman  whom  he  had  known 
away  back  in  his  early  days  in  Virginia  and  who  claimed  that  he  was  the  father 
of  her  son.  The  colonel  said,  in  his  will,  "I  do  not  of  my  own'  knowledge 
know  that  said  Williams  is  my  son,  but  it  being  ungallant  to  dis- 
pute the  word  of  a  lady  in  such  matters,  I  hereby  bequeath  him  the  sum  of 
$10,000." 

The  Early  Conferences  of  Missouri  Judges. 

In  1905,  Shepard  Barclay  told  at  the  conference  of  judges  of  Missouri  some 
reminiscences  of  those  who  were  prominent  in  the  earliest  of  these  conferences. 
Of  Judge  George  H.  Burckhartt,  he  said  this  first  president  of  the  conference 
was  such  an  enthusiastic  hunter  that  he  had  caused  to  be  pictured  on  the  seal 
of  the  Moberly  court  of  common  pleas  a  deer  hunt  as  having  taken  place  on 
the  very  spot  where  that  city  is  located. 

"He  once  (decided  a  case  against  an  old  and  familiar  friend  who  was  deeply  disgruntled 
at  the  decision.  When  the  lawyers  assembled  that  night  at  the  hotel  where  they  were 
stopping,  this  disgruntled  friend  took  a  seat  apart,  unwilling  to  mingle  in  the  merriment 
of  which  the  judge  was  always  the  center.  Judge  Burckhartt  told  to  those  immediately 
surrounding  him  the  story  of  a  coon  hunt  which  had  taken  place  on  his  farm  the  previous 
week.  He  described  how  one  of  his  old  neg^ro  servants  of  the  war  days  was  with  him. 
chasing  coons  with  a  pack  of  dogs.  How  a  coon  got  into  a  tree  which  the  darkey  began 
to  chop  down.  As  the  tree  was  about  to  fall  and  was  swaying,  a  celebrated  coon  dog, 
'Jeff,'  leaped  out  of  the  pack  into  the  darkness,  to  every  one's  surprise,  just  at  the  time 
the  tree  began  to  fall,  in  the  direction  where  the  dog  was  running.  Jeff  got  to  the  point 
where  the  coon  endeavored  to  spring  to  another  tree  and  was  just  in  time  to  catch  him 
down.  The  judge  told  how  his  faithful  colored  man  clapped  his  hands  and  shouted: 
'Massa  Buck,  dat's  the  smartest  dog  dat  eber  lived.  I  do  believe  he  done  studied  law.— 
he  knows  ebcry  time  just  where  to  jump.'  At  this  point  in  the  story,  the  deep  voice 
of  the  disgruntled  lawyer  in  the  corner  exclaimed :  'That's  a  durn  sight  more  than  his 
master  ever  did — he  never  studied  law  and  never  knew  which  way  to  jump.'  This,  of 
course,  produced  a  roar  of  laughter  in  which  the  judge  joined." 

Of  Judge  John  J.  Lindley,  Judge  Barclay  said  he  had  a  "natural  and  easy 
manner  on  the  bench.  On  one  occasion  an  aged  German,  summoned  on  the 
panel  of  jurors,  came  forward  to  present  an  excuse.  When  questioned  he  said. 
'Judge,  I  no  understand  good  English.'  The  judge  replied,  'Don't  let  that  bother 
you,  my  dear  friend,  you  will  hear  mighty  little  of  it  in  this  courtroom.' " 


240  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Of  Judge  Thomas  T.  Gantt,  presiding  judge  of  tlie  St.  Louis  court  of  appeals, 
in  its  beginning,  Judge  Barclay  said :  "His  classical  learning  was  extensive  and 
he  enjoyed  the  use  of  colloquial  Latin.  I  remember  his  story  of  Groundhog  day. 
We  met  on  that  day  in  the  Law  library  and  I  made  some  remark  concerning 
the  groundhog.  Whereupon  he  entered  into  a  most  interesting  narration  of  the 
origin  of  the  superstition  about  that  animal.  He  said  that  the  tradition  was  an- 
cient and  to  be  found  recorded  in  the  Monkish  documents  of  the  Middle  Ages  in 
words  which  he  quoted,  a  sort  of  barbarous  and  mongrel  Latin  meaning  that  'if 
the  sun  shines  on  the  day  of  the  purification  of  the  Virgin,  there  will  be  more 
winter  after  that  day  than  before.'  He  said  that  the  superstition  about  the 
groundhog  was  another  form  of  stating  the  same  idea  but  that  he  had  been  unable 
to  trace  the  origin  beyond  the  point  mentioned.  Judge  Gantt  used  the  Latin  with 
quite  as  much  ease  as  he  did  the  English." 

Of  Judge  Francis  M.  Black,  Judge  Barclay  said  he  "was  another  of  those 
present  at  the  initial  meetings  of  our  conference.  It  was  amusing  to  hear  his 
frequent  expressions  of  disgust  at  the  drudgery  and  slavery  of  office,  and  of  his 
firm  resolve  to  retire  at  the  close  of  his  first  term;  yet  that  singular  fascination 
which  public  life  acquires  for  those  who  have  once  breathed  its  atmosphere  led 
him  to  yield  later  to  the  general  desire  of  his  party  friends  and  to  accept  a  nom- 
ination for  a  second  term.  Judge  Black  possessed  a  sterling  and  inflexible  sense 
of  justice.  Indeed,  if  there  was  any  blemish  on  his  official  work,  it  lay  in  his 
overpowering  desire  to  reach  the  moral  justice  of  each  case,  even  at  the  risk  of 
sometimes  impinging  on  the  rules  of  technical  law  in  the  effort." 

Judge  Wagner,  like  Judge  Black,  in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Barclay,  was  "prone 
to  toss  legal  difficulties  aside  and  to  deal  broadly  with  the  large  features  of 
litigation.  He  wielded  a  most  trenchant  pen  and  used  a  sort  of  sledgehammer 
logic  which  attracted  wide  attention.  His  judicial  writings  are  often  quoted 
with  strong  approval  by  Doctor  Wharton  in  his  erudite  treatise  on  the  law  of 
negligence.  He  has  left  one  amusing  memorial  of  his  efforts  to  harmonize  the 
severity  of  the  written  law  with  the  exigences  of  rural  Ufe  in  the  case  which 
records  the  arrest  of  the  phantom  hogs  in  Trenton,  Mo.  (Spitler  vs.  Young,  63 
Mo.,  42).  That  town  had  an  ordinance  declaring  that  all  hogs  running  at  large 
in  the  corporate  limits  were  nuisances  and  the  owner  should  pay  a  fine  of  $1 
for  every  twenty-four  hours  a  hog  should  be  at  large  therein.  A  citizen  outside 
the  town  had  a  bunch  of  hogs  in  a  pen  which  a  storm  washed  away,  permitting 
them  to  pay  a  coveted  visit  to  the  streets  of  Trenton.  The  hogs  were  taken  up 
by  the  town  marshal  who  refused  to  surrender  them  until  the  owner  paid  the 
fine.  Judge  Wagner  held  that  the  hogs  were  entitled  to  the  fredom  of  the  city 
saying,  'Whilst  physically  they  were  found  in  the  streets,  or  within  the  cor- 
porate limits,  yet  they  were  not  there  within  the  meaning  and  spirit,  as  con- 
templated by  the  ordinance.  The  ordinance  was  designed  to  prohibit  hogs  from 
running  at  large  or  within  the  town  in  the  ordinary  sense.  The  hogs  were  turned 
out  by  a  power  over  which  plaintiff  had  no  control,'  and  the  ordinance  was  there- 
fore inapplicable  to  the  phantom  hogs.  The  marshal  was  held  bound  to  give  them 
up  and  pay  costs." 

Judge  Edward  A.  Lewis,  according  to  Judge  Barclay,  was  up  to  the  time  of 
this  address,  the  only  judge  in  the  state  who  "served  on  both  the  appellate  and 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  241 

supreme  bench  of  Missouri.  He  was  proud  of  the  fact  that  he  had  been  a  prac- 
tical printer  in  his  younger  day.  During  the  reconstruction  period  he  pubHshed 
an  extremely  brilliant  pamphlet  entitled  'The  Voice  of  Law,'  which  dealt  with 
some  political  events  which  occurred  in  this  state  about  that  time.  It  was  widely 
read  and  secured  him  a  position  of  leadership  among  the  Democratic  lawyers  of 
the  state." 

Professional  Individuality. 

Plain  speech  between  bench  and  bar  has  been  frequent  in  the  history  of  the 
legal  profession  in  Missouri.  Judge  Peyton  R.  Hayden,  of  Boonville,  was  argu- 
ing a  case  before  Judge  Tompkins  on  the  supreme  bench  when  the  judge  asked, 
"Why  is  it,  Mr.  Hayden,  that  you  spend  so  much  time  in  urging  the  weak  points 
of  your  case,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  more  important  ones."  Mr.  Hayden  replied : 
"Because  I  find  in  my  long  practice  in  this  court  that  the  weak  points  win  fully 
as  often  as  the  strong  ones." 

Judge  Tompkins  was  a  stickler  for  the  dignity  of  his  court,  and  this  applied  to 
the  personal  appearance  of  those  who  practiced  before  him.  On  one  occasion  he 
said,  when  time  for  adjournment  came :  "Mr.  Blank,  it  is  impossible  for  this 
court  to  see  any  law  through  as  dirty  a  shirt  as  you  have  on,  and  this  court  will 
now  adjourn  until  ten  o'clock  tomorrow  morning  to  give  you  a  chance  to  change 
your  linen." 

Mark  L.  DeMotte  who  afterwards  became  a  Member  of  Congress  from  In- 
diana, clashed  with  the  constitution  of  Misspuri  while  he  was  serving  as  prosecut- 
ing attorney  in  a  western  county  of  Missouri.  At  his  first  term  of  court  he  pre- 
pared a  number  of  indictments.  Looking  to  some  former  indictment  for  a  guide 
DeMotte  noticed  that  they  all  ended  with  "against  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the 
state."  This  looked  like  an  unnecessary  relic  of  the  past,  to  the  young  attorney- 
He  concluded  that  it  was  a  waste  of  verbiage  and  omitted  the  clause  from  the 
bills  he  drew, — which  bills  were  quashed  as  soon  as  they  got  into  court,  the  con- 
stitution, new  at  that  time,  requiring  that  all  indictments  end  with  these  words. 

"Shingle  it  from  the  comb  down,"  was  the  instruction  Judge  W.  B.  Napton 
gave  the  carpenters  when  he  was  building  his  country  home  at  Elk  Hill  in  Saline 
county.  And  the  amused  carpenters  told  the  story  on  the  judge  far  and  wide 
to  show  how  little  the  best  of  legal  minds  might  know  about  making  a  roof  that 
would  shed  rain. 

When  Judge  John  C.  Price  found  it  necessary  to  reorganize  the  circuit  court 
in  Newton  county  during  the  demoralization  of  the  war  period,  he  appointed 
George  W.  Randolph  circuit  attorney,  but  was  a  good  deal  disturbed  by  the  ir- 
regularity of  Mr.  Randolph's  presence  in  court.  He  sent  the  clerk  to  summon 
Randolph  mto  court  and  said  with  some  show  of  severity :  "Randolph,  I  will  have 
to  fine  you  if  absent  again  during  court  hours."  "Very  well,  Judge,"  replied  Ran- 
dolph, "You'll  find  me  at  the  grocery." 

When  the  first  circuit  court  in  Newton  county  opened.  Sheriff  Gibson  was 
sick  and  sent  his  son,  a  boy  of  nineteen,  to  take  his  place,  telling  him  to  do  what- 
ever the  judge  ordered.  The  judge,  at  the  opening,  told  the  boy  to  "call  the 
court."  Young  Gibson  went  to  the  door  and  shouted,  "Oh  Court,"  evidently 
thinking  he  was  calling  some  one  named  Court.     .\  lawyer  near  by  said  to  the 

Vol.  1—16 


242  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

boy,  "Now  you've  done  it."    "Now  you've  done  it,"  bawled  the  youth,  thinking 
this  was  part  of  the  instructions. 

The  Law's  Delays. 

As  he  neared  the  close  of  his  long  term  of  years  on  the  supreme  bench  of 
Missouri,  Judge  Henry  Lamm  was  called  upon  by  the  Bar  Association  of  the 
state  to  suggest  the  remedy  for  the  law's  delays.  He  went  back  through  cen- 
turies to  show  that  this  was  a  grievance  of  long  standing,  accountable  to  a  degree 
in  the  perversity  or  weakness  of  human  nature.  But  he  summed  up  in  certain 
suggestions  to  which  his  experience  led  him: 

'Tirst:  Avoid  an  unwieldy  supreme  court  if  you  want  accord  and  expedition.  Make 
three  divisions  of  three  judges  each,  or  make  its  membership  five  in  one  and  four  in  the 
other  and  leave  the  divisions  as  they  are — more  than  nine  men  are  too  many,  less  are  not 
enough  for  the  natural  increase  of  business  incident  to  tlie  growth  of  the  state — a  factor 
present  and  to  be  sharply  reckoned  with. 

"Second:  Experience  has  shown  it  a  mistake  to  write  into  your  constitution  the 
inflexible  command  that  the  court  should  write  opinions  in  all  cases.  A  court  worthy  to 
be  trusted  in  the  main  thing,  to-wit,  to  decide  a  cause,  should  be  trusted  in  the  incidental 
thing,  to-wit,  to  pass  an  order  that  no  opinion  is  necessary  in  a  particular  case  on  an 
affirmance  or  reversal  outright.  That  perennial  spring  of  delay  should  be  sealed  up  by 
striking  that  provision  from  the  constitution,  leaving  to  the  court  to  write  or  not  write 
opinions  on  affirmances  or  reversals  outright,  as  a  debt  due  to  justice  may  dictate  iq 
each  case. 

"Third:  It  was  a  mistake  to  write  into  your  statutes  the  inflexible  command  that 
the  court  should  write  a  statement  of  the  case  and,  mark  you,  one  that  'may  be  under- 
stood.' There  is  a  rich  mine  of  humor  in  that  'understood'  if  this  were  a  humorous  occa- 
sion and  time  permitted  digging,  but  let  that  pass — a  jest  in  my  mouth  might  be  a  serious 
matter.  That  provision  is  a  fruitful  womb  of  delay,  when  the  record  is  voluminous  and 
the  facts  many  and  intricate.  The  provision  should  be  cast  into  the  dustheap  of  repealed 
statutes. 

"Fourth:  In  forty  years  records  have  grown  out  of  all  reason  compared  with  the 
records  prepared  by  the  old  bar  and  reviewed  by  the  court  of  your  fathers.  These 
immense  records  are  not  only  a  hardship  on  litigants,  draining  away  their  substance,  but 
are  such  a  clog  and  drag  on  the  wheels  of  justice  as  breed  delays.  If  our  rules  are  to 
blame,  no  greater  service  could  be  rendered  than  to  have  a  committee  of  the  wisest  men 
of  the  bar  point  out  an  amendment.  But  it  will  be  found,  I  think,  that  the  root  of  this 
particular  mischief  lies  deeper  than  mere  rules  of  court,  and  the  lawmaker  who  can  draft 
and  the  bar  that  can  aid  him  in  drafting  a  simple  relief  act  will  deserve  uncommonly  well 
of  the  commonwealth.  I  hazard  one  suggestion :  As  a  rule  in  suits  at  law  it  is  a  demurrer 
to  tlie  evidence  that  seeks  and  searches  the  entire  body  of  the  proof.  Now,  if  a  litigant, 
who  tries  his  case  below  on  the  trial  theory  there  is  a  case  for  the  jury,  and  puts  his  case 
to  the  jury  on  the  merits  and  facts,  should  be  denied  on  appeal  the  right  to  question  that 
theory,  would  justice  receive  a  wound  in  the  house  of  her  friends?  If  a  litigant  stands 
on  a  demurrer  below,  the  case  presents  another  angle  and  bespeaks  a  different  treatment 
on  appeal." 

A  Case  Won  on  One  Question. 

A  case  was  won  in  the  St.  Louis  circuit  court  by  Henry  S.  Geyer  on  a  single 
question  and  answer. .  David  B.  Hill,  a  carf)enter  and  builder,  was  put  on  the 
stand  to  testify  as  an  expert.  The  question  was  one  of  defects  in  the  construc- 
tion of  an  ox  mill  which  was  run  by  the  weight  of  oxen.    Mr.  Hill  gave  his  tes- 


THE  BOONE  COUNTY  rOURTHOUSE,  ERECTED  IN  1847 


THE  BOONE  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  ERECTED  IN  1909 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  245 

timony  for  the  plaintiff,  going  much  into  detail.  He  was  turned  over  to  the  de- 
fense for  cross  examination. 

"Mr.  Hill,"  asked  Mr.  Geyer,  "you  have  discovered  perpetual  motion,  haven't 
you?" 

"Yes,  sir,  I  have,"  replied  Mr.  Hill. 

"Stand  aside,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Geyer. 

No  testimony  was  introduced  for  the  defense.  Mr.  Geyer  devoted  his  time 
to  ridicule  of  the  invention  of  perpetual  motion.  The  audience  listened  with  keen 
delight.  The  jury  found  for  the  defendant.  Hill  outlived  Geyer  nearly  twenty 
years.  To  the  end  of  his  eighty-three  years  he  was  "the  man  who  had  discovered 
perpetual  motion."  He  was  a  man  of  respectability  and  much  esteemed  in  his 
vocation.  His  hobby  was  mechanics  and  he  gave  a  great  deal  of  time  to  inven- 
tions. 

Samuel  T.  Glover,  who  was  a  member  of  the  committee  of  safety  in  St.  Louis 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war  and  who  became  the  dean  of  the  St.  Louis  bar, 
fought  in  the  Palmyra  court  with  another  young  lawyer,  E.  G.  Pratt.  Tradition 
has  it  that  both  fists  and  feet  were  used.  Glover  was  fined  $io  "for  contempt  of 
court  in  striking  E.  G.  Pratt"  and  Pratt  was  fined  "for  insulting  language  used 
and  for  striking  S.  T.  Glover."  Further  than  that  the  grand  jury  indicted  both 
lawyers  who  were  arraigned,  plead  guilty  and  were  fined  $5  each. 

More  than  professional,  like  unto  the  relationship  of  brothers,  was  the  tie 
that  bound  together  some  of  the  law  firms  formed  in  Missouri.  Joseph  L. 
Stephens,  native  of  Missouri,  born  in  Cooper  county  in  1826,  intended  to  be  a 
lawyer  and  practiced  until  a  severe  affection  of  the  throat  caused  him  to  turn 
to  a  business  career  and  to  become  a  railroad  builder  and  banker.  For  several 
years  before  the  war  Captain  Stephens,  captain  by  virtue  of  having  been  elected 
to  command  a  company  of  Missourians  enhsted  for  the  Mexican  war,  was  a 
partner  with  George  G.  \'est  until  the  latter  went  into  the  Confederacy.  When 
Vest  returned  in  the  impecunious  condition  which  the  war  left  most  of  the  Mis- 
souri Confederates,  Captain  Stephens  sent  him  a  check,  signed  but  the  amount 
left  blank  telling  him  in  a  note  to  fill  it  out  for  whatever  he  needed  to  put  him  on 
his  feet.  Vest  accepted  the  offer  for  a  small  amount.  It  was  said  of  Captain 
Stephens,  busy  man  as  he  was,  that  he  never  forgot  an  old  friend  and  never  hes- 
itated to  extend  a  helping  hand  if  aid  was  needed. 

Missouri's  Legal  Literature. 

Charles  C.  Whittlesey  was  Connecticut  born  and  Yale  educated  when  he 
joined  the  legal  profession  of  St.  Louis  in  1841.  He  married  a  member  of  an 
old  Maryland  family.  Miss  Groome.  Through  his  contributions  to  newspapers 
and  magazines  and  through  his  law  books  he  sustained  a  high  literar}-  reputa- 
tion throughout  the  third  of  a  century  he  lived  here.  His  book  on  general  prac- 
tice, his  volumes  of  the  Missouri  Reports  were  standard  works  in  the  law  li- 
braries long  after  he  died.  Another  member  of  the  profession  whose  contri- 
butions to  legal  literature  won  him  national  fame  was  Frederick  N.  Judson, 
of  historic  Connecticut  ancestry  and  a  Yale  man.  Nathan  Frank,  Illinois  bred, 
educated  at  Washington  University  and  Harvard,  found  time  in  busy  prac- 
tice to  prepare  and  publish  a  volume  which  became  authority  in  bankruptcy  liti- 


246  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

gation.  Eugene  McQuillin,  of  Iowa  birth,  reached  the  circuit  bench  in  1908 
with  a  well  earned  reputation  as  an  author  of  legal  textbooks. 

When  John  Marshall  Krum  came  west  from  Columbia  county  in  New  York 
State  in  1834,  with  his  diploma  from  Union  College,  he  thought  Alton  might  be 
the  metropolis  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  opened  a  law  office.  When  Alton 
became  a  city,  Judge  Krum — he  was  probate  judge  of  Madison  county — was 
elected  mayor,  as  a  Democrat,  over  the  next  most  popular  man  in  town,  a  Metho- 
dist minister.  In  1840,  having  concluded  that  St.  Louis  was  the  destined  metropo- 
lis. Judge  Krum  declined  further  honors  at  Alton  and  moved  down  the  river. 
His  reputation  accompanied  him.  In  three  years  he  was  appointed  judge  of  the 
St.  Louis  circuit  court  and  in  1848  he  was  elected  mayor  of  St.  Louis.  Just 
before  he  came  to  St.  Louis,  Judge  Krum  married  the  daughter  of  Chester 
Harding,  the  most  famous  artist  of  his  time  in  the  Mississippi  valley.  While 
he  was  on  the  bench.  Judge  Krum  published-  "Missouri  Justice."  In  1872  the 
unusual  record  of  father  and  son  having  sat  on  the  St.  Louis  circuit  bench  was 
made  in  the  election  of  Chester  H.  Krum  as  circuit  judge.  The  second  Judge 
Krum  was  educated  at  Washington  University  and  at  Harvard. 

Almost  a  monopoly  in  litigation  at  Washington  had  the  law  firm  organized 
in  1863  with  a  St.  Louis  connection.  The  partners  were  Thomas  Ewing  of 
Ohio,  relative  of  the  Shermans,  a  senator  and  a  cabinet  officer  in  two  administra- 
tions :  Orville  H.  Browning,  who  had  been  a  senator  from  Illinois  and  who  was 
to  become  a  cabinet  officer  in  the  Johnson  administration;  and  Britton  Arm- 
strong Hill  of  St.  Louis.  Mr.  Hill  was  of  New  Jersey  birth.  He  studied  law  in 
New  York  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  St.  Louis  in  1841.  Of  splendid 
physique,  of  intellectual  independence,  he  became  a  marked  character  in  the  com- 
munity as  well  as  a  great  lawyer.  There  seemed  to  be  no  limit  on  the  mental 
activity  of  the  man.  Mr.  Hill  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  in  his  omnivorous 
appetite  for  knowledge.  When  the  epidemic  of  1849  overtaxed  the  medical  pro- 
fession Mr.  Hill  became  a  volunteer  among  the  poor.  He  prescribed,  he  nursed, 
he  laid  out  the  dead.  The  natural  bent,  encouraged  possibly  by  that  cultivation 
of  sympathy  through  his  practical  work  in  the  cholera  epidemic,  prompted  Brit- 
ton A.  Hill  to  become  a  champion  of  the  masses.  The  last  two  decades  of  his 
forty-seven  years  in  St.  Louis  he  gave  much  time  to  writing  and  talking  on  what 
he  conceived  to  be  the  dangers  threatening  the  American  spirit.  He  wrote  "Lib- 
erty and  Law,"  which  attracted  attention  the  country  wide.  He  called  a  conven- 
tion on  a  platform  of  opposition  to  monopolies,  of  government  control  of  rail- 
roads. This  convention  declared  for  the  postal  savings  bank,  for  settlement  by  ar- 
bitration of  international  controversies,  for  restoration  of  the  land  grants.  It  was 
far  ahead  of  the  times. 

Alexander  Hamilton,  a  Philadelphian  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry,  sat  on  the 
circuit  bench  of  St.  Louis  ten  years.  He  was  twice  appointed  by  different  gov- 
ernors and  once  elected  by  the  people.  While  he  was  judge  the  Dred  Scott  case 
came  before  him.  The  position  Judge  Hamilton  took  was  sustained  by  the  su- 
preme court.  Nearly  half  a  century  Judge  Hamilton  held  an  enviable  position  in 
the  legal  profession  of  St.  Louis.  He  declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  supreme 
bench  when  he  would  have  been  elected.  The  tenth  circuit  judge  of  St.  Louis 
was  a  boy  eight  years  old  when  his  parents  moved  from  Maryland  to  a  farm 


MELVIN  L.  GRAY 


ALEXANDER  KAYSER 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  249 

in  St.  I.ouis  county.  It  i^  a  notable  fact  that  James  Ransom  Lackland  who  became 
one  of  the  strongest  men  in  the  profession  did  not  enter  it  until  he  was  nearly 
thirty  years  old.  With  limited  advantages  in  his  boyhood,  he  taught  a  country 
school.  He  clerked  in  stores.  He  obtained  a  deputy  clerkship  in  the  court  and 
that  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  read  law.  Two  years  after  he  was  admitted  he 
was  elected  circuit  attorney ;  then  judge  of  the  criminal  court  and  next  judge  of 
the  circuit  court.  Samuel  M.  Breckenridge  was  circuit  judge  during  most  of  the 
war  period.  He  was  of  southern  ancestry  but  a  strong  Union  man.  His  suc- 
cessor was  a  northern  man  but  took  a  position  which  cost  him  the  judgeship.  One 
of  the  most  hostile  against  the  test-oath  was  Judge  James  G.  Moody,  a  Penn- 
sylvanian  who  came  here  in  1855  and  formed  the  law  firm  of  Moody,  McClellan 
&  Hillyer.  In  the  office  of  this  firm  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  before  the  war,  had  a 
des_k  and  tried  collection  of  bills  for  real  estate  agents.  Judge  Moody  while  on 
the  circuit  bench  absolutely  reffised  to  require  jurors  to  take  the  test-oath  and 
was  removed  by  the  legislature  in  1866. 

Bench  and  Bar  of  the  Platte  Purchase. 

Perhaps  no  other  six  contiguous  counties  in  Missouri  measure  so  large  in  the 
bench  and  bar  of  this  state  as  the  Platte  Purchase.  "Attracted  by  the  genial 
climate,  rich  soil,  untold  wealth  of  this  newly  ceded  country,  the  love  of  adven- 
ture and  hope  of  fame  and  fortune  soon  swept  throughout  the  Platte  Purchase 
many  strong,  clear,  scholarly  and  eloquent  law^yers,"  Henry  Clay  McDougal  told 
the  Missouri  Bar  Association  in  an  address  several  years  ago.  Among  those 
who  were  drawn  by  "stories  of  the  fabulous  richness  of  that  splendid  domain" 
was  Elijah  Hise  Norton  fresh  from  the  law  department  of  Transylvania  Uni- 
versity at  Lexington,  Kentucky.  Robert  P.  C.  Wilson  told  of  the  young  Ken- 
tnrkian's  arrival  and  of  the  charm  he  found  in  the  life  of  the  Platte  county. 

"He  arrived  in  Platte  county  on  the  8th  day  of  January,  18.45,  where  he  found  the 
settlers,  true  to  the  traditions  of  their  home  states,  holding  a  rousing  General  Jackson- 
Battle  of  New  Orleans  celebration  at  the  court  house  in  Platte  City,  its  county  seat.  He 
was  not  disappointed  by  the  tales  told  of  that  magnificent  country,  but  thought  that  the 
half  had  not  been  said.  Vast  primeval  forests  and  wide  stretching  prairies  confronted 
him,  then  silent  under  the  martial  tread  of  the  Frost  King,  but  with  the  coming  of  spring 
to  fling  wide  their  budding  branches  to  God's  whispered  music  of  hope,  while  treeless 
tracts  rioted  in  the  blazonry  of  bloom.  Game  of  every  description  abounded.  The  wild 
turkey  nested  unmolested  near  the  homesteader's  cabin.  Geese,  ducks  and  prairie  chicken 
in  season  covered  the  rivers,  lakes  and  prairies,  while  quail  in  countless  numbers  abounded 
throughout  the  country.  Indeed,  the  Platte  Purchase  was  then  a  veritable  paradise  for 
the  sportsman.  Surrounded  with  everything  necessary  for  a  desirable  home,  he  deter- 
mined to  locate  permanently  at  Platte  City,  and  on  the  1 5th  of  April,  1845,  was  enrolled 
a  member  of  the  Platte  county  bar.  Judge  Vories,  his  predecessor  on  the  supreme  bench, 
being  enrolled  as  a  member  of  that  bar  on  the  same  day.  He  was  twenty-three  years  of 
age,  strong,  aggressive,  and  impatient  for  legal  battles,  when  he  hung  out  his  'shingle' 
ovei'the  door  of  one  of  two  log  rooms  adjoining,  my  father  occupying  the  other  as  his 
law  office.  It  was  then,  as  a  mere  boy,  my  acquaintance  with  this  great  man  began. 
Devoted  to  sports  afield,  and  particularly  to  netting  quail,  he  usually  took  me  along  to 
help  drive  the  covies  within  the  wings  of  the  net.  In  this  happy,  carefree  way,  a  friend- 
ship between  boy  and  man  was  formed  which  continued  under  all  the  vicissitudes  of  a 
long,  strenuous  life  for  us  both,  until  the  end." 


250  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Four  Governors  from  the  Platte  Bar. 

Judge  McDougal,  in  his  recollections  of  the  bench  and  bar  of  the  Platte  Pur- 
chase, not  only  reviewed  the  names  illustrious  throughout  life  in  Missouri,  but 
recalled  some  who  had  gone  from  the  six  counties  to  become  famous  in  other 
states. 

"For  judicial  purposes,  the  territory  thus  acquired  was  at  first  attached  to  the  Fifth 
circuit  of  Missouri,  which  was  then  presided  over  by  Judge  Austin  A.  King,  of  Richmond, 
who  in  1848  became  governor  of  Missouri.  Judge  King  held  the  first  term  of  the  circuit 
court  for  the  Platte  Purchase  at  the  Falls  of  the  Platte  river  in  May,  1839.  But  in  1841 
David  R.  Atchison,  of  Platte,  was  made  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court,  with  both  civil 
and  criminal  jurisdiction  over  a  vast  scope  of  country.  Judge  Atchison  was  later  a 
United  States  senator  from  Missouri  for  twelve  years,  commencing  in  1843,  and  while 
serving  as  the  president  pro  tern,  of  that  body  is  credited  with  the  honor  of  having  been 
president  of  the  United  States  for  one  day.  Robert  Wilson,  of  Andrew,  was  made  a 
United  States  senator  from  Missouri  in   1862. 

"Four  members  of  the  bar  within  the  Platte  Purchase  have  been  honored  governors 
of  Missouri,  viz:  Robert  M.  Stewart,  Willard  P.  Hall,  and  Silas  Woodson,  of  Buchanan, 
and  Albert  P.  Morehouse,  of  Nodaway. 

"And  the  following  named  members  of  that  bar  have  also  served  the  people  as  judges 
of  the  supreme  court  of  Missouri,  namely:  Philemon  Bliss,  Henry  M.  Vories,  Archelaus 
M.  Woodson,  of  Buchanan,  and  Elijah  Hise  Norton,  of  Platte,  who  only  last  month 
there  died  in  his  ninety-third  year;  while  that  learned,  fearless,  clear-headed  magician  in 
the  law,  Stephen  S.  Brown,  of  Buchanan,  is  now  (1914)  serving  on  that  bench  as  com- 
missioner of  this  same  court.  Strong,  rugged  and  stalwart  Benjamin  F.  Stringfellow, 
before  removing  to  Platte,  was  attorney-general  of  Missouri  in  1845,  and  the  scholarly, 
superb  and  eloquent  James  B.  Gardenhire,  of  Buchanan,  also  filled  that  office  with  dis- 
tinguished  ability  from   1851   to   1856. 

"The  bench  of  the  Kansas  City  court  of  appeals  has  been  ornamented  by  Willard  P. 
Hall  (the  younger)  and  James  M.  Johnson,  of  Buchanan,  and  W.  W.  Ramsey,  of  Nodaway. 

The  Platte  Bar  Abroad. 

"Isaac  C.  Parker,  a  conspicuous  member  of  the  Buchanan  bar,  was  first  the  judge  of 
the  St.  Joseph  circuit  court,  then  a  member  of  the  United  States  Congress  for  four  years, 
and  then  in  1875  President  Grant  made  him  the  United  States  district  judge  at  Fort  Smith, 
Arkansas.  From  that  time  on  to  his  death  many  years  later.  Judge  Parker  continued  to 
enforce  the  law  so  vigorously  and  have  criminals  executed  so  promptly  that  he  became 
famous  as  'the  hanging  judge.'  President  Cleveland,  during  his  first  term,  appointed  the 
versatile  Lafe  Dawson,  of  Nodaway,  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court  of  Alaska; 
but  the  climate  of  the  frozen  north  was  so  rigorous  that  he  resigned  his  office,  and  later 
died  at  his  old  home  in  Maryville. 

"Among  many  others  not  now  recalled,  it  is  well  to  note  that  the  following  named 
members  of  this  bar  who  have  been  honored  by  the  people  after  leaving  the  Platte  Pur- 
chase were:  Joseph  K.  Toole,  governor  of  Montana;  and  Charles  W.  Wright,  attorney 
general  of  Colorado,  both  of  Buchanan;  John  P.  Altgeld,  once  of  Andrew  and  later 
governor  of  Illinois. 

"Mention  is  here  made  of  two  other  eminent  lawyers  and  great  men  of  the  Platte 
Purchase  in  the  years  that  are  gone,  not  only  because  the  name  and  fame  of  each  should 
be  honored  and  perpetuated,  but  because  each  was  my  personal  friend — James  Craig  and 
Bela  M.  Hughes.  The  former  was  an  officer  in  the  war  with  Mexico,  a  general  in  the 
Civil  war,  a  member  of  Congress,  the  president  of  the  old  H.  &  St.  Jo.  Railroad,  and  few 
on  earth  have  surpassed  him  as  lawyer,  public  speaker  and  entertaining  raconteur;  while 
on  account  of  the  approaching  troublous  times,  Bela  M.  Hughes  quit  the  Buchanan  bar 
in  1861,  located  in  Denver,  and  no  man  in  public  or  private  life  exerted  a  more  potential 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  251 

power   for  good  upon   the  jurisprudence,  and  public  and  political   life   of   Colorado   than 
did  this  strong,  clear,  able  lawyer. 

"Memories  of  the  long  past,  reflecting  upon  the  traditions,  records,  and  achievements 
of  the  pioneer  lawyers  of  the  Platte  Purchase,  recall  the  power  and  ability  of  those 
leviathans  of  its  bar  who  in  early  life  swam  about  in  the  vast  sea  of  the  law  with  so  much 
confident  ease,  and  with  a  sigh  of  regret  the  historian  may  well  pause  and  for  a  moment 
dwell  upon  the  wise  words  of  the  Book  of  Books — 'There  were  giants  on  the  earth  in 
those  days.'" 

Pike  County  Practice. 

In  giving  some  of  his  experiences  as  attorney  for  the  defense,  David  Ball 
of  Pike  county  told  these: 

"I  have  defended  33  men  charged  with  murder  and  acquitted  31  of  them.  Once  I 
cleared  a  poor  man  of  murder  after  a  hard-fought  legal  battle  lasting  two  weeks,  and 
got  only  a  turkey  for  my  fee.    And  I  believe  to  my  soul  the  scoundrel  stole  that  turkey. 

"Once  when  Judge  Biggs  was  on  the  Pike  circuit  bench  and  I  was  prosecuting 
attorney  a  man  was  arrested  for  stealing  a  bundle  of  socks.  I  spelled  it  'sox,  in  tha 
indictment,  and  when  Judge  Biggs   read  it  in  court,  he  said : 

"  "Dave,  that  is  not  the  way  to  spell  "socks." ' 

"I  rolled  my  cigar  over,  winked  both  eyes  a  time  or  two  and  replied: 

"  'May  it  please  Your  Honor,  if  s-o-x  don't  spell  socks,  what  in  the  tarnation  does  it 
spell?'     And  it  remained  'sox'  in  the  indictment." 

"I  was  defending  a  Pike  county  man  once,  who  was  accused  of  stealing  meat  from 
his  neighbor's  smokehouse.  The  farmer  who  lost  the  meat  swore  that  he  knew  it  was 
the  defendant  who  stole  it,  because  he  was  the  only  man  in  Pike  county  who  was  lean 
enough  to  crawl  through  the  opening  in  the  smokehouse  window,  where  a  pane  of  glass 
was   broken  out. 

"  'Sure  no  one  else  could  have  crawled  through  ?'  I  asked. 

"'None  but  him.' 

"I  yanked  the  identical  window  frame  from  beneath  a  table  and  slipped  it  down 
over  the  head  and  shoulders  of  the  man  on  the  stand,  who  was  much  stouter  than  the 
defendant. 

"The  two  lawyers  for  the  man  on  the  witness  stand  leaped  to  their  feet  and  shouted: 

'"Here,  what  are  you  doing  there?* 

"'I'm  just  putting  your  client  through  the  same  sized  hole  you  say  our  client  went 
through,'  I  answered.     I  won  the  case." 

David  Ball  once  had  the  benefit  of  Champ  Qark's  natural  inclination  to  take 
the  part  of  the  weaker  side  in  a  controversy : 

"When  Champ  Clark  and  I  were  partners  in  1877,  he  kept  me  from  getting  an  awful 
thrashing.  Clark  was  an  unusually  fine  specimen  of  physical  manhood  in  those  days, 
tall,  athletic  without  a  pound  of  surplus  flesh,  and  with  muscles  of  steel.  He  was  just 
out  of  school,  where,  among  other  things,  he  had  practiced  in  gymnasiums  for  hours  daily 
at  every  exercise  intended  to  develop  strength,  including  boxing.  Like  most  Kentuckians, 
he  was  fond  of  a  pistol  and  always  kept  two  or  three  on  hand.  One  day  three  big  rough 
fellows,  who  had  taken  offense  at  me  about  a  lawsuit,  came  into  the  office  and  picked 
a  fuss  with  me.  They  cursed  and  abused  me  for  ten  minutes,  during  which  Clark  was 
sitting  at  his  desk,  pretending  to  read  a  book  and  apparently  taking  no  interest  in  the 
rumpus.  I  did  not  know  whether  he  would  help  me  out  or  not,  consequently  I  did  not 
talk  back  to  the  fellows  very  much.  At  last  they  concluded  to  give  me  a  beating  and 
advanced  towards  me.  Quick  as  a  flash,  Clark  pulled  open  the  drawer  of  his  table, 
exposing  two  glittering  pistols  to  the  view  of  my  would-be  assailants  and  yelled :  "Hi-yi, 
you  ruffians.     I  do  the  fighting  for  this  firm  and  I'll  give  you  just  three  seconds  to  get 


252  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

out  of  here,  or  I'll  throw  you  out  tlie  window  and  hri-ak  your  necks!'  Within  the  limit 
he  allowed,  those  fellows  were  going  down  stairs  three  steps  at  a  jump  Clark  shut  up 
the  drawer-  with  a  grim  smile  and  resumed  his  reading.  I  tliought  then  he  was  the  hand- 
somest man  I  ever  saw.  He  has  long  since  given  up  carrying  pistols,  but  I  was  glad  he 
had  them  that  day." 

The  Poet  Judge. 

George  \\'.  Dunn  might  have  won  wide  fame  as  a  Missouri  poet,  but  early 
in  his  career  he  became  possessed  of  the  theory  that  exercise  of  that  genius 
would  detract  from  his  success  at  the  bar.  lie  was  commonly  known  in  the 
Platte  Purchase  as  "the  poet  judge."'  He  was  one  of  the  first  Missourians 
elected  to  the  bench  when  the  constitutional  amendment  in  185 1  made  circuit 
judges  elective,  instead  of  appointive  by  the  governor.  Judge  Dunn  thought  he 
had  resolved  to  give  up  writing  poetry  and  wrote  his  "Farewell  to  My  Harp." 
but  in  later  years  he  occasionally  indulged  himself.  One  of  the  judge's  produc- 
tions which  brought  him  most  fame  was  "The  Ermine  and  the  Harp."  The  first 
stanza  was : 

"  The  Ermine  hue  of  spotless  white 
Invokes  the  wearer's  earnest  ken. 
As  law  and  ecjuity  unite 
To  shield  and  bless  the  sons  of  men; 
For  heaven-born  truth  by  right  prevails 
And  baffles  every  crafty  .■scheme. 
When  Justice  holds  the  impartial  scales 
And  Mercy's  tears  bedew  the  beam." 

Missouri's  Legal  Classics. 

In  a  historv'  of  the  Bar  Association  of  Missoiui.  published  by  the  St.  Louis 
Star  in  October,  1899.  the  then  president  of  the  Association,  George  Robertson 
of  Mexico,  placed  this  estimate  upon  some  of  the  most  important  papers  read 
before  the  association : 

"Without  exalting  one  paper  read  by  the  members  of  the  association  above  another, 
that  by  Judge  Black  of  Kansas  City  upon  'the  Property  Rights  of  Married  Women  in 
Missouri,'  in  1882,  probably  had  more  to  do  with  the  quickening  .of  the  legal  conscience 
upon  the  then  unsatisfactory  condition  of  that  subject  of  the  law  than  anything  else  that 
has  ever  been  said  or  done  in  the  state,  and  finally  culminated  in  the  act  of  1889  which 
conferred  upon  married  women  the  same  projierty  rights  that  had  been  enjoyed  by  a 
'femme  sole,'  thereby  taking  her  from  the  legal  class  of  incompetents,  infants,  idiots  and 
lunatics,  to  which  she  was  bound  by  the  rules  of  common  law,  and  gave  to  her  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  possessed  by  otlicr  persons  of  equal  capacity,  intelligence  and 
responsibility.  In  this  connection  deserving  mention  is  the  debate  between  E.  S.  Scarrett 
and  J.  A.  Harrison  on  this  subject  had  before  the  association  in   1887. 

"Another  paper  of  extraordinary  value  to  the  legal  profession  of  Missouri  is  'The 
Remedy  by  Injunction  in  Missouri,'  bj'  Adiel  Sherwood,  at  the  Springfield  .meeting  in 
1895.  He  treats  of  the  subject  as  touched  upon  by  the  various  decisions  of  the  appellate 
courts  of  this  state.  It  is  a  complete  epitome  of  the  law  of  injunction  as  applied  in 
Missouri,  as  regards  pleading  and  the  particular  subjects  of  litigation  to  which  it  may  be 
applied.  This  paper  will  serve  as  an  excellent  textbook  upon  the  subject  of  injunctions 
to  the  practicing  lawyers  of  the  state. 


THE  FIHST  COIIHT  HOUSE.  (SfARTAl. 


THE  serONR  COURT  HOUSK,  IBT.  JOSEPH  I . 


THE  FIRST   TWO  CXDURTHOUSES  OF   BUCHANAN   COUNTY 

The  log  building  was  the  first  temple  of  jiistio*  in  the  Platte  Purchase  about  1840.     Later 

the  county  seat  was  nioveil  from  Sparta  to  St.  Joseph 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  255 

"Worthy  of  particular  mention  and  ranking  with  the  legal  classics  of  this  and  past 
generations  are  the  papers,  'Trial  by  Jury,'  by  Amos  M.  Thayer;  'The  Lawyers  of  the 
Roman  Republic,'  by  F.  W.  Lehmann;  'Mandatory  Injunctions,'  by  Jacob  Klein;  'Constitu- 
tional Law  in  Ancient  Greece,'  by  C.  O.  Tichenor;  and  'The  Power  of  the  State  to 
Regulate  Prices  and  Charges,'  by  G.  A.  Finkelnburg." 

Judge,  Witness  and  Counsel. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  circuit  court  of  Buchanan  county,  the  judge  was 
subpoenaed  as  a  witness  and  a  change  of  venue  was  demanded  on  that  ground. 
But  the  judge  ruled  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  statutes  to  prevent  him  from 
being  both  witness  and  judge.  The  trial  proceeded.  The  judge  was  called  as 
a  witness,  descended  from  the  bench  and  took  the  stand.  There  was  objection 
raised  to  the  first  question  asked.  The  judge  left  the  stand,  went  on  the  bench 
and  overruled  the  objection.  He  returned  to  the  stand  and  answered  the  ques- 
tion. At  the  next  question  the  same  farce  was  enacted.  By  that  time  the  judge 
concluded  that  the  change  of  venue  should  be  granted. 

In  the  days  of  the  rush  to  California  sharpers  played  their  cheating  games 
on  the  argonauts.  One  of  the  fraternity  was  brought  before  Mayor  Mills  of  St. 
Joseph.  He  set  up  the  defense  that  his  game  was  not  chance ;  that  it  was  a  sure 
thing.  "Then,"  declared  the  municipal  Solomon,  "it  is  just  like  this  court.  You 
shall  pay  a  fine  of  $50." 

Monroe  county  had  a  case  of  combination  judge  and  witness  which  worked 
better.  About  the  time  Union  township  was  organized,  Reuben  Burton  brought 
suit  for  a  hog  he  had  lost,  claiming  he  had  found  it  in  the  possession  of  a  free 
negro,  named  Rious.  The  case  was  tried  before  Justice  John  Burton,  a  brother 
of  Reuben.  After  the  testimony  appeared  to  be  all  in.  Justice  Burton  stood 
up  and  told  Constable  Pleasant  Ford  to  swear  him.  The  plaintiff  had  been  rep- 
resented by  a  lawyer,  but  the  negro  had  nobody  to  take  care  of  the  defense  and 
it  looked  as  if  the  case  was  going  against  him.  Justice  Burton  after  taking  the 
oath,  said  he  had  often  hunted  with  Rious  and  knew  the  hog  to  be  his.  He  there- 
fore gave  the  decision  against  his  brother. 

The  Misssouri  bar  has  had  its  full  proportion  of  poor  writers,  one  of  whom 
was  Judge  Ezra  Hunt  who  graduated  at  Harvard  with  the  distinction  of  being 
a  phenomenal  student  in  mathematics.  He  taught  a  while  in  academies  and  came 
to  Missouri  where  he  was  tutor  to  Judge  William  Carr's  children.  Young  Hunt 
had  thought  of  studying  for  the  ministry  but  gave  up  that  for  law.  He  became 
noted  for  his  bad  handwriting.  On  one  occasion  he  gave  an  opinion  in  writing 
on  a  land  case.  The  man  who  received  the  opinion  couldn't  read  it.  After  trying 
several  people  who  couldn't  tell  what  was  meant  he  took  the  paper  back  to  Hunt. 
The  latter  glanced  at  the  paper  and  remarked,  "Some  blanked  fool  has  been 
trying  to  write,  but  failed."  The  client  was  diplomatic.  He  said,  "Judge  did 
you  ever  write  to  me  about  that  case  of  mine  ?"  Hunt  scanned  the  paper  again 
and  read  it  aloud,  remarking  as  he  closed,  "Anybody  but  a  blanked  fool  could 
read  that." 

A  Solomonic  Decision. 

Judge  Burckhartt  was  the  first  circuit  judge  to  be  brought  from  the  interior 
of  the  state  to  tr>-  a  criminal  case  in  St.  Louis.   This  was  the  Kring  murder  trial. 


256  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Kring's  lawyers  took  the  case  to  the  supreme  court  on  that  novelty  in  practice. 
The  court  decided  that  the  calling  of  a  judge  from  the  country  circuit  was  legal 
and  thus  established  a  precedent  of  some  importance. 

Of  Judge  Burckhartt  many  stories  are  told  by  North  Todd  Gentry.  The  judge 
was  a  fine  handshaker  when  campaigning  for  reelection.  He  had  such  a  cordial 
way  that  he  convinced  the  voter  that  he  remembered  him  personally  when,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  he  could  not  place  him.  Once,  according  to  Gentry,  the  judge 
shook  hands  with  a  young  man  and  asked  familiarly,  "How  is  your  father?" 
The  young  man  looked  surprised  and  said,  "Father  is  dead."  The  judge  im- 
mediately rallied  and  said,  "Why,  yes,  I  knew  that.  I  meant  to  ask  how  is  your 
mother?"  The  young  man  answered,  "Judge,  mother  died  before  father  did!" 
To  this  Judge  Burckhartt  quickly  responded,  "'Well,  well,  how  are  you ;  I  know 
you  are  alive."  Later  in  the  day  the  judge  met  the  same  young  man  and  as 
solicitously  as  ever  asked  after  his  father.  "Judge,  he  is  still  dead,"  was  the  an- 
swer. 

Gentry  says  that  when  he  was  young  at  the  bar,  he  complained  to  Judge  Burck- 
hartt that  the  judge  was  appointing  him  to  defend  paupers  more  times  than  other 
lawyers  were  asked  to  take  charity  cases.  "That  is  all  right.  Gentry,"  the  judge 
said,  "you  get  the  experience,  and  your  clients  get  in  the  penitentiary;  and  you 
both  get  what  you  are  needing." 

Judge  Burckhartt  was  verj'  courteous  to  ladies.  He  invariably  made  it  a 
point  to  see  that  ladies  coming  into  his  court  were  given  seats.  One  day  a 
young  lady  relative  came  in  and  saw  that  the  judge's  eyes  were  closed.  As  she 
approached  the  judge  opened  his  eyes.  The  lady  apologized  for  awaking  him. 
The  judge  called  her  by  name  and  said,  "I  hope  I  will  never  live  to  be  so  old 
that  I  shall  not  be  awakened  by  the  rustle  of  a  young  lady's  petticoat." 

Judge  Burckhartt  decided  a  calf  case  about  1880  by  an  extraordinary  pro- 
cedure which  was  Solomonic.  The  calf  was  claimed  by  Bill  Reeves,  an  old 
negro,  and  by  Captain  John  Eaton,  a  farmer  who  owned  a  large  number  of 
cattle.  After  the  jury  had  been  chosen,  Old  Bill  addressed  the  court:  "Massa 
George,  may  I  say  something?  My  little  boy  has  been  playing  with  my  calf 
and  riding  it  all  summer.  Now  if  he  can't  go  up  to  Massa  John  Eaton's  place, 
put  a  rope  round  that  calf's  neck  and  ride  him  home,  then  I  don't  want  the 
critter." 

Captain  Eaton  consented  to  the  test  and  the  court  adjourned  to  Eaton's  farm, 
saw  the  little  negro  rope  the  calf  without  any  trouble  and  ride  it  home.  The 
judge  laughed  and  John  Eaton  dismissed  the  case  at  his  own  expense. 

Jackson  County's  Distinguished  Bar. 

The  evolution  of  the  Jackson  county  bar,  and  the  part  it  has  had  not  only 
in  professional  life,  but  in  the  public  affairs  of  state  and  nation  were  recalled 
by  Judge  Henry  Clay  McDougal  in  an  historical  address  before  the  Missouri 
Bar  Association  in  1914: 

"When  this  county  was  organized  in  1826,  David  Todd  was  its  first  judge  of  the 
circuit  court.  He  was  succeeded  by  Russell  Hicks,  a  member  of  this  bar,  and  he,  in  turn, 
by  a  long  line  of  level-headed,  clear-minded,  learned  and  fearless  judges.  The  circuit 
court   then   had   but   one   judge,   and   exercised   both   civil   and   criminal   jurisdiction,   while 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  257 

now  (1914)  Jackson  county  has  ten  circuit  judges  and  also  one  judge  of  equal  rank  who 
hears  and  determines  only  state  cases  and  is  known  as  the  judge  of  the  criminal  court. 
In  1826,  the  county  had  but  three  resident  lawyers ;  but,  in  keeping  with  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  county,  this  number  has  increased  to  approximately  950., 

"In  1855,  'the  probate  and  common  pleas  court'  for  Jackson  county  was  established, 
and  its  jurisdiction  was  enlarged  in  1863  to  include  state  cases,  so  that  finally  it  had  full 
jurisdiction  of  probate  and  criminal  cases  and  limited  jurisdiction  in  civil  cases  up  to 
the  time  that  court  was  finally  abolished  in  1871.  At  the  date  last  named,  two  courts, 
having  probate  and  criminal  jurisdiction,  came  into  existence  and  so  continued  until 
1880,  when  they  were  made  entirely  separate  and  distinct. 

"In  1873,  the  lawmakers  of  the  state  established  a  'special  law  and  equity  court  of 
Jackson  county,'  which  in  turn  went  out  of  existence  at  the  time  limited  by  the  constitu- 
tion of  1875.     Robert  E.  Cowan  was  judge  of  this  court. 

"The  criminal  court  of  Jackson  county,-  with  substantially  its  present  jurisdiction,  was 
created  in  1871.  and  Robert  C.  Ewing.  Henry  P.  White,  John  W.  WofFord,  William  H. 
Wallace  and  the  present  incumbent,  Ralph  S.  Latshaw,  have  served  upon  that  bench  iii 
the  order  named. 

"From  the  organization  of  Jackson  county  in  1826  up  to  1871,  the  circuit  court  of  the 
county  was  always  held  at  the  county  seat  at  Independence ;  but  in  that  year  the  county 
was  made  a  separate  circuit  and  that  legislative  act  provided  for  holding  terms  of  the 
circuit  court  at  both  Independence  and  Kansas  City,  the  common  pleas  court  was  then 
abolished,  and  the  circuit  courts  have  ever  since  been  held  in  both  cities. 

"Four  of  the  members  of  this  bar  have  ornamented  the  bench  of  the  supreme  court 
of  Missouri,  namely :  Warwick  Hough.  John  W.  Henry,  Francis  M.  Black  and  John 
Kennish. 

"The  Kansas  City  Court  of  Appeals  was  created  by  the  constitutional  amendment  of 
1884.  and  held  its  first  session  in  March,  1885.  The  following  named  members  of  this 
bar  have  served  the  people  on  the  bench  of  that  court :  John  F.  Philips,  Willard  P.  Hall, 
Turner  A.  Gill,  Jackson  L.  Smith  and  Elbridge  J.  Broaddus,  while  its  present  (1914) 
membership  consists  of  James  Ellison  (Kirksville).  James  M.  Johnson  (St.  Joseph),  and 
Francis  H.  Trimble   (Liberty). 

"The  Jackson  county  bar  has  also  given  to  both  state  and  nation  its  full  quota  of 
officers  and  men  for  the  wars  through  which  the  country  has  passed  since  1826,  as  well 
as  furnished  to  the  civil  list  officers  who  have  brought  honor  and  credit  to  their  pro- 
fession and  county,  and  among  the  latter  many  a  >iisi  prius  judge  and  member  of  the 
United  States  Congress  not  here  named.  However,  our  Benjamin  J.  Franklin  was  the 
governor  of  Arizona  in  its  territorial  days,  and  also  a  United  States  consul  in  China ; 
while  Thomas  T.  Crittenden  and  .Arnold  Shanklin  were  consuls  general  to  Mexico.  When 
not  directing  the  official  action  of  his  many  subordinates  throughout  our  troubled  sister 
republic,  or  dodging  bullets  of  opposing  factions  of  late  months.  Brother  Shanklin  is  now 
(1914)  on  duty  down  at  the  City  of  Mexico. 

"Three  of  our  members  have  been  United  States  district  judges  in  Kansas  City,  viz: 
Arnold  Krekel.  John  F.  Philips  and  .Arba  S.  Van  Valkenburgh,  while  Webster  Davis  was 
assistant  secretary  of  the  interior  under  President  McKinley. 

"Three  of  our  members  have  been  governors  of  the  State  of  Missouri  viz:  Lilburn 
W.  Boggs,  Thomas  T.  Crittenden  and  Herbert   S.  Hadley. 

"John  Lee  Peak  was  our  United  States  minister  to  Switzerland  under  President 
Cleveland:  while  George  W.  McCrary  was  a  cabinet  officer  as  the  secretary  of  war  under 
President  Hayes  from  1877  to  188!,  and  was  later  a  United  States  circuit  judge;  and 
this  bar  has  been  further  honored  by  the  selection  of  two  of  its  members  as  United  States 
senators  from  Missouri— William  Warner  and  James  A.  Reed. 

"The  Missouri  Bar  .\ssociation  was  organized  in  Kansas  City  in  1880,  with  Goverrior 
Willard  P.  Hall  of  St.  Joseph  as  its  first  president.  The  following  members  of  this  bar 
have,  in  the  order  named,  since  been  presidents  of  this  .Association,  viz :  John  C.  Gage, 
George  W.  McCrary,  John  F.  Philips,  Louis  C.  Krauthoflf,  Henry  Clay  McDougal,  William 
B.  Teasdale,  Sanford  B.  Ladd,  J.  J.  Vineyard,  and  the  now  president,  Edward  J.  Whfle. 

Vol.  1—17 


258  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"The  oldest  lawyer  in  Jackson  county  is  Colonel  R.  T.  \'an  Horn,  now  past  90.  He 
was  licensed  to  practice  law  by  the  supreme  court  of  Ohio  in  1848,  and  after  coming  to 
Kansas  City  in  1855,  along  with  his  editorial  work  as  owner  and  editor  of  the  Kansas 
City  Journal,  became  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Van  Horn  &  Johnson,  composed  of 
himself  and  Judge  Jacques  W.  Johnson,  who  later  removed  to  Wyandotte,  Kansas.  But 
the  Kestor  of  the  bar,  still  in  active  and  full  practice,  and  frisky  as  a  hoy  at  the  age  of 
8",  is  Colonel  Louis  H.  Waters  of  Kansas  City. 

"Among  the  members  of  the  Jackson  county  bar  whose  abilities  have  been  recog- 
nized by  the  people  with  whom  they  cast  their  lots  after  leaving  here,  may  be  mentioned 
John  "P.  St.  John,  twice  governor  of  Kansas,  and  Ashley  M.  Gould,- justice  (for  life)  of 
the  supreme  court  of  the  District  of  Columbia." 

When  a  King  Sued. 

Tlie  supreme  court  of  Missouri  once  lield  lliat  a  kinjj  could  sue  in  the  courts 
of  this  state.  The  suit  was  brought  by  King  Frederick  William  IV,  of  Piiissia, 
about  1S49,  or  soon  after  Carl  Schurz  and  the  other  Forty-eighters — "Acht-und- 
viertzigers"  they  were  called, — migrated  to  this  country  when  their  plans  to  fomi 
a  constitution  for  Prussia  failed.  One  of  these  Forty-eighters  was  Knepper,  the 
postmaster  at  Wermelskirchen.  It  was  claimed  that  he  brought  with  him  some 
of  the  post  office  funds.  The  amount  mentioned  in  the  suit  was  7.400  thalers.  At 
that  time  the  German  thaler  was  worth  about  sixty-nine  cents  in  United  States 
money,  making  the  amount  involved  some  $7,000.  Knepper  died  and  the  suit 
was  prosecuted  in  the  name  of  the  king  against  the  estate.  The  administrator 
of  Knepper  set  up  the  demurrer  that  ''the  plaintiff  has  no  legal  capacity  to  sue 
in  this  court."  Distinguished  counsel  were  engaged  on  both  sides.  Charles  Gib- 
son ajipeared  for  the  king  and  Edward  Bates  and  Britton  A.  Hill  for  the  estate 
of  Knepper.  The  St.  Louis  circuit  court  sustained  the  demurrer  and  found 
for  the  administrator.  Mr.  Gibson  appealed  and  the  supreme  court  of  Missouri 
said :  "This  case  comes  on  a  demurrer  and  raises  the  question  whether  a  for- 
eign sovereign  can  sue  in  our  courts."  After  some  further  discussion  the  court 
decided:  "The  jurisdiction  in  cases  of  the  character  under  consideration  has 
not  been  exclusively  vested  in  the  federal  courts;  hence  the  state  courts  may 
still  exercise  jurisdiction  in  all  such  cases."  The  case  was  sent  back  to  the 
circuit  court. 

For  his  successful  conduct  of  this  case  Mr.  Gibson  received,  as  evidence  of 
the  King's  appreciation,  a  pair  of  magnificent  vases.  Later  he  was  the  legal 
representative  of  foreign  governments  in  several  matters.  In  1882,  on  the  oc- 
casion of  a  visit  abroad,  Mr.  Gibson  was  decorated  by  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
of  Austria.  Still  later  he  received,  at  the  hands  of  Emperor  William  I,  the 
order  of  the  Prussian  Crown  and  in  1890  he  was  given  the  grand  cross  by  the 
late  kaiser.  These  decorations  came  in  the  way  of  recognition  for  professional 
services  rendered.  But  some  time  during  the  Cleveland  administration,  when 
Mr.  Gibson's  name  was  presented  for  a  diplomatic  appointment  the  fact  that  he 
had  been  thus  honored  with  decorations  proved  a  handicap,  such  was  the  feel- 
ing at  the  time  that  these  decorations  were  anti-American.  When  the  United 
States  entered  the  war  with  Germany,  the  thorough  Americanism  of  the  Gibson 
family  was  demonstrated  by  the  unsparing  devotion  of  a  descendant  of  Charles 
Gibson  in  the  work  of  preparedness. 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  259 

Admission  to  the  Bar. 

The  question  of  so  strengthening  the  requirements  of  admission  to  the  bar 
as  to  raise  the  standards  of  the  profession  received  consideration  at  several  of 
the  annual  sessions  of  the  Missouri  Bar  Association.  At  one  of  these  meetings 
George  W.  Barnett,  of  Sedalia,  told  the  following: 

"In  our  town  a  short  time  ago,  a  gentleman  came  from  a  little  town  in  that  same 
county;  and  he  was  a  lawyer  there;  he  was  practising.  }Ie  had  a  family.  I  was  on  the 
committee  who  assisted  the  circuit  judge  in  making  the  examination.  This  man  who  applied 
for  admission  to  the  bar  didn't  know  what  the  statute  of  frauds  was;  he  said  it  was  a 
statute  to  set  aside  injunctions  that  had  been  procured  by  fraud.  He  didn't  know  what  a 
negotiable  note  was;  said  it  couldn't  be  sold.  He  had  been  practising  before  a  justice  of 
the  peace.  Of  course,  he  wasn't  given  a  license.  He  went  around  town  criticising  us 
because  we  had  rejected  him.  He  had  some  influential  neighbors  and  they  thought  it  was 
a  case  of  spite  work;  that  the  trouble  was  the  jealousy  of  the  local  lawyers. 

"W.  S.  Shirk — Did  he  have  a  license  to  practice? 

"Mr.  Barnett — He  did  have  a  license  from  the  State  of  Kansas  and  had  been  prose- 
cuting attorney  in  that  state  for  two  years.  He  didn't  know  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a 
law  of  courtesy  and  when  he  was  asked  in  regard  to  it,  he  had  the  idea  it  had  some  relation 
to  husband  and  wife.  He  said  it  was  the  respect  of  a  wife  to  her  husband.  That  man 
has  since  been  admitted.  He  came  back  with  a  second  application  backed  up  by  the  whole 
neighborhood  who   felt  that  the  jealousy  of  the  local  bar  was  doing  him  an   injustice." 

Judge  John  F.  Philips,  as  chairman  of  tiie  committee  on  legal  education  and 
admission  to  the  bar,  emphasized  necessity  for  this  at  the  first  annual  meeting  of 
the  Association  in  St.  Louis  in  i88i.     He  said: 

"In  the  olden  time  it  was  supposed  that  the  way  to  the  bar  lay  through  long,  weary 
years  of  preparation,  requiring  liberal  scholarship  and  respectability  of  character,  but  in 
later  years,  particularly  since  the  war,  mere  smartness,  aptness  in  chicanery,  and  the 
emptiness  of  imprudent  pretensions  «-ould  seem  by  many  to  be  deemed  prime  qualities.  So 
that  with  the  facilities  afforded  in  a  period  of  social  restiveness,  of  marked  commercial 
activity,  when  'thrift'  follows  'fawning'  and  gainmaking  gives  license  to  doubtful  practices, 
charlatans  and  tricksters  have  rushed  to  the  bar,  until  it  is  thronged  with  shysters  and 
rascals,  instead  of  only  lawyers  and  gentlemen." 

For  a  long  time  the  Missouri  method  of  admitting  young  lawyers  to  prac- 
tice was  for  the  judge  on  the  bench,  to  whom  application  was  made  by  the  can- 
didate, to  refer  him  to  a  committee  of  those  already  admitted.  Judge  Philips 
said  he  had  often  seen  candidates  sent  for  examination  by  men  "who,  them- 
selves could  scarcely  spell,  read  and  write,  and  who  did  not  in  theory  or  prac- 
tice know  the  difference  between  replevin  and  reprisal."  Such  committees  re- 
ported in  favor  of  the  candidate,  being  afraid  to  examine  the  candidate  thoroughly 
lest  they  .show  their  own  ignorance. 

Judge  Philips  told  of  one  case  of  a  ^Missouri  applicant  who,  being  under  the 
impression  that  admission  was  rather  a  matter  of  favor  than  learning  of  law, 
presented  as  "the  basis  of  his  fitness  his  discharge  from  the  Federal  army  on  ac- 
count of  wounds  received  in  battle." 

^^■hen  Judge  Arnold  Krekel  of  the  United  States  district  court  of  Jefferson 
City  examined  candidates  for  admission  to  the  bar,  one  of  his  favorite  questions 
was,  "What  is  law?"    Fie  received  a  variety  of  answers.    Giving  his  own  defini- 


260  CEXTKXXIAI.  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

tion  he  would  say,  "Law  is  public  sentiment  crystalized.     And  if  it  isn't  crys- , 
talized,  it  is  very  poor  law." 

E.  P.  Rosenberger,  who  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-five  after  nearly  half  a 
century  of  successful  practice  of  the  law  in  Xorth  Missouri,  enjoyed  telling  the 
story  of  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  pioneer  days.  He  had  been  one  of  the  vol- 
unteer firemen  in  St.  Louis  and  had  movctl  to  High  Hill  where  he  was  in  the 
business  of  making  saddles  and  harness.  One  day  he  drove  into  Warrenton  and 
learned  that  a  pioneer  named  Powell  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar.  "If  Tom 
Powell  can  jiractice  law,  so  can  I,"  Mr.  Rosenberger  said.  He  applied  to  Judge 
Gilchrist  then  on  the  bench,  for  license.  The  judge  appointed  a  committee  of 
three  lawyers  to  examine  the  candidate.  These  lawyers  took  the  saddle  maker 
into  another  room  and  asked  him,  "Mr.  Rosenberger,  do  you  know  good  whis- 
key?" 

"I  think  I  do.''  was  the  reply. 

"Have  you  got  the  price  of  three  drinks?" 

The  candidate  led  the  way  to  a  nearby  saloon.  The  committee  returned  to 
the  courtroom  and  reported  Mr.  Rosenberger  duly  qualified  for  practice  at  the 
bar.  The  license  was  issued.  But  Mr.  Rosenberger  applied  himself  to  hard  study 
of  the  profession  and  became  one  of  the  most  successful  lawyers  of  that  part  of 
the  state. 

The  Missouri  Common-Law  Unions. 

The  early  legislators  of  Missouri  had  ideas  of  their  own  on  the  subject  of 
marriage.  They  engrafted  on  the  statutes  an  unusually  liberal  provision  for  the 
recognition  of  common-law  unions.  This  provision  long  survived  the  march  of 
statutory  reforms.  Missouri  protected  the  rights  of  common-law  wives  and  com- 
mon-law children  to  a  degree  not  known  in  most  states.  The  peculiarity  of  the 
Missouri  code  furnished  the  basis  of  an  interesting  decision  of  the  Pension  Office. 
A  well  preserved  widow  called  upon  the  commissioner,  and,  presenting  a  let- 
ter of  introduction  from  one  of  the  most  distinguished  women  of  the  country, 
told  her  story.  She  had  married  an  officer  in  the  army,  and  had  borne  him  five 
children.  During  the  time  she  lived  with  him  her  suspicions  were  aroused  as  to 
the  relations  her  husband  had  sustained  with  another  woman  before  she  met  him. 
The  fears  were  dispelled  by  his  assertion  that,  while  he  had  lived  with  the  other 
woman,  he  had  never  married  her.  After  the  officer's  death,  and  when  applica- 
tion was  made  for  a  pension,  it  was  discovered  that  a  previous  marriage  had 
taken  place,  which  nullified  the  later  ceremony,  and  stood  in  the  way  of  the 
pension  to  the  widow  who  had  applied.  In  their  search  to  get  the  facts  which 
would  show  the  applicant  was  not  entitled  to  a  pension  because  her  marriage 
had  not  been  legal,  the  pension  examiners  produced  the  evidence  which  removed 
the  cloud  from  the  second  wife  and  the  five  children,  and  which  furnished  the 
basis  for  the  allowance  of  the  pension.  They  found  that  the  first  and  only 
legal  wife  had  died  before  the  officer  did,  and  that  after  the  date  of  the  first 
wife's  death  he  had  lived  in  Missouri  long  enough  to  entitle  the  second  wife  and 
children  to  their  full  legal  rights  under  the  common-law  marriage  provisions  of 
the  state.  Had  the  time  been  spent  in  almost  any  other  state  of  the  union,  the 
result  would  have  been  entirely  different. 


JUDGE  DAVID  TODD 
Territorial  judgi'  of  Missmiri  :iii(l  first  circuit  judge 


LAW  AND  LAWYERS  263 

Missouri  and  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court. 

Missouri  has  missed  representation  on  the  United  States  Supreme  bench  nar- 
rowly several  times.  Judge  David  Todd  was  appointed  judge  of  the  Boone  cir- 
cuit court  by  Governor  McNair  in  1821  and  convened  it  under  a  sugar  tree, 
there  being  at  that  time  not  only  no  courthouse  but  no  building  in  Smithton  large 
enough  to  accommodate  the  court.  He  was  a  very  dignified  man  and  punctilious. 
Gentry  says  that  one  day  after  dinner,  Judge  Todd  fell  asleep  while  on  the  bench. 
As  soon  as  he  awoke  he  said  to  the  clerk.  "Enter  up  a  fine  against  David  Todd, 
of  ten  dollars,  for  contempt  of  court.  I  will  break  up  this  habit  of  going  to 
sleep,  or  I  will  break  the  court." 

One  of  Judge  Todd's  social  friends,  a  stonemason,  a  Scotchman,  Campbell, 
came  into  court,  and,  being  drunk,  stumbled  and  fell.  When  he  picked  himself 
up  he  apologized,  "Judge,  I  am  a  horse ;  I  am  a  horse.  Judge."  Judge  Todd 
called  to  the  sheriff,  "Take  that  horse  out,  lock  him  up  in  my  stable  and  keep 
him  there  till  I  call  for  him."  But  to  the  sherifif  privately  the  judge  said  that 
if  Campbell  could  be  kept  out  of  the  court  room  until  he  was  sober,  all  would 
be  forgiven.  At  one  time  in  his  career  Judge  Todd  became  financially  embar- 
rassed and  was  sued  in  his  own  court.  He  made  no  defense  and  when  he  called 
the  case  he  told  the  clerk  to  enter  judgment  against  David  Todd  by  default. 
Later  he  paid  the  judgment  in  full. 

In  1840,  when  William  Henry  Harrison  was  nominated  for  President,  Judge 
Todd  was  one  of  the  delegates  from  Missouri  and  when  the  notification  com- 
mittee was  chosen  Judge  Todd  was  made  a  member  of  it.  He  had  been  a  sol- 
dier under  Harrison  in  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe.  The  relations  between  Harrison 
and  the  judge  were  so  close  that  after  the  election,  the  President-elect  wrote  to 
Todd,  telling  him  that  if  there  was  a  vacancy  on  the  United  States  Supreme 
bench  during  his  term  in  the  White  House,  Todd  would  be  appointed  to  fill  it. 
But  Harrison  lived  only  a  few  weeks  after  his  iliauguration.  , 

When  William  A.  Hall  was  elected  to  Congress  in  the  sixties,  after  having 
served  on  the  Boone  circuit  bench,  he  called  on  President  Lincoln  who  told  him 
he  wanted  to  appoint  his  brother.  Willard  P.  Hall,  who  had  succeeded  Governor 
Gamble  as  war  governor,  to  a  place  on  the  Supreme  bench.  Mr.  Lincoln  said 
that  the  only  obstacle  in  the  way  was  the  opposition  of  a  certain  Republican 
senator.  He  suggested  that  Congressman  Hall  see  the  senator.  This  the  Con- 
gressman did  and  learned  from  the  senator  that  it  had  been  reported  to  him 
the  Congressman  had  said  at  some  time  he  would  not  tnist  this  senator  any 
further  than  he  could  throw  a  bull  by  the  tail.    Congressman  Hall  said,  "I  don't 

remember  ever  to  have  said  that  but, — by  ,  sir,  I  have  often  thought  it." 

Missouri  missed  the  Supreme  bench  again. 

Henry  Hitchcock  was  on  the  eligible  list  of  three  Presidents  for  very  high 
positions.  Presidents  Hayes,  Arthur  and  Harrison  had  Mr.  Hitchcock's  name 
under  consideration  for  vacancies,  two  of  them  on  the  Supreme  bench.  .\11  of 
these  Presidents  recognized  his  fitness  for  the  appointment  in  question.  Some 
political  or  personal  consideration  turned  the  scale  against  the  distinguished  St. 
Louisan.  There  was  no  particular  reason  why  Missouri  should  receive  the  rec- 
ognition from  these  Presidents  at  the  time  the  appointments  were  to  be  made. 
There  were  political  reasons  for  favoring  some  other  states.    Mr.  Hitchcock  stood 


264  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

simply  on  his  merits  before  these  Presidents,  and  they  were  sufficient  to  bring 
him  very  close  to  high  official  honors. 

Four  times  the  American  Bar  Association,  representing  the  best  of  the  legal 
profession  in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  has  honored  the  state  by  selecting  for  its 
head  a  Missourian.  When  the  association  was  formed,  the  first  president  chosen 
was  a  Missourian, — James  O.  Broadhead.  The  next  Missourian  to  whom  the 
distinction  was  given  was  Henry  Hitchcock.  In  the  World's  Fair  year,  1902,  the 
president  of  the  American  Bar  Association  was  James  Hagerman.  The  fourth 
Missourian  to  be  placed  in  the  presidency  of  the  association  was  Frederick  W. 
Lehmann. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

DUELING  IN  MISSOURI 

Benton  and  the  Code — Bloody  Island — A  Grewsomc  Rceord — Farrar  and  Graham — A 
Friend's  Responsibility — Fenwick  and  Crittenden — Aaron  Burr's  Nephew  Killed — Bar- 
ton and  Hempstead — Code  Forms  Drawn  by  Benton  and  Bates— A  Fearless  Editor — 
John  Seott's  Wholesale  Challenge — Lucas  and  Benton — The  Election  Controversy — 
"An  Insolent  Puppy' — What  Benton  Told  Washburnc — Lucas  on  "Origin  of  Differ- 
ences''— A  Farewell  Message — The  7  crms — Lucas  Badly  Wounded — Mediation  by  Judge 
Lawless — Benton  Repudiates  the  Agreement — The  Second  Meeting — Lucas  Killed — A 
Father's  Lament — Benton's  Promise  to  His  Wife — Geyer  and  Kenncrly — Army  Duels — 
Rector  and  Barton — The  "Philo"  Charges — Senator  Barton's  Scorching  Letter — Public 
Sentiment  Aroused — The  Belleville  Tragedy — Benton  for  the  Defense—Rev.  Timothy 
Flint's  Letter — Shields  and  Lincoln  on  the  Island — Legislation  Against  Dueling — Senator 
Linn's  Comments — Leonard  and  Berry — Pettis  and  Biddle — -A  Double  Fatality — Benton 
Again  the  Adviser — Edward  Dobyn's  Manuscript  Recollection — Dodging  the  Statute — 
RexK  Dr.  Eliot's  Protest — Hudson  and  Chambers — "Old  Biistamente's"  E.rperience — 
Blair  and  Pickering — Newspaper  Reorganization — The  Blair-Price  Feud — Judge  Fagg's 
Reminiscence — Edwards  and  Foster — Bowman   and   Glover — Vest   on    the  Duello. 

A  duel  at  St.  Louis  ended  fatally,  of  which  Colonel  Benton  has  not  been  heard  to  speak  except  among 
intimate  friends,  and  to  tell  of  the  pang  which  went  through  his  heart  when  he  saw  the  young  man  fall, 
and  would  have  given  the  world  to  see  him  restored  to  life.  As  proof  of  the  manner  in  which  he  looks 
upon  these  scenes  and  his  desire  to  bury  all  remembrances  of  them  forever,  he  has  had  all  his  papers 
burned  which  related  to  them,  that  no  future  curiosity  or  industry  should  bring  to  light  what  he  wished 
had   never   happened. — Benton's  Autobio^raf^hy,   dictated   on   his   deathbed. 

Dueling  in  Missouri  came  with  American  sovereignty.  It  went  out  of  prac- 
tice with  the  Civil  war.  Many  of  the  duels  were  influential  incidents  in  Missouri 
politics.     Most  of  the  duelists  were  lawyers  or  editors. 

More  frequently  than  any  other  is  the  name  of  Thomas  H.  Benton  associated 
with  Missouri  duels.  Benton  was  principal  in  one  fatal  duel.  He  was  chief 
adviser  in  another  duel  which  ended  fatally  for  both  principals.  He  was  second 
in  one  of  the  earliest  of  Missouri  duels  and  drew  up  the  rules  and  fomis  which 
served  as  precedents  in  subsequent  meetings.  As  a  lawyer  he  defended  duelists 
in  court.  He  was  a  historian  of  duels.  He  published  a  defense  of  duels.  And 
yet  on  his  deathbed,  referring  to  himself  as  usual  in  the  third  person,  he  told  of 
"the  pang  which  went  through  his  heart"'  when  he  saw  young  Lucas  fall,  ex- 
pressed his  regret  "for  all  these  scenes"  and  "had  all  of  his  papers  burned  which 
related  to  them." 

Benton's  relations  to  dueling  jvere  strange  indeed.  After  his  rough  and  tumble 
encounter  with  Andrew  Jackson  at  Nashville  in  1S13.  he  wrote:  "I  am  in  the 
middle  of  hell;  my  life  is  in  danger,  and  nothing  but  a  decisive  duel  can  save 
me  or  even  give  me  a  chance  for  my  own  existence." 

But  he  also  expressed  himself  on  paper  shortly  after  the  difficulty  with  Jack- 

265 


26G  CENTENNIAL  IIISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

son  in  these  words:  "Those  who  know  me,  know  full  well  that  I  would  give  a 
thousand  times  more  for  the  reputation  of  Croghan  in  defending  his  post  (which 
was  Fort  Stephenson)  than  I  would  for  the  reputation  of  all  the  duelists  and 
gladiators  that  ever  appeared  upon  the  face  of  the  earth." 

After  his  service  in  the  war  of  1812  Benton  moved  to  Missouri.  He  was 
prompted  to  make  this  change  because  of  the  disagreeable  personal  relations  in 
Tennessee  growing  out  of  the  fight  with  Jackson. 

Bloody  Island. 

Most  of  the  Missouri  duels  were  fought  on  the  upper  part  of  Bloody  Island 
in  the  Mississippi  river.  Usually  the  seconds  selected  a  spot  where  willows 
and  other  growth  screened  the  party  so  that  the  proceedings  could  not  be  seen 
from  the  St.  Louis  side.  People  assembled  in  numbers  on  the  river  bank ;  they 
occupied  windows  and  the  housetops  when  it  was  known  a  duel  was  to  be  fought. 
They  could  not  see  much,  but  they  would  hear  the  shots  and  they  were  witnesses 
to  the  return  of  the  parties  from  the  meeting.  When  St.  Louis,  to  save  the  city's 
harbor,  built  a  great  dyke  between  Bloody  Island  and  the  Illinois  mainland,  the 
entire  current  was  turned  to  the  westward.  This  not  only  restored  the  channel 
along  the  St.  Louis  water  front,  but  it  wore  away  the  western  edge  of  the  island. 
The  river  above  the  Eads  bridge  became  and  remains  considerablj'  wider  than 
it  was  in  1810-30,  when  the  current  was  divided  and  when  duels  were  frequent. 

Three  fatalities  on  the  cross  marks  gave  Bloody  Island  the  grewsome  name 
it  bore  for  more  than  fifty  years.  The  sandbar  opposite  the  northern  end  of  the 
settlement  of  St.  Louis  showed  above  the  river's  surface  at  low  water  about  1799. 
It  grew  steadily,  dividing  the  current.  An  increasing  proportion  of  the  river's 
volume  each  succeeding  year  passed  down  to  the  eastward  of  the  sandbar.  That 
part  of  the  channel  between  the  St.  Louis  water  front  and  the  western  edge  of 
the  bar  became  narrower  and  shallower  as  time  went  on.  The  human  voice 
carried  across  easily.  Willows  sprouted  and  grew  in  clumps  and  fringes.  The 
new-made  strip  of  ground  became  known  as  "The  Island."  When  there  was  need 
to  distinguish  it  from  others,  Missourians  of  that  generation  spoke  of  "the 
island  opposite  Roy."  On  the  St.  Louis  bank  of  the  river  near  the  foot  of  what 
afterwards  became  Ashley  street,  named  in  honor  of  the  fur  trader  and  Con- 
gressman, a  man  named  Roy  built  a  large  stone  tower  in  which  he  operated  a 
windmill.  The  tower  stood  on  a  curve  of  the  shore  line,  where  it  caught  the 
breeze  blowing  up  the  river.  Long  after  steam  jxiwer  came  into  use  the  dis- 
mantled stone  tower  was  a  conspicuous  landmark.  For  twenty  years  or  more 
"The  Island"  so  divided  the  current  that  neither  Missouri  nor  Illinois  claimed 
possession  or  exercised  jurisdiction.  This  condition  of  no  man's  land  favored 
the  selection  of  "The  Island"  for  duels. 

And  after  lives  had  been  sacrificed  in  these  affairs  public  sentiment  bestowed 
the  title.  Bloody  Island  vied  with  Bladensburg  in  Maryland  for  the  distinction 
of  being  the  principal  "field  of  honor"  in  the  United  States.  To  Bladensburg, 
a  few  miles  from  the  national  capital,  statesmen  and  officers  of  the  army  and 
navy  and  newspaper  men  of  Washington  resorted  during  two  generations  to 
settle  differences  by  shooting  at  each  other.  Dueling  on  Bloody  Island  began 
as  earlv  as  1810.    The  record  closed  in  i860. 


THOMAS  H.  BENTON 
Principal  in  one  duel:  second  in  another; 
defender  of  duelling  in  court  and  in  Senate. 


MAJOR   THOMAS  BIDDLE 
Principal  in  the  fatal  PettisBiddle  duel 


Couru»y  Ailssuurl  Hlstorlcai  Society 

THE  ROY  WINDMILL  TOWER  OPPOSITE  WHICH  THE  DUELS  WERE  FOl'GHT  OX 

BLOODY  ISLAND 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  269 

The  Next  Friend's  Responsibility. 

The  Farrar-Graham  meeting  was  among  the  earliest  Missouri  duels,  if  it  did 
not  inaugurate  the  practice  of  morning  expeditions  to  Bloody  Island.  It  illus- 
trated one  of  the  strangest  pleases  of  the  code.  James  A.  Graham  and  Dr.  Far- 
rar  were  very  close  personal  friends.  One  day  Graham  saw  an  army  lieutenant 
cheat  in  a  game  of  cards  at  the  hotel.  He  exposed  him.  The  army  officer 
declared  he  must  have  satisfaction.  He  sent  a  challenge  to  Graham  by  the 
hand  of  Farrar,  who  was  a  relative.  Under  the  rules  a  relative  could  not  refuse 
to  perform  this  duty,  when  asked.  Graham  refused  to  accept  the  challenge  on  the 
ground  that  the  army  officer,  by  his  act  of  cheating,  had  shown  himself  to  be 
no  gentleman.  The  code  required  the  second  in  each  case  to  make  the  princi- 
pal's quarrel  his  own.  Farrar  was  compelled  by  the  rules  to  challenge  his  most 
intimate  friend.  The  two  went  to  the  island  and  fired  at  each  other  three  times. 
Both  were  wounded,  Graham  so  badly  in  the  spine  that  he  kept  his  bed  for  four 
months.  When  he  got  up,  he  tried  to  make  a  horseback  journey  to  his  old  home 
in  the  East,  failed  on  the  way  and  died. 

In  1811  Thomas  H.  Crittenden  and  Dr.  Walter  Fenwick,  two  of  the  best 
citizens  of  Ste.  Genevieve,  met  on  Moreau  Island  opposite  Kaskaskia  landing. 
General  Henr}-  Dodge,  afterwards  United  States  senator  from  Wisconsin,  and 
John  Scott,  afterwards  member  of  Congress,  were  the  seconds.  Crittenden  had 
some  trouble  with  Ezekiel  Fenwick.  who  sent  a  challenge  by  his  brother.  Dr. 
Fenwick.  When  Crittenden  refused  to  meet  Ezekiel  Fenwick,  the  doctor  was 
compelled,  under  the  code,  to  make  the  quarrel  his  own.  He  was  wounded 
mortally  at  the  first  fire.  Crittenden  was  unhurt.  The  pistols  used  in  that  duel 
were  made  by  an  expert  slave  gunsmith  who  belonged  to  John  Smith  T.  They 
are  preserved  in  the  great  collection  of  curiosities  made  by  the  Missouri  His- 
torical Society. 

Firman  A.  Rozier,  in  his  History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  told  of  a  duel 

between  John  Smith  T.  and  Lionel  Browne,  a  nephew  of  Aaron  Burr.     Browne 

was  then  a  resident  of  Potosi.    The  meeting  place  was  on  the  Illinois  side  of  the 

Mississippi   opposite   Herculaneum.     Browne   was  the  challenger;   he   was  shot 

in  the  center  of  the  forehead  and  killed  instantly, 

Benton  and  the  Precedents. 

The  last  of  the  political  duels  in  which  blood  was  shed  was  in  1856.  It  was 
coincident  with  the  passing  of  Benton  in  Missouri  politics — fought  in  the  month 
that  Benton  went  down  to  final  defeat  at  the  polls.  Intense  feeling  between  the 
Benton  and  anti-Benton  factions  was  the  prompting  cause  of  this  last  duel. 
Nowhere  in  the  correspondence  relating  to  the  duel  did  the  name  of  Benton 
appear,  but  it  was  understood  that  Benton  was  sympathizing  and  advising  with 
B.  Gratz  Brown,  the  editor  of  the  Democrat,  in  his  controversies  with  Thomas  C. 
Reynolds,  the  district  attorney  and  anti-Benton  candidate  for  Congress.  Forty 
years  previously,  in  181 6,  the  year  he  came  to  St.  Louis  to  make  his  home, 
Benton  went  out  as  second  to  Thomas  Hempstead,  Edward  Bates  acting  for 
Joshua  Barton,  the  other  principal.     This  was  not  the  first  St.  Louis  duel,  but 


270  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

it  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  is  notable  for  the  punctilious  care  with  which  the 
rules  were  drawn.  The  seconds  made  a  formal  report  upon  the  affair.  Prece- 
dents were  established  to  govern  in  later  meetings.  Although  Benton  destroyed 
all  of  his  papers  relating  to  dueling,  the  copies  of  the  Barton-Hempstead  docu- 
ments are  in  the  possession  of  the  Missouri  Historical  Society.  The  most  inter- 
esting of  the  papers  is  the  following: 

"Rules  of  tlic  meeting  between  Mr.  J.  Barton  demanding  and  Mr.  T.  Hempstead 
answering : 

"l.    The  ground  will  be  measured  off  to  six  paces. 

"2.    The  gentlemen  will  stand  back  to  back  at  the  distance  of  six  paces  from  each  other. 

"3.  At  the  word  "March !'  the  gentlemen  will  instantly  step  off  three  paces  and  turn 
and  fire  without   further  order. 

"4.  If  cither  party  reserves  his  lire  and  continues  to  aim  after  the  other  has  tired  he 
shall  be  shot  instantly  by  the  adverse  second. 

■'5.    The  seconds  shall  decide  by  lot  which  gives  the  word. 

"6.  The  only  words  shall  be,  'Are -you  ready?'  and  being  answered  in  the  aflirmative, 
the  word  "March"  shall  be  the  order  for  stepping  oflf  and  turning  and  firing,  as  above  stated. 

"7.  The  meeting  at  5  o'clock  this  evening  on  the  island  in  the  Mississippi,  opposite 
LcRoy,  on  the  upper  end  of  the  island. 

"8.    The  weapons   smooth-bore  pistols. 

"9.  The  pistols  to  be  delivered  cocked  to  the  gentlemen  after  they  have  taken  their 
places,  and  to  be  held  hanging  down  by  the  side  until  after  the  word  'March.' 

"Signed  in  duplicate,  August   loth,  1816,  at  St.  Louis. 

"T.  H.  Benton,  for  Mr.  Hempstead. 
"Edward  Bates,  for  Mr.  Barton." 

Three  days  after  the  meeting  the  seconds  issued  a  formal  report,  and  thus 
the  incident  was  closed : 

"The  tuidersigned,  present  at  the  meeting  between  Mr.  Thomas  Hempstead  and  Mr. 
Joshua  Barton  on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  the  loth  instant,  state: 

"That  as  soon  as  the  parties  met,  the  ground  was  measured  off  by  the  undersigned  and 
the  pistols  loaded  in  each  other's  presence. 

"'The  choice  of  positions  and  the  right  of  giving  the  word  was  decided  by  lot. 

"The  gentlemen  immediately  took  their  station  and  fired  as  nearly  as  could  be  in  the 
same  instant,  and  exactly  conformable  to  the  rules  agreed  upon.  Each  conducted  himself 
in  a  firm,  cool  and  collected  manner. 

"'After  the  first  fire  the  party  demanding  satisfaction  declared  that  it  had  been  given, 
and  no  explanation,  concession  or  even  mention  of  the  cause  of  difference  was  made  upon 
the  ground,  but  the  gentlemen  shook  hands  as  friends,  upon  mutual  declaration  that  they 
owed  each  other  no  ill  will ;  and  upon  the  unanimous  declaration  of  the  friends  and  sur- 
geons present  that  the  aflfair  ought  not  to  proceed  any  further. 

"The  undersigned  state  it  as  their  opinion  that  the  conduct  of  both  gentlemen  was 
perfectly  honorable  and  correct. 

"Signed   in  duplicate,  August   13th,   1816. 

"Thomas  H.  Benton. 
"Edward  Bates." 

The  Press  and  the  Code. 

Joseph  Charless,  who  established  the  first  newspaper  .in  St.  Louis,  was  a 
fearless  editor  at  short  range.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  express  editorial  opinion 
on  duels.  When  the  fatal  meeting  between  Benton  and  Lucas  took  place,  this 
comment   on   the   result   appeared   in   the   Gazette :     "The    infernal    practice   of 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  271 

dueling  has  taken  oft'  this  morning  one  of  the  first  characters  in  our  country, 
Charles  Lucas,  Esq.,  attorney  at  law.  His  death  has  left  a  blank  in  society  not 
easily  filled  up." 

At  one  time  Mr.  Charless  was  threatened  with  incendiarism  because  of  some 
vigorous  editorials  in  the  Gazette.  Apparently,  as  a  result  of  the  rumors  that  the 
editor  was  to  be  burned  out,  the  Gazette  published  this:  "D.  Kimball  requests 
the  incendiaries  of  St.  Louis  to  defer  biirning  Mr.  Charless'  establishment  until 
his  removal,  which  will  be  on  the  20th  of  April  next."  While  walking  in  his 
garden,  Mr.  Charless  was  fired  upon  but  was  not  hit. 

The  afl^air  with  Congressman  John  Scott  was  a  newspaper  sensation  which 
continued  some  weeks  in  St.  Louis.  The  Gazette  printed  several  articles  on 
Scott,  who  denounced  them  and  demanded  the  name  of  the  author.  Threats 
were  made,  to  which  Mr.  Charless  replied:  "I  may  be  threatened,  but  I  will 
continue  an  independent  course.  If  I  am  attacked  for  exercising  the  honest 
duties  of  my  profession,  I  know  how  to  repel  injur)'."  That  was  in  1816.  Mr. 
Charless  at  length  gave  Mr.  Scott  the  names  of  the  writers  of  the  articles.  Five 
highly  respectable  citizens  were  involved.  Scott  challenged  eac4i  of  them.  Fir- 
man A.  Rozier's  version  of  John  Scott's  wholesale  appeal  to  the  code  was  this: 
"During  the  time  that  he  was  a  candidate  for  Congress,  there  were  written  by 
some  correspondents,  who  were  his  political  enemies,  severe  strictures  upon  his 
character,  in  the  Gazette,  published  in  St.  Louis.  He  demanded  of  Mr.  Charless, 
the  editor,  the  names  of  the  authors,  which  were  given  him.  Next  morning, 
whilst  in  St.  Louis,  through  General  Henry  Dodge,  and  that  before  breakfast,  he 
challenged  to  mortal  combat  five  of  these  correspondents,  among  whom  were 
Hon.  Rufus  Easton,  delegate  from  Missouri  Territory;  Mr.  Lucas,  afterwards 
killed  in  a  duel  by  Benton ;  Dr.  .Simpson,  and  others  whose  names  are  not  now 
remembered.  They  all  declined  with  the  exception  of  Lucas.  The  difficulty 
with  Lucas  was  afterwards  compromised  through  friends.  Hon.  Rufus  Easton's 
reply  to  Scott  in  declining  to  fight  was,  T  do  not  want  to  kill  you,  and  if  you 
were  to  kill  me  I  would  die  as  the  fool  dieth.'  " 

Benton,  the  Principal. 

A  year  and  a  day  after  bis  first  dueling  experience  in  St.  Louis  and  the  sec- 
ond year  of  his  residence,  Benton  was  principal  in  a  duel.  Like  the  rest  of  the 
Benton  duels,  that  of  August  12,  181 7,  had  its  origin  in  politics.  Many  years 
ago  Richard  Dowling  wrote  into  the  minute  book  of  the  Missouri  Historical 
Society  Benton's  version  of  the  trouble  with  Lucas: 

"The  election  which  was  held  on  Monday,  the  4th  of  .'\ugust.  1817,  at  which  members 
of  Congress  were  to  be  chosen,  John  Scott  and  Rufus  Easton  being  the  candidates,  and 
the  former,  receiving  the  nomination,  was  known  as  'the  military  election.'  The  United 
States  officers  stationed  at  Bellefontaine,  then  the  western  post,  were  quite  active  on  the 
occasion,  going  through  the  streets  with  drum,  fife  and  flag,  Lieut.  Thomas  F.  Smith 
taking  a  conspicuous  part. 

"The  polling  took  place  on  the  west  side  of  Third,  between  .\lmond  and  Spruce,  at 
the  eourthouse,  the  judges  being  inside  the  door,  and  the  people  coming  up  to  vote, 
which  they  did  by  handing  in  a  printed  ticket,  which  was  read  aloud,  each  name  of  a 
voter  written  down  at  the  moment  and  on  a  line  with  it  his  vote.  This  was  the  only 
voting  precinct  in  the  county.     .\t   this   time   a  property  qualification   was   the  law.     Col. 


272  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Thomas  H.  Benton,  living  in  a  two-story  liouse,  frame,  on  the  north  side  of  Washington 
avenue,  between  Second  and  Third,  presented  himself  to  vote.  As  he  handed  in  his 
ticket  his  right  to  vote  was  challenged  by  Charles  Lucas.  Colonel  Benton  explained  to 
the  judge  that  he  owned  slaves  in  St.  Louis,  on  which  he  paid  taxes.  After  this  explana- 
tion he  offered  to  vote.  Notwithstanding  the  explanation,  Charles  Lucas  renewed  his 
challenge.  Whereupon  Colonel  Benton  called  Lucas  'an  insolent  puppy.'  I  had  this 
account  from  the  lips  of  Colonel  Benton  himself  on  our  return  from  Manchester,  where 
a  large  political  meeting  had  been  held,  I  think  in  1842." 

One  of  the  occasions  on  which  Benton  talked  of  the  Lucas  duel  was  in  1856, 
the  year  of  the  Brown-Reynolds  affair.  Elihu  B.  Washburne  was  in  Washing- 
ton as  a  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois.  His  wife  was  Adele  Gratiot,  a 
daughter  of  Henry  Gratiot  and  Susan  Hempstead.  Benton  was  a  close  personal 
friend  of  the  Hempsteads.  Washburne  was  making  a  call  upon  Benton.  His 
alliance  with  the  Gratiot-Hempstead  families  prompted  conversation  upon  the 
pioneer  days  of  St.  Louis.  Washburne  was  so  impressed  with  what  Benton 
said  that  when  he  returned  home  he  made  a  memorandum  of  it.  Years  after- 
wards, while  on  a  visit  to  Jefferson  City  to  present  to  Missouri  the  portrait  of 
Edward  Hempstead,  who  had  been  the  first  delegate  in  Congress,  he  referred 
to  this  written  statement.  Benton  told  Washburne  that  Hempstead  would  have 
been  the  first  senator  from  Missouri  if  he  had  lived.  Hempstead  received  an 
ugly  fall  from  his  horse,  and  although  the  immediate  effects  did  not  seem  serious, 
he  was  taken  ill  suddenly  in  the  midst  of  trial  and  died  in  a  short  tiine.  Benton 
was  with  Hempstead  when  he  died  and  recalled  the  circumstances  as  he  talked 
with  Washburne.  Then  he  went  on:  "Sir,  how  we  did  things  in  those  days! 
After  being  up  with  my  dead  friend  all  night,  I  went  to  my  office  in  the  morn- 
ing to  refresh  myself  a  little  before  going  out  to  bury  him  five  miles  from  town. 
While  sitting  at  my  table  writing,  a  man  brought  me  a  challenge  to  fight  a  duel. 
I  told  the  bearer  instanter,  'I  accept,  but  I  must  now  go  and  burj'  a  dead  friend ; 
that  is  my  first  duty.  After  that  is  discharged  I  will  fight,  tc5-night,  if  possible ; 
if  not  to-morrow  morning  at  daybreak.  I  accept  your  challenge,  sir,  and  Colonel 
Lawless  will  write  the  acceptance  and  fix  the  terms  for  me.'  I  was  outraged, 
sir,  that  the  challenge  should  have  been  sent  when  I  was  burying  a  friend.  I 
thought  it  might  have  been  kept  a  few  days,  but  when  it  came  I  was  ready  for 
it." 

The  Statement  of  Lucas. 

The  sending  of  the  challenge  by  Lucas,  the  acceptance  by  Benton,  the  funeral 
of  Hempstead,  the  agreement  upon  terms  and  the  arrangements  for  the  "per- 
sonal interview"  the  next  morning,  all  took  place  in  one  day.  More  than  that, 
Lucas  wrote  the  evening  of  the  same  day  and  left  for  publicity  this  paper: 

"Origin  of  state  of  differences  between  Thomas  H.  Benton  and  Charles  Lucas. 

"St.  Louis,  August  II,  1817,  9  o'clock  at  night. 

"The  causes  of  differences  between  T.  H.  Benton  and  me  were  as  follows :  At 
October  court  of  last  year,  Mr.  Benton  and  I  were  employed  on  adverse  sides  in  a  cause. 
At  the  close  of  the  evidence,  he  stated  that  the  evidence  being  so  and  so  he  requested  the 
court  to  instruct  the  jury  to  find  accordingly.  I  stated  in  reply  that  there  was  no  such 
evidence  to  my  remembrance.     He  replied,  'I  contradict  you,  sir.'     I  answered,  'I  contradict 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  273 

you,  sir.'  He  then  said,  'If  you  deny  that,  you  deny  the  truth.'  I  replied,  'If  you  assert 
that,  you  assert  what  is  not  true.'  He  immediately  sent  a  challenge,  which  I  declined 
accepting,  for  causes  stated  in  my  correspondence.  The  jury  in  a  few  moments  returned  a 
verdict  for  me,  and  opposite  to  his  statement.  He  never  even  moved  for  a  new  trial.  Since 
that  time  we  have  had  no  intercourse  except  on  business.  On  the  day  of  the  election  at 
St.  Louis,  4th  of  August,  1817,  I  inquired  whether  he  had  paid  taxes  in  time  to  entitle  him 
to  vote ;  he  was  offering  his  vote  at  the  time.  He  applied  vehement,  abusive  and  uijgentle- 
manly  language  to  me,  and  I  believe  some  of  it  behind  my  back,  all  of  which  he  declined 
to  recant,  to  give  me  any  satisfaction  other  than  by  the  greatest  extremities.  I  make  this 
declaration  that,  let  things  eventuate  as  they  may,  it  maj'  be  known  how  they  originated. 

'  "Charles  I^cas." 

The  challenge,  which  Benton  sent  after  the  trial,  Lucas  declined  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  simply  done  his  duty  as  a  lawyer  to  his  clients  and  the 
verdict  of  the  jury  had  sustained  his  view  of  the  evidence,  justifying  the  lan- 
guage he  had  used.  Lucas  added:  "I  will  not  for  supporting  that  truth  be  in 
any  way  bound  to  give  the  redress  or  satisfaction  you  ask  for,  or  to  any  person 
who  may  feel  wounded  by  such  exposure  of  the  truth." 

Besides  putting  on  paper  the  origin  of  the  differences,  Lucas  wrote  this  per- 
sonal nbte : 

"St.  Louis,  August  II,  1817. 
"Dear  Father : 

"Embarked  as  I  am  in  a  hazardous  enterprise,  the  issue  of  which  )OU  will  know 
before  you  see  this,  I  am  under  the  necessity  of  bidding  you,  my  brothers,  sister,  friends, 
adieu.  My  brothers  and  sister  procure  to  you  that  consolation  which  I  cannot.  I  request 
my  brothers.  William  and  James,  to  pursue  their  studies  with  assiduity,  preserving  peace 
and  good-will  with  all  good  men.     Father,  sister,  brothers,  and  friends — farewell. 

'  "Charles  Lucas." 

Hempstead  died  the  night  of  the  loth  of  August,  1817.  Benton  received  the 
challenge  the  morning  of  the  nth.  The  copy  preserved  among  the  manuscript 
collections  of  the  Jvlissouri  Historical  Society  reads : 

"Thomas  H.  Benton,  Esq. 

"Sir :  I  am  informed  you  applied  to  me  on  the  day  of  the  election  the  epithet  of 
'puppy.'  If  so  I  shall  expect  that  satisfaction  which  is  due  one  gentleman  to  another  for 
such   an   indignity.     I  am, 

"Charles    Lucas." 

Lucas — Benton,  First  Meeting. 

Another  document  preserved  by  the  Missouri  Historical  Society  reveals  the 
expedition  with  which  "personal  interviews"  on  the  island  were  arranged  in 
those  days.  Before  night  of  that  same  day  the  terms  had  been  arranged.  At  six 
o'clock  the  next  inorning  the  duel  was  fought  in  accordance  with  the  following: 

"Articles  regulating  the  terms  of  personal  interview  between  Thomas  H.  Benton  and 
Charles  Lucas,  Esquires : 

"i.  The  parties  shall  meet  at  6  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  12th  inst.  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  island,  opposite  Madame  Roy's. 

"2.  Each  party  shall  choose  and  provide  himself  with  a  smoothbore  pistol,  not  exceed- 
ing eleven  inches  in  length. 


274  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  JNIISSOURl 

"3.  The  pistols  shall  be  loaded  on  the  grounds  by  the  friends  of  each  party  in  the 
presence  of  both  friends  and  parties  if  the  latter  shall  require  it. 

"4.  The  friends  of  each  party  shall  have  the  liberty  of  being  armed  with  two  loaded 
pistols  on  the  ground  if  they  please. 

"S.  The  parties  respectively  shall  be  examined  by  the  friends  of  each  other  on  the 
ground  to  see  that  they  shall  have  no  personal  defence  of  any  kind  about  them,  or  anything 
that  caft  prevent  the  penetration  of  a  ball. 

"6.  The  parties  previously  to  taking  their  ground  shall  strip  off  their  coats  and  waist- 
coats to  their  shirts  respectively,  and  shall  fire  in  that  situation. 

"7.  Each  party  to  have  leave  to  take  a  surgeon  with  them,  if  they  please,  to  the 
grounds.    » 

"8.  The  parties  sliall  stand  at  the  distance  of  thirty  feet,  and  after  being  asked  if  they 
are  ready,  and  each  having  answered  in  the  aflirmative  they  shall  receive  the  word  to  'fire,' 
after  which  the  parties  may  present  and  fire  when  they  please. 

"9.  The  friends  of  the  parties  shall  cast  lots  for  choice  of  stands  and  for  the  giving 
of  the  word. 

"10.  The  friends  of  the  parties  shall  pledge  themselves  to  each  other  that  there  are 
no  persons  on  the  island  to  their  knowledge  except  those  seen. 

"11.  If  either  party  shall  fire  before  the  word  'fire'  is  given  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
friend  of  the  opposite  party  to  shoot  him  who  has  so  fired. 

"12.  The  parties  by  their  undersigned  friends  pledge  themselves  on  their  honor  for 
the  strict  observance  of  the  above  articles. 

"St.  Louis,  nth  August,  181 7.  "Lawless, 

"J.  Barton." 

Joshua  Baiion,  the  second  of  Lucas,  had  been  out  the  year  before  as  a  prin- 
cipal. Now  he  was  a  second.  Later  he  was  to  be  a  principal  again  and  to  fall. 
Immediately  after  the  first  Lucas-Benton  meeting,  Barton  wrote  to  Judge  Lucas 
his  account : 

"Charles  appeared  perfectly  cool  and  collected  both  before  and  after  taking  his  position 
to  fire.  On  Colonel  Benton  demanding  another  fire  or  a  second  meeting,  Charles  told  me 
to  reload,  that  he  could  stand  another  fire.  This  I  hesitated  to  do,  under  a  belief  which 
I  have  never  changed,  that  it  would  be  a  wanton  exposure  of  the  life  of  a  man  who,  to 
judge  from  the  profuse  discharges  of  blood,  had  already  received  a  wound  which  might 
prove  mortal.  He  requested  me  to  shorten  the  distance,  which  I  declined,  for  the  same 
reason.  It  was  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  Doctor  Quarles  and  myself  that  he  consented  to 
adjourn  the  meeting.  We  supported  him  to  the  boat,  soon  after  getting  into  which  he 
fainted." 

The  second  of  Benton,  Judge  Lawless,  published  a  statement  in  the  Missouri 
Gazette : 

"When  the  parties  fired  I  asked  by  request  of  Colonel  Benton  if  Mr.  Lucas  was  satis- 
lied,  to  which  he  answered  in  the  negative.  Upon  this  I  was  proceeding  to  reload  when 
Mr.  Barton,  a  second  for  Mr.  Lucas,  informed  me  that  it  was -the  opinion  of  Doctor 
Quarles  that  the  wound  which  Mr.  Lucas  had  received  was  more  serious  than  he  had  at 
first  imagined,  and  that  he  considered  it  necessary  that  he  should  quit  the  field.  In  conse- 
quence, I  again  demanded  of  Mr.  Lucas  if  he  was  satisfied,  and  if  he  wished  for  another 
meeting  with  Colonel  Benton.  To  this  question  he  replied  tliat  he  was  satisfied,  and  that 
he  did  not  require  a  second  meeting.  Having  reported  the  answer  to  Colonel  Benton,  he 
declared  aloud  that  he  was  not  satisfied,  and  required  that  Mr.  Lucas  should  continue  to 
fight  or  pledge  himself  to  come  out  again  as  soon  as  his  wound  should  be  in  a  state  to 
permit  him.  This  promise  was  accordingly  given,  and  the  parties  pledged  themselves  by 
their  seconds  to  perform  it." 


DUELING  IX  MISSOURI  275 

Efforts  at  Mediation. 

The  seconds  as  well  as  mutual  friends  endeavored  to  settle  the  trouble  with- 
out another  duel.    In  his  statement  Mr.  Barton  said : 

"It  was  agreed  on  the  groiuxri  at  tlie  first  meeting  that  I  should  in  form  the  friend  of 
Colonel  Benton  as  soon  as  Mr.  Lucas  was  sufficiently  recovered  to  meet  Colonel  Benton 
again.  On  Friday,  the  22d  of  August,  about  8  o'clock  in  the  morning,  I  waited  on  Colonel 
Lawless  for  that  purpose.  After  conversing  on  different  subjects,  Colonel  Lawless  inquired 
after  Mr.  Lucas'  health,  and  his  state  of  convalescence,  to  which  I  replied  that  he  was  then 
sufficiently  recovered  to  meet  Colonel  Benton.  Colonel  Lawless  asked  when  we  would  be 
ready  to  go  out,  to  which  I  answered  the  ne.xt  morning,  or  at  whatever  time  should  be 
thought  best.  Colonel  Lawless  then  informed  me  that  he  was  going  that  day  to  Herculaneum 
on  important  business  of  his  own,  and  should  not  return  before  the  next  Sunday  evening 
or  Monday  morning,  and  mentioned  something  of  Colonel  Benton  calling  in  another  friend 
in  case  the  meeting  took  place  next  morning.  I  professed  my  willingness  to  postpone  it 
until  his  return,  if  Colonel  Benton  was  willing.  Colonel  Lawless  not  seeming  disposed  to 
agree  to  anything  without  previous  consultation  with  him.  We  conversed  freely  on  every- 
thing connected  with  the  affair,  and  particularly  on  the  prospects  of  peace  resulting  from 
an  attempt  which  had  been  made  a  few  days  before  to  that  end.  Colonel  Lawless  did  not 
know,  at  that  time,  whether  his  friend  would  drop  it  in  the  way  which  had  been  proposed, 
but  said  he  (Colonel  Lawless)  would  'make  another  trial  on  him.'  We  parted  with  an 
understanding,  as  I  thought,  that  Colonel  Benton  was  to  be  informed  of  what  had  passed, 
who  could  then  either  withdraw  his  demand  for  a  second  meeting,  call  in  another  friend, 
or  wait  Colonel  Lawless*  return.  I  was  surprised  at  not  hearing  from  them  sooner,  and 
afterward  asked  Colonel  Lawless  if  he  had  not  informed  his  friend,  before  going  to  Her- 
culaneum, who  told  me  he  had  called  for  that  purpose,  but  did  not  find  him  at  home.  " 
considered  that   sufficient  notice  was  given." 

Judge  Lawless  thought  that  the  efforts  at  mediation  had  succeeded.  He  was 
so  confident  that  on  the  i8th  of  September,  only  nine  days  before  the  fatal  duel, 
he  wrote  a  full  account  of  the  settlement  of  differences  and  this  appeared  in 
the  Gazette  on  the  20th  of  September: 

"The  earnest  representations  of  Colonel  Benton's  friends  and  his  own  generous  dis- 
position had  considerably  weakened  those  indignant  feelings  which,  on  the  ground,  had 
impelled  him  to  exact  of  his  antagonist  the  promise  of  another  interview.  His  cooler  re- 
flection informed  him,  that  having  wounded  the  man  who  had  challenged  him,  and  who, 
notwithstanding  his  wounds,  declared  himself  satisfied,  in  pursuing  Mr.  Lucas  further  his 
conduct  would  assume  an  aspect  of  vengeance  foreign  from  his  heart,  and  that  the 
sympathies  and  opinions  of  his  fellow-citizens  would  probably  be  raised  against  him.  On 
these  considerations  he  had  almost  determined  to  withdraw  the  demand  for  a  second 
meeting,  and  he  did  not  conceal  these  feelings  from  those  persons  with  whom  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  intercourse.  Colonel  Benton,  in  tluis  yielding  to  the  entreaties  of  friendship 
and  to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience,  did  not  imagine  that  he  was  furnishing  a  means  of 
calumny  to  his  enemies,  or  that  the  motives  of  his  conduct  could  possibly  be  misunder- 
stood. In  this  idea  he  found  himself  disappointed,  and  was  in  a  very  few  days  assailed 
by  reports  of  the  most  offensive  nature  to  his  feelings  and  reputation.  Colonel  Benton 
then  saw  the  necessity  of  disproving  those  reports  either  by  another  meeting,  or  by  the 
explanation  of  Mr.  Lucas,  from  whom  or  from  whose  friends  he  supposed  them  to  have 
proceeded.  He  accordingly  determined  to  await  the  moment  when  Mr.  Lucas  was  suffi- 
ciently recovered  to  come  to  the  field,  and  then  to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  justifying 
or  contradicting  the  reports  in  circulation.  About  this  time  Mr.  Barton  called  on  me, 
whether  in  the  capacity  of  !Mr.  Lucas'  second  or  not,  I  cannot  say,  and  in  the  course  of 
conversation,  in  reply  to  a  question  of  mine,  informed  me  that  Mr.  Lucas  was  sufficiently 
recovered  to  meet  Colonel  Benton. 


27(i  CENTENNIAL  lUSTUkV  UF  MISSOURI 

"At  this  moment  I  was  on  the  point  of  leaving  St.  Louis,  for  Hcrculaneum,  and  there- 
fore deferred  conveying  the  information  to  Colonel  Benton  until  my  return,  which  was  two 
days   afterward. 

"On  my  arrival,  1  lost  no  time  in  stating  to  Colonel  Benton  the  conversation  1  had  with 
Mr.  Barton,  and  at  his  request  immediately  called  upon  the  latter  gentleman,  .^s  I  was 
one  of  those  who  were  of  opinion  that  he  should  release 'Mr.  Lucas  from  the  pledge  he 
had  given,  I  felt  considerable  regret  that  the  generous  intentions  of  my  friend  should  be 
affected  by  reports  which  might  have  been  circulated  without  the  knowledge  of  Mr.  Lucas, 
and  considered  it,  therefore,  my  duty  to  e.xert  myself  in  every  way  consistent  with  the 
honor  of  Colonel  Benton  to  avert  ;i  result  which  would  certainly  prove  more  or  less 
calamitous. 

"With  this  view  I  stated  to  Mr.  Barton  the  motives  which  might  have  disposed  Colonel 
Benton  to  release  Mr.  Lucas  from  his  promise  to  meet  him.  and  the  causes  that  counter- 
acted this  disposition.  I  then  proposed  that  Mr.  Lucas  should  sign  a  declaration  disavowing 
the  reports  in  question.  To  this  proposition  Mr.  Barton  assented,  and  a  declaration  to 
the  above  effect  was  drawn  up  and  agreed  to  by  us.  The  declaration,  which  appeared  to  me 
sufliciently  full,  was  submitted  to  Mr.  Lucas,  who  consented  to  sign  it.  Colonel  Benton, 
however,  did  not  consider  it  sufficiently  explicit,  and  rejected  it.  This  decision  appeared  to 
leave  no  other  alternative  than  a  meeting,  which  was  accordingly  agreed  upon  between  Mr. 
Barton  and  nic,  and  was  fi.xed  for  the  morning  after  the  rising  of  the  superior  court, 
which  was  <hen  sitting. 

"It  may,  perhaps,  be  necessary  to  state  that  on  Mr.  Barton's  suggestion  that  the  dis- 
tance should  be  shortened,  I  consented  on  the  part  of  my  friend  to  any  distance  from  ten 
paces  to  five,  which  latter  was  mentioned  by  Mr.  Barton  as  best  calculated  to  place  the 
parties  on  an  equality. 

"hi  this  situation  matters  remained  for  three  or  four  days,  during  which  my  own 
reflection  and  the  opinions  of  lionorable  and  sensible  men  whom  I  consulted,  convinced 
me  that  the  cause  of  the  quarrel  at  present  being  perhaps  ideal,  I  should  omit  no  effort  to 
prevent  the  fatal  consequences  of  such  a  meeting.  In  this  opinion  the  personal  safety  of 
my  friend  was  my  least  consideration,  as  upon  such  occasions  it  ever  has  been. 

"With  this  view  I  drew  up  a  second  declaration  more  explicit  and  full  than  the  former, 
precluding  all  possibility  of  mistake  as  to  the  motives  or  conduct  of  either  party,  and,  as  it 
appeared  to  me,  consistent  with  the  honor  of  both.  Mr.  Barton,  having  examined  and 
approved  of  it,  obtained  from  Mr.  Lucas  his  consent  to  sign  it.  I  on  my  part  submitted 
it  to  Colonel  Benton,  and,  supported  by  his  other  friends,  succeeded  in  inducing  him  to 
accept  it.     The  terms  of  this  declaration  are  as  follows: 

"  'In  consequence  of  reports  having  reached  Colonel  Benton  of  declarations  cominj?  from  me  respecting 
the  shortness  of  the  distance  at  which  I  intended  to  bring  liitn  at  our  next  meeting,  T  hereby  declare  that 
I  ntver  said  anything  on  that  subject  with  a  view  of  its  becoming  public  or  of  its  coming  to  the  knowledge 
of  Colonel  Benton,  and  that  I  have  never  said  or  insinuated,  or  caused  to  be  said  or  insinuated,  that  Colonel 
Benton  was  not  disposed  and  ready  to  meet  mc  at  any  distance  and  at  any  time  whatsoever. 

"  'Chas.    I-i'cas.' 

"Having  now  stated  the  transactions  between  these  gentlemen  as  accurately  as  I  am 
able  without  entering  into  details  of  minute  particulars,  or  a  report  of  expressions  used  by 
the  one  party  or  the  other — details  which  might  irritate,  without  answering  any  useful 
purpose — I  submit  the  whole  to  the  fellow-citizens  of  Colonel  Benton,  in  the  perfect  ■ 
persuasion  that  if  the  reports  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  which  have  drawn  from  me 
this  statement,  should  have  produced  an  impression  injurious  to  the  reputation  of  my 
friend,  the  facts  which  I  have  thus  detailed  will  disabuse  the  public  and  will  convince 
them  that  those  reports  are  false  and  absurd,  and  that  the  authors  of  them,  whoever  they 
may  be,  are  deserving  of  the  contempt  and  execration  of  every  man  of  generosity  or  sense 
of  honor. 

"L.   E.   Lawless." 

"St.   Louis,    September    i8,    1817." 


J.  B.  C.  LUCAS 

I'rcsidciit    Jefferson 's    eommissioiii'r    to 

Louisiana  Territory 


fouii«'sy  Missouri  Historical  Society 

LUKE    E.   LAWLESS 
One    of    the    enrly   judges 


BOWLING  GREEN  COURTHOUSE 
The  Temple  of  Justiee  of  Pike  County,  one  of  the  oldest  in  Missouri.     Scene  of  ammp  Clark' 

early   legal  and  political   triumphs 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  279 

Lucas — Benton,  Second  Meeting. 

Three  days  after  the  pubHcation  of  the  statement  of  Judge  Lawless  on  the 
20th  of  September,  Benton  repudiated  it  and  demanded  the  second  meeting, 
giving  his  reasons : 

"St.  Louis,  September  23,  1817. 
"Sir — When  I  released  you  from  your  engagement  to  return  to  the  island,  I  yielded  to 
a  feeling  of  generosity  in  my  own  bosom,  and  to  a  sentiment  of  deference  to  the  judgment 
of  others.  From  the  reports  which  now  fill  the  country  it  would  seem  that  yourself  and 
some  of  your  friends  have  placed  my  conduct  to  very  diflferent  motives.  The  object  of  this 
is  to  bring  these  calumnies  to  an  end  and  to  give  you  an  opportunity  of  justifying  the  great 
expectations  which  have  been  excited.  Colonel  Lawless  will  receive  your  terms,  and  I 
expect  your  distance  not  to  exceed  nine   feel. 

"T.  H.   Be.n-ton." 

Lucas  was  attending  superior  court  at  Jackson.  As  soon  as  he  returned  to 
St.  Louis  he  accepted  the  challenge  but  denied  any  responsibility  for  the  reports 
on  which  Benton  based  his  challenge. 

"St.  Louis,  September  26,  1817. 
"Sir — I  received  your  note  of  the  23d  inst.  this  morning  on  my  arrival  from  below. 
Although  I  am  conscious  that  a  respectable  man  cannot  be  found  who  will  say  he  has 
heard  any  of  these  reports  from  me,  and  that  I  think  it  more  than  probable  they  have  been 
fabricated  by  your  own  friends  than  circulated  by  any  who  call  themselves  mine ;  yet,  with- 
out even  knowing  what  reports  you  have  heard,  I  shall  give  you  an  opportunity  of  grati- 
fying your  wishes  and  the  wishes  of  your  news-carriers.  My  friend,  Mr.  Barton,  has  full 
authority  to  act  for  me. 

"Charles  Luc.\s." 

They  met  the  next  morning.  The  seconds  made  the  distance  ten  feet.  The 
ball  from  Benton's  pistol  went  through  the  right  arm  of  Lucas  and  entered  the 
body  near  the  heart.     Barton  said  of  his  principal : 

"At  the  last  interview  he  appeared  equally  cool  and  deliberate.  Both  presented  and 
fired  so  nearly  together  that  I  could  not  distinguish  two  reports.  Others,  who  stood  on  the 
shore,  state  that  they  heard  two  echoes.  It  was  remarked  that  Mr.  Lucas  raised  his  weapon 
in  good  intention;  hence  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  the  ball  of  his  adversary  struck  his  arm 
before  or  at  the  moment  his  pistol  exploded,  and  destroyed  the  effect  of  his  shot." 

A  Father's  Lament. 

Judge  J.  B.  C.  Lucas  mourned  the  death  of  his  son.  He  wished  that  he 
might  have  died  on  the  battlefield.  Ciiarles  Lucas  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the 
war  of  1812.  He  was  promoted  to  captaincy  but  did  not  have  the  opportunity 
to  do  actual  fighting.  .Some  time  after  the  duel  Judge  Lucas  wrote  feelingly, 
regretting  that  his  son  had  not  been  in  battle :  "O  that  he  had  had  the  good 
fortune  to  meet  the  enemy !  H^e  would,  I  am  persuaded,  have  willingly  died 
fighting  for  his  country,  at  the  head  of  his  little  band ;  or  if  having  done  his 
duty  his  life  had  been  spared,  then,  being  conscious  that  his  courage  could  not 
be  questioned,  he  would  probably  have  had  fortitude  enough  to  have  been  still 
more  forbearing,  and  being  contented  to  act  only  on  principles  of  self-defense, 
he  would  not  have  descended  to  the  level  of  the  professional  duelist,  and  staked 
a  valuable  life  against — nothing." 

Benton   was  challenged   repeatedly   in  after  life,   once,   it  is   said,   by  Judge 


280  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

J.  B.  C.  Lucas,  father  of  Charles  Lucas.  He  declined  to  go  out  again  as  prin- 
cipal. He  said  he  had  made  a  promise  to  Mrs.  Benton  that  he  would  not  fight 
another  duel.  But  he  had  several  fistic  affairs.  Mayor  John  F.  Darby  told  of 
seeing  Benton  engaged  with  two  men  at  one  time.  The  senator  got  the  best 
of  them,  using  brickbats.  \\'hen  he  had  a  personal  affair  with  Senator  Foote 
upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  Benton  declared  that  he  never  carried  weapons. 

Henry  S.  Geyer  and  George  H.  Kennedy  exchanged  shots  on  Bloody  Island. 
Their  meeting  took  place  in  1817.  The  terms  were  pistols  at  twelve  paces. 
Kennerly  was  wounded  in  the  leg  so  severely  that  he  was  lame  the  rest  of  his 
life.-  Both  Geyer  and  Kennerly  were  quite  young  when  their  duel  occurred. 
They  became  close  friends  afterwards,  living  to  be  among  the  foremost  citizens 
of  St.  Louis.  For  both  of  them  avenues  were  named.  According  to  the  late 
Judge  T.  T.  Gantt,  of  St.  Louis,  who  had  the  circumstances  from  the  best  pos- 
sible source,  Geyer  withheld  his  fire.  When  Kennerly  had  fired  and  Geyer  found 
himself  unharmed,  the  latter  pointed  his  pistol  upward  and  discharged  it.  In 
this  case  the  other  principal  demanded  a  second  interchange.  Geyer  aimed  to 
disable,  but  not  to  kill.  He  inflicted  a  not  fatal  wound.  After  Geyer's  death 
Judge  Gantt  told  the  story  of  the  duel  and  of  the  subsequent  relations  between 
the  principals.  "I  have  heard  Mr.  Geyer,  without  reference  to  his  former  rela- 
tions of  hostility  to  his  opponent,  speak  of  him  as  not  only  a  man  of  high 
honor,  but  one  of  whom  he  cherished  high  regards." 

Army  officers  stationed  at  or  near  St.  Louis  occasionally  resorted  to  Bloody 
Island  to  settle  differences.  Captain  Martin  and  Captain  Ramsay,  of  the  First 
United  States  Rifles,  met  on  the  cross  marks  in  .\ugust,  18 18.  Ramsay  was 
mortally  wounded. 

Rector — Barton. 

Nepotism  led  to  one  fatal  duel.  In  the  summer  of  1823,  there  appeared 
in  the  Republican  a  letter  signed  "Philo."  It  criticized  severely  the  official  acts 
of  William  C.  Rector,  surveyor  general  of  the  land  district  which  included  Mis- 
souri. One  of  the  chief  charges  was  that  Rector  had  given  out  lucrative  survey- 
ing contracts  to  his  relatives  and  personal  friends.  In  those  days  such  action 
on  the  part  of  an  officeholder  was  considered  highly  dishonorable.  The  charge 
of  nepotism  was  made  against  Rector  when  he  was  a  candidate  for  reappoint- 
ment, and  also  when  his  nomination  came  up  for  confirmation.  Senator  Barton 
was  opposing  Rector.  The  surveyor  general  was  in  Washington  looking  after  his 
political  interests  when  the  "Philo"  letter  was  printed.  The  Republican  com- 
mented editorially :  ' 

"We  have  inserted  the  communication  signed  'Philo'  on  the  principle  that  men  in  office 
are  bound  to  answer  to  the  people  for  the  manner  in  which  they  discharge  their  public 
duties;  and  that  if  charges  are  made  against  them  from  a  respectable  and  responsible  source, 
and  are  couched  in  decorous  terms,  the  press  would  defeat  the  object  of  its  institution  if  it 
refused  to  permit  them  to  come  before  the  public.  By  this  course  the  innocent  cannot  be 
injured.  If  the  charges  are  untrue,  he  who  utters  them  is  disgraced;  if  they  are  true,  the 
people  are  interested  in  knowing  it,  while  the  party  implicated  has  nothing  to  complain  of 
in  the  development." 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  281 

There  were  nine  brothers  and  four  sisters  in  the  Rector  family.  They  came 
west  from  Virginia  and  settled  first  in  Kaskaskia,  early  establishing  a  wide  repu- 
tation for  physical  courage.  Several  of  the  brothers  served  in  the  war  of  1812 
and  received  commissions.  The  family  moved  to  Missouri.  It  was  the  practice 
of  the  Rectors  to  make  the  affair  of  one  the  business  of  all. 

Thomas  C.  Rector,  brother  of  the  surveyor  general,  came  to  the  Republican 
office  and  demanded  the  name  of  "Philo."  He  was  informed  that  the  letter 
had  been  received  from  United  States  Attorney  Joshua  Barton,  brother  of  the 
Senator.  He  immediately  challenged.  The  result  was  announced  by  the  Re- 
publican : 

"On  Monday,  30th  ult.,  a  meeting  took  place  between  Joshua  Barton,  Esq.,  District 
Attorney  of  the  United  States,  and  Thomas  C.  Rector,  in  consequence  of  a  communication 
signed  'Philo,'  which  appeared  in  last  week's  paper.  The  parties  met  at  6  P.  M.,  on  the 
island  opposite  this  place.  They  both  fired  at  the  word,  when  Mr.  Barton  fell  mortally 
wounded.  Mr.  Rector  escaped  unhurt.  Mr.  Barton  expired  on  the  ground.  In  him  Mis- 
souri has  lost  one  of  her  ablest  and  worthiest  citizens." 

-Surveyor  General  Rector  returned  to  St.  Louis' the  day  after  the  duel.  He 
publi'shed  a  card  asking  a  suspension  of  public  opinion,  saying  he  would  answer 
the  charges  against  him.  At  the  same  time  he  notified  the  editors  of  the  Re- 
publican that  he  would  hold  them  personally  responsible  for  any  further  publi- 
cations reflecting  upon  him.  The  response  to  this  came  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
signed  by  Edward  Bates  which  appeared  in  the  Republican  of  the  i6th  of  July: 
"I  lose  no  time  in  giving  my  public  pledge  to  substantiate  every  material  state- 
ment in  the  piece  signed  'Philo.'  I  very  unwillingly  obtrude  my  name  upon  the 
public  as  a  newspaper  writer,  but  the  long  intimacy  and  more  than  brotherly 
connection  between  Mr.  Barton  and  me  have  identified  us  in  the  public  mind, 
and  caused  the  people  to  look  to  me  as  the  inheritor  of  his  principles  and  feel- 
ings for  a  vindication  of  his  name  and  character.  In  this  just  expectation  they 
shall  not  be  disappointed." 

Senator  Barton  also  published  a  card.  He  said :  "I  now  assert  before  the 
public  that  every  material  allegation  in  the  article  signed  'Philo'  is  true,  and 
that  I  can  prove  it  in  any  mode  of  investigation  calculated  to  admit  the  truth  in 
evidence  and  the  production  of  testimony." 

He  gave  a  list  of  twelve  relatives  and  personal  connections  of  the  surveyor 
general  who  had  been  appointed  deputy  surveyors.  He  stated  that  in  1822  of 
254  townships  surveyed  the  contracts  for  195  had  been  given  to  connections 
of  the  Rector  family.  He  concluded:  "If  General  Rector  should  take  offense 
at  what  I  have  written,  the  courts  are  open  to  him,  and  if  I  have  wronged  him 
the  laws  will  afford  him  a  vindictive  remedy.  If  he  will  venture  to  take  this 
course,  I  will  justify  these  statements  and  prove  the  facts  upon  him  before  a 
jury."  ^ 

Senator  Barton's  Scorching  Letter. 

Barton  continued  his  fight  to  avenge  his  brother's  death.  The  Bartons  were 
opposed  to  dueling.  The  senator  took  the  ground  that  his  brother  had  been 
forced  into  the  fatal  meeting  as  the  result  of  a  conspiracy.     He  even  associated 


282  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

that  conspiracy  with  the  wrecking  of  the  Bank  of  Missouri  which  had  taken 
place  a  few  years  previously.  John  Hardeman,  of  FrankHn,  the  man  who,  a 
century  ago,  demonstrated  the  possibihties  of  floricuhure  and  horticulture  in 
Missouri  with  a  Missouri  bottom  garden  which  was  the  admiration  of  that  gen- 
eration, suggested  that  the  agitation  over  the  duel  be  dropped.  In  reply  the 
senator  wrote  Hardeman : 

"In  your  general  expression  of  opinion  respecting  the  practice  of  dueling  I  concur,  but 
in  your  conclusion  in  reference  to  my  brother's  case  we  differ  widely.  So  far  from  consid- 
ering his  acceptance  tantamount  to  an  acknowledgment  of  tlie  propriety  of  the  practice,  I 
know  it  proves  nothing  in  his  case,  except  it  be  a  band  of  villains  composed  of  Missouri  bank 
directors  and  surveying  contractors  had  conspired  to  remove  him,  and  pursued  that  object 
for  more  than  twelve  months,  some  under  the  mask  of  friendship,  and  some  in  other 
character,  until  they  procured  an  acceptance,  dictated  by  provocation  and  not  by  his 
judgment;  and,  although  I  do  not  know,  I  am  satisfied  of  the  fact  that  when  they  got 
him  on  the  ground  they  (A.  L.  Langham  and  T.  Rector  and  B.  G.  Farrar)  were  just  as 
certain  of  their  victim  as  a  set  of  blacklegs  would  be  of  a  gentleman's  money  who  should 
he  provoked  to  play  with  them,  and  by  the  same  means.  I  believe  my  brother  was  swindled 
out  of  his  life  on  the  ground  as  clearly  as  the  public  was  swindled  out  of  the  public  and 
private  deposits  in  the  Bank  of  Missouri  by  the  same  junta. 

"I  shall  never  agree  to  say  no  more  about  it  until  at  least  the  immediate  agents  of 
the  junta,  A.  L.  Langham  and  T.  Rector,  are  executed  by  the  hangman,  though  I  should 
prefer  their  commanding  officers  if  they  could  be  reached.  My  brother  had  talent  and 
integrity  enough  to  be  an  obstacle  to  the  career  of  the  leaders  of  this  junta,  and  therefore 
he  was  hunted  down,  a  particular  pretext  being  always  found  in  such  cases.  The  fore- 
going views  and  opinions  have  been  often  expressed  by  me,  and  I  consider  you  under 
no  injunctions  to  secrecy  in  conversing  upon  this  subject. 

"When  my  brother  fell  he  charged  the  villains  with  having  shot  him  before  the  word 
was  given.  The  swindler  chief.  General  Rector,  has  been  cited  to  make  his  defense 
upon  the  charge  for  which  he  caused  my  brother  to  be  removed.  The  proof  is  full,  and 
unless  sham  trials  are  in  use  here  as  well  as  in  St.  Louis  he  cannot  escape.  I  was  this 
man's   friend  so  long  as  I  thought  him  an  honest  man  and  no  longer." 

The  Code  Condemned. 

Public  sentiment  in  St.  Louis  grew  strong  against  dueling.  In  1823  the 
Missouri  Republican  voiced  this  sentiment  when  it  said :  "Two  more  persons 
have  been  killed  in  duels  near  St.  Louis.  Their  names  are  Messrs.  Waddle  and 
Crow.  It  must  be  a  vicious  state  of  society  in  which  the  pistol  is  the  umpire 
in  every  controversy." 

Rev.  Timothy  Flint,  who  came  out  to  Missouri  in  1816,  and  held  a  pastorate, 
wrote  back  to  his  brother.  Rev.  James  Flint,  of  Salem,  Mass.,  that  the  practice  of 
dueling  was  confined  to  a  small  class : 

"In  the  towns  of  the  upper  country  on  the  Mississippi,  and  especially  in  St.  Louis, 
there  is  one  species  of  barbarism  that  is  but  too  common.  I  mean  the  horrid  practice  of 
dueling.  Be  it  remembered  this  is  the  barbarism  only  of  that  small  class  that  denominate 
themselves  'the  gentlemen.'  It  cannot  be  matter  of  astonishment  that  these  are  common 
here  when  we  recollect  that  the  fierce  and  adventurous  spirits  are  naturally  attracted  to 
these  regions,  and  that  it  is  a  common  proverb  of  the  people  that  when  we  cross  the 
Mississippi,  'We  travel  beyond  the  Sabbath.'  It  would  lead  me  to  such  personalities  as  I 
mean  to  avoid  were  I  to  give  you  details,  and  my  views  of  the  fatal  duels,  of  which 
there  were  so  many  while  I  was  here.  I  can  only  say  that  I  lost  in  this  dreadful  way  two 
individuals  with   whom   I  had  personal   intercourse  and   from  whom   I  had   received  many 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  283 

kindnesses.  All  that  fell  were  men  in  office,  of  standing  and  cfafaracter.  I  am  not  here 
going  to  start  a  dissertation  upon  the  trite  subject  of  dueling,  the  most  horrible  and 
savage  relic  of  a  barbarous  age." 

Illinois  put  a  stop  to  dueling-  between  citizens  of  that  state  at  an  early  day, 
but  did  not  seriously  interfere  with  Missourians.  In  1819,  .Alonzo  G.  Stuart 
and  William  Bennett  fought  at  Belleville.  The  seconds  conspired  to  prevent 
bloodshed  and  loaded  the  rifles  without  bullets.  As  his  weapon  was  handed  to 
Bennett  he  slipped  in  a  bullet.  Stuart  was  mortally  wounded.  Bennett  was 
tried  for  murder  and  convicted.  Appeals  to  Governor  Bond  for  clemency  were 
without  avail.  Bennett  was  hung.  Some  Illinois  historians  have  claimed  that 
that  was  the  last  duel  fought  within  the  state  by  its  citizens  and  that  the  execu- 
tion of  Bennett  made  the  practice  unpopular.  But  Illinois  did  not  consider  that 
its  jurisdiction  extended  to  Bloody  Island. 

Thomas  H.  Benton  was  concerned  in  the  affair  at  Belleville.  He  defended 
the  two  seconds.  Public  sentiment  was  so  strongly  aroused  that  indictments 
were  returned  against  the  seconds,  who  were  Jacob  Short  and  Nathan  Fike. 
The  duel  took  place  in  February,  at  a  time  when  there  was  a  large  gathering 
in  Belleville  from  the  surrounding  country.  It  was  arranged  apparently  to  test 
Bennett.  The  testimony  went  to  show  an  understanding  on  the  part  of  all  but 
Bennett  that  the  duel  was  a  sham.  The  place  selected  was  a  lot  just  north  of  the 
main  street  of  the  town.  The  weapons  were  rifles  and  the  loading  was  by  the 
seconds.  The  principals  were  stationed  forty  yards  apart.  Stuart  did  not  fire. 
After  he  fell  his  rifle  was  picked  up  by  one  of  the  seconds  and  discharged. 

Stuart  was  a  man  of  some  prominence  in  St.  Clair  county.  Benton  secured 
the  acquittal  of  Short  and  Fike.  The  trial  brought  out  testimony  to  the  effect 
that  Bennett  had  put  a  bullet  in  his  gun  after  receiving  it  from  the  second. 
Bennett  had  been  arrested  and  was  in  jail. 

When  the  sheriff  went  to  bring  him  to  court  for  trial  he  could  not  be  found. 
In  some  manner  he  had  escaped  from  the  jail  and  reached  the  Missouri  side 
of  the  river.  Two  years  later  he  was  caught,  tried,  convicted  and  executed. 
Judge  John  R.  Reynolds,  before  whom  the  three  men  were  tried,  in  an  account 
of  the  affair,  wrote  that  it  "was  considered  the  result  of  a  wild,  drunken  frolic, 
and  it  never  did  assume  the  character  of  a  regular  and  honorable  duel." 

The  Rev.  Timothy  Flint  in  one  of  his  letters  to  a  brother  in  Massachusetts 
gave  a  different  version  of  the  Belleville  duel.  His  account  was  written  not  long 
after  the  tragedy. 

"A  young  gentleman,  a  respectable  attorney,  had  just  commenced  business.  He  had 
been  bullied  by  a  man  who  was  indeed  an  officer  in  rank,  but  a  dubious .  character.  The 
young  gentleman  had  been  cautioned  against  being  drawn  into  the  contest,  and  had  been 
assured,  that,  according  to  the  orthodox  canons  of  honor,  the  character  of  the  man  did 
not  justify  fighting  him.  But  an  idea  was  entertained  that  he  had  not  sufficient  nerve 
to  stand  a  challenge.  It  was  agreed  by  his  friends  that  the  next  time  the  man  insulted 
him,  he  should  send  him  a  challenge  and  that  the  seconds  should  load  both  rifles — for 
they  were  to  fight  with  rifles — with  blank  cartridges.  The  opposite  party  was  not  to  be 
in  the  secret  and  the  joke  was  to  watch  his  eye  and  see  if  it  did  not  blench.'  The  chal- 
lenge was  sent  and  the  seconds  on  both  sides  made  a  solemn  contract  with  each  other  that 
both  guns  should  be  loaded  with  blank  cartridges.  The  young  attorney  went  out  to 
watch  the  eye  of  his  antagonist  and  to  enjoy  the  joke.     The  parties  met,  discharged  and 


284  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  attorney  fe)I  with  two  rifle  bullets  through  his  heart.  The  wretch  who  was  second 
for  his  antagonist  had  violated  his  stipulation  and  had  loaded  the  rifle  with  two  bullets. 
An  amiable  young  woman  was  left  a  widow  with  one  orphan  babe." 

Shields-Lincoln. 

While  Illinois  claimed  to  have  put  an  end  to  dueling  on  the  sacred  soil  of 
that  state,  through  the  hanging  of  William  Bennett,  this  summary  action  did 
not  deter  citizens  of  Illinois  from  coming  over  to  the  Missouri  side,  or  rather 
from  making  use  of  islands  between  the  two  states.  On  the  22nd  of  September, 
1842.  stage  coaches  rattled  down  the  long  valley  between  the  bluffs  of  Alton 
and  unloaded  an  extraordinar)-  passenger  list  at  the  Piasa  hotel.  People  on 
the  wide,  double  galleries  of  the  three-story,  hipped-roof  hotel  looked  and  mar- 
veled as  James  Shields,  state  auditor,  accompanied  by  General  Whitesides,  and 
several  other  well  known  Springfield  Democrats,  came  out  of  one  coach  and 
went  into  the  hotel.  Wonder  increased  100  per  cent  when  another  vehicle 
unloaded  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  lawyer,  E.  H.  Berryman  and  William  Butler. 
About  that  time  or  a  few  minutes  later,  Elijah  Lott,  J.  J.  Hardin  and  other 
well  known  Illinoisans  drove  hurriedly  into  town.  There  was  no  hilarity  but 
an  air  of  serious  business  manifested.  A  bundle  of  long,  clumsy  dragoon  sabres 
Kvas  lifted  down  from  the  roof  of  one  of  the  coaches  and  carried  into  the 
hotel.  All  over  town  the  news  spread  that  a  duel  was  about  to  come  off.  "Jim" 
-Shields  had  challenged  "Abe"  Lincoln  and  they  were  going  to  cross  over  on 
Missouri  soil  and  fight  with  broadswords,  the  regulation  sabres  of  the  United 
States  cavalry,  called  at  that  time  dragoons. 

Lott  and  Hardin  began  negotiations  to  bring  about  a  settlement.  Notwith- 
standing the  efforts  of  the  peacemakers,  the  seconds  went  about  preparations 
energetically.  The  seconds  leading  the  way,  and  an  attendant  carrying  the 
weapons.  Shields  and  Lincoln  went  down  to  the  river  and  on  board  a  ferry 
boat  with  paddle  wheels  which  were  driven  by  horses.  Alton's  population  flocked 
to  the  bank  or  gathered  in  w-est  windows  which  commanded  a  good  view.  The 
town  constable  was  taken  on  board  to  help  handle  the  crowd  which  threatened 
to  overload  the  boat.  One  newspaper  man  secured  passage.  He  was  "Bill" 
Souther,  better  known  in  Illinois  history  as  William  G.  Souther. 

The  Souther  family  is  well  known  in  both  Illinois  and  Missouri.  The  Amer- 
ican ancestor  of  the  family  was  the  first  secretary  of  Plymouth  colony.  Bill 
Souther  was  a  printer  on  the  Alton  Telegraph  and  Democratic  Review.  Later 
he  became  the  editor  of  a  Springfield  newspaper.  Other  members  of  the  Souther 
family  moved  from  Alton  to  St.  Louis  and  founded  one  of  the  great  metal 
industries  of  Missouri.  Bill  Souther  saw  and  heard  all,  but  his  paper  in  its  next 
issue  printed  not  one  word  about  the  duel. 

As  soon  as  the  ferry  touched  the  island  so  near  to  the  Missouri  side  as  to 
be  practically  part  of  this  state,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  conducted  in  one  direction 
and  Mr.  Shields  in  another.  They  .sat  down  on  logs  while  seconds  and  mutual 
friends  entered  into  a  conference.  It  didn't  take  long  to  determine  that  the 
proceedings  were  going  along  on  a  false  basis.  The  challenge,  as  discovered 
by  experts  in  the  queer  precedents  of  the  code,  had  been  sent  prematurely. 
Lincoln  had  some  time  previously  amused  himself  and  entertained   Springfield 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  285 

Whig  readers  by  writing  humorous  gossip  about  the  Democrats.  He  signed 
these  communications  "Aunt  Rebecca."  Mar>'  Todd,  who  afterwards  became 
the  wife  of  Lincoln,  and  Julia  Jayne,  her  chum,  conspired  to  make  the  situation 
even  more  interesting  and  contributed  their  woman's  wit  to  an  "Aunt  Rebecca" 
letter  of  their  own.  They  added  some  verses,  which  they  signed  '"Cathleen." 
They  were  more  than  funny  at  Shields'  expense.  The  auditor  went  to  the  editor 
and  demanded  the  real  name  of  "Aunt  Rebecca."  The  girls  were  frightened. 
They  appealed  to  Bunn,  the  banker,  to  help  them  out.  Bunn  went  to  Lincoln 
and  said: 

"We've  got  into  an  awful  fix." 

"What's  the  matter?"  asked  Lincoln. 

"The  girls  have  written  some  poetry  on  Shields,"  said  Bunn.  "Didn't  you 
see  it  in  the  paper?  Shields  says  he  won't  stand  for  it.  What  shall  we  do 
about  it?" 

"Go  back  and  when  you  meet  Shields  tell  him  that  I  wrote  it,"  said  Lincoln. 
Shields  accepted  this  without  further  investigation  and  challenged  Lincoln,  who 
chose  sabres  for  the  weapons  and  let  the  preparations  go  on.  In  the  conference 
on  the  island  the  true  storj'  of  authorship  was  told  by  the  peacemakers.  The 
seconds  saw  at  once  that  the  duel  must  be  stopped.  Thomas  M.  Hope  of  Alton, 
prominent  in  the  party,  went  to  Shields  and  told  him  he  would  bring  disgrace 
on  the  Democratic  party  if  he  let  the  duel  proceed  under  such  circumstances. 
Then,  as  usual  under  the  code,  the  interchange  of  notes  went  on  between  the 
seconds.  Shields,  seeing  the  mistake  that  had  been  inade  when  he  learned  that 
Lincoln  had  not  written  the  objectionable  matter,  gave  ready  consent  to  have  the 
challenge  withdrawn. 

Bill  Souther,  good  newspaper  man  that  he  was.  gave  attention  to  what  the 
principals  were  doing.  He  said  that  for  some  time  after  the  landing,  Lincoln 
and  Shields  sat  quietly  on  their  logs.  Lincoln  said  nothing  and  to  Souther  he 
looked  serious.  After  awhile  something  happened,  and  Souther  said  that  when 
he  saw  it,  he  "nearly  blew  up."  The  bundle  of  sabres  had  been  laid  down  near 
the  log  on  which  Lincoln  was  sitting.  Lincoln  reached  down  and  took  one  of 
the  weapons.  He  drew  the  blade  slowly  from  the  scabbard.  Souther  said  "it 
looked  as  long  as  a  fence-rail."  Holding  the  blade  by  the  back,  Lincoln  looked 
closely  at  the  edge,  and  then,  after  the  manner  of  one  who  has  been  grinding  a 
scythe  or  a  com  knife,  he  began  to  feel  gingerly  the  edge  with  the  ball  of  his 
thumb.  By  this  time  Bill  Souther  was  tremendously  interested.  Holding  the 
sabre  by  the  handle,  Lincoln  stood  up  and  looked  around.  He  evidently  saw 
in  a  willow  tree  several  feet  away  what  he  was  looking  for.  Raising  the  mighty 
weapon  with  his  long  arm,  Lincoln  reached  up  and  cut  one  of  the  topmost  twigs 
of  the  willow.  When  he  had  satisfied  himself  thoroughly  as  to  the  efficiency 
of  the  broadsword,  he  sat  down.  A  few  minutes  later  the  correspondence  was 
closed  on  terms  "honorable  to  both  parties." 

.As  the  boat  put  back  to  Alton  the  spectators  on  the  bank  were  horrified  to 
see  lying  prone  upon  the  deck  a  figure  covered  with  blood,  while  a  well  known 
Altonian  leaned  over  the  figure  plying  a  fan  vigorously.  Not  until  the  boat 
Nvas  close  in  shore  was  it  seen  that  the  fig^ire  was  a  log  of  wood  and  that  the 


286  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OK  MISSOURI 

"bloody"'  covering  was  a  red  flannel  shirt.  Wentworth  dropped  the  fan,  stood  up 
and  grinned. 

Lincoln  was  six  feet  and  four  inches  tall,  with  an  arm  length  in  proportion. 
Shields  was  five  feet  and  six  inches,  chunky  and  short-limbed,  l^ill  .Souther 
man'cled  much  over  the  willow  tree  exhibition,  and  wondered  how  long  Shields 
could  have  stood  up  against  such  odds. 

The  Alton  Telegraph  and  Democratic  Review  came  out  two  days  after  the 
duel.  Not  one  word  about  what  Bill  Souther  saw  on  the  island  was  printed. 
Not  the  slightest  reference  was  made  to  the  affair.  But  one  week  later  the 
newspaper  had  an  editorial  on  "Our  city  was  the  theatre  of  an  unusual  scene  of 
excitement  during  the  last  week,  arising  from  the  visit  of  two  distinguished 
gentlemen  of  the  city  of  Springfield,  who,  it  was  understood  had  come  here 
with  a  view  of  crossing  the  river  to  answer  the  'requisitions  of  the  code  of  honor' 
by  brutally  attempting  to  assassinate  each  other  in  cold  blood."  The  paper  at 
considerable  length  dwelt  on  the  lawlessness  of  Mr.  Shields  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  said  "We  again  call  upon  Mr.  Attorney'  Lamborn  to  exercise  a  little  of  that 
zeal  which  he  is  continually  putting  into  requisition  against  the  less  favored 
but  no  less  guilty  offenders  and  bring  all  who  have  been  concerned  in  the  late 
attempt  at  assassination  to  justice." 

The  editor  of  the  Alton  Telegraph  and  Democratic  Review  was  George  T.  M. 
Davis,  twice  mayor  of  Alton,  and  later  the  editor  of  the  New  Era  at  St.  Louis. 
His  descendants  are  well  known  Missourians  of  the  present  generation. 

Lincoln's  terms,  as  the  challenged  party,  were  unique  in  the  history  of  duel- 
ing both  as  to  weapons  and  positions : 

"Cavalry  broadswords  of  the  largest  size,  precisely  equal  in  all  respects,  and  as  now 
used  by  the  cavalry  company  at  Jacksonville. 

"A  plank  ten  feet  long  and  from  nine  to  twelve  inches  broad,  to  be  firmly  fixed  on 
edge  in  the  ground  as  a  dividing  line  between  us,  which  neither  is  to  pass  his  foot  over 
or  forfeit  his  life;  next  a  line  drawn  on  the  ground,  on  either  side  of  said  plank,  and 
parallel  with  it;  each  at  the  distance  of  the  whole  length  of  the  sword  and  three  feet 
additional  from  the  plank ;  and  the  passing  of  such  line  by  cither  party  during  the  fight 
sliall  be  declared  a  surrender  of  the  contest." 

Legislation  Against  the  Practice. 

The  Missouri  legislature  of  1822  considered  a  bill  making  death  from  a  duel 
murder  and  prohibiting  from  office  holding  all  who  engaged  in  it.  The  preamble 
to  this  law  declared:  "Experience  has  evidenced  that  the  existing  remedy  for 
the  suppression  of  the  barbarous  custom  is  inadequate  to  the  purpose  and  tlie 
progress  and  consequences  of  the  evil  have  become  so  destructive  as  to  require 
an  effort  of  the  general  assembly  to  arrest  a  vice  the  result  of  ignorance  and 
barbarism  justified  neither  by  the  precepts  of  morality  nor  by  the  dictates  of 
reason."  Three  fatal  duels  within  a  year  prompted  this  strong  expression  by 
the  law-making  body  of  the  new  State  of  Missouri. 

Missouri  endeavored  in  various  ways  to  put  a  stop  to  dueling.  Sentiment 
had  grown  strong  upon  the  evil.  But,  as  often  in  reforms,  sentiment  overreached 
itself.  The  opposition  to  the  code-  found  conditions  so  favorable  to  remedial 
legislation  that  the  legislature  of  1824-5  passed  a  very  drastic  bill.     Imprisonment 


^P^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^RT^.. 

' ' '^sS^^^^^^H 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B^  -#v-«»^  ■■  .^ 

^^^^^Bl%^ 

mH^^^H 

^^^^^ItaiH 

i^ '  -  ^^^^^H 

^H^^^^^^^l 

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^H 

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^^^^^Httfiffl 

Ifl^^bi^l 

MADA:\rK  CHOUTEATT,  LA  MKRE  DE  ST.  LOriS 
(Miirie  Therese  Bourgeois) 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  289 

was  not  deemed  sufficient  penalty.  The  bill  provided  that  those  who  engaged  in 
dueling  should  be  whipped.  Governor  Frederick  Bates  declined  to  approve  the 
measure.  He  said  to  the  legislature :  "I  am  happy  on  this  occasion  to  record 
my  utter  detestation  and  abhorrence  of  dueling.  My  duty  to  my  neighbors  and 
to  myself  would  compel  me  as  well  in  my  private  as  in  my  public  capacity  to 
discountenance  and  put  down,  if  possible,  so  barbarous  and  so  impious  a  prac- 
tice."' But  he  could  not  see  the  way  clear  to  sign  a  bill  which  made  the  lash  the 
])unishment  for  fighting  a  duel.  The  state  senate  mustered  the  necessary  two- 
thirds  vote  to  pass  the  bill  over  the  governor,  but  the  house  failed  to  do  so. 

Leonard — Berry. 

In  1S19  a  slender  \"ermont  youth  walked  from  St.  Charles  to  Old  Franklin, 
near  Boonville.  He  carried  all  he  possessed  in  a  bundle  at  the  end  of  a  stick. 
One  of  these  possessions  was  a  license  to  practice  law.  While  the  young  New 
Englander  was  gaining  a  professional  foothold  in  Missouri  he  had  a  difficulty 
with  Major  Taylor  Berry,  who  struck  him  with  a  whip.  The  impression  in  the 
community  was  that  the  Yankee  would  not  fight  a  duel.  Abiel  Leonard  wrote 
at  once  to  Berry :  "Sir,  I  demand  a  personal  interview  with  you.  My  friend, 
Mr.  Boggs,  will  make  the  necessary  arrangements." 

The  challenge  was  sent  on  the  26th  of  June,  1824.  Berry  accepted.  He 
named  Major  A.  L.  Langham  as  his  friend.  In  accepting,  he  wrote :  "My 
business,  which  embraces  many  duties  to  others,  will  require  my  personal  atten- 
tion until  after  the  ist  of  September  next,  after  which  time  any  further  delay 
will  be  asked  from  you  only." 

The  principals  and  their  seconds  traveled  down  the  Missouri  to  St.  Louis 
and  thence  to  New  Madrid.  The  time  set  for  the  duel  was  the  first  of  Septem- 
ber. Berry  was  mortally  wounded.  Under  the  law  of  Missouri  Leonard  was 
disfranchised  and  disbarred.  Long  petitions  for  the  removal  of  his  disabilities 
were  signed  and  sent  to  the  legislature.  At  the  next  session  Leonard  was 
restored  to  all  of  his  rights.  Ten  years  later  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature. 
Subsequently  he  became  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Missouri. 

Possibly  Benton  did  not  enjoy  dueling.  Certainly  he  took  intense  interest 
in  these  "affairs  of  honor."  Into  his  "Thirty  Years'  View  of  the  History  of  the 
Workings  of  the  American  Government"  he  wrote  a  defense,  or,  perhaps,  better, 
an  apology  for  the  code.  Following  the  death  of  Congressman  Cilley  at  the 
hand  of  Graves  of  Kentucky,  Congress  made  the  penalty  for  dueling  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  death  to  all  of  the  survivors  when  one  of  the  principals  was 
killed  and  five  years  in  the  penitentiary  for  sending  or  accepting  a  challenge. 
This  legislation  was  the  text  of  Benton's  comment : 

"Certainly  it  is  deplorable  to  see  a  young  man,  the  hope  of  his  father  and  mother — a 
ripe  man,  the  head  of  a  family — an  eminent  man  necessary  to  his  country — struck  down  in  a 
duel,  and  should  be  prevented  if  possible.  Still  this  deplorable  practice  is  not  so  bad  as  the 
howie  knife  and  the  revolver,  and  their  pretext  of  self-defense — thirsting  for  blood.  In 
the  duel  there  is  at  least  consent  on  both  sides,  with  a  preliminary  oi)portunity  for  settle- 
ment, with  a  chance  for  the  law  to  arrest  them,  and  room  for  the  interposition  of  friends 
as  the  affair  goes  on.  There  is  usually  equality  of  terms ;  and  it  would  not  be  called  an 
affair  of  honor  if  honor  was  not  to  prevail  all  round:  and  if  the  satisfying  a  point  of  honor. 

Vol.  1—19 


290  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  not  vengeance,  was  not  the  end  attained.  Finally,  in  the  regular  duel,  the  principals 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  seconds  (for  no  man  can  be  made  a  second  without  his  consent)  ; 
and  as  both  these  are  required  by  the  dueling  code  (for  the  sake  of  fairness  and  humanity) 
to  be  free  from  ill  will  or  grudge  toward  the  adversary  principal,  they  ^re  expected  to 
terminate  the  aflfair  as  soon  as  the  point  of  honor  is  satisfied,  and  the  less  the  injury  so 
much  the  better." 

Senator  Linn  on  the  Code. 

Pientoii's  colleague,  Doctor  Linn,  was  not  without  experience  in  the  code.  As 
a  surgeon  he  was  present  when  Biddle  and  Pettis  inflicted  fatal  wounds  upon 
each  other.  As  senator  he  took  part  in  the  debate  upon  the  legislation  sug- 
gested by  the  death  of  Cilley.  ^^'hat  he  said  was  especially  interesting  because 
he  cited  Missouri  illustrations  to  sustain  his  arguments.  Senator  Linn  urged 
that  too  drastic  legislation  would  defeat  the  purpose.  What  community  could 
be  found,  he  asked,  that  would  pronounce  a  man  either  a  murderer  or  a  felon, 
who  might  have  chanced  to  kill  another  in  fair  and  equal  combat?  No  man,  he 
was  persuaded,  who  came  to  act  on  his  responsibility  as  a  juror,  would  be  pre- 
pared to  render  such  a  verdict.  Many  of  the  states  had  passed  severe  penal  enact- 
ments in  relation  to  the  matter,  and  yet  where  was  the  state  where  such  laws  had 
been  carried  into  effect?  Other  legislatures  had  sought  itiilder  remedies,  such  as 
punishing  dueling  by  disfranchising  their  citizens,  rendering  them  forever  after 
incapable  of  holding  offices  of  profit  or  trust,  honor,  or  emolument.  Such  laws,  he 
maintained,  had  a  more  wholesome  action  than  those  unjust  and  cruel  enactments, 
because  the  one  was  generally  carried  into  effect  while  the  other  was  little  better 
than  a  dead  letter.  To  illustrate  the  effect  of  public  opinion  on  the  subject.  Sen- 
ator Linn  instanced  a  case  in  his  own  state,  where  the  people  were  as  much 
averse  to  fighting  as  those  of  any  other  in  the  Union  (though  he  was  aware 
that  a  contrary  opinion  prevailed  among  many  in  relation  to  Missouri) — where 
a  small  man,  for  a  supposed  offense,  was  cruelly  lashed  by  a  large  one,  the  result 
of  which  was  a  challenge  on  the  part  of  the  small  one  to  fight,  in  which  duel 
the  large  man  was  shot  twice,- the  last  wound  mortal. 

'The  survivor  was  found  guilty  under  the  laws  of  Missouri,  when  a  petition 
was  gotten  up,  signed  almost  unanimously  by  the  people,  and  presented  to  the 
legislature,  which  body  remitted  the  penalties  almost  by  acclamation.  And  so, 
Mr.  Linn  said,  it  would  be  in  all  like  cases — either  the  legislature  or  the  execu- 
tive would  step  in  to  counteract  the  law.  If  such  a  bill  could  be  introduced  as 
would  strike  at  the  root  of  the  evil  it  would  cheerfully  have  his  support.  He 
was  aware  that  dueling  was  not  defensible  on  principles  of  Christianity.  All 
the  legislatures  of  the  Union  have  concurred  in  denouncing  the  practice  of 
dueling  as  evil  in  itself,  and  yet  have  we  not  seen  them  come  in  to  stay  the  law? 
From  what  little  he  had  seen  it  appeared  to  him  that  fighting  was  like  marrying 
^the  more  barriers  that  were  erected  against  it,  the  surer  were'  they  to  come 
together. 

Farther  along  in  the  debate.  Senator  Linn  held  up  Missouri  experience  for 
the  enlightenment  of  the  United  States  Senate.  He  said  they  had  now  a  law  in 
his  state  which  was  more  effectual  for  the  prevention  of  dueling  than  any  other 
law  that  had  ever  been  passed.  In  cases  of  assault,  all  abusive  words  and  defama- 
tory language  went  to  the  jury  in  mitigation  of  the  offense. 


DUELING  IX  MISSOURI  291 

Mr.  Benton— As  a  justification? 

Mr.  Linn — Yes,  sir,  as  a  justification:  and  if  that  abusive  member,  the 
tongue,  was  permitted  to  have  too  free  a  license,  the  same  license  was  permitted 
to  the  individual  to  redress  his  grievance.  He  thought  if  the  same  law  applied 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  there  would  be  a  little  more  decorum  than 
he  had  witnessed.  This  law,  of  which  he  had  spoken,  had  had  a  better  effect 
in  the  prevention  of  dueling  than  any  other  that  had  ever  been  passed,  and  he 
thought  it  would  be  better  for  the  peace  and  harmony  of  society  if  such  a  law  was 
more  generally  prevalent  throughout  the  United  States.  The  reference  in  Sen- 
ator Linn's  remarks  to  a  Missouri  case  was  undoubtedly  to  the  Leonard-Berry 
fatality. 

Benton  the  Adviser  of  Pettis. 

Manuscript  collections  of  the  ^lissouri  Historical  Society  give  Benton  a  much 
closer  relationship  to  the  Pettis-Biddle  duel  than  is  attributed  in  printed  accounts 
of  the  tragedy.  Thomas  Biddle  was  an  officer  of  high  standing  in  the  United 
States  army.  He  was  a  brother  of  Commodore  Biddle  of  the  navy  and  of  Nich- 
olas Biddle,  president  of  the  United  States  Bank.  He  had  distinguished  himself 
by  gallantrj'  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  especially  at  the  battle  of  Lundy's  Lane. 
Making  St.  Louis  his  home,  Thomas  Biddle  married  a  daughter  of  John  Mullan- 
phy.  His  wealth  and  social  position  made  him  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  per- 
sonalities in  St.  Louis.  Spencer  Pettis  was  a  member  of  Congress,  the  only 
representative  from  ilissouri.  He  had  just  been  elected  for  a  second  term.  He 
was  of  Virginia  birth,  a  young  man  of  fine  family  and  verj-  f)opular. 

The  congressional  election  was  on  the  second  of  August.  In  his  speeches 
during  the  campaign,  Pettis  attacked  the  United  States  Bank.  He  was  a  follower 
of  Benton.  But  he  not  only  assailed  the  bank  on  principle,  he  reflected  on  the 
management  in  such  a  manner  as  to  arouse  the  indignation  of  Major  Biddle. 
The  latter  replied  in  one  of  the  St.  Louis  papers,  calling  Pettis  "a  dish  of  skimmed 
milk."  Pettis  published  his  answer.  Early  one  morning  Biddle  went  to  the 
hotel  where  Pettis  was  stopping.  He  found  the  Congressman  in  bed,  pulled 
off  the  cover  and  used  a  whip.  There  could  be  but  one  outcome  for  such  an 
insult. 

The  condition  of  short-sightedness  entered  into  the  Pettis-Biddle  duel.  One 
account  of  the  circumstances  leading  to  the  duel  is  that  Pettis,  anticipating  a 
hostile  meeting,  went  before  Judge  Peter  Ferguson  and  made  a  sworn  statement 
about  the  attack  upon  him  in  the  hotel.  He  proceeded  from  Ferguson's  office  to 
the  printer  to  have  the  statement  put  in  type.  Ferguson,  made  aware  of  what 
had  taken  place,  issued  a  writ  against  Biddle  to  keep  the  peace.  Biddle  met 
Pettis  and  told  him  that  if  challenged  he  would  accept.  This  was  after  the 
election,  between  three  and  four  weeks.  Pettis  challenged  at  once.  Biddle 
being  the  challenged  principal,  made  the  terms.  He  set  the  next  day  for  the 
duel  and  made  the  distance  five  feet,  because  of  short-sightedness.  The  meet- 
ing took  place  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Old  inhabitants,  eighty  years 
after  the  occurrence,  pointed  out  a  spot  on  the  Illinois  side,  almost  exactly  oppo- 
site the  Pettis-Biddle  meeting. 


292  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Benton's  intimate  relationship  with  the  Pettis-Biddle  duel  is  told  in  these 
personal  recollections  of  Edward  Dobyns,  preserved  by  the  Alissouri  Historical 
Society : 

"Upon  the  attack  on  one  of  the  parties  at  the  City  Hotel  in  July.  1831,  Mrs.  Benton 
having  heard  a  difficulty  or  noise  about  daybreak  suggested  to  Mr.  Benton  the  probable 
cause.  He  at  once  arose  and  went  over  And  found  her  suspicions  were  true.  Mr.  Benton 
spent  about  five  minutes  in  which  a  masterly  stroke  of  policy  was  exhibited,  rarely  ever 
seen  in  connection  with  an  event  of  such  magnitude.  All  political  historians  will  remember 
that  the  party  attacked  was  a  candidate  for  re-election  to  a  seat  in  Congress  from  Missouri, 
and  that  the  occurrence  took  place  just  before  the  day  of  election.  In  that  five  minutes' 
interview  Mr.  Benton  said :  'Let  there  be  no  definite  action  taken  until  this  election  is 
over.  And  then,  sir,  I  leave  you  to  vindicate  your  honor  in  such  a  manner  as  you  may 
deem  most  consistent   with   the   principles   that  govern   gentlemen." 

"This  suggestion  was  yielded  to  with  much  reluctance  on  the  part  of  the  attacked,  and 
all  who  are  acquainted  with  the  history  of  that  day  remember  the  political  result.  It  was 
my  privilege  to  have  enjoyed  the  personal  acquaintance  of  all  of  the  parties  in  the  tragical 
affair,  and  I  honored  them  all,  enjoying  their  friendship.  During  the  days  just  preceding 
the  fatal  meeting  I  often  met  Mr.  Benton  at  his  residence,  having  been  requested  by  him 
to  call  every  day  as  he  did  not  often  go  out  amongst  the  people. 

"Upon  one  occasion  when  I  called.  Dr.  Lewis  F.  Linn,  the  surgeon  of  one  of  the  parties, 
was  just  coming  out  of  the  parlor.  It  was  the  day  before  the  fatal  duel.  Mr.  Benton 
said,  with  evident  deep  feeling  and  seriousness.  'There  will  be  no  child's  play  in  the  meet- 
ing.' I  suppose  Doctor  Linn'  had  informed  him  that  the  distance  was  only  five  feet  apart. 
There  was  not  much  said.    A  deep  seriousness  seemed  to  pervade  the  mind  of  Mr.  Benton. 

"After  the  fatal  meeting,  August  27,  1831,  the  parties  crossed  back  to  the  St.  Louis 
side  of  the  river.  The  immense  collection  of  people  that  had  assembled  on  the  river  bank 
went  down  to  meet  them.  As  the  yawl  approached  the  shore  Mr.  Pettis  was  leaning  on  the 
breast  of  his  surgeon.  Doctor  Linn,  who  supported  him  in  his  arms.  Captain  Martin 
Thomas,  his  second,  was  holding  a  vial  from  which  the  wounded  man  was  inhaling  to  keep 
up  life.  It  was  my  privilege  to  have  been  the  first  to  meet  the  party,  as  they  neared  the 
shore,  and  know  of  my  own  knowledge  what  occurred,  and  am,  therefore  prepared  to  cor- 
rect the  error  of  a  distinguished  writer  who  has  said  that  when  Mr.  Pettis  was  brought 
back  from  the  dueling  ground,  Judge  Peck  was  among  the  first  to  meet  him  and  offer 
sympathy;  that  Mr.  Pettis  said  to  him,  'Did  I  vindicate  my  honor?'  'Yes,'  said  the  judge, 
'you  have  vindicated  your  honor  like  a  man — a  man  of  bravery,  sir.'  This  is  an  error. 
Judge  Peck  was  not  present  at  the  landing  of  the  party.  When  the  skiff  neared  the  shore, 
Mr.  Pettis,  in  his  reclining  position,  in  the  arms  of  his  surgeon,  looked  up  and  caught  the 
eye  of  Mr.  Benton  and  said,  'Colonel  Benton,  have  I  acted  the  poltroon  ?'  To  which 
Colonel  Benton  replied,  'No,  sir,  you  have  shown  yourself  to  be  the  bravest  of  the  brave.' 
These  were  the  words  of  Mr.  Benton,  not  of  Judge  Peck. 

"Judge  Peck  came  to  the  room  of  the  dying  statesman  the  night  after  the  fatal  meeting 
and  stayed  by  his  bedside  until  his  death,  and  exhibited  great  sympathy  and  showed  pro- 
found interest  for  him.  Just  before  his  death  Mr.  Pettis  gave  a  deep  moan.  The  judge, 
seeing  tliat  death  was  rapidly  approaching,  said:  'Mr.  Pettis,  you  have  proved  yourself 
to  be  a  great  man  ;  now,  die  like  a  man.'  Mr.  Pettis  said :  'Yes,  sir,'  and  in  a  few  moments 
passed  away.  Considering  that  Mr.  Pettis  was  a  political  opponent  of  the  party  to  which 
Judge  Peck  belonged,  I  have  often  thought  and  said  that  Judge  Peck  deserved  great  praise 
for  his  sympathy  and  interest  shown  to  Mr.  Pettis. 

"Mr.  Benton's  whole  course  was  calm,  collected  and  dignified,  never  uttering  a  harsh 
word,  or  giving  expression  to  a  feeling  of  unkindness  to  any  party.  He  presided  at  the 
meeting  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Pettis,  who  met  to  give  expression  to  their  regrets,  wrote 
the  account  of  the  duel  in  a  calm,  dignified  and  impartial  style,  which  Doctor  Linn  and  I 
took  from  his  residence  down  to  the  St.  Louis  Beacon,  a  paper  published  by  Colonel  Charles 
Keemle.     This  notice  was  copied  into  almo>t  all  of  the  papers  of  the  United  States." 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  293 

One  of  the  earliest  accounts  of  this  duel,  thought  to  be,  from  the  description, 
written  by  Benton,  read :  "The  pistols  were  then  loaded,  and  put  in  the  hands  of 
the  principals,  who  were  stationed  at  the  distance  of  five  feet  apart.  The  seconds 
then  stood  at  right  angles  between  the  principals.  The  seconds  then  cocked  their 
pistols,  keeping  their  eyes  on  each  other  and  on  their  principals.  They  had 
thrown  up  for  positions,  when  Pettis  had  won  the  choice.  Everything  being 
ready,  the  pistols  having  been  loaded,  cocked  and  primed,  and  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  principals,  the  words  were  pronounced,  according  to  the  rule  of  dueling 
- — 'Are  you  ready?'  Both  answered,  'We  are.'  The  seconds  then  counted — 
'One-two-three.' 

"After  the  word  was  given  both  principals  fired  with  outstretched  arms.  The 
pistols  were  twelve  or  fifteen  inches  in  length  and  they  lapped  and  struck  against 
each  other,  as  they  were  discharged.  There  was  scarcely  any  chance  for  either 
to  escape  instant  death.  They  both  fired  so  simultaneously,  that  the  people  on 
the  shore  heard  only  one  report,  and  both  men  fell  at  the  same  time."  The 
seconds  in  this  duel  were  Captain  Thomas  and  Major  Ben  O'Fallon. 

Dodging-  a  Dueling  Statute. 

One  of  the  laws  enacted  by  Missouri  to  discourage  the  practice  of  dueling 
made  it  an  indictable  offense  to  send  a  challenge.  This  prompted  some  ingenious 
methods  to  get  around  the  statute.  Ira  P.  Nash  was  a  town  boomer,  a  doctor, 
a  sur\-eyor,  a  fruit  raiser,  a  farmer  and  a  shrewd  litigant  whose  court  experi- 
ences prompted  at  least  one  change  in  the  law  practice  of  Missouri.  One  of  the 
cases  which  Nash  won  in  1840  had  much  to  do  with  the  change  in  the  statutes 
permitting  a  plaintitt  to  be  sworn  in  behalf  of  the  defendant  and  a  defendant 
to  be  sworn  in  behalf  of  the  plaintiff.  About  1831  Nash  considered  that  he 
had  sufticient  provocation  to  challenge  Gilpin  S.  Tuttle  to  fight  a  duel.  He  set 
about  the  sending  of  a  challenge  in  a  way  that  he  thought  would  evade  the  law. 
He  wrote : 

"Sir:  I  have  always  been  fond  of  the  chase  and  of  gunning.  I  have  experienced  great 
satisfaction  in  the  chase,  in  the  countries  of  West  Florida,  and  New  Mexico,  and  in  the 
states  of  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Illinois,  Louisiana,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Missouri, 
and  Tennessee, — in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  the  latter  I  took  my  first  chase  when  a 
boy.  \ow,  sir,  the  object  of  this  communication  is  to  let  you  know  that  there  is  not  any- 
thing that  could  be  more  grateful  to  my  feelings  than  to  take  a  short  hunt  with  you,  in 
some  place  not  exposed  to  Indian  depredations,  and  as  my  first  chase  was  in  the  east  of 
Tennessee,  I  propose  to  take  this,  jjcrhaps  my  last  chase  in  the  extreme  west  of  that  state, 
say  in  the  Mississippi  bottom  opposite  \cw  Madrid.  I  propose  the  hunting  camp  to  be 
located  somewhere  near  the  Mississippi  river  (nigh  where  the  eye  of  Leonard  flashed  on 
Major  Berry)  and  then  and  there  the  preliminary  arrangements  for  the  hunt  will  be 
made  by  *  *  *  say  our  camp  keepers— and  they  will  no  doubt  give  you  liberty  to 
execute  your  threat  of  I2th  of  June  last  on  me— and  if  you  stick  close  to  the  chase,  I 
insure  that  we  will  have  something  of  better  color,  if  not  so  strong  scented  as  that  with 
which  you  plastered  my  letter  loth  of  last  June. 

"Yours.   &c., 

"I.   P.  X.\SH." 


294  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"To  Capt.  Gilpin  S.  Tuttle, 
"Nashville,  Mo. 
"P.  S.  Sir — I  most  seriously  invite  you  to  this  hunt — you  may  object  to  the  season, 
but  'tis  the  best  time  to  save  meat  and  skins,  and  the  climate  is  more  mild  at  New  Madrid 
than  here.  I  have  frequently  observed  that  men  by  being  campmates  (each  doing  his  duty) 
would  become  great  friends  and  agreeable  associates.  Therefore  this  measure  is  absolutely 
necessary.  Three  days  after  this  is  delivered  I  shall  call  at  Nashville  for  an  answer  for 
this  invitation,  believing  most  confidently  that  you  will  perfectly  understand  this  prelude 
at  the  first  glance.  There  is  an  embargo  (and  something  worse)  on  those  who  execute 
certain  instruments  of  writing  in  Missouri  which  criminal  words  I  have  and  will  avoid. 
But  there  is  no  law  (that  I  know  of)   which  prohibits  hunting  parties. 

"Yours,  ' 

"I.  P.  Nash." 

The  letter  didn't  work  as  Nash  expected.  The  grand  jury  of  tlie  Boone  cir- 
cuit court  found  an  indictment  and  Nash  was  fined  $ioo  for  sending  a  challenge. 

A  family  duel  was  that  between  Felix  Scott  and  his  son-in-law,  both  resi- 
dents of  St.  Charles  county.  Scott  was  a  lawyer  who  served  as  justice  of  the 
peace  in  Dog  Prairie  many  years.  He  was  a  member  of  the  legislature  several 
terms,  a  man  of  affairs  and  a  great  fighter.  The  son-in-law  for  some  grievance, 
challenged.  Scott  chose  double-barreled  shotguns.  Scott  provided  under  the 
terms  what  might  be  called  a  penalty  handicap  against  himself.  He  stipulated 
that  he  should  not  shoot  until  after  his  son-in-law  had  one  fire.  The  terms  were 
carried  out.  The  younger  man  fired  and  missed.  Then  Scott  laid  down  his 
gun  and  gave  the  challenger  a  sound  whipping  with  fists. 

Rev.  Dr.  Eliot's  Protest. 

The  growing  sentiment  in  St.  Louis  against  dueling  found  ways  of  mani- 
festing itself.  In  November,  1836,  William  Greenleaf  Eliot,  who  created  Wash- 
ington University,  came  to  St.  Louis  to  live — a  young  man,  a  Unitarian  minister 
just  ordained.  One  of  his  first  letters  to  friends  "back  east"  contained  this: 
"We  had  a  duel  here  yesterday  between  two  young  fools,  lawyers.  Neither 
hurt  and  will  probably  fight  again.  If  I  can  do  it  incog,  I  mean  to  give  them 
a  basting  in  the  way  of  the  ridiculous." 

St.  Louis  newspaper  reports  of  duels  were,  as  a  rule,  quite  brief.  In  1837 
the  Missouri  Republican  disposed  of  one  of  these  affairs  in  this  manner: 

"Duel — A  meeting  took  place  yesterday  a  little  before  sundown  on  Bloody  Island 
between  Mr.  William  C.  Skinner  and  Mr.  William  S.  Meservey,  of  this  city,  in  which  the 
latter,  on  the  first  fire,  received  a  flesh  wound  just  below  the  knee.  His  antagonist  escaped 
unhurt." 

Three  years  later  occurred  a  meeting  in  which  the  editor  of  the  Republican 
was  a  principal.  Adam  Black  Chambers  was  "called  out"  by  Thomas  B.  Hud- 
son, a  young  Tennesseean.  Soon  after  beginning  the  practice  of  law  in  St. 
Louis,  Hudson  entered  politics.  He  became  a  member  of  the  city  council,  the 
city  counselor, 'a  member  of  the  legislature,  and  ran  for  Congress  as  an  anti- 
Benton  candidate.  In  1840  there  was  held  a  Democratic  Van  Buren  rally  at 
Creve  Coeur  lake,  in  St.  Louis  county.  Hudson  was  one  of  the  speakers.  A  dis- 
turbance   of    serious    character   interrupted   the   meeting.      Some   correspondent 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  295 

wrote  an  account  of  the  trouble  for  a  St.  Louis  paper  and  sigfned  the  communi- 
cation "Veritas."  In  the  course  of  the  description  of  the  row  Hudson  was 
given  credit  for  "bold  and  fearless  conduct."  The  Missouri  Republican  was 
supporting  the  Whig  candidate  for  President,  William  Henry  Harrison.  It 
published  a  communication  upon  the  Creve  Coeur  meeting,  intimating  that  Hud- 
son was  "Veritas,"  and  that  he  had  described  himself  as  a  hero.  The  Repub- 
lican went  further,  editorially  endorsing  the  communication  and  saying:  "We 
have  the  word  of  several  gentlemen,  and  some  of  them  Loco-focos,  saying  that 
a  more  disgraceful,  unbecoming  proceeding  has  not  transpired  during  the  can- 
vass than  this  was.  We  particularly  invite  the  attention  of  the  author  of  'Ver- 
itas,' reported  to  be  the  'bold  and  fearless  Mr.  Hudson,'  to  this  communication." 

The  attention  was  given  quickly.  Hudson  challenged  Mr.  Chambers.  The 
editor  of  the  Republican  accepted.  The  duel  was  fought  with  rifles  at  forty 
paces.     It  took  place  on  Bloody  Island  in  the  early  morning. 

Hudson  was  accompanied  by  Charles  Bent  and  John  H.  Watson.  Chambers' 
friends  were  Martin  Thomas  and  W.  Gordon.  Three  times  the  word  was  given 
and  the  rifles  were  discharged.  Nobody  was  hurt.  The  seconds  refused  to  per- 
mit any  more  shooting.  Principals,  seconds  and  surgeons  came  back  to  St. 
Louis,  went  to  the  residence  of  Colonel  Chambers,  and  passed  the  rest  of  the 
day  in  banqueting.  The  seconds  joined  in  a  card  to  the  newspapers  stating  that 
the  principals  had  acted  with  coolness  and  bravery. 

John  B.  Clark,  "Old  Bustamente,"  of  Fayette,  had  his  experience  with  the 
code  in  that  same  campaign.     He  gave  the  writer  this  account  of  it : 

"When  I  ran  for  governor  in  1840,  I  wrote  a  letter  about  some  man  being  a  rascal, 
and  I  spelled  it  wrong, — put  in  a  'k'  I  believe,  instead  of  a  'c'  Claib  Jackson  was  a  bitter 
political  enemy  of  mine.  He  wrote  a  piece  about  the  letter  in  which  he  commented  on  my 
spelling.  It  was  a  mighty  severe  article.  Abiel  Leonard,  afterward  supreme  judge,  and  I 
were  friends,  and  I  showed  him  the  piece.  He  said  I  ought  to  fight.  I  sent  a  challenge. 
Jackson  agreed  to  fight  and  named  a  place  right  in  the  edge  of  town  here  (Fayette). 
That  was  the  same  day  the  article  about  my  spelling  came  out  in  the  paper.  We  both 
were  arrested  before  the  fight  could  be  had.  I  turned  in  and  published  Jackson  as  a 
coward.  I  said  the  article  was  a  mean  and  cowardly  attack.  He  had  accepted  my  chal- 
lenge and  had  named  a  place  where  he  knew  there  couldn't  be  a  fight.  I  had  this  printed 
in  handbills  and  put  them  up  on  the  corners.  Of  course,  after  that,  I  meant  to  shoot 
wherever  we  met,  and  we  went  prepared ;  but  friends  interfered  and  fi.xed  it  up.  Jackson 
and  I  afterwards  became  friends.  That  was  about  the  extent  of  my  connection  with 
dueling,  except  that  I  carried  a  challenge  from  Leonard  to  Taylor  Berry  in  1823.  That 
trouble  started  about  a  speech  Leonard  had  made.  Berry  horsewhipped  Leonard,  and  the 
latter  sent  a  challenge.  I  delivered  it,  meeting  Berry  on  one  of  the  corners  downtown. 
They  met  and  Berry  was  killed." 

The  Blair-Pickering  Affair. 

A  noteworthy  resort  to  the  code  in  Missouri  was  by  Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr., 
and  Lorenzo  Pickering.  And  that,  too,  was  about  Benton.  Pickering  was 
conducting  the  Union  and  had  made  it  anti-Benton.  Blair  was  foremost  among 
the  younger  adherents  of  Benton.  Pickering  assailed  Blair  so  bitterly  in  the 
Union  that  Blair,  although  opposed  to  the  code,  sent  a  challenge.  Blair's 
"friend"  in  the  transaction  was  Thomas  T.  Gantt,  afterward  judge  of  the  court 
of  appeals.     In  his  acceptance,  Pickering  exercised  the  right  of  the  challenged 


296  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

to  name  the  time  and  place ;  he  did  it  in  such  manner  as  to  make  the  duel  im- 
possible. His  stipulation  was  that  the  meeting  must  take  place  at  Fourth 
and  Pine  streets;  that  the  hour  must  be  twelve  o'clock  noon.  Blair  "'posted" 
Pickering.  That  is  to  say,  he  denounced  him  as  a  coward.  A  few  days 
later  the  men  met  on  Chestnut  street.  The  sidewalk  was  narrow.  Pickering 
stepped  off  into  the  roadway.  He  either  drew  a  knife  or  made  a  motion  as  if 
to  do  so.  Blair  thrust  his  umbrella  forward  into  Pickering's  face,  making  a 
mark  which   was  visible   several  days. 

A  short  time  afterward  there  was  held  a  Free-Soil  meeting  at  night  in  the 
rotunda  of  the  courthouse,  then  a  favorite  place  for  political  gatherings.  Blair 
made  a  speech.  He  started  to  leave  by  the  Fourth  street  front.  As  he 
stepped  through  the  door  out  on  the  portico,  which  was  semicircular,  instead 
of  the  present  form  of  architecture,  a  man  greeted  him  with  "Good  evening, 
Mr.  Blair." 

The  words  were  spoken  loudly.  Acknowledging  the  salutation,  Blair  con- 
tinued across  the  portico  to  the  steps  leading  down  to  the  street.  Another  man 
standing  at  the  bottom  of  the  steps  fired  and  ran.  The  ball  went  by.  Blair  drew 
his  pistol  and  fired.  He  ran  down  the  steps  and  fired  again,  but  without  effect. 
At  the  inquiry  which  followed,  su.spicion  pointed  to  Doctor  Prefontaine,  a 
writer  on  the  Union,  as  the  one  who  had  given  the  loud  greeting.  It  was  sup- 
posed that  this  was  done  to  give  notice  to  the  person  standing  at  the  bottom 
of  the  steps  that  Blair  was  coming.  There  was  no  positive  identification  of 
the  one  who  fired.  Street  lamps  were  not  lighted,  because,  as  one  witness  ex- 
plained, it  was  a  "corporation  moonlight"  night.  Pickering  was  arrested  on 
suspicion,  but  was  discharged.  The  proof  against  him  was  not  positive,  but 
the  real  reason  why  the  case  was  not  pushed  was  a  secret  agreement  or  under- 
standing that  he  would  leave  Missouri.  Pickering  went  to  California  with  the 
goldseekers,  started  a  paper  in  San  Francisco  and  became  widely  known  and 
wealthy.  Blair  and  Gantt  were  summoned  to  court  for  participating  in  a 
challenge  to  fight  a  duel.  They  pleaded  guilty  and  were  fined  $i  each.  The 
district  attorney  who  prosecuted  was  Samuel  T.  Glover,  who  became  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  St.  Louis  bar  twenty  years  later.  The  judge  who  imposed 
the  fine  was  James  B.  Colt,  a  brother  of  the  maker  of  Colt's  revolvers. 

The  Blair-Pickering  affair  was  far-reaching  in  its  relationship  to  newspaper 
destinies  in  St.  Louis.  With  the  departure  of  Pickering,  the  Union  not  only 
changed  hands,  but  entered  upon  a  new  political  course.  It  took  up  the  fight 
for  Benton  in  his  appeal  from  the  pro-slavery  resolutions  of  the  Missouri  legis- 
lature. Blair  and  Brown  contributed  most  of  the  editorials.  Brown  found 
newspaper  work  to  his  liking.  When  in  the  summer  of  1852,  Giles  F.  and  O.  D. 
Filley,  John  How  and  a  few  others  thought  the  time  was  opportune  for  a  dis- 
tinctively Free  Soil  paper  in  St.  Louis,  Blair  and  Brown  joined  them.  The 
business  men  furnished  the  capital.  Blair  and  Brown  contributed  the  political 
and  editorial  talent.  William  McKee,  who  had  a  large  job  printing  establish- 
ment, supplied  the  mechanical  plant,  and  took  a  half  interest  in  the  venture. 
The  Signal,  which  had  been  conducted  as  a  morning  paper  by  a  group  of 
printers  on  a  co-operative  plan,  was  purchased.     The  name  of  "Alissouri  Demo- 


DUELING  IX  MISSOURI  297 

crat"  was  chosen.     The  Union  was  absorbed.     This  was  the  beginning  of  what 
is  now  the  Globe-Democrat. 

The  Blair-Price  Feud. 

A  personal  feud  between  Francis  P.  Blair  and  Sterling  Price  continued  sev- 
eral years.  Under  different  conditions  it  would  on  two  occasions  have  led  to  a 
duel.  In  his  unpublished  memoir,  preserved  by  the  Missouri  Historical  Society, 
Thomas  C.  Reynolds  wrote  of  the  feud  and  of  its  important  bearing  upon  Mis- 
souri politics : 

"I  have  heard  the  statement  of  both  in  regard  to  it,  from  Mr.  Blair  at  Jefferson  City 
in  January,  1857,  and  from  General  Price  at  Camden,  Ark.,  in  the  summer  of  1864.  Mr. 
Blair  considered  his  arrest  as  a  piece  of  tyranny  and  an  outrage  on  him  by  General  Price, 
then  U.  S.  military  governor  of  New  Mexico,  and  attributed  it  to  personal  malice.  Even 
after  the  lapse  of  ten  years  (1857)  he  spoke  of  it  with  great  bitterness,  and  as  fully  justify- 
ing his  violent  philippic  in  the  Missouri  legislature  against  General  Price  when  governor 
of  the  state.  He  justified  his  personal  abuse  of  Governor  Price  at  the  time  when  their 
respective  official  positions  prevented  the  governor  from  demanding  'satisfaction,'  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  retaliating  for  an  outrage  committed  on  him  at  the  time  when  their 
respective  positions  in  New  Mexico  prevented,  and  indeed  precluded  for  all  time  his  seek- 
ing redress  for  it  from  General  Price ;  that  as  he  had  had  to  pocket  the  outrage  he  insulted 
Governor  Price  in  a  speech  at  a  time  when  the  latter  would  have  to  pocket  the  insult  in 
like  manner.  Mr.  Blair  added,  'I  consider  him,  however,  a  man  of  such  courage  that  I 
believe  he  would  have  given  his  right  hand  to  have  been  able,  without  violating  his  duty, 
to  resign  his  governorship  and  challenge  me.'  This  feud  with  Mr.  F.  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  and 
with  his  family,  who  shared  his  resentment,  was  considered  to  have  influenced  General 
Price  in  his  desertion  of  Colonel  Benton  in  1852,  the  period  at  which  the  latter,  more 
publicly  than  he  had  previously  done,  entrusted  the  management  of  his  political  fortunes 
in  Missouri  to  F.  P.  Blair.  Jr.,  Hon.  Montgomery  Blair,  his  brother,  and  Mr.  B.  Gratz 
Brown,  his  cousin,  all  of  St.  Louis,  and  allied  himself  more  closely  than  ever  with  Mr. 
Francis  P.  Blair,  St..  at  Washington  City.  But  in  General  Price's  own  account  of  the 
matter  to  me  in  1864,  he  treated  the  New  Mexico  incident  as  a  petty  ([uarrel  between  Mr. 
Blair  and  some  subaltern  officer,  with  which  he  as  governor  of  New  Mexico  had  really 
little  to  do,  and  in  regard  to  which  Mr.  Blair's  resentment  had  greatly  surprised  him ; 
in  general  his  account  treated  the  matter  very  lightly,  and  as  of  little  importance  in  deter- 
mining his  subsequent  relations  with  the  Blairs,  against  whom  neither  his  manner  nor  his 
language  evinced  any  personal  ill-feeling." 

The  attack  of  Blair  upon  Governor  Price  occurred,  according  to  Judge 
Fagg.  in  a  joint  session  when  Burns,  of  Platte,  had  proposed  Price  for  the 
Senate.  Burns  had  made  a  very  complimentary  speech  on  the  public  services 
of  Price.  He  had  dwelt  on  the  governor's  record  in  the  Mexican  war  and  in 
conclusion  brought  in  a  description  of  a  picture  which  an  artist  convict  of  the 
penitentiary  had  made  showing  General  Price  in  his  uniform  receiving  the 
parole  of  a  Mexican  general : 

"Instantly  Blair  rose  to  reply.  As  usual  he  was  perfectly  cool  and  self-possessed. 
There  was  neither  excitement  nor  surprise  indicated  in  his  face.  With  a  cool  deliberation 
characteristic  of  all  his  speeches,  he  proceeded  to  analyze  the  public  services  of  the  gen- 
eral in  the  various  civil  positions  he  had  held.  He  asserted  that  whatever  honors  he  had 
received  in  the  civil  career,  whatever  fame  or  notoriety  he  had  attained,  he  owed  it  all 
to  the  shadow  of  the  great  name  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,  under  which  he  had  constantly 
sought    favor  and   preferment.     He   said   that  no  man   had   ever  been  bound  by   stronger 


298  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ties  of  gratitude  to  another  than  Price  had  to  Benton.  That  when  the  cup  was  full  and 
running  over,  when  the  old  senator  had  been  attacked,  and  in  1852  when  he  seemed  to 
be  almost  in  a  death  struggle  with  his  enemies,  this  man  Price  had  basely  betrayed  him 
and  sold  himself  to  the  anti-Benton  party  for  the  office  of  governor  of  thQ  state.  'Judas,' 
he  said,  'with  his  thirty  pieces  of  silver  was  not  so  degraded  as  this  hero  of  the  Mexican 
war.'  Then  turning  toward  the  governor  he  said,  'He  is  a  subject  worthy  of  the  genius 
of  a  convict  artist.' 

"The  governor's  name  was  instantly  withdrawn  and  that  of  Atchison  placed  in  its 
stead." 

The  last  duel  on  Bloody  Island  was  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
war.  It  was  bloodless.  The  principles  were  General  D.  M.  Frost  and  Edward 
B.  Sayers,  both  well  known  in  St.  Louis  and  both  afterwards  in  the  Confederate 
army.  Sayers»  was  a  civil  engineer.  He  laid  out  Camp  Jackson  in  the  spring 
of  1861.  He  was  active  in  the  state  militia.  Frost  was  brigadier-general,  com- 
manding the  militia  of  the  St.  Louis  district.  After  the  return  of  what  was 
known  as  the  Southwest  Expedition,  a  movement  of  Missouri  troops  to  South- 
western Missouri  to  ineet  expected  troubles  on  the  Kansas  border,  Sayers  indulged 
in  some  criticism  of  General  Frost.  The  latter  went  to  Sayers'  office,  which 
was  on  Chestnut  street,  near  Second,  and  applied  a  horsewhip.  Sayers  chal- 
lenged and  Frost  accepted.  At  the  meeting  on  Bloody  Island,  Sayers  missed 
and  Frost  fired  in  the  air. 

Edwards— Foster. 

Late  in  the  decade,  1870-80,  an  editorial  controversy  occurred  between  the 
St.  Louis  Times  and  the.  St.  Louis  Journal.  The  editor  of  the  latter  was 
Emory  S.  Foster.  John  N.  Edwards  was  editor  of  the  Times.  The  inana- 
gers  of  a  county  fair  on  the  northern  border  of  Illinois  conceived  the  enterpris- 
ing idea  that  the  presence  of  Jefferson  Davis  would  be  a  drawing  card.  They 
extended  the  invitation  and  made  public  their  action.  The  press  of  the  country 
commented  vigorously.  Davis  declined  the  invitation.  The  ex-Confederate 
editor  of  the  Times  and  the  ex-Federal  editor  of  the  Journal  kept  up  the  fire. 
On  one  side  it  was  intimated  that  Davis'  declination  was  probably  just  as  well, 
as  it  might  have  been  embarrassing  to  have  the  ex-president  of  the  Confederacy 
discover  in  the  North  some  of  the  silverware  stolen  in  the  South  and  carried 
home  by  returning  Union  soldiers.  Foster  denounced  the  insinuation  in  words 
that  reflected  upon  the  editor  of  the  Times.  Edwards  challenged.  Foster  ac- 
cepted and  chose  for  the  place  of  meeting  Winnebago  county,  the  Illinois  lo- 
cality where  the  invitation  to  Davis  had  been  extended.  And  to  Winnebago 
county  the  principals  journeyed,  attended  by  Morrison  Mumford  and  P.  S. 
O'Reilly  for  Edwards  and  by  Harrison  Branch  and  W.  D.  W.  Barnard  for 
Foster.  The  party  reached  the  appointed  locality,  drove  out  into  the  country  a 
few  miles  and  exchanged  shots.  The  duel  was  bloodless.  The  dignity  of 
Illinois  was  outraged  and  for  a  time  there  was  much  talk  of  prosecution  under 
the  anti-dueling  statute,  but  it  died  down. 

Bowman — Glover. 

In  1883  Frank  J.  Bowman  challenged  John  M.  Glover, — both  of  them  St. 
Louis  lawyers.     He  began  the  correspondence  by  demanding  an  apology   from 


DUELING  IN  MISSOURI  299 

Glover  for  epithets  such  as  "You  lied,  you  rogue,"  "You  are  a  scamp,"  "Shut 
your  mouth,"  and  the  like,  which  he  said  Glover  had  applied  to  him  in  various 
cases  where  they  had  appeared  on  opposite  sides.  Glover  replied,  "That  what- 
ever language  I  may  have  used  toward  you  upon  the  various  occasions  referred 
to  was  fully  justified  by  the  provocations  at  the  time."  He  declined  to  apolo- 
gize. The  negotiations  which  followed  were  notable  chiefly  because  of  the 
prominent  citizens  of  St.  Louis  who  became  more  or  less  interested.  Bowman 
selected  Celsus  Price  and  R.  S.  MacDonald  as  his  friends  and  put  in  Price's 
hands  a  challenge.  Price  waited  upon  Glover  and  asked  him  to  name  his  friends. 
Glover  selected  Captain  Silas  Bent  and  T.  T.  Gantt.  Gerard  B.  Allen  and  Ed- 
win Harrison  were  asked  by  friends  of  Mr.  Bowman  and  Mr.  Glover  to  submit  a 
plan  of  adjustment.  While  negotiations  were  supposed  to  be  in  progress,  Glover 
complicated  the  situation  by  swearing  out  a  warrant  against  Bowman  charg- 
ing him  with  having  committed  perjury  in  certain  testimony  given  about  the  St. 
Louis  Times.  It  was  proposed  to  arbitrate  the  differences  between  the  two 
lawyers.  Mr.  Bowman's  friends  selected  General  D.  M.  Frost  as  their  arbi- 
trator. George  A.  Madill  was  asked  to  act  as  arbitrator  on  the  part  of  ]\Ir. 
Glover  but  declined.  The  gentleman  who  had  suggested  arbitration  finally  gave 
up  the  effort  to  bring  it  about.  The  formal  challenge  was  delivered  to  Glover, 
who  declined  to  take  any  notice  of  it.  This  affair  between  Bowman  and  Glover 
constituted  the  last  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  code  in  Missouri.  The  letters 
were  drawn  up  with  much  form.  All  of  the  usual  technicalities  were  observed. 
Glover  gave  as  his  reason  for  ignoring  the  challenge  that  it  was  backdated 
about  eight  days  before  the  delivery  and  secondly  that  the  offenses  complained 
of  by  Bowman  were  some  of  them  months  old  when  the  challenge  was  received 
and  that  he  had  sworn  out  a  warrant  charging  Bowman  with  a  felony  before 
the  challenge. 

Vest  on  the  Code. 

During  his  memorable  oration  upon  Benton  at  the  time  of  the  unveiling  of  a 
statue  in  Statuary  Hall  at  Washington  Senator  George  G.  Vest  offered  this 
palliating  view  of  the  Lucas  duel : 

"All  this  sounds  to  us  now  as  semi-liarbarous,  and  yet  if  we  carry  ourselves  liack  to 
the  age  in  which  this  event  occurred  and  place  ourselves  in  the  position  public  men  then 
held,  it  will,  I  think,  charitably  be  admitted  that,  entertaining  the  opinion  he  did  and  in 
the  community  he  lived,  Benton  could  hardly  have  done  anything  else.  Dueling  was  then 
an  institution.  No  man  could  remain  in  puljlic  or  social  life  without  ostracism  who 
refused  what  they  called  a  challenge  to  the  field  of  honor.  All  the  distinguished  men  of 
the  United  States  fought  duels.  When  Randolph  and  Clay  fought,  in  sight  of  this  Capitol, 
members  of  the  Cabinet  and  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  among 
whom  was  Colonel  Benton,  were  present  as  spectators.  '  Jackson  had  killed  his  adversary 
in  a  duel.  Houston  had  fought  a  duel  and  wounded  his  opponent  severely.  Davy  Crockett 
acknowledged  the  obligations  of  the  duello  and  participated  in  it;  and  it  was  not  until 
Hamilton  fell  before  the  deadly  pistol  of  Aaron  Burr  that  even  the  people  of  the  con- 
servative. God-fearing  North  came  to  a  full  realization  of  the  terrible  nature  of  this 
institution." 


CHAPTER    IX 
A   LAND   OF   PROMISE 

Coitfried  Duden's  Vision — A  Center  of  German  Culture— The  Book  Which  Fascinated 
Europe — Teutonic  Infusion  Planned  to  Assimilate  Anglo-Saxon — The  Giessen  Society 
— Father  Muench — A  Missouri  Mecca — The  Critics  to  Blame — Goebel's  Story  of 
the  Featherbeds — Duden's  Vivid  Local  Color — Cash  Needed  Only  for  Taxes — An 
Apology  for  Slavery — Akademikers  and  Latiniers — IVhy  Gustavus  Koerner  Chose 
Illinois — The  Hermann  Colony — A  Hard  Winter — Herman  Steines'  Diary — Dr.  Bek's 
Valuable  Contributions — Engehnann's  Investigation — Missouri's  Foremost  Scientist — 
Wislisenus'  Explorations— Enno  Sander  and  Franc  Sigel,  Revolutionists — Missouri. 
Land  of  Religious  Freedom — The  Lutherans — Constructive  Work  of  the  IValthers — 
Concordia  College  Founded — Pure  Lutheran  Theology — Pioneer  German  Journalism — 
The  Anseiger  and  the  Know  Nothings — Germanism  Fades  Into  Atnericanism — • 
The  Mallinckrodts  and  the  Kaysers — What  Defeated  Secession  of  Missouri — Polish 
and  Hungarian  Exiles — Emigres  of  Guadeloupe — Dr.  .4dam  Hammer — German  Family 
Influence  for  Good — Dr.  Niccolls'  Tribute  to  German  Churches — Unselfish  Devotion  to 
Public  Education — The  Icarians — Etienne  Cabet  and  the  Communists — Various  Colony 
Experiments — William  Keil's  Bethel — Socialism  in  Dallas  County — The  Town  of  Liberal 

— Prosperity  of  the  Mennonites. 

If  3  little  city  could  be  founded,  for  the  purpose  of  making  it  the  center  of  culture  for  tlie  Germans 
in  America,  then  there   would  soon   arise  a  rejuvenated  Germania,   and  the   European   German  would  then 

find -in  America  a  second  Fatherland,  just  as  the  British  have  it.      Would  that  in  Germany  a  lively  interest 

might  develop  for  this  project.  No  plan  of  the  present  time  promises  so  much  to  the  individual  and  to 
-every   one   as   a    plan    of    founding    such    a    nursery    for   German    culture    in    western    North    America,    and 

especially  in  the  lands  west  of  the  Mississippi.  It  would  make  the  new  world  at  once  a  home  to  the 
■German,  and  would  add  to  the  gifts  of  nature  those  things  which  must  always  emanate  from  man  to  himself. 
'There   is   no   cause   for   fear   that   any   kind   of   political    hindrance   or    envy   on    the    part   of  the   Americans 

would  oppose  such  an    enterprise. — Gottfried  Duden's   Report   of  a  Residence  in   .Missouri   during   the    Years 

Ill!4.  'Ssj,  lS^6,   1827. 

The  vision  of  a  German  state  within  Missouri  came  during  the  first  decade. 
•Gottfried  Duden  saw  it.  In  1827,  after  several  years  of  life  in  Missouri  de- 
voted to  study  of  conditions  which  had  bearing^  on  immigration  from  Germany, 
Duden  wrote : 

"Along  the  Missouri  there  is  still  room  for  millions  of  beautiful  plantations,  not  to 
speak  of  the  other  rivers  at  all.  The  great  fertility  of  the  soil,  its  enormous  expanse,  the 
Tnild  climate,  the  splendid  waterways,  the  absolute  freedom  of  intercourse  in  a  territory 
■of  many  thousand  square  miles,  the  absolute  safety  of  person  and  property,  the  very  low 
rate  of  taxation. — these  are  the  things  which  must  be  regarded  as  the  real  foundation  of 
the  fortunate  position  of  the  Americans.  If  it  were  desired  to  embellish  the  picture  still 
further,  it  would  only  be  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  of  the  rich  forests,  the  super- 
abundance of  coal,  salt,  iron,  lead,  copper,  saltpeter,  and  other  minerals;  of  the  inclination 
of  almost  all  the  inhabitants  to  utilize  the  natural  advantages;  of  the  river  navigation 
-which  even  now  begins  to  flourish;  and  finally  of  the  absence  of  all  European  prejudices  in 
regard  to  rank,  to  trade  and  to  physical  work." 

301 


302  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Duden's  narrative  of  his  life  in  Missouri  and  his  advice  to  Germans  to  mi- 
grate were  in  the  famihar  form  of  thirty-six  letters  apparently  written  to  a 
friend.  These  letters  were  printed  in  a  book  of  which  three  editions  were  pub- 
lished. Dr.  William  G.  Bek,  whose  translation  of  the  book  appeared  in  the 
Missouri  Historical  Review  of  the  State  Historical  Society  during  1919,  says, 
"his  skillful  pen  mingled  fact  and  fiction,  interwove  experience  and  imagination, 
pictured  the  freedom  of  the  forest  and  of  democratic  institutions  in  contrast 
with  the  social  restrictions  and  political  embarrassments  of  Europe.  This  sin- 
gular book  passed  through  three  editions  and  many  thousands  of  Germans  pon- 
dered over  its  contents.  When  the  rulers  of  the  then  politically  disrupted 
German  states  refused  to  give  their  subjects  the  freedom  and  aid  to  which 
they  felt  entitled,  innumerable  resolutions  were  made  to  cross  the  ocean  and 
build  for  the  present  and  for  future  generations  happy  homes  in  the  far-famed 
Missouri." 

Duden's  book,  Dr.  Bek  says,  was  "the  direct  cause  of  the  great  German  im- 
migration into  Missouri  during  the  thirties  and  forties."  Almost  until  the 
Civil  war  there  were  some  of  philosophic  thought  who  contemplated  a  theory 
that  the  Teutonic  infusion  might  assimilate  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  Missouri,  or 
at  least  in  St.  Louis,  and  parts  of  Missouri.  In  three  years  from  1848  to  1850, 
the  arrivals  of  Germans  in  Missouri  numbered  34,418.  Kossuth,  the  Hun- 
garian patriot,  visited  St.  Louis  in  1852.  One  of  his  companions  wrote  a  book 
on  Kossuth's  travels  in  the  United  States.  He  incorporated  this  paragraph  on 
the  possibilities  of  the  strength  and  virility  of  the  German  influence  in  St. 
Louis : 

"With  Mr.  Cobb,  the  editor  of  an  industrial  and  statistical  monthly  in  St.  Louis,  we 
had  a  long  conversation  on  poetry,  art  and  the  future  of  America.  He  is  a  great  admirer 
of  Goethe  and  has  the  most  sanguine  expectations  as  to  the  future  of  his  country,  and 
especially  of  the  West.  He  compared  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  with  the  Romans, 
who  had  organized  the  countries  under  theii'  sway,  who  had  civilized  the  people,  who  had 
introduced  art  and  literature  amongst  the  barbarians,  and  had  assimilated  the  provinces  to 
Rome.  Mr.  Pulsky  remarked  that  the  Germans  had  not  yet  given  up  the  idea  that  the 
West  might  become  their  inheritance,  and  that  the  power  of  assimilating  other  races  to 
themselves  is  perhaps  not  so  strong  in  the  Anglo-Saxons  as  it  is  generally  thought.  The 
admirer  of  Goethe  replied  in  good  earnest,  'It  is  not  impossible  that  the  Germans  may 
overrun  us.  The  Goths  and  Vandals  likewise  defeated  Rome  when  it  seemed  most 
powerful.' " 

Response  to  Duden's  fascinating  narrative  was  quick  and  strong.  The  first 
edition  of  his  book  was  printed  in  1829.  It  bore  a  title  which,  after  the  custom 
of  the  period,  left  little  blank  space  on  the  page.  Dr.  Bek  translated  the  title 
in  this  way : 

"A  Report  of  a  Journey  to  the  Western  States  of  North  America,  and  a  Residence  of 
several  Years  on  the  Missouri  (during  the  years  1824,  1825,  1826,  1827),  dealing  with  the 
Question  of  Emigration  and  Excess  of  population :  or  Life  in  the  Interior  of  the  United 
States  and  its  Significance  for  the  economic  and  political  Condition  of  the  People  of 
Europe : — presented — 

(a)  In  a  Collection   of  Letters. 

(b)  In  a  special  Treatise  concerning  the  political  Condition  of  the  North  American 
Free-States. 


Friedrieh  Muench 


Dr.  George  J.  Engelmann 


Gen.  Franz  Sigel  Gen.  P.  J.  Osterhaus 

BEPRESENTATIVE  GERMANS  OF  MISSOURI 


A  lAND  OF  PROMISE  305 

(c)  In  an  advisory  Supplement  for  emigrating  German  Farmers  and  for  those  who 
consider  commercial  Undertakings. 

By  Gottfried  Duden. 
Printed  at  Elberfeld  in  the  Year  1829  hy  Sam  Lucas,  at  the  author's  Cost." 

The  Giessen  Society. 

In  1S34,  came  the  Giessen  society,  500  strong.  Developing  Duden's  ideas, 
the  plan  of  the  Giessen  leaders  was  to  found  a  German  state  which  should  be 
settled  by  great  numbers  who  would  follow.  These  members  of  the  Giessen 
society  came  from  all  parts  of  Germany.  The  first  500  were  organized  in  two 
divisions,  headed  by  Friedrich  Muench  and  Paul  FoUenius.  Prompting  the 
emigration  from  Germany  was  much  more  than  an  ordinary  desire  for  change  or 
physical  betterment.  Here  was  the  ardent  aspiration  for  political  freedom  which 
Duden  had  pictured  so  forcibly  as  existing  in  Missouri.  These  Giesseners  were 
men  and  women  with  ideals.  The  leaders  were  men  of  higher  education. 
"Akademikers"  they  were  called.  They  had  belonged  to  patriotic  organizations 
at  the  universities.  They  had  labored  in  the  old  country  among  the  masses  to 
arouse  ambition  for  self  government.  Friedrich  Muench  was  a  pastor,  with 
a  love  for  philosophy  and  for  politics.  Follenius  was  a  lawyer.  He  had  married 
Muerch's  sister.  Having  obtained  quite  a  following,  Muench  and  Follenius  or- 
ganized the  society  and  started  with  the  first  society  of  500.  They  had  gone  so 
far  with  their  plan  for  a  German  state  in  Missouri  as  to  frame  a  set  of  laws 
to  govern  the  colony.  But  gradually  this  plan  of  exclusive  occupation  of  ter- 
ritory was  abandoned.  A  commission  sent  over  in  advance  had  reported 
favorably  on  Missouri  as  oflFering  the  most  inviting  opportunities  for  settle- 
ment. One  division  of  the  party  under  Follenius  came  by  way  of  New  Orleans. 
Muench  led  his  people  to  Baltimore  and  down  the  Ohio. 

The  Latin  Settlement. 

At  St.  Louis,  after  much  consultation  the  plan  of  a  united  colony  was  given 
up.  The  division  under  Follenius  had  encountered  cholera  and  had  lost  many 
members.  Expenses  had  been  heavier  than  was  expected.  Muench  and  Fol- 
lenius gave  from  their  own  funds  to  replenish  a  depleted  common  treasury  and 
made  a  distribution  as  equitable  as  possible.  The  society  disbanded  at  St. 
Louis.  Some  of  the  members  became  residents  of  the  city  and  attained  prom- 
inence. Others  went  into  St.  Louis,  St.  Charles  and  Warren  counties  and  ac- 
quired homesteads.  Warren  county,  from  which  Duden  had  written  his  glow- 
ing accounts  of  country  life  in  .\nierica.  was  chosen  by  Muench,  Follenius  and 
a  few  others,  and  there  they  formed  their  "Latin  Settlement,"  always  cultivat- 
ing close  relationship  with  St.  Louis.  They  maintained  through  newspapers, 
through  hooks  and  through  correspondence  an  infltience  which  drew  to  Mis- 
souri multitudes  of  German  immigrants.  They  introduced  the  vineyards  which 
they  hoped  to  see  transform  the  hillsides  along  the  Missouri  into  another  Rhine 
country.  Sons  and  daughters  of  these  first  German  pioneers  sought  the  city. 
Friedrich  Muench  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  German  press  of  St.  Louis. 
\\'hen  he  came  here  he  was  received  with  profound  respect  and  was  known  as 
"Father  Muench."  He  was  the  type  of  patriarch,  tall  with  a  stronsr  nosp  and 
Vol.  1—20 


306  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

piercing  eyes  and  a  great  bushy  head  of  hair.     His  influence  among  the  Ger- 
mans of  St.  Louis  was  strong. 

Duden's  Hill,  a  Missouri  Mecca. 

The  Pisgah  from  which  Duden  viewed  his  promised  land  for  German  im- 
migrants was  a  peakhke  elevation  in  Warren  county,  near  Lake  creek.  "Du- 
den's Hill"  it  is  still  called.  Tradition  has  it  that  Duden  went  often  to  this 
hill  and  while  overlooking  the  country  roundabout  wrote  some  of  his  fascinat- 
ing descriptive  letters  which  were  "read  with  wild  enthusiasm  among  the  edu- 
cated classes  in  Germany."  The  quotation  is  from  an  article  by  Gert  Goebel 
which  appeared  in  the  Westliche  Post  on  the  loth  of  November,  1893.  Goebel 
was  for  two  terms  a  state  senator.  He  lived  in  Franklin  county  and  wrote  a 
book  the  title  of  which  translated  was  "Longer  than  a  Lifetime  in  Missouri." 
Goebel  said  that  many  of  those  who  were  influenced  by  Duden's  book  to  come 
to  Missouri  settled  near  where  Duden  had  made  his  home  while  he  was  writ- 
ing the  letters.  Friedrich  Muench  and  Paul  Follenius  took  farms  adjacent  to 
Duden's  Hill.  Other  German  settlers  made  pilgrimages  to  the  Duden  farm. 
Hermann  Steines  told  in  his  diary,  under  date  of  May  26,  1833,  of  a  visit  to 
the  Duden  farm.     Dr.  Bek  has  translated  this  reference: 

"From  there  we  finally  went  to  the  adjoining  farm  of  Gottfried  Duden,  of  Remschied, 
Germany,  full  of  a  certain  yearning  and  with  beating  hearts.  Now  we  stood  on  this  his- 
toric spot.  We  saw  the  hut  in  which  he  had  lived,  the  half  finished  log  house,  the  shaded 
walk  to  the  spring,  Lake  creek,  the  courtyard,  the  field  and  finally  the  forest  so  fantastically 
described  by  Duden.  Everything  was  now  very  much  neglected.  The  fence  had  decayed 
and  in  great  part  had  fallen  down,  the  field  was  full  of  weeds,  and  there  was  no  more  any 
garden.  Many  a  German  has  been  at  that  place  in  the  last  four  or  six  years,  in  order  to 
See  where  and  how  that  one  lived,  who  with  magic  power  had  lured  hordes  of  sons  of 
Germany  from  their  dearly  beloved,  but  oppressed  and  mistreated  fatherland,  who  with 
magic  pen  had  clothed  this  wilderness  with  such  a  pleasing  and  attractive  garment,  and 
who  had  banished  the  fears  of  those  who  thought  this  to  be  a  country  of  Indians  and 
wild  beasts.  After  we  had  tasted  the  water  of  the  spring  and  of  Lake  creek,  we  went  into 
the  hut  and  recited  some  passages  from  Duden's  letters  which  we  carried  with  us." 

The  Featherbeds  Were  Needed. 

Some  of  those  who  acted  quickly  on  "Duden's  Report"  were  not  reverently 
appreciative.  They  expected  too  much.  The  first  winter  that  Duden  spent  in 
Missouri  was  exceptionally  mild,  such  as  old  residents  can  recall.  Duden  wrote 
in  his  letter  of  February  20,  1825 : 

"I,  myself,  have  not  noticed  any  winter.  The  forests  never  did  lose  their  green  garb 
entirely.  Snow  did  not  fall  at  all,  and  the  frost  was  so  slight  that  fire  was  needed  only 
in  mornings  and  evenings.  However,  they  say  that  such  weather  is  out  of  the  ordinary 
and  that  the  month  of  January  is  usually  rather  unpleasant.  They  say,  however,  that  the 
winter  rarely  begins  earlier  than  January  and  that  about  the  middle  of  February  naviga- 
tion on  the  river  is  free  again,  and  no  ice  is  seen  on  the  stream.  The  Missouri  and  the 
Mississippi  freeze  over  so  solid  at  times  that  large  freight  wagons  can  pass  over  them. 
This  would  not  happen  if  the  masses  of  ice  did  not  come  from  the  far  northern  regions. 
I  am  told  that  such  a  covering  of  ice  stays  no  longer  than  a  week  at  a  time.  The  American 
autumn  is  universally  praised,  and  I  mujt  say  that  from  August  on  there  was,  almost 
uninterruptedly,  the  most  beautiful  weather  for  traveling." 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  307 

Gert  Goebel  said  that  the  critics  of  Duden  failed  to  read  carefully  and  were 
largely  to  blame  for  being  misled  in  their  expectations: 

"I  have  known  German  immigrants  who  were  so  carried  away  by  the  reading  of 
Duden's  book  that  they  would  not  think  of  taking  along  their  featherbeds.  They  said  it 
was  nonsense  to  bother  with  featherbeds  when  they  were  going  to  a  Sicilian  climate. 
Fortunately,  the  attachment  which  the  women  have  for  such  articles,  triumphed  over  the 
delusion  of  the  men,  for  in  a  short  time  the  gentler  sex  had  cause  to  rejoice  because  of 
their  apparent  naivete." 

Duden's  Word  Paintings  of  Missouri. 

These  are  some  of  the  things  which  Duden  told  of  Missouri  in  the  late 
twenties : 

"A  small  family  requires  no  more  than  four  or  five  acres  of  land  to  begin  with.  Half 
an  acre  suffices  for  garden  vegetables,  another  half  acre  for  wheat,  after  which  there  are 
left  three  or  four  acres  for  maize.  The  maize  is  the  farmer's  main  crop.  One  might  call 
it  the  nurse  of  the  growing  population.  It  serves  all  domestic  animals  as  food.  The  meal 
made  of  it,  when  cooked,  with  milk,  furnishes  a  very  nourishing,  wholesome  and  palatable 
food.  If  it  is  kneaded  with  the  boiled  pulp  of  the  pumpkin  a  kind  of  bread  can  be  made 
of  it  which  I  prefer  to  wheat  bread,  especially  if  the  dough  has  been  made  to  ferment. 
The  baking  is  done  in  covered  iron  pots,  which  are  placed  beside  the  hearth  and  are 
covered  entirely  with  burning  coals.  In  most  of  the  households  fresh  bread  is  baked 
every  day,  which  is  not  so  much  of  a  burden,  since  there  are  always  supplies  of  burning 
coals  on  the  spacious  hearth.  There  are  a  great  many  varieties  of  maize  here.  Those  with 
white  or  yellow  kernels  are  the  most  common.  Besides  these  varieties  there  are  those  ol 
red,  blue,  and  red  and  blue  spotted  kernels,  and  finally  a  kind  whose  kernels  are  transcareut 
like  pearls.    The  stalks  become  very  high,  ten,  fifteen,  indeed  twenty  feet  high. 

"The  garden  supplies  the  best  kitchen  vegetables.  Peas  and  beans  prosper  beyond 
expectation.  Of  the  beans,  only  the  finer  varieties  are  raised.  In  order  not  to  have  to 
supply  sticks  for  the  beans  and  to  make  special  beds  for  them  they  are  planted  in  the 
maize  fields,  where  the  high  stalks  of  the  maize  furnish  support  for  the  vines.  All  these 
things  thrive  simultaneously,  without  the  least  fertilizer,  and  indeed  after  twenty  years 
just  as  well  as  during  the  first  year.  Cucumbers  and  melons  are  grown  each  year  in  great 
abundance  without  any  special  attention  being  given  them.  The  sweet  potato  is  also  a 
fine  vegetable.    When  prepared  by  steaming,  its  taste  resembles  that  of  the  finest  chestnut. 

"During  the  second  year,  after  the  land  is  cleared,  cotton  can  be  grown ;  north  of  the 
Missouri,  however,  only  for  family  use.  It  is  the  endeavor  of  the  American  farmer  not 
to  spend  any  money  for  food  and  drink,  nor  for  clothing  (finery  alone  excepted).  For 
this  reason  he  grows  flax  and  hemp  and  keeps  a  small  flock  of  sheep.  The  spinning  wheel 
is  nowhere  lacking,  and  if  the  household  does  not  own  a  loom,  the  housewife  or^one  of  the 
daughters  goes,  from  time  to  time,  to  one  of  the  neighbors  who  does  possess  one. 

Ca^h  Only  Needed  for  Taxes. 

"Cash  is  needed  only  for  the  paying  of  taxes.  These  are,  however,  so  insignificant, 
that  they  hardly  come  into  consideration.  Land  acquired  from  the  government  is  entirely 
free  for  five  years.  During  the  present  year  one-fourth  of  a  per  cent  is  due  as  a  state  tax 
on  the  value  of  all  real  estate,  on  all  full  grown  livestock  and  on  articles  of  luxury,  to 
which  class  gold  watches  belong,  and  in  addition  to  this  a  small  sum  is  asked  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  the  county.  Capital  is  untaxed.  Taxable  property  is  evaluated  so  low 
that  a  tax  of  six  dollars  is  indicative  of  a  considerable  amount  of  property.  Aside  from 
the  above  obligations  the  farmer  has  no  burdens  whatever.  He  can  send  his  produce  to 
the  Atlantic  ocean  or  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  without  the  least  tax  or  inspection.  In  Ger- 
many it  will  be  an  item  of  surprise  to  learn  that  here  in  Missouri  the  assessor  as  well  as 


308  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  collector  is  obliged  to  hunt  up  the  people.     No  one  is  obliged  to  take  his  money  to  the 
collector,  altho  this  is  usually  done  upon  the  latter's  kindly  request. 

"For  the  comfort  of  the  settler  I  should  ask  nothing  except  a  better  dwelling  house. 
The  conception  of  the  ordinary  European  in  regard  to  expense  which  would  be  involved 
in  furnishing  such  a  better  dwelling  is  in  the  most  striking  contrast  to  the  conditions 
actually  existing.  Keep  in  mind  that  the  dwelling  house  which  I  should  like  to  see 
improved  is  intended  solely  as  a  residence  of  the  people  themselves,  and  that  the  out- 
houses, which  cost  almost  nothing,  assist  materially  in  making  life  comlortal)le.  For  fifty 
dollars  more  than  half  a  dozen  outhouses,  such  as  kitchen,  smokehouse,  shed,  barn  and 
stable,  could  be  erected,  and  that  by  day  labor,  which,  by  the  way,  is  not  the  most  inex- 
pensive way  of  getting  help.  A  comfortable  frame  house  costs  from  two  to  three  hundred 
dollars.  For  five  or  six  hundred  dollars  a  brick  house  could  be  built,  which  in  the  seaboard 
towns  would  cost  four  times  as  much.  If  the  planter  owns  two  slaves  he  need  do  nothing 
but  supervise  their  work,  and  the  housewife  will  have  no  cause  to  complain  about  the 
work  in  the  house.  Beer,  too,  could  easily  be  brewed  here,  since  great  quantities  of  hops 
are  found  in  the  woods.  The  apple  and  peach  orchards,  which  are  lacking  at  no  farmhouse, 
furnish  cider  and  brandy.  Altho  a  very  good  brandy  is  also  made  of  maize,  that  of  apples 
and  peaches  is  nevertheless  preferred.  I  have  tasted  old  brandy  made  of  maize,  a  gallon 
of  which  costs  thirty  cents,  and  it  w'as  equal  to  the  best  French  brandy.  But  even  without 
slaves  the  American  farmer  lives  in  a  condition  that  by  far  surpasses  that  of  the  German 
peasant  who  commands  the  same  amount  of  wealth." 

Slavery  Not  Unconditionally  Criticised. 

Duden  devoted  a  large  part  of  one  letter  to  slavery,  as  he  found  it  in  Mis- 
souri. "The  attitude  which  this  German  took  toward  slavery,"  said  Dr.  Bek, 
by  way  of  comment,  "is  rather  interesting  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  Ger- 
man immigrants  that  followed  in  his  wake  were,  as  a  class,  so  strenuously  op- 
posed to  the  practice  of  this  institution."  Duden  was  accompanied  to  this 
country  by  Louis  Eversman  whom  he  describes  as  the  son  of  the  chief  super- 
intendent of  mines  at  Berlin.  Eversman  took  a  farm  adjoining  that  in  which 
Duden  invested,  inarried  an  American  woman  and  became  one  of  the  first,  if 
not  the  first,  of  the  few  German  slaveholders  in  Missouri. 

Duden  not  only  represented  the  material  advantage  of  slave  labor  in  Mis- 
souri, as  he  saw  it,  but  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  slaves  in  Missouri  were 
better  off  than  they  would  be  if  freed.  He  presented  the  situation  on  a  par- 
allel with  that  of  the  cartoonist  of  1820  who  pictured  the  negro  dancing  with 
glee,  when  Congress  passed  the  act  of  admission,  because  slaves  were  '"per- 
mitted to  live  in  such  a  fine  country  as  Missouri." 

"The  result  of  my  investigation,"  Duden  said,  "is  such  that  I  cannot  uncon- 
ditionally criticise  or  blame  a  European,  who  lives  in  a  slave  state,  if  he  de- 
sires to  keep  slaves.  It  must  always  depend  upon  the  master  whether  his  pur- 
chase is  a  fortune  or  misfortune  for  the  bondsman.  The  European  who  comes 
to  America  may  very  well  dismiss  the  idea  from  his  mind,  that  the  black  pop- 
ulation might  be  set  free  with  impunity." 

"How  many  men  there  are  in  Germany  who  have  a  capital  of  from  4.000  to  6,000  thaler 
(a  thaler  then  was  about  seventy-five  cents)  without  any  prospect  of  using  it  except  to 
consume  it  by  and  "by!  Such  a  sum,  however,  is  more  than  abundant  for  the  happy  life 
of  a  whole  family  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri,  even  though  800  to  1,000  thaler  should  be 
deduced  as  traveling  expense,  provided  the  proper  guidance  is  not  wanting.  With  the 
above  sum  an  immigrant  could  purchase  two  adult  slaves,  a  man  and  a  woman,  which 
would  cost  him   1,200  thaler,  and  could  establish  himself  in   such   a  manner  that  he  could 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  309. 

live  happier,  and  especially  more  carefree  in  view  of  the   future  lot  of  his  numerous  pos- 
terity, than  he  could  in  Germany  with  six  times  that  amount." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  merit  of  Duden's  letters  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  truth,  the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  they  were  of  tre- 
mendous influence  directly  and  indirectly  on  the  history  of  The  Center  State. 

The  Latin  Settlement  in  Shiloh  Valley.  1 

Missouri  did  not  get  all  of  the  high  class  German  immigration  which  Du- 
den's letters  prompted  to  leave  the  fatherland.  Gustavus  Koerner,  and  a  party 
of  friends,  including  two  of  the  Engelmanns,  Henry  Abend  and  others,  came 
over  about  1833  expecting  to  make  their  homes  in  Missouri.  They  arrived  in 
St.  Louis.  Koerner  and  Theodore  Engelmann  were  sent  into  the  interior  of 
the  state  to  look  at  the  country  and  to  report  on  a  location.  They  came  back 
and  made  such  an  unfavorable  report  on  slavery  in  Missouri  that  the  party  de- 
cided in  favor  of  Illinois  and  located  in  and  around  Belleville.  Later  much 
German  immigration  was  diverted  to  St.  Clair  county  on  the  Illinois  side  by  the 
feeling  against  slavery. 

The  idea  of  a  German  state  was  not  original  with  Duden.  Preceding  the 
coming  of  this  investigator,  many  articles  had  appeared  in  the  newspapers  of 
Germany  discussing  the  practicability  of  the  creation  of  a  German  state  in 
the  United  States.  The  plan  advocated  by  those  who  favored  it  was  to  obtain 
possession  of  a  large  tract  of  land  and  parcel  it  out  in  lots  of  fifty  acres  to 
the  colonists.  "Latiniers,"  some  of  these  colonists  called  themselves.  The 
German  papers  noted  the  movement  as  "the  Latin  emigration."  Those  who , 
joined  Gustavus  Koerner  in  choosing  Shiloh  valley,  near  Belleville,  in  preference 
to  Missouri,  because  of  slavery,  formed  what  for  many  years  was  known  as 
the  "Latin  Settlement."'     Koerner  was  the  schoolmaster  of  the  community. 

The  Founding  of  Hermann. 

In  1837  a  town  was  established  in  Missouri  along  the  line  of  Duden's  sug- 
gestion of  "the  center  of  culture  for  the  Germans  in  Atnerica."  A  large  body 
of  land  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Missouri,  about  thirty  miles  west  of  Duden's 
farm,  was  bought.  The  purchase  was  made  by  the  "German  Settlement  So- 
ciety of  Philadelphia."  A  colony  of  Germans  was  established  on  the  land  and 
the"  name  of  Hermann  was  chosen  for  the  community. 

Dr.  William  G.  Bek  told  the  story  of  Hermann.  In  1836,  the  German  Set- 
tlement Society  of  Philadelphia  was  organized,  having  for  its  declared  purpose 
the  establisliment  of  a  colony  in  the  West,  this  colony  to  be  Gennan  in  pop- 
ulation and  in  customs.  It  was  to  develop  culture  as  understood  by  Germans. 
In  1837  the  society  sent  out  a  coinmission  to  visit  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri, 
Wisconsin  and  Michigan.  These  delegates  were  to  locate  a  place  near  a  nav- 
igable river  with  a  considerable  body  of  land  and  with  natural  inducements  for 
various  industries.  They  found  what  they  were  seeking  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Missouri  near  the  mouth  of  the  Gasconade.  The  society  bought  11,300 
acres  for  $15,612.  So  prompt  was  action  of  the  society  that  the  first  settlers 
reached  the  location  in  the  late  fall  or  early  winter  of   1837.     But.  through  ill- 


310  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ness,  the  general  manager  failed  to  get  there  to  apportion  the  land  and  tlie 
pioneers  of  the  colony  had  a  hard  winter.  These  first  coiners  were  Conrad 
Baer,  George  Conrad  Riefenstahl,  wife  and  five  children,  John  George  Prager, 
wife  and  two  children,  Gottlieb  Heinrich  Gentner  and  wife,  Daniel  Oelschlager, 
wife  and  one  child, — seventeen  in  all. 

The  Diary  of  Herman  Steines. 

A  distinctive  and  valuable  contribution  to  Missouri  history  has  been  made 
by  Professor  William  G.  Bek  in  his  translations  from  letters  and  diaries  of  the 
German  immigrants  who  came  to  the  state,  following  the  letters  of  Duden.  A 
series  of  these  translations  has  been  published  in  the  Missouri  Historical  Re- 
view. In  one  instalment,  printed  in  1920,  was  given  portions  of  the  diary  of 
Herman  Steines  who  came  over  with  other  members  of  the  Solingen  Emigration 
Society : 

January  25,  1837 — Today  I  went  to  the  horse  mill  at  the  Harris  place  and  ground  two 
bushels  of  wheat.     Every  man  who  came  had  to  use  his  own  horses  to  run  the  mill. 

February  8 — Early  this  morning  I  left  for  St.  Louis.  On  account  of  the  morass,  which 
was  supposed  to  be  a  road,  I  could  not  get  farther  than  Harrison's,  thirteen  miles  on  this 
side  of  St.  Louis. 

February  9 — I  arrived  in  St.  Louis  at  noon.  At  the  city  market  I  sold  my  produce, 
namely,  ten  pounds  of  fresh  butter  at  3iJ^  cents  a  pound;  twelve  pounds  of  old  butter  at 
25  cents  a  pound  and  four  dozen  of  eggs  at  25  cents  a  dozen. 

March  4 — This  evening  I  got  my  buckskin  breeches  from  Mr.  Farmer. 

March  6 — I  rode  to  St.  Louis  today,  carrying  twenty-two  dozens  of  eggs  and  eleven 
pounds  of  butter  on  my  horse. 

March  22 — Ordered  a  new  wagon  from  the  wainwright  near  the  jail.  It  will  cost 
me  $150. 

May  5 — The  assessor  of  St.  Louis,  Mr.  Patterson,  was  here  today.  Assessed  me  as 
follows:  Two  horses,  $50;  six  head  of  cattle,  $72;  one  watch,  $5.  Total  state  ta.\es  are 
S2j^  cents,  of  which  yjYi  cents  are  for  poll  tax. 

May  20 — Went  to  the  log  rolling  at  Mr.  Halbach's. 

May  29 — Squirrels  are  destroying  the  corn  crop.  Birds  and  raccoons  are  also  very 
destructive  to  the  fields. 

July  II — Mr.  Farmer  cradled  my  wheat  today,  and  mother  and  I  bound  it. 

July  14 — Mother  and  I  cut  our  rye  with  a  scythe. 

July  28 — With  my  two  horses   I  helped  Gross  and  Paflfrath   trample  out  their  wheat. 

August  10 — Mr.  Bornefeld  made  me  a  lot  of  cigars  from  homegrown  tobacco. 

August  20 — Mother  and  I  filled  the  mattresses  with  fresh  straw. 

August  31 — The  mail  carrier  failed  to  come  on  the  last  two  mail  days.  Harrison,  who 
had  contracted  to  carry  the  mail  from  St.  Louis  to  Jefferson  City  for  $500  a  year,  has 
become  bankrupt.  They  say  we  shall  not  get  any  papers  and  letters  till  a  new  contract  is 
made  for  carrying  the  mail. 

September  5 — I  chinked  and  daubed  with  mud  the  cracks  in  the  walls  of  my  house. 

October  21 — Jacob  Ridenhour  was  here  and  he  agreed  to  split  one  thousand  fence 
rails  for  me  at  five  bits  a  hundred.    He  will  take  his  pay  in  wool  at  37^  cents  a  pound. 

November  3 — Judge  Evans  of  St.  Francois  County  was  three  and  one-half  days  late 
for  session  of  the  court. 

December  i — Went  to  a  meeting  at  Brawly"s  house,  where  Mr.  Rennick  preached  on 
"The  Salvation  of  the  Repentant  Sinner  and  the  Damnation  of  the  Wicked." 

The  Coming  of  Engelmann. 

With  some  of  his  countrymen,  Duden's  letters  seemed  too  highly  colored. 
There  were  intellectual  Germans  to  whom  Missouri  appealed  as  a  future  home 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  311 

if  it  was  as  represented  by  Duden.  These  "akademikers"  selected  George  Engel- 
mann  as  one  whom  they  could  trust  to  check  up  Duden's  statements.  Thereby 
St.  Louis  and  Missouri  gained  a  citizen  whose  explorations  and  investigations 
were  for  more  than  half  a  century  respected  among  men  of  science  far  and 
wide.  Engelmann  came  to  Missouri  in  1834.  That  was  five  years  after  Duden 
left.  He  was  twenty-three  years  old.  He  had  studied  at  Heidelberg  with 
Agassiz.  When  he  graduated  in  medicine  he  wrote  a  paper  on  plant  mon- 
strosities which  showed  such  comprehensive  knowledge  of  botany  as  to  attract 
widespread  attention. 

Accompanied  by  a  hunter  who  acted  as  guide  and  helper,  Dr.  Engelmann 
was  engaged  most  of  the  time  for  several  years  in  the  scientific  study  of  the 
region  around  St.  Louis,  carrying  his  investigations  to  Southern  Illinois,  to 
Southern  Missouri  and  into  Arkansas.  Besides  reporting  in  a  practical  way  on 
the  country,  he  made  scientific  reports  on  the  botany  and  on  the  minerals.  One 
of  his  explorations  was  a  tour  into  Arkansas,  looking  for  a  silver  mine  which 
a  St.  Louis  company  thought  must  be  somewhere  in  the  Ozarks. 

The  reports  which  Dr.  Engelmann  made  upon  the  resources  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis  were  considered  so  important  that 
they  were  made  the  principal  features  of  a  periodical  called  Westland,  several 
numbers  of  which  were  published  at  Heidelberg,  leading  to  the  migration  of 
many  educated  Germans.  Settling  in  St.  Louis  after  his  earher  explorations. 
Dr.  Engelmann  practiced  medicine,  aided  in  the  publication  of  the  first  Ger- 
man newspaper,  the  Anzeiger,  and  joined  in  the  establishment  of  a  German 
high  school.  That  was  several  years  before  the  first  public  school  was  opened 
in  St.  Louis.  And  with  all  of  these  engagements  Dr.  Engelmann  carried  on  his 
scientific  labors  from  time  to  time,  leaving  home  on  journeys  of  exploration. 

He  became  famous  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  as  the  great  American  au- 
thority on  the  cactus,  the  United  States  Government  publishing  his  report  on 
the  subject.  By  reason  of  the  exhaustive  and  critical  character  of  his  study,  his 
publications  were  accepted  as  the  authorities  in  many  lines  of  investigation. 

The  Foremost  Scientist  of  that  Period. 

In  a  long  series  of  meteorological  records,  which  he  kept  with  infinite 
care.  Dr.  Engelmann  rendered  not  only  Missouri  but  the  whole  Mississippi  Val- 
ley a  signal  service.  The  late  Dr.  Enno  Sander,  who  came  to  Missouri  in  the 
fifties  and  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Engelmann  and  associated  with  him  in 
scientific  research,  said  to  the  writer: 

"Engelmann  inaugurated  as  early  as  1835  at  St.  Louis,  with  good  and  reliable  instru- 
ments, a  series  of  meteorological  observations  which  he  continued  scrupulously  three  times 
a  day  during  nearly  fifty  years.  Such  was  his  zeal  that  a  short  time  before  his  death, 
Dr.  Engelmann,  himself,  swept  the  snow  from  the  walk  leading  to  his  instruments,  and 
even  during  his  last  days  refused  assistance  in  making  his  observations.  His  journal  was 
kept  so  thoroughly  and  faithfully  that  it  has  become  the  only  reliable  source  of  information 
on  the  climatology  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  for  that  period.  Engelmann's  tables  prepared 
from  these  observations  are  now  authentic  records.  The  officers  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution  at  Washington  early  recognized  the  greatness  of  Engelmann  as  a  scientist  and 
the  officers  and  scientists  of  government  exploring  expeditions,  fitting  out  at  St.  Louis, 
came  to  him   for  advice  and   aid.     Engelmann's   instruments,   always   carefully  and   fault- 


312  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

lessly  kept,  gave  the  government  scientists  the  opportunity  to  compare  and  regulate  their 
own.  To  Engelmann  these  scientists  looked  for  counsel  as  to  collection  and  preservation 
of  specimens.  They  came  to  him  to  help  them  determine  and  classify  when  they  encoun- 
tered doubt.  There  are  very  few  of  those  government  exploring  reports  in  which  the  parts 
relating  to  botanical  observations  and  the  descriptions  of  plants  were  not  written  by  Dr. 
Engelmann." 

Dr.  Engelmann  was  versed  in  all  of  the  natural  sciences,  but  his  favorite 
study  was  botany.  The  work  that  he  began  and  pursued  in  and  about  St. 
Louis  for  many  years  was  developed  under  the  encouragement  given  by  Henry 
Shaw  in  his  magnificent  bequests,  until  today  the  St.  Louis  School  of  Botany, 
under  Director  George  T.  Moore,  is  recognized  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  the 
United  States  as  one  of  the  great  institutions  in  that  branch  of  study  and  re- 
search. 

In  1843  George  Engelmann,  William  Greenleaf  Eliot,  Adolph  Wislizenus 
and  a  few  others  met  in  the  law  office  of  Marie  P.  Leduc  to  form  the  Western 
Academy  of  Science.  These  young  men  bought  a  piece  of  ground  of  several 
acres  near  Eighth  street  and  Chouteau  avenue,  started  a  botanical  garden  and 
experimented  in  forestry.  The  organization  was  a  pioneer  in  the  scientific 
field  of  the  Mississippi  Valley;  it  disbanded  after  a  few  years,  but  the  members 
of  it  went  on  individually  with  their  scientific  work.  In  1856  the  present 
Academy  of  Science  was  organized,  and  Dr.  Engelmann,  one  of  the  leading 
spirits  in  the  movement,  became  the  president,  holding  the  office  fifteen  years. 

Adventures  of  Dr.  Wislizenus. 

Associated  with  Dr.  Engelmann  in  the  earlier  years  of  his  career  in  St. 
Louis  was  Adolph  Wislizenus,  who  came  from  Germany  about  1840,  leaving 
behind  him  the  record  of  having  been  one  of  the  students  who  seized  Frankfort 
when  it  was  the  capital  of  the  German  empire  in  1833.  Wislizenus  was  the  son 
of  a  clergyman.  He  escaped  after  the  failure  of  the  students'  uprising,  completed 
his  medical  studies  in  Switzerland  and  France  and  arrived  in  St.  Louis  in  1839. 
Scientific  exploration  lured  him  from  practice  and  Dr.  Wislizenus  went  out 
from  St.  Louis  with  one  of  the  fur  trading  expeditions,  reaching  Oregon.  The 
report  of  his  observations  brought  him  recognition  among  scientific  men  through- 
ntu  the  country.  Coming  back  to  St.  Louis,  Dr.  Wislizenus  settled  down  to 
practice  with  Dr.  Engelmann,  but  after  five  years  he  was  off  again  on  scientific 
exploration,  this  time  to  the  southwest,  and  into  Northern  Mexico.  The  war 
clouds  were  darkening.  The  St.  Louis  scientist  was  taken  prisoner  at  Chi- 
huahua and  conveyed  to  a  remote  place  in  the  mountains.  There  he  remained 
until  Doniphan  and  his  adventurous  Missourians  came  marching  down  as  if 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  an  enemy's  country,  when  he  was  released.  Wis- 
lizenus returned  to  St.  Louis  with  the  "conquistadores,"  as  the  conquering 
heroes  of  that  day  were  called.  His  scientific  report  upon  Northern  Mexico  be- 
came, authority  and  has  so  remained  until  the  present  day. 

Enno  Sander  and  Franz  Sigel  Revolutionists. 

Enno  Sander,  of  a  good  family,  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Berlin, 
was  one  of  the  German  "Liberals"  who  assembled  at  Baden  and  declared  them- 


Dr.  George   Hillgaertner 


Henry  Boernsteiii 


Carl  Daenzer 


Kniil   Prcetoriiis 


UPBUILDERS  OF  THE  GERMAX  PRESS  OF  MISSOURI 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  315 

selves.  Under  the  provisional  government  that  was  established  Dr.  Sander  be- 
came assistant  minister  of  war.  When  the  revolution  failed  and  the  leaders 
were  being  condemned  to  death  or  to  imprisonment,  he  made  his  way  to  Switzer- 
land, and  later,  in  1852,  he  reached  St.  Louis.  The  Missouri  law  creating  a 
state  board  of  pharmacy  where  every  druggist  must  show  his  ability  to  practice, 
was  of  Dr.  Sander's  authorship.  The  St.  Louis  School  of  Pharmacy  owed 
much  to  his  inspiration.  Franz  Sigel,  who  became  a  major-general,  and  whose 
equestrian  statue  is  in  Forest  Park,  was  one  of  this  St.  Louis  colony  of  Ger- 
man revolutionary  leaders.  Sigel  was  a  graduate  of  the  military  school  at 
Carlsruhe.  When  the  revolution  started  in  Baden,  in  1848,  he  raised  a  corps  of 
4,000  volunteers  and  fought  two  battles  with  the  royal  troops.  He  was  defeated 
and  escaped  to  Switzerland.  The  next  year  he  went  back  to  Baden.  After 
commanding  the  Anny  of  the  Neckar,  he  was  made  minister  of  war  of  the  pro- 
visional government  and  succeeded  to  the  chief  command  of  the  revolutionary 
forces.  After  several  battles  he  was  again  compelled  to  retreat,  and  took  refuge 
in  Switzerland.  In  1856  he  came  to  St.  Louis  and  became  a  teacher  of  math- 
ematics in  the  German  Institute.  That  was  his  vocation  until  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety  organized  the  Union  Guards  in  the  winter  of  1861  when  he  was 
made  colonel  of  one  of  the  five  regiments  first  organized. 

Missouri,  Land  of  ReUgfious  Freedom. 

Religious  as  well  as  political  freedom  was  an  inducement  to  early  German 
immigration.  In  one  of  his  letters  Duden  had  much  to  say  about  the  tolerance 
that  prevails  without  being  "the  progenitor  of  indifference."  The  steamboats 
Rienzi,  Clyde,  Knickerbocker  and  Selma  on  their  first  trips  up  from  New  Or- 
leans in  the  spring  of  1839  brought  700  Lutherans.  The  head  of  the  party  was 
Martin  Stephan  who  had  been  a  preacher  at  Dresden.  On  the  journey  these 
Lutherans,  who  held  tenaciously' to  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  named 
Stephan  as  their  bishop.  They  had,  under  his  leadership,  gone  back  to  Luther- 
anism  as  Martin  Luther  taught  it.  These  people  brought  with  them  personal 
effects  and  $120,000.  They  intended  to  buy  land  and  to  found  colonies  of  their 
own.  Part  of  them  went  on  to  Perry  county,  purchased  nearly  5,000  acres  and 
established  settlements.  The  others,  who  remained  in  St.  Louis,  continued  to 
worship  for  three  years  in  Christ  church,  the  vestrymen  of  which  extended  the 
privilege. 

Realization  that  they  had  found  in  Missouri  a  land  of  religious  freedom 
had  come  to  these  Lutherans  quickly.  On  the  Sunday  morning  after  their  ar- 
rival, good  Bishop  Kemper  read  to  his  congregation  in  Christ  church,  then  on 
Fifth  and  Chestnut  streets  this  notice: 

"A  body  of  Lutherans,  having  been  persecuted  by  the  Saxon  government  because  they 
believed  it  their  duty  to  adhere  to  the  doctrines  inculcated  by  their  great  leader  and  con- 
tained in  the  Augsburg  Confession  of  Faith,  have  arrived  here  with  the  intention  of 
settling  in  this  or  one  of  the  neighboring  states,  and  having  been  deprived  of  the  privilege 
of  public  worship  for  three  months,  they  have  earnestly  and  most  respectfully  requested 
the  use  of  our  church  that  they  may  again  unite  in  all  of  the  ordinances  of  our  holy 
religion.  I  have,  therefore,  with  the  entire  approbation  of  the  vestry,  granted  the  use  of 
our  church  for  this  day  from  2  p.  m.  until  sunset  to  a  denomination  whose  early  members 


316  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

were   highly   esteemed   by   the   English    Reformers,   and   with    wliom    our   glorious    martyrs 
Cranmer,  Ridley  and  others  had  much  early  intercourse." 

This  kindly,  Christian  reception  liad  its  part  in  saving  the  Lutheran  colony 
from  going  to  pieces  spiritually  a  few  weeks  later  when  their  bishop,  Martin 
Stephan,  fell  into  evil  ways.  Talented  and  magnetic,  he  had  not  the  self  con- 
trol to  withstand  temptation.     He  was  tried  and  expelled  from  the  church. 

The  Walthers. 

.Among  those  who  had  come  out  with  the  colony  were  two  young  preachers, 
Otto  Hermann  \\alther  and  Carl  Ferdinand  Wilhelm  Walther.  They  were 
sons  of  a  Lutheran  pastor  in  Saxony,  highly  educated.  They  had  studied  and 
prayed  their  way  to  what  they  believed  to  be  sound  Lutheranism.  Otto  Her- 
mann Walther  was  the  pastor  of  the  Lutherans  who  remained  in  St.  Louis  and 
worshipped  in  Christ  church,  later  forming  what  became  Trinity,  the  first  Ger- 
man Lutheran  church  in  St.  Louis. 

In  their  distress  and  demoralization  following  the  downfall  of  Bishop 
Stephan,  the  Lutherans  turned  to  the  Walthers.  Hermann  Walther  did  not 
live  long.  Ferdinand  Walther  was  less  than  thirty  years  of  age  when  he  ac- 
cepted the  leadership.  He  restored  material  order,  but,  more  than  that,  he  led 
the  sorely  tried  colonists  back  to  their  spiritual  ideals.  He  succeeded  Hermann 
as  pastor  of  Trinity.  St.  Louis  became  the  center  of  Lutheran  teaching  and 
Lutheran  influence.  The  act  of  church  hospitality  on  the  part  of  Christ  church 
was  fraught  with  great  consequences,  material  as  well  as  spiritual,  to  St.  Louis. 
It  added  to  and  helped  to  assimilate  one  of  the  most  desirable  elements  of  the 
population.  It  helped  to  make  the  city  not  only  nationally  but  internationally 
the  capital  of  a  powerful  religious  organization.  A  college,  a  theological  sem- 
inary, a  publishing  hotise,  a  hospital  were  established. 

A  National  Movement. 

For  forty-eight  years  Ferdinand  Walther  was  the  donn'nant  figure  with  the 
Lutherans.  He  had  been  ordained  only  the  year  before  he  joined  the  colony 
and  left  Saxonj'.  When  the  end  of  his  work  came,  in  1887,  he  was  seventy- 
six  years  old.  Church  after  church  was  organized  in  Missouri  until  they  num- 
bered in  St.  Louis  alone  nearly  a  score.  Concordia  college  grew  from  its 
humble  beginning  in  1850  into  one  of  the  great  educational  institutions  of  the 
state.  As  early  as  1844  the  Missouri  Lutherans  supported  Walther  in  making 
their  movement  more  than  local.  Die  Lutheraner  was  published  semi-monthly 
in  St.  Louis.  It  called  on  Lutherans  everywhere  in  the  United  States  to  come 
back  to  the  old  faith.  Lutherans  were  numerous  in  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania and  North  Carolina.  They  had  spread  into  Ohio  and  Tennessee,  into 
Indiana  and  Illinois.  But  they  had  adopted  much  doctrine  which,  in  the  opinion 
of  \A'alther  and  the  Missouri  Lutherans,  was  not  sound.  Die  Lutheraner's  ap- 
peals aroused  great  interest  east  of  the  Mississippi.  Much  correspondence  fol- 
lowed. There  were  meetings  and  conferences.  At  Chicago,  in  1874,  was  or- 
ganized a  Lutheran  synod,  with  a  constitution  drafted  by  Walther  and  with  the 
St.  Louis  theologian  as  president.     It  embraced  many  of  the  eastern  Lutherans. 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  317 

W'altlier  came  back  to  Missouri  and  entered  upon  his  enlarged  career  as  a  teach- 
er of  pure  Lutheran  theology.  He  prej)ared  hundreds  ot  young  pastors  for 
Lutheran  churches.  His  theology  went  direct  to  the  Bible  for  substantiation. 
The  Missouri  leader  of  orthodox  Lutheranism  had  many  controversies  with 
other  Lutiierans.  He  courted  these  discussions.  Upon  his  suggestion,  the 
Lutheran  bodies  of  the  United  States  held  free  conferences  to  discuss  their 
doctrinal  differences.  And  after  each  of  these  conferences.  Lutherans  found 
themselves  nearer  together,  with  Ferdinand  Walther  more  of  a  leader  of  Luth- 
eran thought  than  before.  He  went  to  Eu^pe  to  present  his  views.  He  edited 
Lutheran  periodicals  which  had  wide  circulation.  The  Lutheran  publishing 
house  in  St.  Louis  became  a  far-famed  institution.  Ferdinand  Walther  was  an 
ardent  lover  of  music  all  of  his  life.  He  was  a  man  of  humor  which  he  masked 
with  a  serious  face.  He  wrote  his  sermons  and  committed  them  to  memory  so 
that  he  spoke  without  manuscript  before  him.  He  was  an  orator  of  international 
fame  among  Lutherans.  Most  of  the  Lutheran  churches  of  St.  Louis  estab- 
h"shed  parochial  schools  in  which  the  children  of  Lutheran  parents  were  educated. 
Square  miles  of  North  St.  Louis  and  South  St.  Louis  were  built  up  by  the 
Lutherans.  As  a  class  these  people  were  home  owners  and  well  to  do  people. 
They  clung  to  their  religion  brought  with  them  from  Germany  but  they  mani- 
fested little  interest  in  the  political  ideal  of  a  German  state  in  Missouri. 

Pioneer  German  Journalism. 

In  1835  a  German  newspaper,  the  Anzeiger  des  Westens  was  started  in  St. 
Louis.  The  publisher  and  editor  was  H.  C.  Bimbage.  Later  William  Weber,  one 
of  the  "akademikers,"  joined  Bimbage  in  the  conduct  of  the  Anzeiger.  Around 
their  newspaper  the  educated  Germans  rallied  and  fought  the  Native  American 
party  which  was  becoming  strong  in  St.  Louis.  "Know  Nothingism"  found 
stimulus  in  the  fact  that  in  three  months  of  one  year  in  the  late  forties  there 
had  landed  at  the  St.  Louis  levee  529  steamboats  bringing  30.000  immigrants  to 
settle  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Dr.  Hugo  Ma.ximilian  von  Starkloff,  writing  in 
191 3,  the  German  centennial  year,  said  that  this  early  German  immigration  to 
Missouri  included  "'men  of  prominence  in  the  professions,  as  well  as  good 
business  men,  physicians,  lawyers,  engineers,  architects,  also  literary  men, 
musicians,  and  artists  of  various  kinds."  Of  the  men  who  rallied  around  the 
Anzeiger  in  those  pioneer  years  he  said,  "their  efforts  were  directed  with  par- 
ticular force  against  the  so-called  'Know  Nothing'  element  which  was  unusually 
strong  in  the  city  at  the  time.  And  they  carried  on  a  determined  fight  for  the 
public  welfare,  for  the  rights  of  the  citizens  of  their  adopted  city  and  the  pres- 
ervation of  personal  liberty,  not  allowing  themselves  to  be  influenced  by  attacks 
and  villification  from  various  sources  to  leave  their  chosen  path." 

The  Know  Nothing  Trouble. 

When  the  Know  Nothing  sentiment  culminated  in  violence  the  Anzeiger  was 
the  first  object  of  attack  by  the  Native  Americans.  At  the  city  election  of  1853 
it  was  charged  that  the  Germans  had  taken  control  of  the  First  ward  polls  at 
Soulard  market  and  were  preventing  the  Whigs  from  voting  At  that  time 
the  Germans  were  classed  as  Benton  Democrats.     The  report  was  brought  up 


318  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

town  that  Dr.  Mitchell  had  been  mobbed  and  that  Mayor  Kennett,  candidate 
for  re-election,  had  been  hissed.  Bob  O'Blennis,  the  gambler,  and  Ned  Buntline, 
the  story  writer,  assembled  5,000  men  and  marched  down  to  Soulard  market. 
Pistol  shots  were  fired.  Stones  were  thrown.  The  crowd  from  up-town  fired 
into  the  market  house.  A  shot  from  Neumeyer's  tavern,  on  Seventh  street  and 
Park  avenue,  killed  Joseph  Stevens  of  the  St.  Louis  Fire  company.  The 
Americans  charged  the  tavern,  gutted  it  and  burned  it.  They  got  two  six- 
pounders  and  located  them  on  a  Park  avenue  corner  to  rake  the  streets  to  the 
south  but  did  not  fire.  One  party  of  fifteen  hundred  started  for  the  office  of 
the  Anzeiger  to  clean  it  out  but  met  the  militia  and  turned  back.  This  trouble 
wore  itself  out  in  a  day.  It  was  the  curtain  raiser  for  the  election  tragedy  of 
August,  1854.  Antagonism  toward  foreigners  had  become  intense.  Foreign 
bom  citizens  offering  to  vote  were  challenged  and  called  on  to  show  their  papers 
and  then  declared  to  be  disqualified. 

German  Loyalty. 

The  idea  of  a  German  state  in  Missouri  faded.  In  place  of  it  developed  in- 
creasing activity  and  influence  in  the  public  affairs  of  Missouri  as  an  American 
state  in  the  Union.  Dr.  Starkloff  says  that  of  the  first  10,000  enlisted  in  St. 
Louis  to  support  the  Union  8,000  were  Germans.  It  was  that  enrollment  of 
10,000  that  defeated  the  secession  of  Missouri.  Gould's  statistical  work  pub- 
lished by  the  Western  Sanitary  commission  gave  the  number  of  Missouri  Ger- 
mans enlisting  in  the  Union  army  as  30,899.  Missourians  born  in  this  country 
who  enlisted  in  the  Union  army,  by  the  same  authority,  were  46,676.  The  pro- 
portion to  population  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the  Germans. 

Of  the  young  Germans  whom  Dr.  Duden's  enthusiastic  description  drew 
to  Missouri,  were  Alexander  and  Henry  Kayser  and  their  sister,  who  became 
Mrs.  Bates.  The  Kaysers  were  from  the  Rhine.  To  Dr.  Duden  the  banks  of 
Missouri,  about  Hermann,  were  the  American  Rhine.  The  father  of  the  Kay- 
sers was,  during  twenty-eight  years,  a  magistrate  of  high  repute  under  the 
Duke  of  Nassau.  The  Kaysers  came  in  1833,  bringing  little  but  good  educa- 
tion, industry  and  high-mindedness.  They  farmed;  they  bought,  they  were 
in  the  land  office ;  they  had  to  do  with  the  civil  engineering  of  the  growing  city ; 
they  advanced  rapidly  in  the  estimation  of  their  fellow  citizens.  Alexander 
Kayser  became  a  lawyer  in  1841 ;  a  lieutenant  in  the  Mexican  war  in  1847;  a 
presidential  elector  in  1852.  With  Thomas  Allen  he  took  up  grape  culture  and 
offered  prizes  for  the  best  products  of  Missouri  wines.  He  allied  himself  with 
one  of  the  oldest  families  in  St.  Louis,  marrying  Eloise  P.  Morrison,  a  grand- 
daughter of  General  Daniel  Bissell. 

Julius,  Herman,  Emile  and  Conrad  INIallinckrodt  were  members  of  a  group 
of  German  families  coming  about  1833.  They  were  highly  educated  people 
and  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  English  before  leaving  their  old  world  homes 
for  America.  The  only  trouble  with  their  English  was  the  unfamiliarity  with 
the  pronunciation  in  Missouri.  Julius  Mallinckrodt,  meeting  a  man  on  the 
street  in  St.  Louis,  addressed  him  in  English  but  the  man  shook  his  head. 
Thinking  that  the  trouble  was  with  his  pronunciation,  Mr.  Mallinckrodt  tried 
German  and  then  Latin,  but  with  no  better  result.     Both  men  were  growing 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  319 

excited  when  Mr.  Mallinckrodt  asked,  as  a  final  effort:  "Parlez  vous  Francais?" 
The  stranger  threw  his  arms  around  Mr.  Mallinckrodt's  neck  and  wept.  It  de- 
veloped that  he,  too,  was  a  new  arrival  in  the  countr}',  a  Frenchman,  and  was  as 
despondent  as  was  Mr.  MaUinckrodt  because  of  inability  to  talk  with  the 
Americans. 

Polish  Exiles. 

Polish  exiles  came  to  Missouri  after  their  revolution  in  1831.  They  fought 
desperately  until  the  Russians  took  Warsaw.  Those  who  were  not  captured 
fled  to  France.  Thence,  in  1832,  they  were  deported  to  the  United  States. 
When  they  arrived  in  New  York,  each  of  them  was  given  $50  in  gold  and  told  to 
seek  his  fortune.  These  Polish  exiles  were  highly  educated  young  men,  grad- 
uates of  universities,  civil  engineers,  architects  and  physicians.  Quite  a  num- 
ber of  them  came  to  Missouri  and  settled,  leaving  many  descendants  in  the 
present  generation. 

Whom  Kossuth  Found. 

Missouri  was  tlie  home  of  many  who  came  to  escape  religious  as  well  as 
political  intolerance.  Kossuth,  the  Hungarian  patriot,  on  his  visit  in  1852  made 
this  interesting  discovery  as  told  by  his  secretary: 

"Reality  is  sometimes  as  strange  as  fiction,  and  persons  meet  in  life  in  a  way  which 
astonishes  in  a  novel.  In  the  summer  of  1848,  the  convent  of  the  Jesuits  in  Vienna  was 
attacked  by  the  people,  led  by  the  students,  and  the  'patres'  were  expelled.  Europe,  with 
the  sole  exception  of  England,  was  at  this  time  not  favorable  to  the  Jesuits;  but  England 
was  sufficiently  stocked  with  them,  and  so  they  went  farther  west  until  they  reached 
St.  Louis ;  six  remained  here  in  the  convent,  and  one  of  them  now  instructs  the  republican 
youth  of  the  Mound  City.  But  the  students  of  Vienna  were  in  their  turn  expelled  by  the 
soldiers,  and  one  of  them  who  had  played  a  part  in  the  attack  on  the  convent  was  now  also 
in  St.  Louis,  engaged  as  printer  in  the  German  printing-house." 

St.  Louis,  at  that  early  period,  had  its  growing  colony  of  those  who  had 
been  conspicuous  in  political  agitation  at  \'ienna.  The  secretary  of  Kossuth 
wrote : 

"We  found  here  several  of  our  former  friends  and  acquaintances.  Mr.  Rombauer,  late 
director  of  the  iron  mines  in  the  county  Gomor,  and  then  of  the  musket  manufactory  in 
Hungary,  is  now  a  farmer  in  Iowa.  If  ever  the  iron  mines  in  Missouri  shall  be  developed, 
he  will  see  a  great  field  open  for  his  activity.  Mr.  Bernays,  formerly  attached  to  the  French 
embassy  at  Vienna,  keeps  a  store  in  Illinois.  Mr.  Boernstein,  the  popular  German  author, 
the  Paris  correspondent  of  the  Augsburgh  Gazette,  is  the  editor  of  the  most  influential 
German  paper  in  the  west.  They  related  to  us  all  their  adventures,  since  we  had  lost  sight 
of  them — novels  of  real  life." 

The  Emigres  of  Guadaloupe. 

From  the  West  Indies  in  1848,  came  a  notable  infusion.  Guadaloupe  had 
been  all  but  ruined  by  an  earthquake  three  years  earlier.  The  colony  was  slowly 
recovering  when  revolution  occurred  in  France.  Louis  Philippe  fled.  The  re- 
publican government  demanded  of  the  colonies  recognition  of  its  authority. 
Agents  of  the  new  order  declared  slavery  abolished  in  Guadaloupe.     Industry 


320  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  .MISSOURI 

was  paralyzed.  Excesses  were  threatened.  Old  families,  who  represented  the 
best  blood  of  France,  faced  emigration  as  the  least  of  the  e\ils.  America  was 
the  unanimous  choice  of  these  emigres  from  Guadaloupe.  The  first  of  them 
sought  St.  Louis.  Others  followed  until,  in  1849,  they  formed  an  accession 
strong  in  character.  Among  them  were  the  de  Laureal.  Boisliniere,  Tetard,  Da 
Pavilion,  Cherot,  Bourdon,  de  Pombiray,  Bouvier.  Gibert,  Ladevaiz,  Du  Clos, 
Peterson  and  X'ouillaire  families.  Not  a  few  of  these  emigres  of  Guadaloupe, 
who  sought  St.  Louis  were  descendants  of  the  old  French  nobility.  They  were 
people  of  thorough  education  deep  religious  conviction  and  charming  refinement. 
They  brought  into  the  population  of  St.  Louis  a  strong  strain  physically.  They 
were  people  who  showed  ready  adaptability.  Edward  de  Laureal,  who  was, 
perhaps,  the  leader  of  the  movement,  was  an  amateur  painter  of  no  little  merit. 
Several  of  the  ladies  of  these  Guadaloupe  families  became  teachers  in  St.  Louis. 

Dr.  Adam  Hammer,  Well  Named. 

The  German  patriots,  who  added  elements  of  great  influence  to  the  popula- 
tion of  St.  Louis,  included  some  characters  born  to  make  war  on  the  existing 
order  whether  in  politics  or  in  the  professions.  One  of  these  was  Dr.  Adam 
Hammer.  He  was  a  man  of  medium  height,  slender,  sallow.  Below  a  high 
round  forehead  were  a  long  sharp  thin  nose  and  a  pointed  chin,  emphasized 
by  chin  whiskers.  Dr.  Hammer  had  keen  black  eyes.  Members  of  the  pro- 
fession said  Dr.  Hammer  looked  like  the  pictures  of  Harvey,  who  discovered 
the  circulation  of  the  blood.  Hanmier  had  been  well  educated  in  German  uni- 
versities. He  came  here  with  considerable  reputation  as  a  surgeon.  He  had 
performed  some  wonderful  operations.  So  long  as  he  resided  in  St.  Louis 
he  was  the  chief  figure  in  frequent  professional  disputes.  At  the  meetings  of 
the  Medical  society,  Dr.  Hammer  could  be  depended  upon  to  start  something 
before  the  evening  was  over.  These  scenes  at  last  became  so  disagreeable  to 
the  other  members  that  the  presence  of  the  reporters  was  dispensed  with.  Dr. 
Hammer  was  for  a  time  the  dean  of  the  Humboldt  ^Medical  college,  which  was 
located  opposite  the  city  hospital.  Afterwards  he  was  offered  a  chair  in  the 
faculty  of  the  Missouri  Medical  college.  It  was  something  of  a  relief  to  the  pro- 
fession in  St.  Louis  when  Dr.  Hanmier,  after  dividing  his  time  between  this 
country  and  Germany,  decided  to  take  up  his  permanent  residence  in  the  father- 
land. 

St.  Louis,  American  City. 

From  1830  to  1S50  the  population  of  .St,  Louis  was  multiplied  by  ten.  In  the 
latter  year,  22,340,  one-third  of  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Louis,  were  of  German 
birth.  Ten  years  later,  in  i860,  St.  Louis  city  and  county  had  50,510  people 
"born  in  Germany."  In  two-thirds  of  a  century  St.  Louis  received  a  strong  in- 
flux of  German  immigration.  In  1890  there  were  66,000  of  German  birth.  The 
result  was  not  the  Germanizing  of  St.  Louis,  but  an  assimilation  which  con- 
tributed notable  elements  of  strength  to  an  American  city.  '".The  young  man 
Absalom"  has  given  the  minimum  of  concern  to  this  community.  No  other  large 
city  has  shown  a  larger  proportion  of  sons  well  worthy  of  their  sires.  Degen- 
eracy,  in  descent,  has  been  the  very  rare  exception.     Traditions,  public  senti- 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  321 

merit,  family  ideals,  have  contributed  to  the  improvement,  generation  by  genera- 
tion. Sons  of  St.  Louisans,  grandsons  of  St.  Louisans,  great-grandsons  of  St. 
Louisans,  hold  places  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  professions  and  vocations.  In 
the  present  generation  there  is  no  reaction  from  this  admirable  and  hopeful 
characteristic  of  the  city,  for  which  much  credit  is  due  the  German  infusion. 

Dr.  Niccolls'  Tribute  to  German  Churches. 

In  his  sermon  on  "The  Ministry  of  Religion  in  St.  Louis,"  preached  Cen- 
tennial Sunday,  1909,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  J.  Niccolls  said  of  the  German  churches: 

"In  St.  Louis  there  is  a  large  and  influential  part  of  our  citizens  speaking  the  German 
language  and  using  it  in  their  public  worship.  The  first  Protestant  church  among  them 
was  the  German  Evangelical  Church  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  was  organized  in  1834,  and 
became  the  nucleus  of  the  Evangelical  Synod  of  the  West,  which  has  churches  throughout 
the  United  States. 

"In  1838  a  body  of  Lutherans  who  had  been  bitterly  persecuted  by  the  Government  of 
Saxony,  sought  refuge  and  liberty  in  the  United  States,  and  came  to  make  their  home  in 
this  city.  They  established  the  first  Lutheran  Church,  adhering  to  the  Augsburg  confes- 
sion. Their  growth  was  rapid,  and  they  have  now  a  large  number  of  strong  and  influential 
churches  in  the  city.  The  Concordia  College  and  Theological  Seminary,  a  large  printing 
house,  and  a  number  of  hospitals  and  asylums  are  in  connection  with  this  denomination. 
Lutheran  churches  belonging  to  the  different  synods  represented  in  this  city  have  had  a 
powerful  and  widespread  influence  in  the  nurture  of  the  religious  life  of  the  large  German 
population  in  our  midst.  Their  testimony  for  evangelical  truth  has  been  strong  and  clear, 
and  their  method  of  religious  instruction  in  training  children  second  to  none.  Difference 
in  language,  more  than  any  doctrinal  disagreements,  has  kept  them  from  close  affiliation 
with  the  English-speaking  churches,  and  for  this  reason  many  among  us  are  unaware  alike 
of  their  large  numbers  and  their  power  for  good." 

Gennan  Support  of  Public  Schools. 

The  character  of  support  which  Germans  gave  the  public  school  system  was 
illustrated  about  1888.  Up  to  that  time  German  was  an  important  part  of  the 
curriculum.  When  the  language  was  dropped,  friends  of  the  system  looked  with 
some  apprehension  for  the  effect.     The  president  of  the  board  announced : 

"The  unselfish  devotion  of  out  fellow  citizens  of  German  ancestry  was  signally  illus- 
trated in  that  the  schools  suffered  no  perceptible  loss  of  attendance  in  any  part  of  the  city, 
and  the  most  urgent  demands  for  new  school  accommodations  continued  from  what  were 
known  as  distinctively  German  districts." 

Forty  years  Professor  Frank  Louis  Soldan  was  connected  with  the  public 
schools  of  St.  Louis  one-third  of  the  time  occupying  the  highest  position — super- 
intendent. When  Professor  Soldan  died  William  T.  Harris  telegraphed  from 
Washington : 

"Dr.  Soldan  has  been  a  tower  of  strength  all  these  years  for  wise  education.  His  death 
is  a  great  loss,  not  only  to  St.  Louis  but  to  the  United  States.  Thousands  who  respect  his 
memory  will  mourn  with  you  today." 

The  Icarians. 

In  the  colonizing  experiments  which  had  their  Missouri  try-outs,  the  Icarians 
have  place.     Eticnne  Cabet,  the  man  whom  King  Louis  Philippe  said  he  feared 

Vol.  1—21 


322  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

more  tlian  any  other  in  his  kingdom,  rests  in  Missouri  soil.  The  loyal  followers 
of  this  leader  of  the  French  communists  made  their  last  stand  in  Cheltenham, 
as  it  was  then  known,  just  west  of  the  old  city  limits  of  St.  Louis.  The  ideas 
advanced  in  Victor  Hugo's  "Icaria"  were  given  faithful  application  but  every- 
day life  in  Missouri  presented  too  many  opportunities  for  individualism  to 
make  of  communism  anything  practical.  The  grave  of  Etienne  Cabet  in  Old 
Picker  cemetery  of  South  St.  Louis  was  a  place  of  interest  to  the  curious  during 
manv  years.  At  the  head  of  the  grave  was  a  stone  inscribed  "La  Memoire  de 
Cabet."  And  at  the  foot  of  the  grave  was  a  triangle  of  iron  supports  on 
which  rested  a  crown  of  thorns. 

In  1797  two  Frenchmen  of  royal  rank  passed  a  part  of  their  exile  in  St 
Louis.  They  were  entertained  by  the  Chouteaus  and  other  French  families 
and  were  made  to  feel  welcome  by  the  entire  community.  The  duke  of  Orleans 
and  the  duke  of  Montpensier  they  were  called  at  that  time.  The  duke  of 
Orleans  became  King  Louis  Philippe  with  the  restoration  of  the  French  mon- 
archy. In  1848  he  fled  from  France.  While  he  was  on  the  throne  he  had  re- 
ferred to  Cabet,  son  of  a  cooper,  as  the  man  he  most  feared.  Cabet  had  risen 
to  great  influence  in  France.  He  had  become  a  learned  jurist  and  had  been 
accepted  as  the  leader  of  the  communists.  After  King  Louis  Philippe  fled, 
Cabet  assembled  10,000  communists  and  marched  through  the  streets  of  Paris 
to  present  demands  to  the  provisional  government.  Such  was  Cabet's  influence 
that  President  Lamartine  went  to  call  on  this  leader  of  the  communists  and 
made  terms  with  him. 

Not  long  after  this  truce  with  the  new  government,  Cabet  gave  up  the  idea 
of  carrying  out  the  principles  of  communism  in  France  and  came  to  the  United 
States  with  a  considerable  following  to  found  an  ideal  community.  The  colony 
stopped  temporarily  on  the  banks  of  Red  River  in  Texas,  but  soon  moved  up 
the  Mississippi  to  Nauvoo,  "beautiful  situation  for  rest,"  in  the  Indian  tongue. 
The  Mormons  had  been  left  without  leadership  by  the  murder  of  Joseph  and 
Hyrum  Smith  in  Carthage  jail  three  years  before  the  Icarians  reached  Nauvoo. 
Brigham  Young  had  assumed  the  headship  of  the  church  and  had  led  away  to 
Utah  a  large  following. 

During  several  years  the  Icarians  held  Nauvoo  and  the  principles  of  com- 
munism were  given  trial  with  a  common  home  with  a  great  dining  hall  in  which 
the  1,200  members  took  their  meals.  There  were  accommodations  for  bathing 
and  provisions  for  entertainment  which  amazed  the  Americans.  There  was  an 
orchestra  of  fifty  pieces  which  a  government  official  sent  out  from  Washington' 
to  investigate  conditions  at  Nauvoo  reported  to  be  rendering  the  best  music  in 
the  United  States.  Work  was  limited  to  six  hours  a  day  in  summer  and  to  eight 
hours  the  rest  of  the  year.  The  sciences  and  languages  were  taught.  A  paper 
called  "The  Icarian"  was  published.  But  while  hundreds  came  from  France 
to  join  the  colony,  the  number  of  active  members  did  not  increase.  The  ambi- 
tious and  the  energetic  left  to  take  farms  in  Iowa  and  elsewhere  as  rapidly  as 
newcomers  came.  Some  who  remained  saw  opportunities  for  making  money 
and  clashed  with  Cabet.  Seeing  the  drift  away  from  his  ideals,  Cabet  wanted 
to  be  made  "supreme  director"  for  life.     This  wish  was  denied  him.     Taking 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  323 

200  members  who  had  remained  loyal,  Cabet  moved  to  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis 
where  he  died  in  1S56  of  an  apoplectic  stroke. 

Of  the  man's  ability  and  honesty  there  was  no  question.  He  published  two 
books  which  were  accepted  as  among  the  best  expressions  of  communistic 
principles  of  that  day.  He  was  made  attorney  general  of  France  in  the  new 
republic.  But  he  sacrificed  personal  ambition  and  left  France  in  his  devotion  to 
the  principles  he  maintained  and  in  his  hope  to  show  that  they  were  practical. 
While  he  was  in  this  country  he  was  charged  with  embezzlement  in  France  and 
in  his  absence  was  tried  and  convicted.  He  went  back  to  France,  obtained  a 
new  trial  and  was  acquitted.  He  came  back  to  St.  Louis  and  did  not  long 
survive. 

After  the  death  of  Cabet  the  colony  at  Cheltenham  dwindled.  As  late  as 
1870  the  few  Icarians  held  occasional  meetings  in  St.  Louis.  Alcander  Longley, 
a  printer,  was  looked  upon  as  a  leader.  He  published  a  little  paper  called  "The 
Altruist."  The  significant  fact  about  the  Icarians  was  that  while  some  clung  to 
the  philosophy  through  years  and  made  pilgrimages  to  the  grave  of  Cabet,  the 
attempts  to  put  the  ideals  into  practice  were  given  up  as  failures  long  ago. 

The  Bethel  Colony. 

One  of  the  most  satisfactory  colony  experiments  in  Missouri  was  the  Bethel, 
of  Shelby  county.  The  founder  was  William  Keil,  of  Prussia.  This  colony 
numbered  about  500  men,  women  and  children,  Germans,  or  of  German  de- 
scent, coming  from  Western  Pennsylvania  and  Eastern  Ohio.  It  included  some 
Rappists,  as  the  sect  was  called,  after  Rapp,  the  founder.  But  the  theory  of 
the  organization  was  practical  co-operation  rather  than  religious  belief.  The 
colony  summed  up  its  theology  in  "Gott  mit  uns."  There  was  a  common  treas- 
ury. The  members  kept  up  family  relations.  They  lived  in  clay-walled  houses. 
About  4,000  acres  of  land  was  cultivated  successfully.  The  colony  grew  and 
established  branches  at  Mamri,  Hebron  and  Elam.  At  Elam  a  hall  was  built 
for  dancing,  a  form  of  recreation  which  the  colony  approved.  The  Nineveh 
branch  was  in  Adair  county.  The  colonists  showed  considerable  public  spirit. 
They  cleared  out  North  river,  which  at  one  time  was  considered  navigable. 
Their  relations  with  other  settlers  were  quite  satisfactory.  During  the  Civil 
war  period  the  colonists,  who  had  been  supporters  of  Benton,  were  loyal  to 
the  Union,  but  they  refused  to  spy  and  tell  on  secession  neighbors.  The  leader 
of  the  colony,  Dr.  Keil,  conducted  a  party  of  75  to  the  Pacific  coast.  About 
1880,  the  colonists,  on  the  advice  of  Judge  D.  P.  Dyer,  made  an  equitable  di- 
vision of  the  accumulated  property  and  thus  wound  up  the  affairs  which  had 
been  held  in  common. 

The  land  was  divided.  The  personality  was  distributed  on  the  basis  of  the 
number  of  years  each  member  of  the  colony  had  worked.  Each  man  received 
$29.04  for  each  year  he  had  worked  and  the  women  received  one-half  of  that 
amount. 

Aurora  was  the  name  given  to  the  Oregon  colony.  Keil  had  a  favorite  son 
who  had  planned  to  go  with  the  Oregon  party,  but  he  sickened  and  died.  The 
son  exacted  a  promise  that  his  body  should  be  taken.     The  promise  was  kept. 


324  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  ^rISSOURI 

TItc  I)()dy  was  placed  in  a  metallic  coffin  tilled  with  alcohol  and  sealed.  It  was 
put  in  the  first  wagon  of  the  caravan,  a  wagon  drawn  by  six  mules,  and  thus 
transported  to  Oregon.  Keil  never  came  back  to  Missouri.  His  successor  as 
head  of  the  colony  was  Chri.stopher  C.  Wolf.  The  Missouri  organization  con- 
tinued thirty-five  years,  .-\mong  the  industries  besides  farming  was  the  manu- 
facture of  gloves  from  deerskins  which  took  the  prize  at  the  New  York  World's 
Fair  of  1858.  Shoes  were  made  and  a  distillery  was  conducted.  One  field  of 
1,100  acres  was  tilled. 

Pocahontas,  in  Cape  Girardeau  county,  was  settled  in  1856  by  a  colony  from 
North  Carolina. 

A  number  of  descendants  of  King  William  W  of  Holland  live  in  Livingston 
county. 

A  mild  and  practical  experiment  in  socialism  was  tried  in  Dallas  county  begin- 
ning in  the  spring  of  1872.  Friendship  Community  was  incorporated  by  some 
people  who  agreed  to  hold  all  property  in  common  for  the  general  good.  Sav- 
ing clauses  in  the  agreement  stipulated  that  the  community  should  in  no  way 
interfere  with  the  social,  religious-  or  political  aflfairs  of  its  members.  The 
community  started  with  five  hundred  acres  of  land  a  few  miles  west  of  Buffalo, 
the  county  seat. 

Community  Experiments. 

Missouri  has  had  its  share  of  community  experiments.  Perhaps  the  most 
notable  of  these  was  the  town  of  Liberal  in  Barton  county.  George  H.  Walser 
was  a  lawyer  and  a  well-to-do  business  man  who  had  lived  with  a  colony  of 
free  thinkers  at  Paris,  Illinois.  He  moved  to  Missouri  near  the  close  of  the 
Civil  war  and  lived  at  Lamar.  Land  was  very  cheap  in  Barton  county ;  some  of 
il  was  classed  as  swamp  land  and  held  at  twelve  and  a  half  cents  an  acre.  It 
proved  to  be  very  productive  and  also  to  have  underlying  it  coal  measures. 
Walser  bought  several  sections  of  this  land  and  gradually  organized  a  settlement 
which  he  called  Liberal.  He  gave  town  lots  on  long  time  to  those  who  believed, 
or  disbelieved,  as  he  did.  A  hall  was  constructed  for  Sunday  meetings  to  which 
Walser  gave  the  name  of  Universal  Mental  Liberty  halh  A  building  was  erected 
for  educational  purposes  and  that  was  called  "Drake  Normal  Liberal  Insti- 
tute." A  paper  was  started  with  the  title  of  "The  Liberal."  Many  followers  of 
Ingersoll  settled  in  Liberal  and  it  was  advertised  as  the  only  town  on  earth  where 
there  was  no  church,  no  saloon,  no  God  and  no  hell.  In  time,  however,  some 
of  the  people  wanted  Sunday  preaching.  They  built  what  they  called  Union 
church  and  met  there  on  Sunday  to  hear  the  Bible  read,  to  sing  and  to  have 
preaching.  Walser  insisted  on  taking  the  pulpit  and  criticising  the  sermon. 
This  resulted  in  trouble ;  the  community  divided  into  factions.  The  free  think- 
ers organized  a  secret  society  which  they  called  "The  Brotherhood."  A  rival 
town  was  started  adjoining  Liberal  on  ground  not  controlled  by  Walser.  This 
was  given  the  name  of  Jennison.  For  years  there  was  friction  between  the 
communities.  The  experiment  was  not  successful.  Gradually  religion  and  ir- 
religion  ceased  to  be  an  issue. 

The  original  motive  for  the  founding  of  Liberal  was  set  forth  in  a  pros- 
pectus:    "To  give  an  asylum  for  those  noble  men  and  women  who  are  willing 


A  LAND  OF  PROMISE  325 

to  sacrifice  the  comforts  of  life  and  joys  of  social  intercourse,  rather  than  live 
a  life  of  deception  and  falsehood,  was  the  incentive  which  actuated  us  in  start- 
ing the  town  of  Liberal,  where  we  could  enjoy  the  full  benefits  of  free  American 
citizens  without  having  some  self-appointed  bigot  dictate  to  us  what  we  should 
think,  believe,  speak,  write,  print  or  send  through  the  mails." 

The  Prosperous  Mennonites. 

Mennonites  settled  in  the  northeastern  part  of  Morgan  county  fifty-five  years 
ago.  An  early  account  of  them  said :  "They  organized  in  Holland  and  early 
came  to  this  country.  They  recognize  the  New  Testament  as  the  only  rule  of 
life,  deny  original  sin  and  maintain  that  practical  piety  is  the  essence  of  re- 
ligion. They  object  to  the  application  of  the  terms  Person  and  Trinity,  as  ap- 
plied to  Godhead.  They  strenuously  deny  war  under  any  circumstances,  are 
non-resistants,  and  never  take  an  oath.  In  their  sacred  meetings  each  member 
is  allowed  to  speak :  and  they  have  no  hired  clergy.  They  baptize  only  adults, 
by  pouring,  and  advocate  universal  toleration.  In  this  country  there  are  two 
divisions  of  this  denomination,  differing  only  in  some  points  of  experimental  re- 
ligion. They  are  an  industrious  and  honest  class  of  citizens,  attending  strictly 
to  their  own  business  and  allowing  other  people  to  do  the  same.  They  pur- 
chased farms,  improved  and  unimproved,  and  went  to  work.  They  proscered 
finely.'' 


PIONEER  STEAMBOAT  ON  THE  MISSOURI 


KEEL  BOAT  ON  THE  OSAGE  RIVER 


.  CHAPTER  X. 

THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI 

Bootable,  Potable,  Powerful,  Medicinal — Robert  Fulton's  Proposition — Navigation  by  Pirogue 
— Arrival  of  the  Pike — The  Missouri  Mastered — Trip  of  the  Independence  to  franklin — 
A  Great  Celebration — Newspaper  Congratulations — Captain  Joseph  Brown's  Reminis- 
cences— Primitive  Construction  and  No  Schedules — Firing  a  Salute — Famous  Missouri 
Pilots — The  Record  of  Disasters — The  Edna,  the  Bedford  and  th,e  Saluda — Search  for 
Sunken  Treasure — Lost  Cargoes  of  Whiskey — Captain  Hunter  Ben  Jenkins — The  Shift- 
ing Channel — The  Missouri  Belle  and  the  Buttermilk — Up  Grand  River — The  First 
Steamboat  on  the  Upper  Osage — Uncle  John  Whitley's  Hunt  for  a  Mysterious  Monster — 
Some  Notable  Captains — Rise  and  Decline  of  Missouri  River  Traffic — Seventy-one 
Steamers  in  the  Trade — The  Rush  of  the  Forty-niners — Jonathan  Bryan's  Water  Mill — 
Possibilities  of  Power  Ignored — An  Expert's  Facts — Mammoth,  Springs — The  White 
River  Plant — Beginnings  of  Hydro-Electric  Development — Lebanon's  Magnetic  Water — 
Benton's  Bethesda — Moncgazv's  One  Hundred  Mineral  li'atcrs — Meanderings  of  the 
White — Navigation  at  Forsyth — Lines  on  "Two  Ancient  Misses." 

I  believe  this  is  the  finest  confluence  in  the  world.  The  two  rivers  are  much  of  the  same  breadth,  each 
about  half  a  league,  but  the  Missouri  is  by  far  the  most  rapid,  and  seems  to  enter  the  Mississippi  like  a 
conqueror,  through  which  it  carries  its  white  waves  to  the  opposite  shore  without  mixing  them.  After- 
ward it  gives  its  color  to  the  Mississippi,  which  it  never  loses  again,  but  carries  quite  down  to  the  sea. — 
Charlevoix  on  the  Mouth  of  the  Missouri. 

Running  water  is  the  most  valuable  natural  asset  of  the  people. — President  Roose-elt's  Message  to 
Congress,   February,   igoS. 

Missouri  has  a  little  more  than  one  acre  of  water  to  one  hundred  acres 
of  land.  This  is  surface,  running  water.  Missouri  has  few  lakes.  The  under- 
ground rivers  and  veins  are  not  taken  into  account. 

Missouri  has  water  for  transportation.  The  entire  eastern  frontage  and  half 
of  the  western  frontage  is  on  navigable  water.  The  state  is  bisected  by  navig- 
able water. 

Missouri  has  water  for  power.  No  other  state,  perhaps  no  other  country, 
presents  conditions  so  encouraging  to  the  coming  energy — the  hydro-electric. 

Missouri  has  water  for  medicine.  The  spas  are  many  and  of  endless  variety 
in  constituents. 

Governor  William  Clark  and  Thomas  H.  Benton,  in  the  days  before  steam- 
boats, undertook  to  estimate  what  they  called  "the  boatable  waters"  of  the 
Mississippi  and  tributaries.  They  made  the  navigable  distance  50,000  miles — 
30,000  above  and  20,000  below  St.  Louis.  "Of  course,"  wrote  Mr.  Benton,  long 
afterward,  "we  counted  all  the  infant  streams  on  which  a  flat,  a  keel  or  a  bateau 
could  be  floated."  The  pirogue  was  the  freightboat  on  the  Mississippi  before 
steam.  It  was  built  like  a  barge  of  a  later  period.  The  length  varied  from  thirty- 
five  to  sixty  feet ;  the  depth  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet.   One  of  these  craft  could 

329 


330  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

carry  thirty  to  forty  tons  of  freight.  The  pirogue  was  poled  in  shallow  water. 
It  was  towed  by  a  long  line  like  a  canal  boat.  Three  months  was  the  time  required 
to  make  the  trip  from  New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis.  The  freight  rate  on  most  arti- 
cles was  a  cent  a  pound.  A  short  stub  mast  and  a  square  sail  helped  when  the 
wind  favored. 

While  steamboating  was  in  the  experimental  period  Missourians  navigated 
their  rivers  with  longhorns,  pirogiies  and  keelboats.  Cottonwood  logs,  trimmed 
and  lashed  together  and  floored,  made  flats  that  carried  great  quantities  of 
produce  to  market.  These  longhorns  were  built  for  one  trip.  They  were  not 
designed  to  be  brought  back  up  stream. 

The  keelboat  was  of  lighter  draft,  narrower  and  of  greater  speed  than  the 
pirogue.  Edwin  Draper,  who  moved  to  Missouri  in  1815,  told  of  the  keelboat 
which  did  duty  as  a  ferryboat.  It  was  "witliout  upper  deck  or  cabin,  and  was 
propelled  by  four  oars  by  hand.  The  wagons,  then  the  only  means  of  land 
travel,  were  run  by  hand  on  to  the  boat,  across  which  were  placed  broad  planks 
transversely,  resting  on  the  gunwales  of  the  boat,  while  the  tongue  of  the  wagon 
projected  beyond  the  side  of  the  boat,  and  as  the  latter  swayed  gracefully  to  the 
motion  of  the  waves  the  tongue-chains  would  dip  politely  into  the  water,  as  if 
acknowledging  the  power  of  the  mighty  monarch  they  were  daring  to  stride. 
The  horses,  wagon,  and  saddle,  family,  slaves,  and  dogs  were  stowed  in  the 
bottom  of  the  boat  between  the  wagons,  and  thus  we  triumphantly  entered  Mis- 
souri. Our  crossing,  with  many  other  families,  was  detained  several  days  by 
high  winds  and  waves  preventing  the  safe  crossing  of  the  boat." 

Nat-wye-thiums  and  Bull  Boats. 

A  marvelous  marine  conception  was  the  nat-wye-thiuni.  There  was  a  fleet 
of  the  nat-wye-thiums.  This  wonderful  craft  was  designed  to  travel  on  both  land 
and  water.  It  had  wheels.  The  body  was  shaped  partly  like  a  canoe,  partly  like 
a  gondola.  The  inventor  was  Captain  Nathaniel  W'yeth  Jarvis,  a  Harvard  man. 
As  early  as  1830  there  were  Boston  people  who  felt  competent  to  take  care  of 
the  rest  of  the  world.  Headed  by  Hall  J.  Kelly,  they  organized  the  "American 
Society  for  Encouraging  the  Settlement  of  Oregon  Territory,"  thereby  in- 
tending to  forestall  their  British  brethren  across  the  water.  Two  Wyeths  were 
among  the  earliest  converts  to  the  propaganda.  They  got  up  a  company  and 
rolled  into  Missouri  with  their  fleet  of  boats  on  wheels.  Each  man  had  a  bayo- 
net and  a  small  ax  in  the  belt  of  his  coarse  woolen  suit.  The  boat  wagons  were 
loaded  with  axes,  glass  beads,  looking  glasses  and  other  notions  to  be  exchanged 
for  immense  quantities  of  furs.  The  plan  was  to  exchange  the  Yankee  notions 
for  enough  furs  to  load  a  ship  when  they  reached  Oregon  and  then  sail  home 
by  the  ocean  route.  The  Missourians  were  kind  to  tlie  Harvard  tenderfeet, 
explained  the  fur  trade  to  them  and  permitted  those  who  wished  to  go  on  to 
accompany  one  of  the  regular  fur  trading  expeditions.  The  nat-wye-thiums 
were  discarded  before  the  party  left  Missouri.  John  B.  Wyeth,  brother  of  Nat., 
was  one  who  turned  back.  He  wrote  a  journal  in  which  he  told  of  the  mistakes 
made  and  said  some  of  the  members,  the  flower  of  Boston  and  Cambridge,  were 
so  hard  up  they  had  to  work  their  way  back  by  helping  to  "wood  up"  to  pay 
for  steamboat  deck  passage.     His  journal  was  jiublished  as  a  warning  to  other 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  331 

Harvard    men.      The   vessel   which    was   to   have    loaded   with    furs   was    ship- 
wrecked. 

In  his  journal  John  B.  Wyeth  told  about  a  craft  which  was  as  astonishing 
to  the  Massachusetts  party  as  the  nat-wye-thium  was  to  the  Missourians.  This 
was  the  bull  boat  built  to  carry  loads  of  pelts  down  the  Missouri  to  St.  Louis 
at  the  time  when  buffalo  and  deerskins  by  the  ten  thousands  were  counted  in 
the  season's  catch  of  the  fur  traders.    Wyeth  said: 

"They  first  cut  a  number  of  willows,  which  grow  everjwhere  near  the  banks  of  all 
the  rivers  we  had  traveled  by  from  St.  Louis,  of  about  an  inch  and  a  half  diameter  at 
the  butt  end,  and  fixed  them  on  the  ground  at  proper  distances  from  each  other;  and  as 
they  approached  nearer  one  end  they  brought  them  nearer  together,  so  as  to  form  something 
like  the  bow.  The  ends  of  the  whole  were  brought  and  bound  firmly  together,  like  the  ribs 
of  a  great  basket.  And  then  they  took  other  twigs  of  willow  and  wove  them  into  those  stuck 
in  the  ground,  so  as  to  make  a  sort  of  firm,  huge  basket  of  twelve  or  fourteen  feet  long. 
After  this  was  completed,  they  sewed  together  a  number  of  Buffalo  skins,  and  with  them 
covered  the  whole.  After  the  different  parts  had  been  trimmed  off  smooth,  a  slow  fire  was 
made  under  the  bull  boat,  taking  care  to  dry  the  skins  moderately,  and  as  they  gradually 
dried  and  acquired  a  due  degree  of  warmth,  they  rubbed  buffalo  tallow  all  over  the  out- 
side, so  as  to  allow  it  to  enter  into  all  the  seams  of  the  boat,  now  no  longer  a  willow  basket. 
As  the  melted  tallow  ran  down  into  every  seam,  hole  and  crevice,  it  cooled  into  a  firm  body, 
capable  of  resisting  the  water,  and  bearing  a  considerable  blow  without  damaging  it.  Then 
the  willow-ribbed,  buffalo-skin,  tallowed  vehicle  was  carefully  pulled  up  from  the  ground, 
and  behold  a  boat  capable  of  transporting  man,  horse  and  goods  over  a  pretty  strong 
current.  At  the  sight  of  it  we  Yankees  all  burst  out  into  a  loud  laugh,  whether  from 
surprise  or  pleasure,  I  know  not.  It  certainly  was  not  from  ridicule ;  for  we  all  acknowl- 
edged the  contrivance  would  have  done  credit  to  old  New  England." 

Up  the  Missouri  by  Pirogue. 

What  navigation  on  the  Missouri  meant  during  the  pioneer  period  Henry 
M.  Brackenridge  described  in  his  Journal.  He  accompanied  a  fur  trading  expe- 
dition : 

"AA'e  set  off  from  the  village  of  St.  Charles  on  Tuesday,  the  2nd  of  April.  1811.  with 
delightful  weather.  The  flood  of  March,  which  immediately  succeeds  the  breaking  up  of 
the  ice,  had  begun  to  subside  and  yet  the  water  was  still  high.  Our  barge  was  the  best 
that  ever  ascended  this  river  and  was  manned  by  twenty  stout  oarsmen.  Mr.  Lisa,  who 
had  been  a  sea  captain,  took  much  pains  in  rigging  his  boat  with  a  good  mast  and  main 
and  top  sail,  these  being  great  helps  in  the  navigatipn  of  this  river.  Our  equipage  is 
chiefly  composed  of  young  men,  though  several  have  already  made  a  voyage  to  the  upper 
Missouri,  of  which  they  are  exceedingly  proud,  and  on  that  account  claim  a  kind  of 
precedence  over  the  rest  of  the  crew.  We  are  in  all  twenty-five  men.  and  completely 
prepared  for  defense.  Besides  a  swivel  on  the  bow  of  the  boat,  which,  in  case  of  attack, 
would  make  a  formidable  appearance,  we  have,  also,  two  brass  blunderbusses  in  the  cabin, 
one  over  my  berth  and  the  other  over  that  of  ^fr.  Lisa.  These  precautions  were  abso- 
lutely necessary  from  the  hostility  of  the  Sioux  bands,  who.  of  late,  had  committed  several 
murders  and  robberies  on  the  whites  and  manifested  such  a  disposition  that  it  was  believed 
to  be  impossible  for  us  to  pass  through  their  country.  The  greater  part  of  the  merchan- 
dise, which  consisted  of  strouding,  blankets,  lead,  tobacco,  knives,  guns,  beads,  etc.,  was 
concealed  in  a  false  cabin,  ingeniously  contrived  for  the  purpose :  in  this  way  presenting 
as  little  as  possible  to  tempt  the  savages.  But  we  hope  that  as  this  was  not  the  season  for 
wandering  tribes  to  come  on  the  river,  the  autumn  being  the  usual  time,  we  might  pass  by 
unnoticed.  We  came  in  sight  of  Fort  Osage,  at  tlie  distance  of  three  miles  off  the  bluff 
and  a  long  stretch  of  river  before  us.     We  had  now  come  three  hundred  miles  upon  our 


332  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

voyage.  And  for  the  last  hundred  had  seen  no  settlement  or  met  anyone,  except  a  few 
traders  or  hunters  who  passed  us  in  canoes.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  spots,  where 
the  ravages  of  fire  had  destroyed  the  woods,  we  passed  through  a  continued  forest  pre- 
senting the  most  dreary  aspect.  Our  approach  once  more  to  the  haunts  of  civilization, 
to  a  fort  where  we  should  meet  with  friends,-  and  perhaps  find  a  temporary  resting  place, 
inspired  us  with  cheerfulness.  The  song  was  raised  with  more  than  usual  glee ;  the  can 
of  whiskey  was   sent  around  and  the  air  was  rent  with   shouts  of   encouragement." 

Brackenridge  described  Fort  Osage  as  handsomely  situated,  "about  one  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  level  of  the  river,  which  makes  an  elbow  at  the  place,  giv- 
mg  an  extensive  view  up  and  down  the  river.  Its  form  is  triangular,  its  size 
but  small,  not  calculated  for  more  than  a  company  of  men.  A  group  of  build- 
ings is  formed  by  the  factory  and  settler's  house.  The  place  is  called  'Fire 
Prairie.'  It  is  something  better  than  three  hundred  miles  from  the  mouth  of 
the  river." 

"We  have  now  passed  the  last  settlement  of  whites,"  Brackenridge  con- 
tinued in  his  journal,  "and  probably  will  not  revisit  them  for  several  months. 
This  reflection  seemed  to  have  taken  possession  of  the  minds  of  all.  Our  men 
were  kept  from  thinking  too  deeply  by  their  songs  and  the  splashing  of  oars, 
which  kept  time  with  them.  Lisa,  himself,  seized  the  helm  and  gave  the  song, 
and,  at  *he  close  of  every  stanza,  made  the  woods  ring  with  his  shouts  of  encour- 
agement. The  whole  was  intermixed  with  short  and  pithy  addresses  to  their 
fears,  their  hopes  or  their  ambition." 

Brackenridge  said  of  the  creole  boatmen :  '"I  believe  an  American  could  not 
be  brought  to  support  with  patience  the  fatiguing  labors  and  submission  which 
these  men  endure.  At  this  season  when  the  water  is  exceedingly  cold,  they  leap 
in  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  Their  food  consists  of  lye  com  hominy  for 
breakfast,  a  slice  of  fat  pork  and  biscuit  for  dinner,  and  a  pot  of  mush  with  a 
pound  of  tallow  in  it  for  supper." 

The  Voyageurs. 

In  his  "Scenes  and  Adventures  in  the  Ariny,"  Philip  St.  George  Cooke  de- 
scribed the  voyageurs  of  the  Missouri : 

"These  men  are  generally  French  Creoles  and  form  a  small  class  as  distinct  in  char- 
acter from  any  other  as  is  the  sailor  from  his  fellow  bipeds  who  dwell  on  shore.  But  if 
possible,  he  somewhat  resembles  the  said  sailor, — isolated  on  the  prairie  desert,  as  the 
other  on  the  sea.  He  has  a  patient  and  submissive  obedience,  with  a  seeming  utter  care- 
lessness of  privations,  such  as  would  drive  a  seaman  to  mutiny.  With  the  same  reckless 
abandon  to  some  transient  and  coarse  enjoyments,  he  is  a  hardy  and  light-hearted  child 
of  nature  in  her  wildest  simplicity;  and  in  these,  her  solitudes,  he  receives  a  stepmother's 
care,  and  battles  with  a  stout  heart  against  her  most  wintry  moods.  He  resembles  the 
Indian,  too,  and  is  generally  of  kindred  blood;  he  possesses  his  perseverance,  his  instinctive 
sagacity,  and  his  superstition.  A  very  Gascon,  he  has  the  French  cheerful  facility  of 
accommodation  to  his  fated  exigencies,  and  lightens  all  by  an  invincible  and  contagious 
mirth.  He  is  handsome,  athletic,  active;  dresses  chiefly  in  buckskin;  wears  a  sash  and 
knife ;  lives  precariously,  generally  on  flesh  alone ;  is  happy  when  his  pipe  is  lit ;  and  when 
he  cannot  smoke  sings  a  song.  He  is' armed  and  vigilant  while  at  his  severest  labors.  He 
joyously  spends  his  ten  dollars  a  month  on  alcohol,  tobacco,  coffee,  and  sugar,  and  in 
gaudy  presents  to  some  half-breed  belle,  paying  the  most  incredible  prices  for  these 
extravagant  luxuries." 


CAPTAIN  DANIEL  G.  TAYLOR 
War  iiiavor  of  St.  Loui« 


A  SCENE  ON  THE  ST.  LOUIS  LEVEE,  1850 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  335 

A  Ballad  of  the  Missouri. 

A  favorite  ballad  with  the  fur  traders*  crews,  as  they  pHed  the  oars  of  their 
pirogues  on  the  Missouri,  before  the  steamboat  era,  ran,  according  to  Bradbury's 
translation,  in  this  way: 

I 

Behind   our   house  there  is   a  pond, 

Fal  lal  de  ra. 
There  came  three  ducks  to  swim  thereon ; 
All  along  the  river  clear, 
Lightly  my  shepherdess  dear, 

Lightly,  fal  de  ra. 

II 

There  came  three  ducks  to  swim  thereon, 

Fal  lal  de  ra. 
The  prince  to  chase  them  he  did  run, 
All  along  the  river  clear, 
Lightly  my  shepherdess  dear, 

Lightly,  fal  de  ra. 

Ill 

The  prince  to  chase  them  he  did  run, 

Fal  lal  de  ra. 
And  he  had  his  great  silver  gun, 
All  along  the  river  clear. 
Lightly  my  shepherdess  dear. 

Lightly,  fal  de  ra. 

A  Steamboat  Monopoly  Turned  Down. 

In  1810,  Robert  Fulton,  of  steamboat  fame,  addressed  a  memorial  "To  the 
Honorable  Legislature  of  Upper  Louisiana."  Associated  with  Fulton  in  the 
proposition  was  Robert  R.  Livingston.  According  to  the  memorial  both  Fulton 
and  Livingston  were  "native  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  residing  in  the 
State  of  New  York."  The  memorial  set  forth  that  New  York,  to  encourage  the 
establishment  of  steamboats  on  the  waters  of  that  state,  had  granted  to  them 
exclusive  right  to  navigate  boats,  impelled  by  force  of  steam,  for  twenty  years 
for  the  first  boat  and  five  years  for  each  succeeding  boat,  the  whole  term  not 
to  exceed  thirty  years.  The  petitioners  explained  that  they  had  already  con- 
structed two  boats,  one  of  which  they  called  the  North  River  steamboat  and  the 
other  the  Car  of  Neptune.  The  North  River  steamboat,  they  said,  had  been 
running  voyages  of  160  miles  between  New  York  and  Albany  since  July,  1807. 
The  car  of  Neptune  had  been  making  voyages  between  New  York  and  Albany 
since  September,  1809. 

The  petitioners  stated  that  their  associate,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  had  made  an  exam- 
ination of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  in  the  summer  of  1809,  examining 
the  depths  and  velocities  of  the  two  rivers.  He  had  reported  such  conditions 
as  led  Mr.  Fulton  and  Mr.  Livingston  to  conclude  these  rivers  might  be  navi- 
gated by  steamboats.  The  f)etitioners  were  willing  to  make  the  venture  provided 
they    could    secure    what    they   deemed    proper    encouragement    in    the    way    of 


336  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

exclusive  privilege.  The  memorial  concluded  with  the  following  proposition 
to  the  legislative  body  of  Upper  Louisiana,  of  which  St.  Louis  was  the  seat 
of  government : 

"For  these  reasons,  and  to  encourage  the  immediate  establishment  of  steamboats  on 
the  waters  of  your  state,  and  particularly  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  your  petitioners  pray 
that,  after  the  example  of  the  State  of  New  York,  you  will  grant  them  the  e.xclusive  right 
to  navigate  the  waters  of  your  state  or  territory,  with  boats  moved  by  steam  or  fire,  on 
the  following  conditions : 

"First,  that  three  years  from  the  time  of  passing  the  law  your  petitioners  will  build  a 
boat  on  the  Ohio  or  Mississippi  river,  to  move  by  the  force  of  steam,  which  shall  be  capable 
of  carrying  seventy  tons  of  merchandise,  produce  or  material,  and  move  at  the  rate  of  at 
least  three  and  one-half  miles  an  hour  in  still  water — if  they  do  not  comply  with  these 
conditions  the  law  shall  be  null  and  void. 

"Second,  that  in  all  cases  they  will  not  charge  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  sum 
which  is  usually  paid  for  carrying  merchandise  or  materials  of  any  kind  on  said  rivers  to 
any  given  or  equal  distance  to  which  the  boats  now  transport  them. 

"Third,  that  they  will  perform  the  voyage  in  less  than  three-fourths  of  the  time  which 
is  now  usually  required  by  the  mercantile  boats  to  navigate  said  rivers  to  any  given  point 
where  steamboats  can  go  with  safety. 

"Fourth,  that  on  establishing  the  first  boat,  the  governor  will  appoint  a  committee  of 
three  persons  to  report  on  the  performance  of  the  boat ;  and  if  they  find  that  your  petitioners 
have  complied  with  the  terms  of  the  contract,  the  law  to  be  confirmed  in  favor  of  said 
Livingston  and  Fulton." 

The  petition  as  the  memorandum  on  the  back  of  it  indicates,  was  "presented 
October  lo,  1810."  The  disposition  is  indicated  by  the  following  endorsement : 
"Ordered  to  lie  on  the  table  October  23,  1810.  Taken  into  consideration  and 
postponed  until  next  session."  The  legislature  sitting  at  St.  Louis  did  not  accept 
the  proposition  of  Robert  Fulton. 

The  First  Steamboat. 

Seven  years  elapsed  before  the  first  steamboat  reached  St.  Louis.  That  was 
the  Zebulon  M.  Pike.  It  was  a  primitive  affair.  The  hull  was  built  like  a 
barge.  The  power  was  a  low  pressure  engine,  with  a  walking  beam.  The 
wheels  had  no  wheel  houses.  The  boat  had  but  one  smokestack.  Where  the 
current  was  rapid  the  crew  used  poles  to  help  out  the  steam  power.  The  Pike 
ran  only  by  daylight.  The  trip  from  Louisville  to  St.  Louis  and  return  required 
four  weeks.  One  account  of  it  gives  the  time  as  six  weeks.  The  General 
Pike  was  such  an  object  of  curiosity  that  Captain  Jacob  Reed  charged  the  St. 
I.ouisans  who  wished  to  come  on  board  a  dollar  apiece.  The  admission  was 
not  prohibitive.  Several  times  the  boat  became  so  crowded  that  the  captain 
stopped  receiving  and  waited  for  those  on  the  deck  to  go  ashore.  The  mention 
of  the  coming  and  going  of  the  Pike  was  made  very  briefly  by  the  Missouri 
Gazette. 

The  year  after  the  coming  of  the  Pike,  some  Ohio  river  men  built  a  steam- 
boat they  called  the  St.  Louis  and  sent  her  around  to  that  port.  Captain  Hewes 
invited  a  number  of  leading  citizens  to  take  a  ride  up  to  the  mouth  of  Missouri. 
The  Gazette  in  its  next  issue  reported  that  "the  company  on  board  was  large 
and  genteel  and  the  entertainment  very  elegant."     One  thing  that  affected  the 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  337 

early  interest  of  St.  Louis  in  steamboating  was  the  general  doubt  about  steam 
navigation  of  the  Missouri.  The  Pike  had  made  three  and  three-quarter  miles 
against  the  Ohio  current.  If  that  was  the  best  the  steam  engine  afloat  could  do. 
the  motive  power  would  not  succeed  on  the  Missouri. 

About  the  first  of  May,  1819,  the  Maid  of  Orleans  came  into  port  at  St. 
Louis.  She  had  steamed  from  Philadelphia  to  New  Orleans  and  then  up  the 
Mississippi  to  St.  Louis.  That  same  month  the  Independence  left  St.  Louis  and 
went  up  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  as  far  as  Franklin,  near  Boonville. 
She  was  thirteen  days  on  the  way  but  she  did  it  and  unloaded  her  cargo  of  flour, 
whiskey,  sugar,  iron  castings.  Then  indeed  the  town  of  Laclede  sat  up  and 
marveled.  Colonel  Charless  acknowledged  his  skepticism  and  glorified  the  new 
era  of  steam  navigation.  He  published  in  the  Gazette  this  congratulation:  "In 
1817,  less  than  two  years  ago,  the  first  steamboat  arrived  at  St.  Louis.  We  hailed 
it  as  the  day  of  small  things,  but  the  glorious  consummation  of  all  our  wishes 
is  daily  arriving.  Who  would  or  could  have  dared  to  conjecture  that  in  1819  we 
would  have  witnessed  the  arrival  of  a  steamboat  from  Philadelphia  or  Xew 
York?  Yet  such  is  the  fact.  The  Mississippi  has  become  familiar  to  this  great 
American  invention  and  another  new  avenue  is  open." 

A  month  later  when  the  Independence  had  returned  from  the  first  naviga- 
tion of  the  Missouri  by  steam  the  Gazette  said":  "This  trip  forms  a  proud  event 
in  the  history  of  Missouri.  The  Missouri  has  hitherto  resisted  almost  eflfectually 
all  attempts  at  navigation.  She  has  opposed  every  obstacle  she  could  to  the  tide 
of  immigration  which  was  rolling  up  her  banks  and  dispossessing  her  dear  red 
children,  but  her  white  children,  although  children  by  adoption,  have  become  so 
numerous  and  are  increasing  so  rapidly  that  she  is  at  last  obliged  to  yield  them 
her  favor.  The  first  attempt  to  ascend  her  by  steam  has  succeeded,  and  we 
anticipate  the  day  as  speedy  when  the  Missouri  will  be  as  familiar  to  steam- 
boats as  the  Mississippi  or  Ohio.  Captain  Xelson  merits  and  will  receive 
deserved  credit  for  his  enterprise  and  public  spirit  in  this  undertaking." 

The  First  Steamboat  on  the  Missouri. 

The  centennial  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the  Missouri  river  came  in  1910. 
On  the  28th  day  of  May,  1819,  Captain  John  Xelson  brought  his  boat,  the 
Independence,  to  the  bank  at  Franklin  in  Howard  county.  He  had  made  the  trip 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  St.  Louis  in  thirteen  days  although  upon 
only  seven  of  the  thirteen  had  the  paddle  wheels  been  moving.  Franklin  cele- 
brated the  arrival  of  the  Independence.  A  cannon  salute  was  fired  from  the 
town  and  returned  from  the  boat.  Among  the  passengers  were  Colonel  Elias 
Rector,  Stephen  Rector,  Captain  Desha,  J.  C.  Mitchell,  Dr.  Stewart  J.  Wanton 
and  Major  J.  T.  Wilcox.  Rector  and  other  citizens  of  St.  Louis  had  encouraged 
the  trip  by  Captain  Nelson.  Under  the  agreement  with  them  the  boat  was  to 
ascend  the  Missouri  river  to  Chariton,  near  Glasgow.  The  St.  Louis  people 
contributed  the  money  necessary  for  the  charter  in  order  to  show  that  steam 
navigation  was  possible  on  the  Missouri  river.  The  Independence  carried  a  con- 
siderable cargo  of  flour,  whiskey,  sugar,  iron  castings.  The  significance  of  the 
trip  was  set  forth  in  the  Missouri  Intelligencer,  the  second  newspaper  to  be 
established  west  of  the  Mississippi.     It  was  published  by  Nathaniel  Fatten  and 


338  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Benjamin  HoUiday,  and  had  been  issued  only -three  or  four  weeks  previous  to 
the  arrival  of  the  Independence.  The  press  upon  which  the  Intelligencer  was 
printed  is  treasured  among  the  relics  of  the  Missouri  Historical  Society  in  Jeffer- 
son Memorial  at  St.  Louis.  The  Intelligencer  commented  on  the  importance 
of  this  arrival  of  the  Independence : 

"The  grand  desideratum,  the  important  fact,  is  now  ascertained,  that  steamboats  can 
safely  navigate  the  Missouri  river. 

"A  respectable  gentleman,  a  passenger  on  the  Independence,  who  has  for  a  great  num- 
ber of  years,  navigated  the  great  western  waters,  informs  us  that  it  is  his  opinion,  with  a 
little  precaution  in  keeping  clear  of  sandbars,  the  Missouri  river  may  be  navigated  with 
as  much  facility  as  the  Mississippi  or  the  Ohio. 

"Missourians  may  hail  this  era  from  which  to  date  the  growing  importance  of  this 
section  of  the  country,  when  they  view  with  what  facility  by  the  aid  of  steamboats  they 
may  ascend  the  turbulent  waters  of  the  Missouri  and  bring  to  this  part  of  the  country 
the  articles  requisite  to  its  supply,  and  return  laden  with  various  products  of  this  fertile 
region.  At  no  distant  period  we  may  see  the  industrious  cultivator  making  his  way  as 
high  as  the  Yellowstone  and  offering  the  enterprising  merchant  and  trader  a  surplus 
worthy  of  the  fertile  banks  of  the  Missouri,  yielding  wealth  to  industry  and  enterprise." 

In  a  later  issue  the  Intelligencer  ventured  this  prophetic  editorial : 

"We  may  truly  regard  this  event  as  highly  important,  not  only  to  the  commercial  but 
agricultural  interests  of  the  country.  The  practicability  of  steamboat  navigation,  being 
now  clearly  demonstrated  by  experiment,  we  shall  be  brought  nearer  to  the  Atlantic,  West 
India  and  European  markets,  and  the  abundant  resources  of  our  fertile  and  extensive  region 
will  be  quickly  developed.  This  interesting  section  of  country,  so  highly  favored  by  nature, 
will  at  no  distant  period,  with  the  aid  of  science  and  enterprise,  assume  a  dignified  station 
among  the  great  agricultural  states  of  the  West.  The  enterprise  of  Capt.  Nelson  cannot  be 
too  highly  appreciated  by  the  citizens  of  Missouri.  He  is  the  first  individual  who  has 
attempted  the  navigation  of  the  Missouri  by  steam  power,  a  river  that  has  hitherto  borne^ 
the  character  of  being  very  difficult  and  eminently  dangerous  in  its  navigation,  but  we  are 
happy  to  state  that  his  progress  thus  far  has  not  been  impeded  by  any  serious  accident." 

The  Banquet  at  Franklin. 

In  celebration  of  the  arrival  of  the  Independence  the  Franklin  citizens  gave 
a  banquet  to  Captain  Nelson  and  his  passengers,  at  which  numerous  toasts  were 
offered.  Captain  Asa  Morgan  presided  and  Nathaniel  Hutchison  was  vice- 
president.     Walter  Williams  has  written  this  account  of  the  banquet: 

"The  celebration  was  no  affair  of  midnight  revelry,  but  of  midday  enjoyment.  The 
dinner  began  at  noon  and  the  speeches  lasted  until  sundown.  Everybody  was  toasted  and 
nearly  everybody  made  an  after-dinner  speech.  Nor  were  the  toasts  drunk  in  Missouri 
river  water,  either,  but  in  a  stronger  beverage. 

"Toasts  at  the  Nelson  dinner  were  of  two  kinds,  regular  and  volunteer.  'The  Missouri 
River'  was,  with  appropriateness,  first  toasted  with  the  sentiment  thus  rather  curiously 
expressed :  'Its  last  wave  will  roll  the  abundant  tribute  of  our  region  to  the  Mexican 
gulf,  in  reference  to  the  auspices  of  this  day.'  Then  followed,  with  equal  appropriateness, 
The  Memory  of  Robert  Fulton,'  of  whom  it  was  said :  'One  of  the  most  distinguished 
artists  of  his  age.  The  Missouri  river  now  bears  upon  her  bosom  the  first  effect  of  his 
genius  for  steam  navigation.'  The  memory  of  Franklin,  the  philosopher  and  statesman. 
was  next  toasted :  'In  anticipation  of  his  country's  greatness,  he  never  recognized  that  a 
boat  at  this  time  would  be  propelled  by  steam  so  far  westward  to  a  town  bearing  his  name. 


WATER  POWER  IN  THE  OZARKS 


THE  GREAT  REPUBLIC 

Saloii  of  a  St.  Louis  steamboat  of  1875,  in  the 

ila.vs  of  ipojuilar  river  travel 


EARLY  TRAXSl'ORTATIOX   OX   TIIK  MISSOURI  RIVER 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  341 

on  the  Missouri.'  After  the  Missouri  river,  Fulton  and  Franklin,  the  captain  of  the  boat 
was  toasted:  'Capt.  Nelson — the  proprietor  of  the  steamboat  Iiftiependence.  The  imaginary 
dangers  of  the  Missouri  vanished  before  his  enterprising  genius.' 

"Of  Louisville,  Franklin  and  Chariton  it  was  said:  'They  became  neighbors  by  steam 
navigation.' 

"Other  regular  toasts  were :  'The  Republican  Government  of  the  United  States :  By 
facilitating  the  intercourse  between  distant  points,  its  benign  influence  may  be  diffused 
over  the  continent  of  North  America.' 

■  "'The  Policy — Resulting  in  the  e.xpedition  of  the  Yellowstone.' 

"'South  America — May  an  early  day  witness  the  navigation  of  the  Amazon  and  La 
Plata  by  steam  power,  under  the  auspices  of  an  independent  power.' 

"  'International  Improvement — The  New  York  Canal,  an  unperishable  monument  of 
the  patriotism  and  genius  of  its  projector.' 

"  'The  Missouri  Territory — Desirous  tc  be  numbered  with  states  on  constitutional 
principles,  but   determined   never   to   submit  to  congressional  usurpation.' 

"  'James  Monroe — President  of  the  United  States.' 

"  'The   Purchase   of   the   Floridas — A   hard   bargain.' 

"For  the  last  regular  toast  was  given,  with  no  word  of  comment,  'The  .American  Fair.' 

"Capt.  Nelson  spoke  briefly:  'I  will  ever  bear  in  grateful  remembrance  the  liberality 
aiid  hospitality  of  the  citizens  of  Franklin.'  J.  C.  Mitchell,  one  of  the  boat's  passengers, 
praised  Gen.  T.  A.  Smith  as  'the  Cincinnatus  of  the  West.'  Another  passenger,  Maj. 
Thompson  Douglas,  complimented  the  citizens  of  Franklin  as  'characterized  by  hospitality 
and  generosity.'  Lilhurn  \V.  Boggs,  afterward  governor  of  Missouri,  proposed  the  health 
of  Maj.  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson.  John  W.  Scudder  of  Franklin  toasted  'Our  Guests — The 
passengers  who  ascended  the  Missouri  in  tlie  Independence ;  they  have  the  honor  to  be  the 
first  to  witness  the  successful  experiment  of  steam  navigation  on  our  noble  river.' 

"The  two  editors  of  the  first  western  newspaper  were  talkers  as  well  as  writers.  Ben- 
jamin Holliday's  sentiment  was:  'The  28th  of  May,  1819 — Franklin  will  long  remember  it 
and  the  Independence  and  her  commander  will  be  immortalized  in  history.'  Nathaniel 
Patton  mixed  politics  and  agriculture  thus:  "The  Missouri  Territory — Its  future  prosperitj- 
and  greatness  can  not  be  checked  by  the  caprice  of  a  few  men  in  Congress  while  it  possesses 
a  soil  of  inexhaustible  fertility,  abundant  resources  and  a  body  of  intelligent,  enterprising, 
independent  freemen.' 

"Augustus  Storrs  spoke  of  the  late  Capt.  Lawrence  with  praise.  It  was  Capt.  Lawrence 
who  uttered  the  words,  'Don't  give  up  the  ship,'  in  the  memorable  naval  battle  between  the 
Constitution  and  the  Guerriere.  For  him  Lawrence  county,  Missouri,  is  named.  J.  R. 
Howard  praised  the  genius  of  Robert  Fulton.  L.  W.  Jordan's  sentiment  was  significant : 
'The  towns  on  the  Missouri  river — May  they  flourish  in  commerce  and,  like  those  on  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi,  witness  the  daily  arrival  or  departure  of  some  steamboat  ascending 
or  descending  the  majestic  stream.'  Toasts  by  Dr.  J.  J.  Lowry  and  Maj.  Richard  Gentry 
to  the  president  and  vice-president  of  the  day  closed  the  brilliant  celebration." 

Steamboating  in  Pioneer  Days. 

When  Jkli.ssouri  entered  the  Union  there  was  not  a  steamboat  owned  in  the 
state  although  this  improvement  in  transpoi1;ation  was  in  use  on  the  Ohio  and 
Lower  Mississippi.  Abov€  St.  Louis  the  navigation  was  by  barges.  A  decade 
after  the  Pike  crept  up  to  the  St.  Louis  bank  and  half  paddled,  half  floated  away 
IVlissourians  fooked  with  conservatism  upon  steamboating.  Along  the  Ohio  nearly 
one  hundred  steamboats  had  been  built  and  put  in  operation  before  this  state 
b^ecame  to  the  trade  anything  more  than  landing  places.  Steamboats  came,  un- 
loaded, loaded  and  left.  In  1825  the  Missouri  Republican  commented  on  the 
surprising  fact  that  the  two  boats,  the  Brown  and  the  Magndt,  were  lying  up  at 
this  port  for  repairs:  "We  believe  this  is  the  first  instance  of  a  steamboat  remain- 
ing here  through  the  season  of  low  water."    The  primitive  conditions  of  pioneer 


342  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

steamboating  were  described  by  Captain  Joseph  Brown  in  a  paper  read  before 
the  Missouri  Historical  Society.  Caj)tain  Brown  wrote  of  what  he  had  seen 
and  known  as  hoy  and  man  : 

"Tlicy  had  but  one  engine,  and  no  'doctor'  or  donkey  engine.  The  boats  themselves, 
and  particularly  those  for  the  upper  rivers,  were  small,  sometimes  made  like  a  flatboat,  with 
broad  bow  and  stern,  and  a  stern  wheel.  There  was  nothing  above  the  boiler  deck  but  the 
pilothouse  and  the  chimneys,  or  rather  one  chimney,  for  they  had  cylinder  boilers ;  that  is, 
there  were  no  flues  in  the  boilers.  Having  but  one  engine,  the  shaft  ran  clean  across  the 
boat,  and  when  at  a  landing  the  engine  had  to  run  the  pump  to  supply  the  boilers  with  water, 
the  wheels  had  to  be  uncoupled  to  let  the  engine  work.  As  I  said  liefore,  the- doctor  engine 
had  not  been  invented,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that  many  explosions  occurred  for  the  lack  of  it. 

"The  cabin  was  a  ver\'  primitive  alTair.  It  was  on  the  lower  deck,  back  of  the  shaft,  in 
the  after  part  of  the  boat.  There  were  no  staterooms  then,  but,  like  a  canal  boat,  there 
were  curtains  in  front  of  the  berths.  It  was  quite  common  to  see  a  bowsprit  sticking  out  in 
front  of  the  boat,  such  as  are  used  on  ships,  but,  being  useless,  they  were  soon  dispensed 
with.  Stages  had  not  been  invented  then.  Two  or  three  planks  were  used,  and,  if  need  be. 
tied  together.  Whistles  were  unknown,  but  bells  were  rung,  and  the  captains  were  very 
proud  of  a  big  bell.  For  a  number  of  years  there  was  no  signal  for  passing  or  meeting 
boats,  and  the  result  was  many  collisions. 

"There  were  no  regular  packets  then.  A  boat  started  from  Pittsliurg  was  just  as  likely 
to  go  to  St.  Paul  as  anywhere,  or  up  any  of  the  other  rivers,  and  they  had  no  regular  hours 
or  even  days  of  starting.  I  have  known  boats  to  have  steam  up  for  a  week,  telling  people 
and  shippers  the  boat  was  going  in  an  hour,  and  even  have  their  planks  taken  in,  all  but 
one,  and  then  launch  their  planks  out  again.  .^11  this  was  done  to  decoy  people  on  board. 
The  clanging  of  bells,  the  hurrah  of  agents  and  the  pulling  and  hauling  of  cabmen  and 
runners  were  most  confusing,  more  particularly  to  unsophisticated  emigrants.  There  was 
no  fixed  price  for  anything;  it  was  all  a  matter  of  bargain,  and  very  often  great  deception 
was  practiced.  The  engines  being  small  and  very  imperfect  in  those  days,  the  boats  were 
very  slow.  I  have  known  some  of  the  boats  in  the  case  of  a  sudden  rise  in  the  river  and 
consequent  strong  current,  to  be  unable  to  stem  it  at  the  old  waterworks  point,  which  was  at 
the  foot  of  Carr  street.  They  would  have  to  go  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  river  and  tight 
it  out  there,  sometimes  for  hours,  in  sight  of  the  city. 

"The  Eagle  was  one  of  the  first  boats  to  run  between  St._  Louis  and  Alton.  She  had 
one  engine,  was  a  side-wheeler,  about  i8  feel  beam  and  75  feet  long.  She  carried  about  50 
tons,  and  it  took  her  about  seven  hours  to  go  to  Alton.  She  was  commanded  by  that 
veteran  steamboat  man.  Captain  Lamothe. 

"In  1849.  when  the  gold  fever  was  at  its  height,  there  were  fifty-eight  fine  steamers 
plying  regularly  on  the  Missouri  river;  on  the  Upper  Mississippi,  about  seventy-five;  on  the 
Illinois,  twenty-eight  fine  steamers;  to  New  Orleans,  about  one  hundred ;  on  the  Ohio,  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty;  on  the  Tennessee,  about  fifteen.  Owing  to  the  rush  of  emigration  at 
that  time,  boats  could  not  be  built  fast  enough.  It  was  said  of  a  certain  boat-yard  at 
Freedom,  Pennsylvania,  that  they  kept  a  lot  of  the  straight  bodies  of  boats  put  up.  When 
a  man  wanted  a  boat,  they  took  him  down  to  the  yard  and  asked  him  how  long  he  wanted 
her;  then  just  put  two  ends  onto  a  body  and  he  had  a  boat.  But  a  really  fast  and  fine  boat 
cost  about  $100,000  to  $150,000  and  took  about  eight  months  to  build.  The  average  life  of  a 
boat  was  about  five  years.  ."Kfter  that  they  were  either  torn  up  to  build  a  more  modern 
boat,  or  had  sunk  or  blown  up.  Need  I  tell  you  that  in  one  bend  in  the  river  there  lie  the 
wrecks  of  one  hundred  and  three  steamboats,  between  St.  Louis  and  Cairo?" 

When  Edmund  Flagg  came  from  Boston  to  he  the  editor  of  a  St.  Louis 
paper  about  1838  he  was  much  entertained  with  the  firing  of  a  salute:  "As  we 
drew  nigh  to  Alton  the  fireman  of  our  steamer  deemed  proper,  in  testimonial 
of  the  dignity  of  our  arrival,  to  let  off  a  certain  rusty  old  swivel  which  chanced 
to  be   on   board ;  and   to  have   witnessed   the   marvelous   fashion   in   which   this 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  343 

marvelous  manoeuver  was  executed  by  our  worthies  would  have  pardoned  a 
smile  on  the  visage  of  Heraclitus  himself.  One  lanky-limbed  genius  held  a 
huge  dipper  of  gunpowder;  another,  seizing  upon  the  extremity  of  a  hawser 
and  severing  a  generous  fragment,  made  use  thereof  for  wadding;  a  third 
rammed  home  the  charge  with  that  fearful  weapon  wherewith  he  poked  the 
furnaces ;  while  a  fourth,  honest  wight,  all  preparations  being  complete,  ad- 
vanced with  a  shovel  of  glowing  coals,  which,  poured  upon  the  touchhole,  the 
old  piece  was  briefly  delivered  of  its  charge,  and  the  woods  and  shore  and 
welkin  rang  with  the  roar." 

The  Perils  of  River  Navigation. 

The  steamboat  era  made  a  record  for  casualty  and  mortality  which  was  ap- 
palling. St.  Louis  newspaper  files  show  that  during  the  eighteen  years  preced 
ing  1852  twenty-seven  steamboats  exploded  their  boilers,  and  that  in  the  twenty- 
seven  explosions  there  were  killed  1,002  persons.  In  the  eighteen  years  subse- 
quent to  1852  fifty-four  boats'met  with  disaster.  The  number  of  fatalities  was 
3,100.  The  first  serious  explosion  occurred  as  early  as  1816.  "The  Washing- 
ton" blew  up,  destroying  nine  lives.  The  climax  in  the  series  of  disasters  was 
reached  when  the  Sultana  exploded  her  boilers  in  1864,  killing  1,647  people, 
most  of  them  returning  soldiers.  The  explosions  which  cost  fifty  lives  or  more 
were  those  of  the  Ellen  McGregor  in  1836;  the  Blackhawk  in  1837;  the  Orinoco 
in  1838;  the  General  Brown  in  1838:  the  H.  W.  Johnston  in  1846;  the  Edward 
Bates  in  1847;  Louisiana  in  1849;  Princess  in  1859;  Ben  Sherrod  in  1861  ;  Penn- 
sylvania in  1862;  Anglo-Norman  in  1850;  Glencoe  in  1852;  W.  R.  Arthur  in 
1871. 

On  the  second  of  July,  1842,  the  Steamer  Edna  left  St.  Louis  bound  up  the 
Missouri  river  carrying  about  one  hundred  passengers.  Most  of  the  people 
were  German  immigrants  who  were  on  their  way  to  new  homes  along  the  Mis- 
souri. The  boat  stopped  for  a  night  near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  the  intention 
being  to  start  out  at  daylight.  Many  of  the  immigrants  were  deck  passengers 
and  lay  down  to  sleep  near  the  boilers.  At  daybreak  the  assistant  engineer 
started  the  engine.  Almost  before  the  wheel  had  turned  the  boiler  collapsed 
and  the  hot  water  was  thrown  over  the  deck  passengers.  The  steamboats  latan 
and  Annawan  were  within  sight.  They  came  at  once  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Edna.  The  boat  was  towed  back  to  St.  Louis.  The  injured  were  transferred 
to  the  Sisters'  hospital.  The  dead  numbered  fifty-five.  On  the  4th  of  July  was 
presented  one  of  the  saddest  scenes  in  the  history  of  the  state.  A  public  funeral 
was  held  at  the  courthouse,  attended  by  thousands  of  citizens. 

The  Edna  is  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  Missouri  disasters  in  the  number  of 
lives  lost.  Next  conies  probably  the  Timour.  The  boilers  of  this  boat  exploded 
a  short  distance  below  Jeflferson  City  in  .August,  1854.  The  force  was  terrific. 
It  carried  the  boat's  safe  to  the  top  of  the  bluff  two  hundred  feet  high  over- 
looking the  river.  Between  thirty  and  forty  people  were  killed.  For  more  than 
fifty  years  the  decaying  hull  of  the  Timour  could  be  seen  on  the  shore  during 
low  water. 

The  Bedford  struck  a  snag  and  went  down  just  above  the  mouth  of  the 
Missouri  river.     This  was  in  April.   1840.  at  night  time.     .\  storm  was  prevail- 


344  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ing;  the  night  was  intensely  dark.  Under  other  conditions  there  probably  would 
have  been  smaller  loss  of  life.  Fifteen  people  were  drowned.  The  river  channel 
has  shifted  since  1840  and  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri  is  several  miles  lower 
down.  The  Bedford  hull  is  said  to  be  buried  under  the  land  of  Missouri  Point 
where  wheat  is  now  harvested.  There  were  reports  at  the  time  of  heavy  losses 
in  gold  and  silver.  The  boat's  safe  was  said  to  contain  at  least  $25,000  belong- 
ing to  passengers,  besides  the  cash  carried  for  the  boat  management.  Accord- 
ing to  one  report  a  single  passenger  had  $6,000  in  gold  in  his  trunk.  Estimates 
of  the  gold  and  silver  on  the  Bedford  ran  as  high  as  $ioo,ooo. 

The  Saluda  exploded  her  boilers  at  Lexington  in  April,  1852.  Twenty-seven 
persons  were  killed.  The  Big  Hatchey  blew  up  at  Hermann  in  July,  1845,  with 
a  number  of  fatalities.  A  wreck  for  every  seven  miles  of  the  Missouri  from 
Fort  Benton  to  the  mouth — 300  in  all — was  the  record  of  disasters  some  years 
ago. 

Lost  Treasure. 

Search  for  sunken  cargoes  in  the  Missouri  river  has  been  made  with  opti- 
mism like  to  that  for  the  hidden  hoards  in  the  Ozarks.  It  has  been  attended 
with  about  the  same  results.  The  disappointments  have  been  many.  Since  the 
Independence  showed  that  steam  navigation  on  the  Missouri  river  was  practical 
there  have  been  over  three  hundred  steamboats  wrecked  in  the  Missouri.  Some 
of  them  carried  down  cargoes  the  values  of  which  were  known.  With  other 
hulks  were  buried  in  the  silt  gold  dust,  silver  bullion  and  Mexican  dollars.  In- 
formation as  to  the  amounts  of  such  treasure  lost  was  not  as  a  rule  definite. 

Between  1880  and  1890  many  miners  who  were  drawn  to  Montana  and  had 
struck  it  rich  came  back  by  way  of  Missouri  river  boats.  They  brought  with 
them  gold  dust  and  silver  bars.  The  steamboats  bringing-  such  passengers  occa- 
sionally struck  snags  and  went  down  so  quickly  that  the  precious  metals  were 
lost. 

In  August,  1865,  the  Twilight  sunk  just  before  sunrise  twenty  miles  below 
Kansas  City.  She  had  left  the  channel  in  the  fog  and  had  struck  a  submerged 
sycamore  tree.  The  bank  was-  not  far  away.  The  boat  went  down  leaving  the 
pilot  house  and  texas  above  the  water.  Passengers  escaped  in  their  night  clothes 
and  were  cared  for  by  the  farmers.  The  Twilight  was  heavily  loaded  and  was 
bound  for  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Missouri.  One  item  of  the  cargo  was 
three  hundred  barrels  of  whiskey.  There  were  many  barrels  of  oils,  many  tons 
of  white  lead,  pig  iron,  stoves  and  stamp  mills  and  engines  for  the  mines.  Gov- 
ernment arms  and  a  variety  of  valuable  consignments  were  included  in  the  cargo. 
Portions  of  the  boat  were  in  sight  for  some  years  during  low  water.  Several 
attempts  were  made  to  recover  portions  of  the  cargo.  Farmers  lifted  out  two 
barrels  of  whiskey.  At  a  later  date  the  river  shifted  and  the  Twilight  was  buried 
completely  in  a  sand  bank.  The  flood  of  1881  added  to  the  silt.  The  wreck 
was  buried  under  thirty-nine  feet  of  sand  and  soil  and  by  the  change  of  the 
channel  was  half  a  mile  from  shore  at  low  water.  About  twenty-five  years  ago, 
in  the  belief  that  the  whiskey  barrels  were  still  whole  and  that  tTie  contents  had 
improved  from  age,  a  company  was  formed  in  Kansas  City  to  make  a  search 
for  the  Twilight  and  to  recover  if  possible,  what  was  still  valuable  of  the  cargo. 


POSSIBILITIES    OF    RIVER    TRANSPORTATION 

Forty-six  trainloads  of  iMial  in  one  tow  of  bargos 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  RIVER  TRANSPORTATION 
Eight  traiiiloads  of  lunilier  brought  to  St.  Louis  on  cue  barge 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  347 

The  officers  of  the  company  obtained  such  information  as  they  could  from  the 
settlers  along  that  part  of  the  river.  They  used  long  steel  rods  probing  the  sand 
to  locate  the  wreck.  After  some  days'  work  of  this  kind  one  of  the  rods  struck 
metal  which  proved  to  be  the  engine  used  to  feed  the  boilers.  With  more  prob- 
ing the  exact  location  of  the  hulk  was  found.  The  Twilight  was  thirty-two  feet 
wide,  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  feet  long.  With  machinery  from  Kansas  City 
an  air-tight  caisson  was  built  just  over  the  hatches.  It  was  sunk  through  the 
thirty-nine  feet  of  sand  in  the  .same  manner  that  excavation  is  made  for  bridge 
piers.  The  hull  of  the  boat  was  reached.  Several  bottles  of  "Old  London  Gin, 
iS6o''  were  taken  out  and  carried  to  Kansas  City  and  opened  for  tasting  by 
experts  at  one  of  the  clubs.  One  of  the  barrels  of  whiskey  was  tapped  and  the 
whiskey  was  pronounced  to  be  better  than  the  gin.  News  of  the  discover}- 
spread.  In  many  of  the  saloons  in  Kansas  City  "Twilight"  whiskey  was  offered 
to  customers  although  none  of  the  genuine  had  been  placed  on.  sale.  There  was 
great  excitement  for  several  days  over  the  results  reported  by  the  wreckers. 
A  crowd  of  farmers  gathered  at  the  scene  of  operations.  In  a  few  days,  how- 
ever, the  expectations  failed  and  the  work  was  given  up. 

There  was  special  fascination  in  the  search  for  sunken  cargoes  of  whiskey. 
The  Leodora  went  down  after  burning  near  Elk  Point,  South  Dakota,  carrj'ing 
one  hundred  barrels  of  liquor.  The  search  in  that  case  disclosed  only  rusted 
metal  and  the  rotting  mass  of  one  hundred  forty-eight  tons  of  miscellaneous 
freight.  Some  thousands  of  dollars  were  spent  near  Parkville,  Missouri,  by  a 
company  which  hoped  to  recover  one  hundred  fifty  barrels  of  whiskey  in  the 
hull  of  the  Arabia,  a  steamboat  that  sunk  in  1856.  All  that  the  searchers  found 
which  had  resisted  the  decay  of  nearly  a  half  century  was  a  shipment  of  old 
wool  hats. 

One  of  the  boats  which  was  said  at  the  time  to  have  carried  a  large  amount 
of  gold  dust  from  the  Montana  mines  was  the  Butte,  which  went  down  in  July. 
1883,  near  Fort  Peck.  The  Butte's  cargo  was  valued  at  $110,000.  The  Ber- 
trand  sunk  in  1865,  near  Portage  La  Force.  It  was  bound  upstream  and  had 
as  part  of  the  cargo  iron  flasks  containing  more  than  $25,000  worth  of  quick- 
silver, consigned  to  mining  camps  in  Montana.  The  Boreas  burned  in  184^1 
near  Hermann  and  carried  down  a  large  amount  of  silver  bullion  and  Mexican 
dollars.  It  was  suspected  that  the  boat  was  fired  by  thieves  who  had  planned 
to  steal  the  money  and  bullion  in  the  excitement.  The  fire  spread  so  rapidly 
that  the  men  were  forced  to  jump  overboard  without  getting  the  treasure. 

The  channel  of  the  Missouri  river  has  changed  so  that  in  places  it  is  now 
five  miles  distant  from  where  it  was  sixty  to  seventy-five  years  ago.  A  Chariton 
farmer  digging  a  well  found  a  Bible.  On  the  cover  was  printed  "Naomi. '' 
That  was  the  name  of  the  steamboat  wrecked  in  that  locality  in  1840.  The  place 
■where  the  well  was  dug  is  five  miles  from  the  Missouri  river  of  to-day. 

Days  of  the  Pilot's  Glory. 

."Successful  pilots  of  Missouri  river  boats  were  looked  upon  with  great  respect. 
Navigation  of  the  clear  water,  regular  channel  rivers  was  considered  tame  by  com- 
parison. It  was  said  that  the  La  Barges,  Elisha  Fine  and  navigators  of  their  class 
knew   where  the   existing  sandbars   were   and   where  the  next  sandbars   would 


348  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

form  and  could  locate  snags  unerringly.  A  feat  of  the  pilot  known  as  Uncle 
Davy  was  to  come  down  stream  headed  direct  for  a  sandbar,  slack  up,  poke 
the  prow  into  the  bar,  swing  around  and  back  down  stream  by  the  only  prac- 
ticable channel  left.     Captain  Hunter  Ben  Jenkins  told  this : 

"I  remember  when  the  steamer  Dacotah  came  down  the  Missouri  river  to  St.  Louis 
with  16,756  sacks  of  wheat  on  four  and  one-half  feet  of  water,  mind  you,  and  never  set 
a  spar  on  the  whole  trip.  That's  what  we  pilots  used  to  do  in  the  day  when  we  were  paid 
as  high  as  $1,500  to  $2,000  a  month.  You  can  get  pretty  near  anything  you  want  in  this 
country  if  you  want  to  pay,  including  good  pilots-— yes,  sir!  Why  I  remember  the  day 
when  young  fellows  not  only  didn't  want  any  pay  to  learn  the  river,  but  would  actually 
put  up  a  couple  of  thousand  dollars  to  the  man  who  would  teach  them.  They  did  the  work 
and  the  pilot  drew  the  pay.  Those  were  great  days.  We  didn't  know  what  electric  lights 
were  in  those  days.  We  carried  a  torch  basket  of  rosin,  one  on  the  starboard  and  one  on 
the  larboard  side.  Who  were  some  of  the  boys?  Well,  there's  a  long  string  of  mighty 
fine  names.  It's  hard  to  say  where  to  stop.  There  were  the  La  Barges,  Masseys,  Teabeaus, 
Kaisers,  Henry  and  Ed  McPherson,  Yores,  Dillons,  Lafayette  and  Robert  Burton,  Ed 
Baldwin,  'Bud'  Spahr,  George  and  Henry  Keith,  the  Homan  brothers,  Thomas  Hale, 
James  McKinney,  Mike  and  Joe  Oldman,  Tony  and  Lew  Burbach  and  Captain  Shaw  and 
a  lot  more.  I  reckon  the  most  popular  man  in  his  day  was  Captain  Jewett.  He  operated 
on  the  Missouri  river.  He  died  of  cholera  in  Glasgow,  Missouri,  in  1849.  We  had  some 
mighty  fine  boats,  too.  There  were  the  Morning  Star,  Ben  W.  Lewis,  Cornelia,  Minnehaha- 
and  Clara  Emma  and  Martha  Jewett." 

The  Missouri  Belle  and  the  Buttermilk. 

This  is  the  story  of  steamboat  days  which  Lloyd  G.  Harris  told  a  committee 
of  Congress  when  he  was  in  Washington  with  a  Missouri  delegation : 

"The  captain  and  officers  of  the  Missouri  Belle  were  very  fond  of  the  buttermilk 
which  a  farmer  who  lived  along  the  river  bank  supplied  to  them.  The  boat,  in  passing  this 
point,  would  always  make  a  landing,  and  blow  her  whistle  in  order  to  notify  the  farmer 
that  she  was  there,  waiting  for  buttermilk.  The  farmer  would  send  down  a  negro  man 
with  a  bucket  of  buttermilk,  and,  having  taken  it  aboard,  the  boat  would  proceed  on  her 
way.  On  one  occasion  when  she  tried  to  edge  up  at  this  point,  she  struck  a  sand-bar  and 
sunk.  The  captain  blew  a  signal  of  distress,  fastening  the  lever  so  that  she  would  blow 
as  long  as  there  was  steam,  while  the  hungry  waters  were  gradually  rising  and  swallowing 
her.  The  water  had  crept  up  to  the  boiler,  and  as  it  rushed  in  there  was  an  expiring 
gush  of  steam  into  the  signal  pipe  which  caused  a  most  peculiar,  lugubrious,  and  nerve- 
shattering  sound.  Just  at  that  moment  Pompey,  who  was  responding  to  the  signal,  reached 
the  water's  edge  with  his  pail.  When  he  heard  that  sound  he  exclaimed:  'Great  Gawd! 
Da's  de   Belle  a-sinkin'  and  callin'   fo'  buttermilk  wid  her  last  breflf!'" 

Up  Grand  River  for  Hickory  Nuts. 

''The  Grand  river  country"  was  a  famous  section  of  Missouri  between  1840 
and  i860.  The  legislature  declared  the  river  navigable  to  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  state.  As  early  as  1842  a  small  sternwheel  steamboat  made  two  trips  to 
the  East  and  West  Fork  in  the  western  part  of  Livingston  county.  It  carried 
up  goods  from  St.  Louis  and  Brunswick  and  brought  down  produce.  The  Bed- 
ford struck  a  snag  and  went  to  pieces.  The  Lake  of  the  Woods,  the  Bonita,  and 
some  other  steamboats  made  occasional  trips  up  the  river.  As  late  as  1865  a 
steamboat  landed  at  Chillicothe.  For  many  years  one  of  the  chief  exports  of  the 
Grand  river  country  was  hickory  nuts.  For  fifty  years  the  forests  of  shell-bark 
trees  yielded  a  crop  measured  by  hundreds  of  bushels.   These  Grand  river  hickory 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  349 

nuts  are  large  and  fine  flavored.  In  early  days  they  brought  at  least  twenty- 
five  cents  a  bushel,  which  was  considered  a  very  good  price  before  the  war.  Per- 
haps nowhere  else  in  Missouri  has  this  crop  formed  such  an  important  industry. 

A  Tradition  of  Osage  Navigation. 

One  day  in  early  summer,  Matthew  Arbuckle  rode  into  Papinsville.  His 
horse  was  panting  and  flecked  with  foam.  Matt  told  the  group  which  gathered 
how  while  plowing  on  his  claim  about  a  mile  from  the  Osage  he  had  heard 
a  terrible  noise.  He  said  it  was  something  like  the  scream  of  a  "painter"  only 
ten  times  as  long  and  loud.  He  had  ridden  in  to  tell  the  folks  that  some  wild 
animal  different  from  anything  hitherto  known  in  the  Ozarks  was  in  the  woods 
down  the  river.  Uncle  John  Whitley,  who  had  "fit  with  Jackson"  at  New  Or- 
leans and  who  was  the  acknowledged  leader  in  the  community  w-as  sent  for. 
He  listened  to  Arbuckle  and  said  the  only  thing  to  do  was  to  get  the  hounds 
together,  take  the  guns  and  go  after  the  varmint,  which,  he  reckoned,  must  have 
wandered  down  from  the  Rocky  Range,  as  they  called  the  Rocky  Mountains  in 
those  days.  Uncle  Jimmy  Breckinridge  seconded  Captain  Whitley,  and  the 
settlers  got  ready.  As  the  posse  was  about  to  start  for  the  trail,  a  faint  repeti- 
tion of  what  Arbuckle  had  reported  was  heard.  It  was  sure  enough  a  new  and 
terrifying  sound.  Uncle  John  at  once  remembered  that  his  pretty  daughter, 
Mattie,  had  gone  on  her  pony  to  the  river  that  morning. 

"Ride,  men!"  he  shouted,  "Ride!  Mat  went  down  to  the  river  and  I  expect 
she's  dead  by  this  time." 

There  was  mounting  in  hot  haste,  but  before  the  start  was  fairly  underway 
here  came  Mattie  with  her  hair  flying.  She  had  heard  the  monster.  Uncle  John 
bade  her  get  to  the  house  and  tell  all  of  the  women  folks  to  keep  within  doors. 
Among  those  who  followed  the  hounds  that  memorable  day  were  the  Morrises, 
the  Roarks,  the  Snyders,  the  Burches  and  other  pioneers  of  that  region.  Every 
now  and  then  the  unearthly  noises,  a  combination  of  scream  and  howl,  could 
be  heard  sometimes  near  and  again  far  down  the  river.  The  hounds  sniffed 
and  yelped  but  found  no  trail  The  cliffs  of  the  Osage  echoed  and  re-echoed 
the  sounds.  Darkness  and  a  storm  came  on  together.  Captain  John  Whitley  led 
his  party  to  Rock  House,  a  cave  forming  a  room  twenty  feet  high,  thirty  feet 
wide  and  forty  feet  deep.  Rock  House  was  where  the  Whitleys  had  passed 
their  first  winter  in  the  Ozarks.  The  floor  was  covered  with  dry  white  sand, 
a  very  comfortable  camping  place.  Just  before  nightfall,  the  dogs  had  started 
a  buck  and  the  hunters  had  dropped  it.  Supper  was  made  of  the  fresh  venison. 
There  was  no  disturbance  in  the  night  but  at  daybreak  that  nerve-racking  sound 
brought  every  man  to  his  feet  and  set  the  hounds  howling.  The  noise  seemed 
to  show  that  the  monster  was  coming  up  the  river  and  was  near.  Uncle  John 
posted  his  men  for  the  encounter,  every  one  behind  a  big  tree.  Four  were  told 
off  with  orders  to  have  their  knives  ready  and  to  wade  in  if  the  lead  failed  to 
stop  the  beast.  Near  Rock  House  was  one  of  the  sharpest  of  the  scores  of 
curves  and  bends  of  the  Osage,  .\round  the  point  and  into  view  of  the  amazed 
settlers  came  slowly  the  Flora  Jones,  the  first  steamboat  to  ascend  the  upper 
Osage.  As  was  the  case  in  those  days  the  size  of  the  whistle  and  the  scream  of 
the  exhaust  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  dimensions  of  the  boat.    Old  river 


350  CEXTEXNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

men  say  that  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  hear  the  exhaust  of  those  pioneer 
steamboats  ten  or  twelve  miles.  The  whistles  carried  much  farther.  Long  stops 
and  much  use  of  the  whistle  to  give  notice  of  the  coming"  of  the  boat  was  the 
Ijractice  before  the  days  of  the  telegraph.  The  slow  rate  of  speed,  two  or  three 
miles  an  hour,  the  sinuous  course  of  the  Osage  and  the  reverberations  of  the 
caves  and  cliffs  added  enough  illusions  to  warrant  credence  for  this  tradition 
of  the  Osage. 

Long  after  the  first  steamboat  came  up  the  Missouri,  a  tradition  preserved 
in  Cedar  township  told  how  one  of  the  pioneers  hearing  the  whistle  shouted 
to  his  wife:  "Old  woman  hurry  up  and  wash  and  dress  the  children, — quick. 
That  was  sartinly  Old  Gabriel  tootin'  his  horn.     Git  ready!    Git  ready!" 

.\  steamboat  which  became  famous  for  its  whistle  was  the  Boreas.  The 
settlers  in  northeast  Missouri  called  it  "the  Screamer."  Judge  Fagg  said  in  his 
I'ike  county  recollections:  "I  have  been  on  the  prairie  near  Bowling  Green 
and  heard  her  at  Louisiana,  twelve  miles,  and  have  heard  her  from  Blue  Lick 
Knob  when  she  was  at  Clarksville.  ten  miles  on  an  air  line." 

Captain  Joseph  Brown  in  his  steamboat  reminiscences,  told  to  the  Missouri 
Historical  Society,  said: 

"I  could  stand  on  the  levee  any  nigTit  and  tell  almost  any  boat  either  by  the  sound  of 
her  escapement  or  the  souijd  of  her  bell,  long  before  she  reached  the  landing.  Indeed, 
owing  to  the  peculiar  construction  of  the  heaters  of  the  engines,  the  escapement  was  such 
that  hardly  any  two  were  alike,  and  many  of  them  could  be  heard  for  miles.  One  in  par- 
ticular. I  remember,  the  Boreas,  could  be  heard  scream  for  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  on  a 
clear  night,  while  others  had  a  heavy,  deep  sound  or  growl,  the  Hannibal,  a  big  New  Orleans 
boat,  being  of  the  latter  kind.  The  engines  of  the  Boreas,  when  she  was  wrecked,  were 
taken  out  and  sent  to  Chanwan,  Mexico,  and  put  into  a  silver  mine  to  do  pumping  duty. 
It  was  said  that  they  answered  a  double  purpose,  as  they  made  such  a  hideous  noise  that 
they  frightened  all  the  wild  beasts  and  even  the  Indians  away  for  many  miles  around." 

The  first  steamboat  up  the  Mississippi,  to  ascend  above  Louisiana,  was  the 
General  Putnam.  It  was  long  remembered  by  the  pioneers  of  the  northeastern 
part  of  Missouri. — a  sternwheeler  without  cabin  and  with  one  smokepipe.  The 
Putn.-im  carried  an  outfit  of  axes.  At  frequent  intervals  the  boat  was  run  to 
the  bank  and  the  crew  cut  wood.  More  than  a  week  was  required  to  make  the 
trip  from  St.  Louis  to  the  mouth  of  Fever  river. 

Missouri   River  Traxiitions. 

The  Spread  Eagle  had  the  picture  of  a  large  eagle  on  each  wheelhouse,  with 
the  words,  "E  Pluribus  Unum."  Captain  Ben  Johnson  was  called  upon  at 
Missouri  river  landings  to  tell  "what  them  words  ineant."  His  usual  transla- 
tion was  "Ever)'  tub  stands  on  its  own  bottom." 

The  Keystone  attempted  to  go  up  the  Kaw  river  during  high  water  in  the 
fifties,  the  captain  intending  to  make  Fort  Riley  with  his  cargo  of  military 
supplies.  He  missed  the  channel  and  got  aground  on  a  Kansas  prairie  where 
the  boat  was  left  high  and  dry  as  the  flood  went  down.  Later  in  the  season 
the  Indians  set  fire  to  the  grass  and  burned  the  boat. 

When  the  Polar  Star  made  the  trip  from  St.  Louis  to  St.  Joseph  in  two 
days  and  twenty  hours,  the  delighted  business  men  of  the  latter  city  presented  to 


CAPTAIN  WILLIAM  W.  GREENE 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  N.  BOFINGER 


"THE  HARP  OF  A  THOUSAND  SPRINGS" 

Submarine  wrecking  boat  designed  by  James  B.  Eads.     Used  before  the  Civil  War  to  salvage 

sunken  steamboats  and  their  cargoes 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  353 

Captain  Tom  Brierly  a  large  pair  of  elk  horns  tipped  with  silver.     The  captain 
fastened  the  horns  in  front  of  the  pilot  house  with  a  streamer,  "Beat  our  time 

and  take  our  horns — St.  Louis  to  St.  Joseph,  2  days  and  20  hours." 

The  Pontiac  with  700  barrels  of  whiskey  was  sunk  at  Smith's  bar  and  is 
supposed  to  be  buried  deep  in  the  sand  two  miles  from  the  present  channel. 

It  is  a  tradition  of  the  Missouri  river  in  the  days  when  as  many  as  twenty 
steamboats  arrived  at  St.  Joseph  in  a  single  day.  that  a  loaded  boat  on  the 
Missouri  would  draw  two  inches  less  than  in  the  Ohio,  due  to  the  silt  carried 
in  the  former  stream. 

Holcombe's  researches  satisfied  him  that  Missouri  interpreted  from  an  Indian 
language  does  not  mean  "Big  Muddy."  The  river  takes  its  name  from  the 
tribe  which  lived  along  the  banks.  -And  this  tribe,  according  to  Holcombe,  was 
called  by  the  Illinois  Indians  in  their  speech  "The  Missouris,"  meaning  "The 
People  Who  Use  Wooden  "Canoes." 

"I  have  heard  Joe  Kinney,  Captain  Joe,  say  that  he  made  $50,000  profit  on 
one  trip  from  St.  Louis  to  Fort  Benton  and  return  with  his  boat,  the  steamer 
Cora,  a  Missouri  river  packet,"  Dr.  W.  L.  Campbell,  the  Kansas  City  local  his- 
torian told.  "She  was  a  sidewheeler  and  the  top  of  her  left  wheelhouse  was 
painted  green.  She  sank  off  Bellefontaine  Bend,  and  they  called  it  Cora  Chute 
after  that.  Cora  Kinney,  the  captain's  daughter  married  Dr.  Hurt,  a  physician 
down  at  Boonville.  Another  boat  was  the  Columbian  of  the  St.  Louis  and 
Omaha  Packet  company.  She  used  to  put  off  freight  at  the  levee  here.  Cap- 
tain Barns  was  her  commander,  and  his  long  beard  used  to  blow  out  in  the 
wind.  She  was  a  big  sidewheeler  and  went  down  at  Buckhorn  bar  off  the  mouth 
of  the  Grand  river,  near  Brunswick." 

\\hen  the  Luella  came  down  the  Missouri  in  the  fall  of  1886,  Captain  Grant 
Marsh  brought  230  miners  and  $1,250,000  in  gold  dust. 

A  Thrill  on  the  Missouri. 

In  his  autobiography,  Calvin  Smith  tells  of  this  incident  which  came  under 
his  observation  on  a   Missouri   river  steamboat  before  the  Civil  war: 

"The  first  day  out  a  number  of  sharpers  started  card  and  dice  games  on  the  deck. 
They  kept  this  up  until  we  got  to  Boonville,  and  many  dropped  down  from  the  cabin  to 
look  on  or  take  a  hand.  We  left  Boonville  late  at  night  and  jogged  along  the  river.  Just 
at  daybreak  one  man  who  had  been  playing  with  the  sharpers  leaned  back  to  where  his 
wife  was  sleeping,  with  her  four  or  five  little  girls  cuddled  up  close  to  her,  and  said: 
'.'\nna.  I  have  lost  all  my  money.'  The  wife  jumped  up  and  although  only  clad  in  one 
undergarment,  which  barely  reached  to  the  calves  of  her  legs,  she  at  once  ran  to  where 
the  gamblers  were  playing.  She  grabbed  the  sweat  cloth,  the  faro  box,  dice  box,  cards, 
etc.,  all  of  the  money,  paper,  gold,  and  silver.  This  was  quite  a  large  amount,  as  it 
included  not  only  the  winnings  but  the  capital.  She  quickly  ran  to  the  forecastle,  then 
upstairs  to  the  clerk's  room.  The  clerk  happened  to  be  in,  so  the  woman  said :  'Here,  take 
this.    They  have  won  all  our  money.     We  have  not  paid  our  fare,  nor  for  the  freight.' 

"The  clerk  quickly  obeyed  orders  and  put  the  whole  bundle  in  the  safe.  One  of  the 
head  gamblers,  who  had  followed  the  woman,  got  there  just  in  time  to  see  the  money 
put  in  the  safe.  He  at  once  demanded  the  return  of  his  money,  both  from  the  woman 
and  the  clerk,  using  furious  oaths.  The  husband  of  .\nna  had  followed,  and  the  gambler 
drew  a  big  knife  and  flashed  it  in  his  face  and  drew  it  across  his  throat  while  with  the 
most   furious  of  oaths  he   demanded  the   return  of  his  money.     The  clerk  saw  that   war 

Vol.  1—23 


354  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

was  declared,  and,  as  the  steward  was  just  passing,  the  clerk  told  him  to  call  the  captain. 
As  soon  as  the  captain  came  to  the  clerk's  office,  the  woman  commenced  telling  him :  'It 
was  all  the  money  they  had  in  the  world  and  that  they  had  not  paid  their  freight  or 
passage.'  The  gamhler  tried  to  explain  but  the  woman  kept  repeating,  'It  was  all  the 
money  they  had.'  Her  tongue  ran  like  a  bell  clapper  repeating  the  same  thing  over  and 
over  again.  The  gambler  only  asked  for  a  fair  settlement  and  to  get  back  his  own  money, 
but  he  could  not  be  heard  on  account  of  the  woman. 

"The  captain  stepped  forward  to  the  boiler  deck  and  tapped  the  hell  for  the  pilot  to 
land  the  boat  on  the  starboard  side.  He  was  followed  by  the  woman  with  her  almost 
naked  children.  Some  of  them  had  on  torn  slips,  but  they  all  had  but  little  covering. 
As  it  was  warm  weather  in  June,  this  did  not  hurt  them  any.  They  clung  to  the  few 
articles  of  clothing  their  mother  had  on.  In  the  meantime  the  captain  had  ordered  the 
mate  to  take  two  sailors  and  bring  the  yawl  around  to  the  .starboard  side.  When  this  had 
been  done  the  captain  ordered  the  mate  to  bring  up  four  or  five  deckhands  to  the  boiler 
deck.  Then  the  captain  said,  'Take  these  two  men  and  put  them  ashore.'  The  mate  had 
a  long  bamboo  pole,  about  six  feet  in  length,  and  he  flourished  it  as  he  ordered  the  two 
gamblers  to  march.  I  could  not  help  but  laugh  as  the  decl<-hands  pointed  to  the  naked 
little  girls  as  the  gamblers  marched  past. 

"Down  in  the  forecastle  one  of  the  gamblers  said  to  a  friend,  'Have  our  boxes  and 
trunks  put  off  at  the  next  town  above.'  This  was  Lexington.  I  watched  the  gamblers  as 
they  marched  through  the  grass  and  weeds  up  toward  Glasgow,  which  was  about  six  or 
seven  miles  up  the  river.  When  we  passed  that  place  I  saw  nothing  of  the  two  gamblers. 
Next  night  at  nine  o'clock  when  we  reached  the  place  where  the  gamblers'  goods  were  to 
be  put  ofif  I  heard  their  friend  tell  the  warehouse  man  that  they  would  be  called  for  by 
two  men. 

"Next  morning  we  were  at  Liberty  Landing  and  the  man  who  had  lost  all  of  his 
money  was  attending  to  the  putting  off  of  the  boxes,  barrels,  bedsteads,  lots  of  bundles  of 
clothing  and  other  things  like  emigrants  usually  carry.  The  clerk  called  Anna,  the  man's 
wife,  to  cotne  to  his  office.  When  she  went  there  he  handed  her  a  bundle  made  of  the 
veritable  sweat  cloth  such  as  the  gamblers  used  in  the  game  the  night  before  and  a  receipt 
for  sixteen  dollars  for  freight  and  passage.  He  also  assisted  her  in  getting  the  children 
ashore  and  helped  with  her  bundles. 

"The  gentleman  who  put  oflf  the  freight  of  the  gamblers  near  Lexington  said  after- 
wards that  the  gamblers  told  him  they  lost  over  $I00  of  their  own  over  and  above  what 
they  had  won  up  to  the  time  of  leaving." 

Some  of  the  Missouri  Commodores. 

The  possibilities  of  steamboatitig  in  the  St.  Louis  trade  brought  to  the  city 
many  strong  men.  WilHam  Wallace  Greene,  a  native  of  Marietta,  Ohio,  a  de- 
scendant of  the  Rhode  Island  Greenes  of  Revolutionary  faine,  was  a  successful 
steamboatman  on  the  Ohio.  In  partnership  with  his  father-in-law,  Captain 
Joseph  H.  Conn,  of  Cincinnati,  he  built  the  Cygnet.  Captain  Conn  and  Cap- 
tain Greene  brought  the  Cygnet  to  St.  Louis  in  1834  and  became  residents  here, 
operating  several  boats  and  carrying  on  a  commission  business  as  Conn,  Sprigg 
&  Greene.  Captain  Greene  was  one  of  a  number  of  St.  Louis  steamboatmen 
who  were  not  only  strictly  moral  but  earnestly  religious.  He  was  a  ruling  elder 
in  the  Presbyterian  church. 

One  of  the  most  benevolent  of  the  men  who  amassed  fortunes  in  the  river 
trade  was  Captain  Richard  J.  Lockwood,  who  came  from  Delaware  in  1830. 
He  was  a  resident  of  St.  Louis  forty  years.  One  of  his  acts  of  benevolence  was 
the  contribution  of  $20,000  for  the  building  of  an  Episcopal  church  in  1866. 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  355 

\MiiIe  Henry  D.  Bacon  was  on  the  river  he  became  famous  for  his  strict 
observance  of  the  Sabbath.  One  of  the  boats  he  commanded  was  the  Hannibal. 
Wherever  midnight  of  Saturday  found  the  Hannibal,  Captain  Bacon  went  to 
the  bank  and  tied  up  until  the  same  hour  Sunday  night. 

The  McCune  family  came  from  Pennsylvania  originally,  migrating  first  to 
Bourbon  county,  Kentucky,  and  later  in  1817  to  Missouri.  John  S.  McCune, 
after  doing  business  some  years  along  the  upper  Mississippi  river,  came  to  St. 
Louis  in  1841.  The  impressions  he  had  received  from  his  earlier  experience 
prompted  him  to  organize  what  became  in  the  palmy  days  of  steamboating  one 
of  the  most  important  transportation  interests  of  St.  Louis.  Long  before  the 
railroads.  Commodore  McCune  had  in  operation  the  Keokuk  Packet  company. 
Up  to  that  time  the  steamboat  men  had  n.ot  appreciated  the  economies  and  the 
advantages  of  operation  in  companies.  A  great  deal  of  the  river  business  was 
done  by  individual  owners  of  boats  or  by  single  firms.  Commodore  McCune 
put  on  the  river  a  fleet  of  six  boats  which  ran  on  regular  schedules  between 
St.  Louis  and  Keokuk,  furnishing  facilities  for  all  intermediate  cities  and 
towns.  The  boats  were  so  far  superior  to  most  of  the  steamboats  between 
1840  and  1855  that  conservative  river  men  predicted  a  collapse.  Commodore 
McCune  and  those  associated  with  him  garnered  fortunes  on  their  enterprise. 
In  1857  the  Pilot  Knob  Iron  company  was  in  danger  of  going  down.  To  raise 
money  the  stockholders  proposed  to  give  as  collateral  to  eastern  capitalists  a 
very  large  amount  of  the  stock  for  a  loan  of  $300,000.  Commodore  McCune 
came  forward  and  advanced  the  money,  taking  the  presidency  of  the  iron  com- 
pany. That  was  one  of  the  acts  which  went  far  to  establish  at  an  early  date 
the  financial  independence  of  St.   Louis. 

Two  Illinois  boys,  born  in  the  southernmost  county  of  that  state,  sons  of 
an  Irish  father  and  a  Scotch  mother,  came  to  St.  Louis  to  seek  fortune.  They 
found  it  in  steamboating.  They  became  river  captains  of  the  best  type.  Barton 
Able  and  Daniel  Able  began  as  clerks  on  the  Ocean  Wave.  They  were  two  of 
the  best  known  men  of  St.  Louis.  They  were  "Bart"  Able  and  "Dan"  Able.  It 
was  said  of  Dan  Able  that  in  his  many  years  of  steamboating  not  a  life  was  lost 
on  any  boat  commanded  by  him.  In  185 1  he  made  a  trip  that  is  historic,  taking 
the  "Anthony  W^ayne"  160  miles  up  the  St.  Peters,  now  known  as  the  Minne- 
sota river,  the  first  steamboat  navigation  of  that  river.  He  also  took  the  Wayne 
up  the  Mississippi  above  St.  Paul  to  St.  .Anthony,  making  another  new  record. 

Decline  of  the  Traffic. 

Traffic  by  river  began  its  decline  soon  after  the  Civil  war.  In  1866  there  were 
fifty-one  steamers  running  from  St.  Louis  to  the  Upper  Missouri.  The  next  year 
there  were  seventy-one.  In  1868  the  decline  began.  There  were  sixty-two  steam- 
boats in  the  Upper  Missouri  trade  from  St.  Louis.  In  1869  the  decline  was  more 
apparent  for  the  number  of  boats  was  reduced  to  thirty-seven.  In  1870  the 
number  came  down  to  nine. 

In  the  palmy  days  fifty  steamboats  ran  regularly  from  St.  Louis  up  the 
Missouri.  In  the  times  of  heavy  immigration  this  number  was  largely  increased. 
There  was  first  class  passenger  trc^ffic  as  well  as  travel  of  emigrants  going  west- 
ward and  of  freight.    Some  of  the  Missouri  river  boats  were,  if  not  so  large,  as 


356  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

finely  finished  and  equipped  as  the  "floating  palaces"  on  the  Mississippi.  The 
Morning  Star,  the  Ben  Lewis,  the  Polar  Star  and  F.  X.  Aubrey,  named  for  the 
man  who  had  made  the  wonderful  ride  from  Independence  to  Santa  Fe,  the 
Cataract,  the  Meteor  and  the  New  Lucy,  were  favorites  with  first  class  travel. 
Before  the  Civil  war  these  boats  carried  as  many  as  200  cabin  passengers  on  a 
trip.  They  had  crews  of  twenty  negro  waiters  dressed  in  spotless  white  and 
they  served  meals  equal  to  the  best  hotel  bills  of  fare.  The  James  H.  Lucas 
was  a  record  breaker.  This  boat  made  the  trip  from  St.  Louis  to  St.  Joseph  in 
two  days  and  twelve  hours.  For  freight  from  St.  Louis  to  Fort  Benton  the 
charge  was  fifteen  cents  a  pound. 

In  1879  the  revival  of  "mountain  trade"  by  way  of  the  Missouri  river  was 
attempted.  Three  boats,  the  Dakota,  the  Wyoming  and  the  Montana,  were  built 
especially  for  the  proposed  mountain  service.  They  proved  to  be  too  large, 
could  not  compete  with  the  railroads  and  came  into  the  possession  of  Captain 
Jenkins  and  the  Keiths.  The  new  owners  pluckily  attempted  to  secure  the  lost 
trade  between  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  Cit^'  and  intervening  points.  Low  freight 
rates  by  the  railroad  and  high  insurance  on  the  boats  defeated  them. 

The  value  of  the  steamboats  registered  or  controlled  at  St.  Louis  in  1871 
was  $5,428,800.  Probably  the  most  ambitious  consolidation  of  steamboat  inter- 
ests was  attempted  at  St.  Louis  just  after  the  close  of  the  war.  The  Atlantic 
and  Mississippi  Steamship  company  was  organized.  It  owned  a  fleet  of  twenty- 
eight  of  the  finest  boats  on  the  western  rivers.  Leading  spirits  in  the  enterprise 
were  the  Scudders,  John  J.  Roe,  tlie  Ames  family,  the  Abies,  John  N.  Bofinger 
and  several  other  St.  Louisans  with  a  few  stockholders  from  the  Ohio.  The 
stock  was  $2,500,000.  If  the  .South  had  not  been  so  impoverished,  if  recovery 
had  been  rapid  as  expected,  the  consolidation  might  have  been  successful.  Cap- 
tain Joseph  Brown  said  of  the  collapse: 

"Tlie  .'\tlantic  and  Mississippi  Steamsl-.ip  company  was  organized  in  1866,  after  the 
war,  and  owned  28  steamers,  most  of  which  were  300  or  more  feet  long.  They  plied  l)etween 
St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans.  In  fifteen  months  that  company  lost  fifteen  of  the  twenty- 
eight,  either  by  explosion  or  sinking,  and  with  no  insurance.  I  was  made  president  of  the 
company  after  these  disasters,  and  remedied  the  evils  to  some  extent,  but  the  company's 
back  was  broken.  Inside  of  two  years  I  was  instructed  to  sell  out  at  auction  the  balance 
of  the  boats,  eleven  in  number.  While  no  one  but  the  stockholders  lost  any  money,  it 
fell  hard  on  them,  for  out  of  $70,000  that  I  had  in  stock  I  only  got  $2,600." 

The  White  and  Its  Curves. 

l-rom  its  four  heads  in  Boston  mountains  to  Batesville,  where  it  leaves  the 
Ozarks  and  enters  the  lowlands,  White  river  is  a  succession  of  astonishing 
curves.  No  other  river  on  the  coi]^inent  so  nearly  and  so  frequently  doubles 
upon  itself.  From  the  source  to  the  flat  country  is  a  distance  on  a  straight  line 
of  perhaps  150  miles.  White  river  between  these  points  has  a  course  of  over 
600  miles;  some  estimates  make  it  1,000  miles. 

The  beginning  is  in  the  western  part  of  Arkansas,  near  the  Oklahoma  line. 
The  water  runs  toward  all  points  of  the  compass  in  quick  succession  many 
times  before  it  adopts  a  comparatively  direct  course  to  the  Mississippi.  Front 
the  Boston  mountains  the  general  course,  with  many  a  bend  and  curve,  is  north- 


POSSJIJILITIES  OF    KIVER   TRANSPORTATION 
Six  tiainloads  of  fotton  on  a  St.  Louis  steamboat 


CROSSING  WHITK  RIVKK   l.\   THE  OZARKS 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  359 

ward  and  northeastward  into  ^^lissouri.  Probably  the  highest  point  in  this 
direction  is  Forsyth,  near  the  center  of  Taney  county.  From  this  place  the 
White  wriggles  its  way  back  into  Arkansas  and  down  through  Marion  county, 
to  where  the  Buffalo  joins  it.  But  not  until  the  Missouri-Arkansas  border  has 
been  crossed  seven  times  does  the  uncertain  stream  finally  bear  away  to  the 
southeastward  to  stay. 

Adding  to  the  marvel  of  White  river's  eccentric  meanderings  are  the  walls 
of  rock  which  tower  from  200  to  500  feet  often  from  the  water  edge.  A  bird's- 
eye  view  from  above  would  show  the  river  deep  set  in  a  canyon  of  continuous 
and  often  sharp  curvatures.  A  mile  of  river  in  a  straight  line  is  unusual.  The 
canyon-like  valley  of  the  White  narrows  in  places  almost  to  the  channel's 
width.  Over  most  of  the  course  it  is  wide  enough  for  a  strip  of  fertile  bottom 
land  along  the  river. 

The  water  wanders  from  one  side  of  the  vallev  to  the  other.  It  washes  the 
base  of  the  towering  palisades  first  on  the  right  and  then  on  the  left.  It  main- 
tains close  relationship  with  a  clift"  for  half  a  dozen  miles.  Then  it  suddenly 
crosses  through  the  bottom  lands  and  hugs  the  opposite  frowning  pass.  On  a 
bright  day  a  stretch  of  the  winding  river  seen  from  a  summit  of  the  palisades 
shimmers  like  well-polished  silver.  "White"  aptly  describes  the  appearance.  A 
nearby  view  from  the  banks  reveals  a  degree  of  purity  which  is  not  equaled 
by  any  other  western  river  outside  of  the  Ozarks.  The  contrast  of  comparison 
with  the  streams  which  flow  through  alluvial  country  is  striking.  White  river 
has  its  origin  in  mountain  springs.  Numberless  underground  channels  in  the 
limestone  strata  help  to  swell  the  volume.  Tributaries  vary  from  tiny  rivulets 
starting  high  up  on  the  benches  of  the  mountains  to  powerful  streams  which 
gush  forth  with  a  roar  from  beneath  the  shelves  of  overhanging  rock.  Twenty 
miles  below  Forsyth,  beside  the  White,  is  McGill  spring,  which  pours  out  from 
the  face  of  the  cliff  a  body  of  water  strong  enough  to  run  a  large  mill.  It  is  a 
type  of  hundreds,  while  the  smaller  and  unnamed  springs  can  only  be  enumerated 
by  thousands. 

Navigating  the  White. 

Many  )erirs  ago  Forsyth  was  reached  by  steamboats  on  White  river.  The 
bold  navigators  pushed  their  sternwheelers  to  the  fo.ot  of  the  rapids.  Then  they 
sent  the  roustabouts  clambering  over  rocks  and  among  the  trees,  dragging  the 
tovvline  its  full  length.  The  upper  end  was  strongly  fastened  to  stand  the  strain. 
The  boat  end  of  the  hawser  was  wound  around  the  capstan.  With  the  paddle 
wheels  driven  by  every  pound  of  pressure  available,  and  with  the  donkey  engine 
winding  in  the  towline,  the  boat  dragged  and  pushed  itself  up  foot  by  foot 
through  the  foaming  rapids.  After  the  passage  was  made  a  long  reach  of 
smooth,  deep  water  made  easy  progress  for  perhaps  twenty,  perhaps  fifty  miles. 
In  this  wav  Forsvth  was  reached.  .And  when  the  boat,  "loaded  to  the  guards" 
with  lead  and  cotton  and  hogs  and  the  various  productions  of  the  White  river 
countrv.  turned  her  head  downstream,  there  was  little  to  do  except  trust  to 
Providence  and  the  nerve  of  the  man  behind  the  pilot  wheel.  The  current  did 
the  rest. 

But  the  railroads  built  into  South  Missouri.  The  Ozark  people  took  to  rais- 


360  CEXTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ing  less  cotton  and  more  corn,  which  they  fed  to  live  stock  that  could  be  driven 
overland  to  railroad  points  north.  The  inducements  for  river  transportation 
to  and  from  Forsyth  became  smaller.  One  day,  in  a  spirit  of  daring,  Capt. 
Bateman  said  he  was  going  to  take  the  Wary  C.  to  Forsyth  if  it  was  her  last 
trip.  He  made  McBee's  and  the  other  landings  above  Buflfalo  City,  and  tri- 
umphantly awoke  the  echoes  of  the  heights  of  Pine  mountain  as  the  boat  came 
in  sight  of  Forsyth.  But  pride  went  before  the  worst  fall  that  could  happen 
to  a  steamboatman.  In  trying  to  turn  the  Mary  C.'s  head  downstream,  the  cap- 
tain failed  to  gauge  the  width  of  the  channel.  He  "ran  her  nozzle  ag'in  the 
bank"  on  one  side.  The  stern  went  around  with  a  sweep  and  lodged  against  a 
gravel  bar  on  the  other  side.  The  Mary  C.  lay  for  a  few  moments  broadside 
in  the  channel,  blocking  it.  There  was  creaking  and  groaning.  The  hog  chains 
parted.  The  Mary  C.'s  back  was  broken.  The  wreck  lay  there  until  the  ele- 
ments wore  it  to  pieces  which  floated  away.  That  was  the  end  of  navigation 
to  Forsyth. 

The  most  important  tributary  to  the  White  above  Forsyth  is  the  James.  It 
joins  from  the  Missouri  side,  and  is  wholly  within  this  state.  Its  character  is 
very  like  that  of  the  White  and  the  other  branches.  Two  points  in  Stone 
county.  Galena  and  Marvel  Cave,  are  joined  by  a  ridge  road  eighteen  miles  long. 
James  river  also  connects  these  two  points,  but  runs  125  miles  in  its  crooked 
cour.se-  to  do  so.  W'ith  the  James  added,  the  White  becomes  at  Forsyth  a  river 
in  more  than  name.  When  it  is  "up"  the  ferry  is  the  only  means  of  crossing. 
In  low  stages  the  stream  is  fordahle  at  the  ''riffles."  The  long  reaches  of  still 
water  are  many  feet  in  depth. 

Pioneer  Water  Power. 

C)n  a  branch  of  the  Fennne  Osage  creek  in  St.  Charles  county,  Jonathan 
Bryan  built  a  water  mill.  This,  according  to  tradition,  was  the  first  use  made  of 
water  power  in  Missouri  outside  of  St.  Louis.  The  mill  is  said  to  have  been  built 
in  1801.  It  would  grind  from  six  to  ten  bushels  of  grain  in  the  course  of  a  day 
and  a  night.  The  early  settlers  at  St.  Charles,  on  Loutre  Island  and  between 
depended  on  the  Bryan  mill  for  their  flour  and  meal.  Bryan  used  the  same 
stones  to  grind  the  wheat  and  the  corn.  He  sifted  the  flour  in  a  box  by  hand. 
The  creek  upon  which  the  mill  was  located  was  fed  by  a  spring.  Bryan  had 
such  confidence  in  the  operation  of  his  plant  that  he  filled  the  hopper  with  corn 
in  the  morning  and  went  about  other  work.  He  gave  his  attention  to  the  mill 
only  as  it  was  necessary  to  refill  the  hopper  and  to  empty  the  basin.  In  this 
way  the  mill  ran  continuously  through  the  twenty-four  hours.  From  the  stones 
the  meal  and  flour  dropped  into  a  large  basin  on  the  floor.  About  a  mile  from 
this  mill  Daniel  Boone  was  living  with  his  son  Nathan.  The  Boones  had  a  dog 
they  called  Cuff.  This  dog  found  an  opportunity  in  Bryan's  absence  from  the 
mill.  He  went  there  and  licked  the  meal  out  of  the  basin.  When  Cuff  was 
especially  hungry  and  the  meal  did  not  run  from  the  stones  fast  enough  to 
suit  him  he  would  bark.  In  this  way  Bryan  learned  the  defect  in  his  system. 
He  discarded  the  basin  and  used  a  large  coffee  pot,  the  top  of  which  was  too 
small  for  the  dog's  head. 

Other  water  mills  were  built   in  the  pioneer  period,  but  they  were  not  as 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  361 

numerous  as  might  have  been  expected  from  Missouri's  unparalleled  water 
power.  On  the  border  between  Arkansas  and  Missouri  the  Mammoth  Spring 
was  utilized  for  milling  purposes.  Beyond  this  the  power  possibilities  of  the 
never  failing  streams  and  springs  of  the  Ozarks  were  ignored  practically  until 
the  present  generation. 

Hydro-Electric  Opportunities. 

A.  M.  Haswell  of  Springfield,  who  is  qualified  as  an  expert  in  knowledge 
of  the  Ozarks,  recently  wrote: 

"Water  power,  more  of  it  twice  over  than  has  made  the  six  stony  little  New  England 
states  the  richest  of  the  nation.  Not  only  so,  but  with  a  far  greater  variety  of  uses  for  it 
than  New  England  has,  or  ever  had.  Water  powers  so  situated,  some  of  them,  as  to  be 
susceptible  of  developing  without  so  much  as  a  dam. 

"For  instance,  the  Gasconade  river  in  Pulaski  county  has  the  'Moccasin  Bend,'  where 
that  fine,  swift  stream  winds  through  the  hills  for  some  eight  miles,  and  turns  back  on 
itself  until  a  neck  only  780  feet  across  separates  the  water  in  its  upper  and  lower 
courses.  .\  simple  tunnel  through  the  neck  would  give  a  fall  of  almost  25  feet,  and  fur- 
nish 5,000  horsepower.  Six  miles  distant,  in  a  straight  line,  is  another  great  bend  sixteen 
miles  around  and  a  mile  across,  with  a  fall  of  48  feet.  There  are  others  of  the  same 
sort  on  the  James  and  White  rivers  in  Stone  county,  and  in  a  dozen  other  places. 

"Then  there  are  the  great  springs.  The  Greer  spring  in  Oregon  county  flows  435,000,000 
gallons  every  twenty-four  hours.  The  largest  spring  in  the  world.  It  has  site  after  site 
where  that  immense  flow  could  be  used  over  and  over  again.  Bennett's  spring  in  the 
eastern  edge  of  Dallas  county  is  another  mammoth  nearly  half  as  large  as  the  Greer; 
Hahatonka  is  another,  and  so  on.  .^nd  these  spring  powers  have  this  signal  advantage 
over  a  power  formed  by  damming  an  ordinary  stream,  they  are  constant.  The  Greer 
spring  does  not  varj-  5  per  cent  in  volume,  be  the  season  wet  or  dry." 

John  T.  Fitzpatrick,  while  state  labor  commissioner,  pointed  out  the  possi- 
bilities of  water  power,  using  the  recently  completed  plant  of  the  Ozark  Power 
and  \\'ater  company  as  an  illustration.  This  plant  is  on  White  river.  It  was 
completed  in  September,  1914.  It  started  with  a  capacity  of  17,000  horsepower, 
having  a  possible  capacity  of  28.000.  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  ventured  the  assertion 
that  the  streams  with  rapid  currents  in  the  Ozark  region  can  furnish  power  for 
one  thousand  plants  equal  to  the  one  mentioned.  The  dam  on  W'hite  river  is 
fifty  feet  high  and  thirteen  hundred  feet  long.  It  is  built  of  hollow  reinforced 
concrete  and  has  a  spillway  six  hundred  feet  across  over  which  the  water  can 
pass  twenty  feet  deep  in  time  of  flood.  The  White  river  plant  cost  $2,000,000, 
which  includes  the  cost  of  the  transmission  lines  to  Carthage,  Webb  City,  Joplin 
and  Springfield.  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  oftered  the  suggestion  that  at  a  point  in  the 
northwestern  portion  of  St.  Louis  county  the  Missouri  river  is  many  feet  higher 
than  the  Meramec  and  distant  only  a  few  miles.  A  canal  to  connect  the  two 
rivers,  the  commissioner  said,  would  furnish  power  sufficient  to  run  the  street 
car  system  of  St.  Louis,  light  the  streets  and  operate  many  industries. 

One  of  the  engineers  who  worked  on  the  White  river  plant  volunteered  the 
opinion  that  there  was  a  power  site  every  twenty-five  miles  on  the  White  river. 
.  The  power  is  carried  on  lines  supported  by  steel  piers.  Menard  L.  Holman,  who 
was  consulted  in  the  selection  of  the  site  at  Branson,  said  he  had  traveled  all  over 
the  United  States,  east  and  west  and  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf  and  that  nowhere 
had   he    found   such   possibilities  of   water   power   development  as   exist   in   the 


362  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Ozarks  between  the  Missouri  river  and  the  Arkansas  line.  "The  same  invest- 
ment made  in  the  Keokuk  dam  project."  he  said,  "if  spent  in  hydro-electric 
development  of  the  Ozarks  would  return  a  much  larger  profit." 

Lyman  E.  Cooley,  the  engineer  of  the  Chicago  Canal,  for  years  advocated 
the  construction  of  dams  across  the  Mississippi  to  create  electrical  energy.  He 
went  even  so  far  as  to  indicate  locations  where  the  topographical  conditions 
favor.  Before  the  Congressional  committee  on  Rivers  and  Harbors,  Professor 
Cooley  said  that  two  dams,  one  just  below  St.  Louis  and  the  other  at  Com- 
merce, Missouri,  could  be  built  to  supply  in  each  case  100,000  horsepower. 

The  Ozark  rivers  make  great  circuits  of  miles — then  return  upon  their 
coucses  so  nearly  that  only  a  mighty  mass  of  rock  a  few  hundred  feet  thick 
separates.  The  water  on  one  side  of  this  narrow  partition  is  a  dozen  feet  or 
more  higher  than  on  the  other  side,  the  equivalent  of  the  natural  fall  in  the 
circuit  of  miles. 

The  waters  of  Meramec  spring  rise  in  a  basin  ninety  feet  across.  This  basin 
is  at  the  foot  of  a  bluff.  The  flow  of  water,  measured  by  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  is  125,000,000  gallons  in  twenty-four  hours.  And  this  flow-  is 
of  very  little  variation ;  neither  does  the  temperatufe  change  much  with  the 
seasons.  The  water  is  clear  and  free  from  organic  matter.  Local  rainfall  has 
little  effect.  From  where  can  such  a  volume  come?  That  is  one  of  the  many 
mysteries  of  the  Ozarks.  Before  a  treatment  to  take  the  silt  out  of  the  Missis- 
sippi was  discovered,  the  City  of  St.  Louis  seriously  considered  the  Meramec 
spring  as  the  source  of  its  water  supply  by  means  of  an  aqueduct. 

Twelve  years  ago  surveys  were  made  for  a  hydro-electric  plant  on  the 
Meramec,  150  miles  southwest  of  St.  Louis.  At  the  place  selected  the  river 
flows  over  solid  rock  and  between  bluffs.  The  plans  called  for  a  dam  thirty 
feet  high.  As  the  river  channel  falls  rapidly  below  the  dam  it  was  possible 
by  leading  the  water  in  a  canal  to  add  twenty  feet  more  to  the  fall,  making 
the  effective  head  on  the  turbine  wheels  fifty  feet.  The  plant  was  expected 
to  generate  4,800  horsepower.  Surveys  were  made  to  locate  other  similar 
plants  on  the  Meramec  and  available  sites  were  found  for  half  a  dozen  more. 
The  promise  of  40,000  horsepower  from  the  Meramec  alone  was  held  out 
by  the  projectors.  Actual  constj;uction  was  postponed  until  devices  to  prevent 
leakage  of  the  current  in  course  of  transmission  could  be  perfected.  The 
leakage  problem,  the  electrical  engineers  say,  has  held  back  the  develojament 
of  hydro-electric  power  in  Missouri.  The  best  locations  for  w^ater  power 
plants  are  long  distances  from  the  market  for  the  current. 

In  the  northeastern  corner  of  Dallas  county  is  one  of  the  mammoth  springs 
of  the  Ozarks.  It  flows  60,000  gallons  a  minute.  Springs  supplying  from 
thirty  to  forty  horsepower  are  numerous  in  Reynolds  county.  Laclede  county 
spreads  over  stretches  of  the  Gasconade,  the  Big  Niangua  and  the  Ozark  fork 
of  the  Gasconade. 

But  Missouri  is  at  last  turning  attention  to  water  power.  That  is  the  notable 
new  thi'ng  in  the  state's  industrial  development.  Companies  are  being  formed. 
One  was  chartered  by  citizens  of  Edgerton,  Dearborn  and  Trimble  to  dam  the 
Platte  near  the  first  mentioned  place  for  the  generation  of  electric  power  to 
supply  several  communities  in  that  part  of  the  state. 


ONE  OF  MISSOURI'S  CXJUNTLESS  SPRINGS 


MISSOURI  BETHESDAS 
"111  the  space  of  a  city  block  are  one  huiulivil  ami  two  medical  springs.     No  two  of  tliem 

exactly  alike  in  tlieiv  propertiers 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  365 

The  Missouri  Bethesda. 

The  first  healtli  resort  in  Missouri  was  Loutre  Lick,  which  was  referred 
to  by  Henry  Clay  on  the  floor  of  Congress  as  early  as  1824  as  "the  Bethesda 
mentioned  by  the  honorable  senator  from  Missouri." 

Van  Bibber  tried  to  make  salt  but  the  water  was  not  strong  enough  in  saline 
quality.  Of  the  medicinal  virtue  there  was  no  doubt.  Daniel  Boone  came 
repeatedly  to  Loutre  Lick  and  remained  weeks  at  a  time  drinking  the  waters. 
He  thought  that  he  received  great  benefit  for  a  kidney  trouble.  Stomach  and 
bowel  ailments  were  helped.  Invalids  of  several  generations  visited  the  spring. 
The  name  of  the  place  was  changed  to  Mineola  some  time  after  the  Civil 
war. 

In  the  vicinity  of  Mineola  are  many  artificial  mounds  in  which  human 
bones  have  been  found.  Fragments  of  pottery  in  numbers  have  been  picked 
up,  indicating  that  Loutre  Lick  was  visited  by  aborigines  long  before  the 
white  men  came.  Pioneers  in  this  neighborhood  accumulated  collections  of 
stone  axes,  flint  arrows  and  implements  fashioned  from  bone.  Loutre  Lick 
is  in  a  basin  among  the  Loutre  Creek  hills.  Thomas  H.  Benton,  even  after  he 
went  to  Congress,  visited  Loutre  Lick.  He  tested  the  waters  with  such  re- 
sults that  he  had  occasion  to  mention  their  medicinal  qualities  in  a  speech. 
Loutre  Lick  was  on  a  tract  of  ground,  460  acres  altogether,  which  was  granted 
by  the  Spanish  governor  at  St.  Louis  in  1799  to  Nathan  Boone,  the  son  of 
Daniel.  Boone  sold  the  place  to  Major  Isaac  Van  Bibber  in  1815.  \'an  Bib- 
ber was  an  orphan  who  had  been  raised  by  the  Boones. 

At  Lebanon,  artesian  boring  tapped  a  vein  of  "magnetic  water.'"  Erwin 
Ellis  described  the  peculiar  quality  of  this  medicinal  spring:  "Go  into  the 
engine  room,  make  it  perfectly  dark  and  let  a  little  steam  out  by  the  stopcock. 
Then  put  the  end  of  your  finger  in  the  steam.  Each  little  drop,  as  it  forms  on 
your  finger  from  the  condensation  of  steam,  will  show  a  spark  of  electric  Hght. 
You  can  stand  in  the  steam,  and  as  the  drops  form  on  your  whiskers  and  hair 
they  will  give  out  enough  electric  light  to-  make  the  features  distinguishable. 
If  you  let  the  steam  from  the  water  play  on  the  blade  of  your  knife  you  will 
find  that  it  will  magnetize  so  that  you  can  pick  up  a  pin  or  a  nail.  I  don't  pre- 
tend to  understand  how  the  electricity  or  magnetism  is  carried  in  the  water,  but 
what  I  tell  you  has  been  demonstrated  many  times." 

Medicinal  Waters. 

Monegaw  springs  in  St.  Clair  county  took  the  name  of  a  famous  Osage 
Indian  chief  who  lived  and  died  near  by.  In  the  space  of  about  a  city  block 
are  102  of  these  springs  and  no  two  of  them  are  exactly  alike  in  their  properties. 
There  are  black,  yellow  and  white  sulphur  waters  of  varying  degrees.  Some 
of  the  springs  arc  saline;  others  chalybeate.  About  1851  the  government  sent 
out  from  \\'ashingt()n  scientific  men  to  inspect  the  Monegaw  springs.  The  ex- 
aminr'ition  showed  that  this  sulphur  water  was  without  superior  in  the  United 
States.  The  medicinal  qualities  were  declared  to  be  of  great  value.  In  the 
pioneer  period,  many  cures  of  chronic  ailments  like  rheumatism  and  dyspepsia 
resulted  from  visits  to  Monegaw.  Physicians  before  the  Civil  war  sent  pa- 
tients long  distances  to  these  waters.     At  that  time  steamboats  ascended  the 


36G  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Osage  to  Osceola  and  above.  They  brought  cargoes  to  replenish  the  stocks  of 
merchants  who  supplied  goods  in  job  lots  to  stores,  not  only  in  Southwest  Mis- 
souri, but  across  the  border  in  ihc  Indian  Territory  and  Kansas  and  Arkansas. 
There  were  wholesale  houses  in  Osceola  which  carried  stock  valued  at  $ioo,- 
ooo.  When  Lane  and  his  raiders  came  over  from  Kansas  in  1861  to  burn 
Osceola  they  carried  away  a  wagon  train  of  plunder  which  the  leader  estimated 
to  be  worth  $1,000,000.  St.  Clair  county  is  a  region  of  wonderful  springs  in  ad- 
dition to  those  of  Monegaw.  A  few  miles  southwest  of  Osceola  are  salt  springs. 
At  Taberville  are  sulphur  springs.  In  many  other  places  are  found  medicinal 
waters. 

"White  Sulphur"  on  the  Osa^e. 

Right  miles  above  Warsaw  on  the  Osage  was  the  \\'hite  Sulphur,  which  be- 
came a  famous  resort  before  the  war.  A  large  hotel  was  built  and  other  im- 
provements to  encourage  visitors  to  the  springs  were  planned  but  the  hotel 
burned  and  the  war  interfered  with  the  plans. 

Five  miles  from  Warsaw  are  the  Black  Sulphur  Springs,  six  in  number, 
flowing  streams  of  such  pressure  and  volume  as  to  make  them  phenomenal  even 
in  a  region  of  such  examples  of  water  power  as  the  Ozarks  possess.  Evi-- 
dences  that  the  Indians  in  great  numbers  came  and  camped  at  these  Benton 
county  springs  abound.  Many  years  ago,  scientists  came  from  the  East  to  dig 
up  skeletons  of  the  mastodon  in  this  county.  Along  the  Pomme  de  Terre  these 
skeletons  were  especially  numerous.  One  was  said  to  have  found  a  market  at 
$20,000  for  a  natural  history  collection  in  the  East.  The  end  of  a  tusk  three 
feet  long  and  indicating  a  mastodon  tooth  nine  feet  long  was  for  years  an  ob- 
ject of  curiosity  in  a  Warsaw  store. 

The  medicinal  value  of  the  Mooresville  Mineral  Springs  were  discovered  by 
letting  the  hogs  use  the  water.  Not  a  case  of  cholera  occurred  among  them 
while  the  disease  was  raging  in  the  droves  round  about.  Then  a  chemical  an- 
alysis showing  the  constituents  was  obtained.  It  justified  the  establishment  of 
a  hotel.  The  Mooresville  waters  took  their  place  for  curative  properties  with  the 
most  effective  of  mineral  waters. 

In  the  sand  rock  of  Warrensburg  are  iron,  sulphur  and  magnesia  springs, 
the  waters  of  which  have  been  proven  of  much  value  in  the  treatment  of 
stomach,  bowel  and  kidney  troubles. 

The  Future  of  Missouri's  Mineral  Waters. 

The  dav  seems  not  far  distant  when  the  mineral  springs  of  Missouri  will 
come  into  nation-wide  recognition  for  health  giving  properties.  Cooper,  Saline, 
Howard  and  adjoining  counties  have  salt  springs  of  such  volume  and  strength 
that  salt  making  was  one  of  the  first  manufacturing  industries  of  Missouri. 
Professor  Swallow,  when  state  geologist,  reported  that  half  of  the  counties  in 
the  state  had  sulphur  springs.  Chouteau  in  Cooper,  Monegaw  in  St.  Clair,  Elk 
in  Pike,  Excelsior  in  Clay  are  only  a  few  of  the  springs  which  have  won  past 
or  present  repute  for  their  medicinal  virtues.  Sweet  Springs,  on  Blackwater 
creek,  flow  chalybeate  waters  containing  salts  of  iron.  Petroleum  or  tar  springs 
in   Carroll,   Ray,   Cass,   Lafayette,   Batfes,   Vernon  and  other  counties  yielding 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  367 

quantities  of  lubricating  oil,  carrj-  the  encouragement  of  the  possible  develop- 
ment of  a  great  oil  field  somewhere  in  Missouri. 

One  of  the  largest  springs,  believed  for  years  by  geologists  to  be  the  largest 
in  Missouri,  flows  nearly  ii.ooo.ooo  cubic  feet  of  water  a  day  according  to  the 
measurement  by  state  officials.  From  its  head  this  spring,  known  as  Bryce's, 
flows  a  river  forty-two  yards  wide.  It  is  in  the  Niangua  country  which  includes 
parts  of  Dallas,  Hickory  and  Camden  counties. 

"Row  you  up  Salt  river,"  was  a  dire  warning  in  Missouri  as  early  as  1830. 
Salt  river,  the  Riviere  au  Sel  of  the  French  and  the  Oa-haha  of  the  Indians, 
heads  near  the  northern  boundary  of  Missouri  and  runs  through  Shelby,  Mon- 
roe, Ralls  and  Pike  counties.  An  old  Gazetteer  said  "the  threat  to  row  an  an- 
tagonist up  Salt  river"  was  understood  to  be  equivalent  to  prediction  of  utter 
defeat. 

Pioneer  River  Improvement. 

River  improvement  in  ^lissouri  had  its  beginning  nearly  one  hundred  years 
ago.  It  was  successful  in  that  it  told  future  generations  how  not  to  do  it.  An 
immense  sandbar  formed  in  front  of  St.  Louis.  It  threatened  to  throw  the 
channel  far  over  to  the  Illinois  side.  And  that  at  a  time  when  St.  Louis  was 
just  commencing  to  realize  the  good  of  river  traffic.  Wealthy  citizens  raised 
a  lot  of  money  for  that  day.  General  Bernard  Pratte  headed  the  list.  Thomas 
Fiveash  Riddick  came  forward  with  a  plan.  He  was  the  man  who  had  ridden 
horseback  to  Washington  in  the  dead  of  winter  to  get  Congress  to  give  for 
public  schools  land  not  covered  by  French  grants  and  other  private  titles. 
He  was  a  public  spirited  citizen  of  much  initiative.  Riddick's  theory  was  to 
plow  these  deposits  of  Missouri  river  silt  when  the  water  was  low.  He  argued 
that  the  next  rise  would  carry  away  the  loosened  sand.  Public  opinion  decided 
that  Riddick's  theory  would  work  out.  John  Goodfellow, — mark  the  name!— - 
was  chosen  to  take  charge.  He  got  oxen  and  the  heaviest  plow  he  could  find. 
Up  and  down  the  sandbar,  Goodfellow's  oxen  were  gee-ed  and  haw-ed,  dragging 
the  great  plow  until  they  had  loosened  every  foot  of  sand  which  showed  above 
water.  All  St.  Louis  gathered  on  the  river  front  and  watched  the  job  of  plow- 
ing the  Mississippi.  The  people  turned  out  again  when  the  water  rose  and 
fell.  The  bar  was  still  there  and  growing  and  the  channel  was  moving  east- 
ward. This  went  on  from  bad  to  worse  until  Congress  took  up  the  problem. 
A  young  lieutenant  of  engineers  was  sent  out  from  Washington.  He  remained 
for  months,  built  dykes  which  threw  the  current  back  and  made  it  carry  away 
the  silt  it  had  deposited.  The  sandbar  was  washed  away  and  St.  Louis  was 
saved  from  becoming  an  inland  city.  The  young  lieutenant  was  Robert  E. 
Lee. 

In  Commodore  Gaxrison's  Day. 

The  fame  of  Commodore  C.  K.  Garrison  rested  mainly  upon  his  long  identi- 
fication with  water  transportation  before  the  Civil  war.  The  Commodore  had 
his  day  in  St.  Louis.    Captain  Joseph  Brown  remembered  this: 

The  hull  of  the  Convoy  was  built  by  Captain  Garrison,  up  the  Big  Muddy  river,  largely 
by  his  own  labor,  he  handling  the  broadax.     She  was  a  large  and  fine  boat  for  her  day. 


368  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

I  remember  being  on  her  one  trip  coming  up,  when  there  were  quite  a  lot  of  young,  jolly 
fellows  on  board.  They  played  a  joke  on  Captain  Garrison  by  getting  one  of  their  number 
to  go  to  the  captain  just  before  they  reached  Memphis  and  secure  the  privilege  of  ringing 
the  bell,  as  was  the  custom,  before  arriving  at  a  town.  But  the  captain,  also  making  a 
joke  of  it  on  his  part,  told  the  young  fellow  that  it  would  cost  him  five  dollars.  This  the 
young  man,  expecting  to  get  even  with  him.  readily  paid.  When  they  got  within  ringing 
distance  of  Memphis  he  commenced  to  ring  the  big  bell,  that  weighed  over  a  ton,  and 
kept  on  until  the  captain,  sitting  on  the  roof  of  the  boat,  looked  around  and  said,  "All 
right,  that  will  do."  "No,"  said  the  the  young  fellow,  "I  haven't  got  the  worth  of  my 
money  yet." 

"But,"  said  the  captain,  "you  will  alarm  the  town ;  they  will  think  the  boat  is  on  fire." 
"I  can't  help  that,"  was  the  reply,  "I  haven't  got  the  worth  of  my  money  yet." 
"Well,"  roared  the  captain,  "stop  it,  and   I'll  give  you  back  your  money." 
"No,"  screamed  the  youth,  "I  don't  stop  until  you  give  me  back  my  mon^y  and  agree 
to  give  the  party  a  champagne  supper." 

"All  right,"  acquiesced  the  captain,  "I  see  you  have  got  me." 

Commodore  Garrison  was  a  brother  of  Captain  Dan  and  the  other  Garrisons  of  St. 
Louis. 

The  Artist  of  the  Missouri. 

"Morning  on  the  Missouri"  is  the  subject  of  a  canvas  which  has  acquainted 
eastern  folks  with  the  distinctive  scenery  which  the  rivers  of  the  state  offer 
to  the  artistic  sense.  John  Sites  Ankeney  won  fame  more  than  state-wide  by 
devoting  his  years  to  picturing  the  river  and  cliff  scenes  of  Missouri.  He 
roamed  the  bluffs  of  the  Missouri  river  for  a  hundred  miles  or  more.  He 
wandered  through  the  Ozarks.  He  made  a  typical  Missouri  home  with  a  big 
fireplace  his  studio  in  the  old  town  of  Rocheport.  There,  with  the  tawny  river 
in  front  and  the  gray  limestone  clifTs  all  about  for  atmosphere,  he  transferred 
to  canvas  the  sketches  made  in  his  wanderings.  His  paintings  hang  in  the  cor- 
ridors of  the  university  at  Columbia,  giving  inspiration  to  successive  genera- 
tions of  student  Missourians.  Going  to  and  from  their  classes  the  boys  and  girls 
stop  in  groups  before  the  scenes  of  river  and  landscape,  gaining  at  once  ad- 
miration for  art  and  increased  love  for  their  home  state.  This  Missouri  artist 
studied  abroad  with  the  best  masters.  He  was  sent  by  the-  United  States  gov- 
ernment as  a  delegate  and  lecturer  to  the  International  Art  congress  at  Dres- 
den in  1912.  He  was  on  the  advisorj'  committee  of  the  Art  Congress  in  Lon- 
don in  1908,  and  a  member  of  the  advisory  committee  for  the  Central  West  at 
the  Panama-Pacific  exposition.  The  art  world  knows  Ankeney  much  better 
than  do  his  fellow  citizens  in  Missouri.  It  knows  him  as  preeminently  "The 
Artist  of  the  Missouri." 

To  a  newspaper  man  some  years  ago,  Mr.  Ankeney  talked  interestingly  of 
his  chosen  field, — Missouri  scenery. 

"The  painter  is  just  like  the  reporter.  He  goes  out  and  makes  notes,  only  he  reports 
in  color  and  the  reporter  in  words.  The  principle  is  the  same.  I  must  get  accurate  and 
complete  information  to  make  a  picture.  I  can't  use  my  imagination  for  that  would  not 
fill  out  the  details.  Perhaps  I  am  down  on  the  Missouri  in  March.  A  cloud  effect  comes 
along  and  I  work  hard  for  an  hour  before  it  is  gone  and  make  a  sketch  of  it.  A  year 
later  I  may  be  on  the  river  at  the  same  spot,  or  near  by,  in  June,  when  the  vegetation  on 
the  bluffs  and  the  banks  is  especially  striking.  I  make  a  sketch  of  this.  Then  I  take  the 
two  and  from  them  get  an  idea  for  a  third  and  complete  picture.  I  use  the  first  sketch 
for  the  cloud  effect  for  this  complete  picture  and  the  second  for  the  vegetation  along  the 
banks.     Of  course,   I  take  careful  notes   as  to  detail,  relative   size,  shape  and   number  of 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  S.  McCUNE 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  SIMONDS 


A  MISSOURI   RIVER   SCENE  NEAR   LEXIXC.TOX 


THE  WATERS  OF  MISSOURI  371 

bluffs,  how  they  look  at  the  skyline,  and  countless  other  things  needed  when  painting  the 
large  canvas.  When  I  am  down  by  the  river  the  sight  of  those  great  bluffs,  whose  age 
far  surpasses  that  of  the  Sphinx,  overpowers  me.  One  hour  the  joyousness  of  sunlight 
bathes  all  in  glory,  the  ne.xt  the  quiet  gray  restfulness  comes.  Some  days  the  air  is  clear 
and  one  can  see  form  and  hue,  though  many  a  mile  away ;  on  others  the  mist  shuts  out 
the  far  to  make  the  near  more  interesting.  But  I  can't  e.xpress  in  words  how  the  river 
impresses  me.    That  I  try  to  do  in  painting." 

The  most  beaiitifu!  view  in  ^lissoiiri,  Mr.  Ankeney  considers  the  bold  front 
of  the  Ozark  Uplift  where  it  faces  the  Missouri  river  between  New  Haven  and 
Hermann.  He  says  the  stretch  of  bluff  and  plain  mingling  with  the  river  in 
this  location  is  beyond  expression  in  words. 

Two  Ancient  Misses. 

Many  years  ago,  a  third  of  a  century  or  more,  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Mis- 
souri, who  loved  his  state  "and  occasionally  allowed  poetic  fancy  right  of  way 
over  briefs,  wrote  these  lines  on  "Two  Ancient   Misses" : 

"I  know  two  ancient  misses 
Who  ever  onward  go, 
From  a  cold  and  rigid  northern  clime. 
Through  a  land  of  wheat  and  corn  and  wine. 
To  the  southern  sea  where  the  tig  and  the  lime. 
And  the  golden  orange  grow. 

"In  graceful  curves  they  wind  about. 
Upon  their  long  and  lonely  route 
Among  the  beauteous  hills ; 
They  never  cease  their  onward  step. 
Though  day  and  night  they're  dripping  wet, 
And  oft  with  sleet  and  snow  beset. 
And  sometimes  with  the  chills. 

"The  one  is  a  rompin.fr,  dark  brunette. 
As  fickle  and  gaj'  is  any  coquette ; 
She  glides  along  by  the  western  plains. 
And  changes  her  bed  each  time  it  rains ; 
Witching  as  any  dark-eyed  houri. 
This  romping,  wild  brunette,  Missouri. 

"The  other  is  placid,  mild  and   fair. 
W'ith  a  gentle,  sylph-like,  quiet  air. 
And  voice  as  sweet  as  soft  guitar. 
She  moves  along  the  vales  and  parks. 
Where  naiads  play  Aeolian  harps — 
Nor  ever  go  by  fits  and  starts — 
No  fickle  coquette  of  the  city. 
But  gentle  constant  Mississippi. 

"I  love  the  wild  and  dark  brunette. 
Because  she  is  a  gay  coquette ; 
Her,  too,  I  love  of  quiet  air, 
Because  she's  gentle,  true  and  fair ; 
Land  of  my  birth  1    1  he  east  and  west 
Embraced  by  these  i.'  doubly  blest — 
'Tis  hard  to  tell  which  I  love  best." 


CHAPTER    XI 
TRAILS   AND   TRACKS 

The  Old  U'ildcnicss— Ghost  Pond — Train  Trcnsporlatioit — Tactics  of  freighting— A  Tem- 
perance Pledge — The  Day's  Routine — Recollections  of  a  Veteran  Trader — The  Fast 
Mail  Stage  Line — The  Trail's  Tragedies— Amateur  Surgery — Pony  Express — The  Old 
Stage  Driver — The  First  Iron  Horse — When  Missourians  Invaded  Illinois — Beginning 
of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi — Railroad  Convention  of  1849 — -4  Chapter  of  Secret  His- 
tory— Benton's  Change  of  Mind  on  Internal  Improvements — Missouri's  First  Formal 
Railroad  Movement — Promotion  of  the  Missouri  Pacific — Ground  Broken  on  the  Fourth 
of  July — A  Great  Day  on  the  Edge  of  Chouteau's  Pond — Railroad  Celebrations — 
Official  Openings — Transcontinental  Mail  by  Stage  and  Rail — A  Rapid  Change  of 
Gauge — Primitive  Construction — The  First  Train  Out  of  St.  Joe — Beginnings  of  Big 
Systems — Origin  of  the  Wabash — Paramore's  Narrois:  Gauge — A  Missourian  Originated 
Railway  Mail  Service — An  Historical  Mistake — State  Bonds  at  Heavy  Discount — 
M'lssouri  the  Pioneer  in  Rate  Regulation — Governor  Fletcher's  Recommendation — 
Profit  Sharing  IVas  Possible— Liens  Gave  State  Control — Railroad  Companies  Accepted 
the  Regulation  Condition — State  Operation  of  the  Southwest  Branch — Receipts  Greater 
than  Operating  Expenses — The  Bond  Burden — Gould's  Purchase  of  the  Missouri 
Pacific — Deals  ziith  the  Garrisons  and  Thomas  Allen — Missourians  and  the  Transconti- 
mental   Rivalry. 

I  suggest  in  any  disposition  you  make  of  this  read  there  be  reserved  the  right  of  the  state  to  regulate 
the  cliarges  for  carrying  freight  and  passengers  and  that  a  penalty  he  attached  for  exceeding  such  rales. 
*  *  *  The  present  is  perhaps  the  hest  occasion  for  requiring  (in  all  cases  where  it  may  be  legally  done) 
of  all  railroads  a  small  annual  tribute  to  the  state,  which  could  be  so  insignificant  in  amount  as  not  to 
interfere  with  the  profitable  operation  of  the  roads,  but  which  would  in  the  aggregate  ultimately  grow  to 
be  a  sum  sufficient  to  carry  on  the  state  government  without  the  le\-y  of  any  taxes  on  the  people  for  stale 
purposes. — Goxerttor  Thomas  C.  Fletcher  to  Mis.nuri  Legislature. 

Almost  due  south  from  Springfield  is  the  course  of  the  "Old  Wilderness 
Trail,''  or  road  as  called  in  later  years.  It  is  120  miles  long.  It  crosses  the 
Ozark  range.  The  southern  terminus  is  Berr\-ville.  Arkansas.  On  the  entire 
route  there  are  only  two  breaks  where  hills  worthy  of  the  name  are  encountered. 
One  is  at  the  Finley  creek  crossing.  The  other  is  at  the  White  river  crossing. 
This  Old  Wilderness  road  is  one  of  the  most  novel  stretches  of  mountain  travel 
to  be  found  anywhere.  To  parallel  a  range  and  maintain  a  ridge  level  is  not 
so  extraordinary.  But  perhaps  nowhere  else  can  a  mountain  range  be  crossed 
at  right  angles  without  a  succession  of  hills.  This  north  and  south  transverse 
ridge  of  the  Ozarks  is  a  strange  freak.  It  crooks  and  curves,  but  it  never  runs 
out.  In  places  it  broadens  until  it  makes  a  table  land,  on  which  settlers  have 
cleared  homesteads  and  made  good  farms.  In  other  places  it  narrows  until  there 
is  just  room  for  a  wagon  road.  You  look  one  side  down  a  steep  slope  of  500 
feet,  with  peaks  and  ridges  jumbled  together  beyond.    You  look  down  the  other 

373 


374  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

side  a  like  grade  and  see  as  far  as  the  vision  reaches  the  bald  knobs  bobbing  up 
in  all  directions.  On  either  side  lead  trails  to  the  stiffest  of  mountain  climbing. 
But  before  you  extends  a  level  road,  somewhat  flinty,  but  with  no  grades  up  and 
down  which  horses  can  not  trot,  and  over  which  a  bicycle  might  not  be  wheeled 
with  comfort. 

The  bald  knobs  are  not  the  least  interesting  freaks  of  this  Ozark  region. 
W^hen  Farmer  Wade  went  to  Congress  from  the  Springfield  district  his  col- 
league. Major  Warner,  introduced  him  to  a  Massachusetts  member  one  day. 

"Farmer  Wade  is  a  bald  knobber,"  said  Major  Warner. 

The  Massachusetts  man  looked  inquiringly  a  moment,  and  as  his  eyes  fell 
on  the  polished  dome  of  Farmer  Wade's  thinker,  he  responded: 

"Ah,  yes,  I  see.     Bald  knobber  is  verj'  good." 

The  Massachusetts  man  builded  better  than  he  knew.  If  there  is  anything 
in  nature  which  can  be  compared  to  an  entirely  bald  head,  the  kind  that  takes 
on  high  polish,  it  is  one  of  these  bald  knobs  of  the  Ozarks.  You  may  be  in  the 
midst  of  a  heavy  growth  of  white  oak  and  pine.  There  is  forest  all  around. 
But  through  a  vista  you  get  a  glimpse,  across  the  range,  of  a  great  round  knob, 
without  so  much  as  a  scrub  oak  or  a  rock  upon  it.  Grass,  which  glistens  in  the 
sunlight,  grows  all  over  the  knob  so  luxuriaiuly  as  to  hide  any  minute  unevenness 
of  the  surface.  Right  in  the  midst  of  other  hills  and  ridges  clothed  in  forest 
stands  the  bald  knob  without  a  sign  of  foliage,  with  nothing  but  its  grassy  coat- 
ing. At  first  sight  it  is  hard  to  convince  one's  self  that  nature  is  responsible 
for  the  knob's  baldness. 

Ghost  Pond. 

A  landmark  on  the  Old  Wilderness  road  is  Ghost  pond.  A  hundred  yards  to 
the  east  of  the  road  is  a  depression.  It  is  a  kind  of  natural  sink.  In  the  center 
is  an  acre  of  dark-colored  water.  Grass  grows  down  to  the  edge  of  the  pond. 
A  few  stumps  project  above  the  surface.  Two  or  three  trees  have  fallen  half- 
way in  the  water.  The  forest  is  all  around.  People  who  travel  the  Old  Wilder- 
ness road  and  know  all  about  it  do  not  often  to  stop  to  water  or  to  camp  at 
Ghost  pond. 

A  band  of  bushwhackers  came  up  the  Old  Wilderness  road  on  a  foraging 
expedition  during  the  war.  They  camped  at  the  pond  and  went  on  the  next  day 
to  Galena,  a  dozen  miles.  Here  they  killed  three  old  men,  among  the  most 
prominent  citizens,  Cox,  Davis  and  Baker.  They  took  150  head  of  cattle  and 
what  plunder  they  could  carrj'  and  started  back  for  the  Old  Wilderness  road 
and  Arkansas.  The  alarm  was  sounded,  and  the  Stone  county  home  guards 
rallied  at  Galena  as  fast  as  they  could  travel  over  the  mountain  trails.  Capt. 
Baker,  a  son  of  one  of  the  victims  of  the  guerrillas,  organized  the  pursuit.  The 
home  guards  overtook  the  bushwhackers  on  Bailey's  creek.  They  spread  out 
and  climbed  along  the  mountains  on  both  sides  of  the  trail.  With  their  superior 
knowledge  of  the  country  the  guards  were  able  to  pick  off  the  bushwhackers  with 
little  loss  to  themselves.  The  bushwhackers  at  last  abandoned  the  cattle  and 
fled.  The  home  guards  seemingly  gave  up  the  fight.  In  reality  they  followed 
the  bushwhackers  and  prepared  a  trap.  Finding  himself  as  he  supposed  be- 
yond pursuit,  the  guerrilla  chief  went  into  camp  at  the  pond.     The  home  guards 


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TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  377 

crawled  up  on  all  sides,  and  at  the  crack  of  dawn  opened  fire.  It  was  a 
slaughter.  Of  the  120  men  who  came  up  from  Arkansas  only  twenty  crossed 
White  river  on  the  return.     Nine  bodies  were  taken  from  the  little  pond. 

The  Santa  Pe  Trail  in  1828. 

Development  of  the  -Santa  Fe  Trail  commerce  came  early  in  the  history  of 
Missouri  The  Intelligencer,  which  had  been  removed  a  short  time  previous 
from  Franklin  to  Fayette,  said  in  the  issue  of  May  2,  1828: 

"The  town  of  Franklin,  as  also  our  own  village,  presents  to  the  eye  of  the  beholder, 
a  busy,  bustling  and  commercial  scene,  in  buying,  selling  and  packing  goods,  practicing 
mules,  etc.,  etc.,  all  preparatory  to  the  starting  of  the  great  spring  caravan  to  Santa  Fe.  A 
great  number  of  our  fellow  citizens  are  getting  ready  to  start,  and  will  be  off  in  the  course 
of  a  week  on  a  trading  expedition.  We  have  not  the  means  of  knowing  how  many 
persons  will  start  in  the  first  company,  but  think  it  probable  the  number  will  exceed  150, 
principally  from  this  and  the  adjoining  counties.  Thej'  generally  purchase  their  outfits 
from  the  merchants  here  at  from  20  to  30  per  cent  advance  on  the  Philadelphia  prices,  and 
calculate  to  make  from  40  to  100  per  cent  upon  their  purchases.  They  will  generally  return 
in  the  fall.  We  suppose  the  amount  that  will  be  taken  from  this  part  of  the  country  this 
spring  will  not,  perhaps,  fall  short  of  $100,000  at  the  invoice  prices.  We  wish  them  a  safe 
and  profitable  trip,  a  speedy  return  to  their  families  and  homes  in  health,  and  may  they 
long  live  to  enjoy  the  profits  of  their  long  and  fatiguing  journey  of  nearly  1,000  miles 
through  prairies  inhabited  only  by  savages  and  wild  beasts." 

Magnitude  of  Trail  Transportation. 

The  Missouri  firm  of  Majors,  Russell  and  W'addelL took  a  contract  from  the 
government  to  convey  across  the  plains  as  much  as  16,000,000  pounds  of  sup- 
plies at  a  time.  This  required  an  investment  of  $2. 500.000.  The  supplies  were 
taken  up  the  Missouri  river  and  landed  at  the  outfitting  points.  Such  a  con- 
tract as  that  indicated  called  for  four  thousand  wagons,  fifty  thousand  oxen 
and  one  thousand  mules.  This  will  give  some  idea  of  the  magnitude  which  the 
trail  business  reached. 

The  system  which  these  Missourians  developed  in  the  business  of  freighting 
across  the  plains  was  interesting.  Before  any  one  was  accepted  he  was  required 
to  sign  this  contract :  "While  I  am  in  the  employ  of  Majors,  Russell  and  Wad- 
dell,  I  agree  not  to  use  profane  language,  not  to  get  drunk,  not  to  gamble,  not 
to  treat  animals  cruelly,  not  to  do  anything  else  that  is  incompatible  with  the 
conduct  of  a  gentleman,  and  I  agree,  if  I  violate  any  of  the  above  conditions,  to 
accept  my  discharge  without  collecting  any  pay  for  my  services." 

The  BuUwhacker's  Task. 

I'erhaps  the  hardest  part  of  the  pledge  was  that  relating  to  profane  lan- 
guage. The  duties  of  the  teamster  required  him  to  yoke,  to  herd,  to  unyoke  and 
to  drive  twelve  oxen  from  thirteen  to  fifteen  miles  a  day,  drawing  a  wagon 
loaded  with  three  tons  of  freight.  The  teamster  was  known  in  the  language 
of  the  train  as  a  "bullwhacker."  At  night  the  wagons  were  placed  end  to  end, 
forming  an  oval,  and  within  this  wagon-bounded  corral  were  driven  the  oxen 
before  the  starting  hour.  As  nearly  as  practicable  the  train  was  made  to  con- 
sist  of  thirty   wagons.     Early   in   the   morning  the   thirty   "buUwhackers"'   took 


378  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

thirty  yokes  upon  their  shoulders  and  lined  up  around  the  corral.  Then  came 
the  command  from  the  wagon  master,  "Yoke  up."  The  "bullwhackers"  phinged 
into  the  herd  of  cattle,  each  selected  a  steer  for  a  place  on  one  side  of  the  tongue 
of  his  wagon.  Whether  the  steer  was  wild  or  tame  the  "bulhvhacker"  must 
slip  the  bow  around  the  neck  and  put  the  yoke  in  place.  Then  he  began  a 
search  among  the  three  hundred  or  four  hundred  kicking,  bellowing,  hooking 
steers  for  a  nigh  or  an  off  o.x  to  complete  the  tongue  yoke.  Having  secured  his 
wheelers  the  "bullwhacker"  drove  them  out  through  the  gap  of  the  corral  and 
fastened  the  ring  of  the  tongue  to  the  yoke.  The  beginning  was  thus  made. 
With  another  yoke  on  his  shoulder  the  "bulhvhacker"  entered  the  corral  and 
picked  the  "ofif  leader"  and  the  "near  leader."  He  drove  this  pair  to  a  wheel  of 
his  wagon  on  the  inside  of  the  corral  and  made  them  fast.  Then  with  a  third 
yoke  he  went  in  .search  of  the  pair  of  "swing  cattle"  who  were  to  follow  im- 
mediately behind  the  leaders.  Then  a  fourth  pair  was  yoked  and  the  fifth  pair. 
The  leaders  and  the  four  yokes  following  attached  to  the  chain  were  driven 
through  the  gap  and  placed  in  front  of  the  wheel  pair.  In  this  way  the  "bull- 
whacker"  completed  his  motive  power  for  the  day.  If  the  train  was  about 
starting  on  the  long  trail  and  the  cattle  were  wild  it  might  require  two  hours 
to  yoke  up.  After  the  cattle  were  broken  and  the  "bullwhackers"  had  become  ex- 
pert the  twelve  oxen  could  be  yoked  up  in  fifteen  minutes. 

It  was  necessary  to  exercise  no  little  care  in  making  the  selections,  especially 
for  the  wheel  pair  and  the  leaders.  The  wagon  master  was  in  command  with  all 
of  the  authority  of  the  captain  on  a  ship.  He  kept  close  watch  on  the  teams 
until  they  were  made  up  and  marked.  If  a  "bullwhacker"  was  careless  he  might 
select  the  oxen  most  easily  handled.  Such  animals  were  slow  and  lazy.  They 
were  known  as  "dead-heads."  If  a  team  was  made  up  of  "dead-heads"  it  would 
fall  behind.  The  wagon  master  made  it  his  business  to  see  that  the  wild  and  the 
lazy  oxen  were  so  distributed  as  to  give  uniform,  speed  to  the  several  teams.  If 
he  found  that  one  team  had  too  many  slow  and  lazy  oxen  he  required  the  "bull- 
whacker" at  the  next  yoke-up  to  trade  with  some  one  whose  pairs  were  wild  and 
lively.  After  some  days  out  when  a  wagon  master  had  distributed  the  oxen  so 
as  to  stop  lagging  and  to  obtain  from  all  about  the  same  rate  of  speed  he  ordered 
the  "bullwhacker"  to  mark  each  of  his  steers.  After  this  the  "bullwhacker"  in 
yoking  up  obtained  the  same  team  from  day  to  day. 

The  Problem  of  "Deadheads." 

A  story  was  current  in  Missouri  during  the  freighting  days  about  an  Irish- 
man who  entered  the  employ  of  Majors.  Russell  and  Waddell.  This  man  was 
green,'  a  recent  arrival  in  the  country.  In  yoking  up  he  took  the  twelve  oxen 
that  were  easiest  to  handle.  As  the  result  he  found  himself  in  the  possession 
of  twelve  "deadheads,"  and  as  the  result  delayed  the  movement  of  the  train. 
The  wagon  master  went  into  the  corral  one  morning  and  yoked  up  the  team 
for  the  Irishman,  making  different  selections.  He  told  the  Irishman  to  keep  the 
team  the  next  day  and  thereafter  just  as  he  had  yoked  it.  The  Irishman  wanted 
to  know  how  in  the  world  he  was  going  to  be  able  to  do  that  when  oxen  all 
looked  alike  to  him.  "Put  a  mark  on  e<<ch  of  them,"  ordered  the  wagon  master. 
At  the  next  stop  there  was  serious  trouble  in  the  Irishman's  team.     The  wagon 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  379 

master  ran  to  the  scene  to  see  what  was  the  matter.  The  Irishman  replied  that 
he  was  putting  a  mark  on  each  of  the  beasts  as  he  had  been  told  to  do.  The 
wagon  master  replied  that  that  was  all  right,  but  how  did  he  mean  to  mark 
them.  "I  am  going  to  punch  the  left  eye  out  of  every  one  ^f  them,"  said  the 
Irishman,  "then  I  will  know  that  I  will  have  no  more  trouble  yoking  the  devils. 
I  can  slip  up  on  the  blind  side  and  have  them  yoked  before  they  know  I  am 
there." 

Customs  of  the  Trail. 

A  day's  travel  was  divided  usually  into  two  drives  of  from  six  to  seven  or 
eight  miles  each.  The  train  started  early  in  the  morning.  The  drives  were 
made  to  reach  the  most  favorable  camping  places  where  grass  and  water  were 
plenty.  The  first  drive  was  started  as  soon  as  it  was  light  enough  to  see.  Some- 
what before  noon  the  wagons  were  corraled  and  the  cattle  were  given  the  feed. 
In  hot  weather  the  yoke-up  for  the  afternoon  drive  was  not  ordered  until  three 
or  four  o'clock.  The  drive  on  such  days  was  continued  until  nine  or  ten  o'clock. 
When  the  cattle  were  unyoked  they  were  turned  over  to  the  night  herder  who 
kept  watch  over  them  as  they  moved  about  seeking  the  best  grass.  One  man 
could  take  care  of  three  hundred  or  four  hundred  head  of  oxen  at  night  because 
it  was  only  necessary  to  keep  track  of  the  leader.  In  the  herd  of  a  train  there 
developed  very  soon  after  the  start  on  the  trail  one  animal  which  all  the  others 
recognized  as  a  leader.  Wherever  the  leader  went  the  rest  of  the  herd  followed. 
The  night  herder  having  located  the  leader,  got  off  his  mule,  drove  a  pin  in  the 
ground,  attached  a  long  rope  that  allowed  the  mule  some  range,  rolled  himself 
in  his  blanket  and  went  to  sleep.  This  was  the  night  herder's  course  when  the 
grass  was  plentiful.  After  they  had  grazed  about  three  hours  the  oxen  would 
obtain  in  that  time  sufficient  feed  and  would  remain  quiet,  lying  down  until 
near  morning.  When  grass  was  scarce  the  leader  would  wander  about  the  plains, 
all  the  herd  following  him,  a  longer  time,  thus  requiring  the  night  herder  to 
follow  and  keep  awake.  With  the  first  appearance  of  gray  in  the  east  the  night 
herder  rounded  up  the  oxen  and  started  back  for  the  corral.  He  might  have  a 
mile  to  drive  or  possibly  five  times  that  distance.  When  he  was  within  hearing 
of  the  corral  he  shouted,  "Roll  out !  Roll  out !  Roll  out !"  This  was  the  signal 
for  the  "buUwhackers"  to  prepare  breakfast  and  be  ready  to  yoke  up.  The  meal 
on  the  trail  consisted  of  potatoes,  fat  meat,  flapjacks  and  black  coffee  with  such 
game  as  was  brought  in  by  the  hunters. 

"Yoke  up!"  was  the  first  order  that  came  from  the  master  of  the  caravan  as 
soon  as  breakfast  was  over.  Then  the  yoking  and  chaining  went  on.  "All's  set" 
was  the  answer  as  each  teamster  completed  that  work  and  he  who  could  respond 
first  was  the  best  man.  "Fall  in !"  was  the  next  .order  and  the  long  line  of 
wagons  was  formed.  "Stretch  out!"  commanded  the  wagon  master.  The  yokes 
creaked,  the  wheels  rattled  and  the  train  moved  at  oxen  pace. 

Walter  B.  Waddell,  a  resident  of  Lexington,  grandson  of  a  member  of  the 
historic  firm  of  Alexander,  Majors  and  Waddell,  said  that  often  a  single  train 
would  require  300  mules.  To  each  wagon  were  allotted  twelve  mules  or  six 
yoke  of  oxen.  Drivers  were  paid  from  $25  to  $30  a  month  and  were  supplied 
with  rations.    The  time  of  a  trip  from  Lexington,  which  was  one  of  the  principal 


380  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

starting  points,  to  Santa  Fe  was  between  eighty  and  ninety  days.  Ordinary 
freight  consisted  of  beef,  bacon,  corn,  dried  fruits,  beans  and  peas,  all  carefully 
packed  and  under  cover.  The  rate  was  ten  cents  a  pound.  Each  wagon  was  ex- 
pected to  earn  frqin  $500  to  $600  a  trip.  Missouri's  great  mule  industry  had 
"it?  early  encouragement  in  the  Santa  Fe  and  overland  traffic. 

John  D.  Turley's  Recollections. 

The  Turleys  of  Saline  county,  two  generations  of  them,  followed  the  trail 
trade  from  1825  down  to  the  Civil  war.  Judge  John  D.  Turley,  eighty-five 
years  old,  at  his  home  near  Arrow  Rock,  gave  Walter  Williams,  then  president 
of  the  Old  Trails  Association,  this' account  of  his  experiences: 

"We  fought  Indians  across  the  entire  continent  and  carried  on  a  most  profitable  trade 
in  merchandise  with  the  Mexicans.  We  bought  whisky  from  the  distilleries  in  Missouri  at 
16  to  40  cents  a  gallon  and  sold  it  in  Taos  at  $3  a  gallon.  It  was  terrible  stuff,  too.  We 
diluted  it  with  water,  making  two  gallons  out  of  ever>-  gallon,  but  even  then  it  was  terrible. 
The  ox  teams  had  six  yoke  of  oxen  and  the  ordinary  load  for  a  wagon  was  7,200  pounds- 
A  load  of  3,000  pounds  is  a  good  wagon  load  now.  We  took  our  merchandise  to  Taos  or 
Santa  Fe,  opened  a  regular  store  and  would  sell  our  entire  stock  in  two  or  three  months. 
The  remnants  of  our  last  stock  my  father  traded  for  Mexican  sheep  at  $1  a  head,  took  the 
sheep  to  California  and  sold  them  at  $10  a  head.  I  sold  sassafras  root  at  $4.50  a  pound 
in  Taos.  We  traveled  about  twenty-five  miles  a  day.  The  last  trip  took  forty-nine  days. 
We  met  on  that  trip  Rose,  said  to  be  the  handsomest  Indian  woman  in  the  West.  My 
father  made  his  first  trip  in  1825  and  the  Turleys  stayed  on  the  trail  until  nearly  the  open- 
ing of  the  Civil  war.  Various  tricks  were  played  on  the  Mexicans.  There  was  a  tariff  on 
every  load  of  goods  brought  into  Mexican  territory.  The  tariff  was  so  much  a  wagonload. 
If  the  wagon  was  empty  it  was  admitted  duty  free.  Some  traders  would  load  the  goods 
just  outside  the  Mexican  territory  into  half  the  wagons  and  drive  in  with  half  the  caravan 
made  up  of  empty  wagons,  thus  paying  but  half  the  duty.  The  fandango — a  kind  of  public 
dance — was  the  chief  form  of  social  entertainment.  The  Spanish  girls  at  the  fandangoes 
were  sometimes  treated  to  ice  cream  and  whisky.     It  is  a  devilish  combination." 

The  Fast  Stage  Line. 

The  Missouri  Commonwealtii  was  published  at  Independence  in  the  palmy 
days  of  the  Santa  Fe  Trail.  A  copy  of  it  issued  in  July.  1840,  and  preserved  in 
the  office  of  the  editor  of  the  Examiner,  gave  this  account  of  the  starting  of 
the  fast  overland  mail  line  following  the  gold  discoveries  in  California: 

"We  briefly  alluded  some  days  since,  to  the  Santa  Fe  line  of  mail  stages,  which  left 
this  city  on  its  first  monthly  journey  on  the  ist  instant.  The  stages  are  got  up  in  elegant 
style  and  are  arranged  to  convey  eight  passengers.  The  bodies  are  beautifully  painted  and 
made  water-tight  with  a  view  of  using  them  as  boats  in  ferrying  streams.  The  team  con- 
sists of  six  mules  to  each  coach.  The  mail  is  guarded  by  eight  men,  armed  as  follows : 
Each  man  has  at  his  side,  fastened  in  the  stage,  one  of  Colt's  long  revolving  rifles ;  in  a 
holster  below,  one  of  Colt's  long  revolvers,  and  in  his  belt  a  small  Colt's  revolver,  besides 
a  hunting  knife;  so  that  these  men  are  ready  in  case  of  attack,  to  discharge  136  shots  with- 
out having  to  reload.  This  is  equal  to  a  small  army,  armed  as  in  the  ancient  times,  and 
from  the  looks  of  this  escort,  ready  as  they  are  either  for  offensive  or  defensive  warfare 
with  the  savages,  we  have  no  fears  for  the  safety  of  the  mails.  The  accommodating  con- 
tractors have  established  a  sort  of  base  of  refitting  at  Council  Grove,  a  distance  of  150  miles 
from  the  city,  and  have  sent  a  blacksmith  and  a  number  of  men  to  cut  and  cure  hay,  with 
a  quantity  of  animals,  grain  and  provisions,  and  we  understand  thej-  intend  to  make  a  sort 
of  traveling  station  there  and  commence  a  farm." 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  381 

Tragedies  of  the  Trail. 

Missourians  met  tragedies  on  the  trail.  One  of  the  earliest  and  most  thrill- 
ing was  in  1828,  not  long  after  the  United  States  commissioners  had  negotiated 
with  the  Indians  at  Council  Grove  the  opening  of  the  trail.  A  large  wagon 
train  made  the  trip  from  PVanklin.  Missouri,  to  Santa  Fe  and  disposed  of  the 
goods  carried  at  good  profits.  The  Missourians  had  come  as  far  as  the  Arkansas 
river  to  a  place  near  what  is  now  Lamar,  Colorado,  when  they  found  the  Co- 
manches  camped  across  the  trail.  The  Indians  pretended  to  be  friendly.  They 
invited  the  party  to  stop  in  their  camp,  offering  food  and  care  of  the  stock.  The 
Missourians  pushed  through.  The  Comanches  followed  and  attacked.  For  an 
hour  there  was  a  running  fight.  Then  the  Comanches  retired.  Of  what  fol- 
lowed Walter  \\'illiams.  in  his  journey  over  the  trail  in  191 1.  obtained  this  ac- 
count from  Joseph  H.  \'ernon  of  Lamed,  Kansas,  who  heard  the  story  from  old 
trailsmen  in  the  early  days : 

"When  night  came  on  the  Indians  resumed  their  attacks,  endeavoring  to  stampede 
the  horses  so  that  they  could  chase  them  ofY  and  then  capture  them.  Their  attempts  were 
almost  successful  several  times  during  the  night  and  they  were  only  kept  from  accomplish- 
ing their  purpose  by  tying  the  bell  mare  to  one  of  the  wagons  and  jingling  the  bell  every 
time  the  Indians  charged.  The  next  day  the  Comanches  renewed  the  attack  as  vigorously 
as  ever.  Forming  in  a  circle,  they  galloped  round  and  round  the  ill-fated  caravan,  shouting 
their  demoniacal  warwhoops  in  a  most  fiendish  manner.  So  fierce  were  the  harassing  tactics 
which  they  used  that  the  little  line  of  prairie  schooners  succeeded  in  advancing  only  five 
miles  during  the  day.  This  annoyance  was  kept  up  night  and  day  for  a  week  until  the 
travelers  were  almost  exhausted   from  loss  of  sleep. 

"Finally  one  day  about  noon  the  Indians  drew  off  and  retreated  as  if  giving  up  the  con- 
flict. The  little  party  congratulated  themselves  at  having  outwinded  their  opponents  and 
decided  to  stop,  cook  a  square  meal  and  let  the  horses  graze  a  while.  Hardly  had  they 
turned  the  animals  out  when,  with  a  hideous  whoop,  the  marauding  rascals  came  over  the 
top  of  a  nearl)y  hill  and.  charging  the  herd,  stampeded  them  before  the  luckless  travelers 
could  offer  any  resistance.  One  of  the  party,  in  an  endeavor  to  save  some  of  the  stolen 
stock,  was  wounded  si.xteen  times.  l)ut  succeeded  in  making  his  way  back  to  camp.  The 
fight  continued  intermittently  for  some  time,  but  when  the  good  marksmanship  of  the  whites 
began  to  tell  on  the  ranks  of  the  painted  demons  they  withdrew  to  wait  for  the  coming  of 
darkness  to  finish  their  work.  The  little  band  of  white  men  was  then  indeed  in  a  most 
desperate  situation.  Their  wagons,  it  is  true,  formed  a  good  fortification,  but  there  was  no 
way  of  telling  how  long  the  Indians  would  keep  up  the  siege,  knowing  as  they  did  that  it 
would  be  only  a  matter  of  time  until  the  whites  would  die  of  thirst.  To  remain  with  the 
caravan  meant  certain  death  if  the  Indians  persisted  in  their  attacks.  The  only  possible 
escape  was  to  get  away  .under  cover  of  darkness.  This  they  decided  to  do.  if  possible. 
Leaving  in  the  camp  the  goods  and  much  of  the  silver,  for  which  they  had  sold  merchandise 
in  Santa  Fe,  they  took  $10,000  and  started.  Their  escape  was  undiscovered.  They  traveled 
for  two  days  and  nights  with  nothing  to  eat  but  a  few  prickly  pears  and  then  stopped  to 
rest,  camping  near  the  present  site  of  Las  .Animas,  Colorado.  Most  of  the  party  were  in 
a  very  weak  condition  after  their  exhausting  experience  and  it  was  evident  that  they 
could  not  stand  the  weight  of  any  heavy  burdens,  so  they  determined  to  'cache'  the  silver, 
keeping  only  a  small  sum  for  each  man.  Proceeding  to  a  small  island  in  the  .\rkansas 
river,  they  buried  their  treasure  between  two  large  Cottonwood  trees  and.  after  carefully 
obliterating  all  evidence  of  the  secret  hiding  place,  they  continued  their  journey  toward 
the  settlements.  .After  several  days  of  forced  marching  they  reached  Pawnee  Rock,  near 
where  Lamed  now  is,  where  they  had  hopes  of  falling  in  with  some  caravan  and  obtain- 
ing relief. 

"Their  condition  was  indeed  deplorable.  At  Cow  creek  it  was  decided  that  the  strong- 
est  members   of   the   party,   leaving  the   others,   should   push   on   in   advance,   reach    Inde- 


382  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

pendencc  as  soon  as  possible,  and  send  a  relief  i)arty  out  in  quest  of  tlie  weaker  members 
of  the  party,  who  in  the  meantime  would  struggle  on  as  best  they  could.  The  sutTcr-rgs 
of  those  who  pushed  on  were  terrible  indeed.  Knowing  the  lives  of  the  weaker  ones 
whom  they  had  left  behind  depended  on  their  haste,  they  moved  with  all  possible  energy. 
It  was  getting  late  in  the  fall,  and  they  had  no  blankets  to  protect  them  from  the  chill 
wind.  Some  of  them  were  barefooted,  and  their  feet,  bruised  and  bleeding,  left  blood- 
stains at  every  step  on  the  trail.  The  continual  exertion  of  their  forced  march  and  the 
lack  of  wholesome  food  weakened  their  condition  to  such  an  extent  that  they  became 
almost  wholly  deaf,  not  lieing  able  to  hear  a  gun  fired  at  a  distance  of  only  a  few  feet. 
Finally,  after  existing  for  eleven  days  upon  one  turkey,  one  coon  and  some  wild  grapes, 
they  reached  a  settlement  about  fifteen  miles  from  Independence.  Half-naked,  footsore 
and  in  an  almost  complete  state  of  collapse,  they  were  taken  to  Independence.  With  the 
quick  sympathy  of  the  frontiersman,  a  rescuing  party  was  formed  and  sent  out  to  rescue 
the  other  members  of  the  expedition.  Thsy  were  found  scattered  along  the  trail,  looking 
more  like  skeletons  than  human  beings.  After  spending  some  months  in  Independence 
they  decided  to  retrace  their  steps  to  find  their  buried  treasure.  Learning  that  the  United 
States  government  intended  sending  a  military  escort  as  far  as  the  Mexican  boundary 
line  with  a  caravan  in  tlie  spring,  they  decided  not  only  to  go  after  the  money  which  they 
had  cached  on  the  Arkansas  river,  but  also  to  fit  up  another  wagon  train  and  go  on  to 
Santa  Fe.  The  caravan  left  Fort  Leavenworth  during  the  early  part  of  May  and  arrived 
at  the  Mexican  border  without  experiencing  any  serious  difficulty.  The  Americans  soon 
found  their  hidden  treasure.  Late  in  the  fall  the  entire  party  arrived  safely  at  the  Mis- 
souri river,  and,  dividing  their  treasure,  departed  for  their  homes.  This  was  the  first 
military  escort  ever  sent  across  the  plains  on  the  trail  with  a  caravan.  It  was  under  the 
command  of  Maj.  Bennett  Riley,   for  whom  Fort  Riley.  Kansas,  was  named." 

Amateur  Surgery  on  the  Trail. 

A  tradition  of  the  trail  which  has  sun'ived  the  generations  is  the  wonderful 
surgical  operation  Richard  Gentry  performed.  A  ]\Iissourian  named  Broaddus 
attempted  the  feat  of  drawing  his  rifle  muzzle  foremost  over  the  end  gate  of 
a  wagon.  As  was  to  be  expected  he  received  the  load  in  his  left  arm,  shattering 
the  bone.  The  time  was  August.  Inflaiumation  set  in.  Broaddus  gritted  his 
teeth  and  said  "no"  to  amputation  until  he  was  apparently  dying.  Then  he  con- 
sented. There  was  no  surgeon.  Gentry  took  a  hand  saw,  a  butcher  knife 
and  an  iron  bolt.  He  filed  a  finer  set  of  teeth  on  the  back  of  the  saw,  whetted 
the  butcher  knife  to  razor  edge  and  put  the  bolt  in  the  fire.  With  the  knife  the 
arm  was  circled  down  to  the  bone.  A  few  strokes  of  the  saw  cut  through  that 
Then  the  hot  bolt  was  applied  until  the  stump  was  seared  and  the  blood  flow 
stopped.     In  a  few  weeks  Broaddus  was  well. 

Among  the  many  Missourians  who  engaged  in  the  trail  trade  were  John  S. 
Jones,  Thomas  C.  Cartwright  and  Thomas  F.  Houston. 

Five  Dollars  a  Letter. 

The  pony  express  came  in  as  a  fast  mail  feature  of  tlie  overland  trail.  It  was 
organized  by  the  same  Missourians  who  had  made  a  success  of  the  trail  traffic. 
With  the  discovery  of  gold  and  the  sudden  tuigration  of  thousands  to  California 
there  arose  a  need  for  quicker  transit  of  mail.  Five  dollars  was  charged  for 
each  letter.  The  thinnest  paper  was  used.  The  distance  was  nearly  two  thou- 
sand luiles  from  St.  Joseph  to  San  Francisco.  It  was  covered  in  eight  days. 
There  were  eighty  riders  in  the  saddle  constaiUly,  forty  on  the  way  from  St. 
Joseph  to  California  and  forty  coiuing  eastward  at  the  same  tiiue.     With  those 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  383 

kept  in  reserve  a  force  of  four  hundred  riders  was  employed  for  the  pony  ex- 
press. The  service  continued  about  a  year.  It  ended  when  the  Pacific  telegraph 
was  completed  and  began  sending  messages.  To  connect  with  the  pony  express 
the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joe  railroad,  only  recently  completed,  put  on  a  fast  mail. 
The  hero  of  the  first  run  of  this  train  was  Engineer  Add  Clark.  He  drew  the 
mail  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Missouri,  206  miles,  in  a  little  over  four  hours. 
Crowds  assembled  at  the  stations  to  see  and  cheer.  At  the  St.  Joseph  terminus 
a  pony  stood  near.  The  mail  clerk  jumped  from  the  mail  car,  ran  with  the  little 
bags  of  mail  and  threw  them  across  the  back  of  the  pony.  The  rider  plied  his 
spur  and  dashed  to  the  landing  where  the  ferry  boat  was  waiting.  In  less  than 
a  minute  after  the  train  stopped  the  pony  express  was  on  the  way  across  the 
Missouri  river. 

Hampton  Ball's  Sta.ge  Driving  Days. 

One  of  the  last  of  the  Missouri  stage  drivers  was  Hampton  Ball  who  died  at 
Jonesburg  in  191 1.  He  was  of  the  Virginia  Balls,  the  family  to  which  George 
Washington  belonged.  At  eighty-one  Hampton  Ball  was  tall  and  erect,  muscular 
and  active.  He  accounted  for  his  splendid  health  by  his  "temperance,  inde- 
pendence and  outdoor  life."  As  early  as  1847  ^Ii"-  ^^^1  drove  the  stage  on  the 
Boone's  Lick  road.  "Why,  sir,"  he  once  said,  ''we  never  heard  of  such  a  thing 
as  a  stage  coach  robbery  on  our  route.  W't  did  not  always  stick  to  the  road. 
There  were  no  fences.  When  one  track  became  too  muddy  or  too  rough 
with  ruts  we  drove  out  on  the  prairie  or  made  a  new  road  through  the  woods. 
Wild  hogs  were  through  this  region  in  large  numbers.  Xo  one  fattened  hogs. 
The  hogs  lived  on  the  mast,  which  they  found  plentiful  in  the  woods.  I  have' 
seen  from  the  stage  coach  many  a  time  a  farmer  -shooting  a  hog,  from  which  he 
would  make  bacon.  I  was  a  clerk  at  $6  a  month,  or  rather  a  boy  working  in  a 
store  for  tiiat  amount,  when  I  was  offered  40  cents  a  day  and  board  as  a  stage 
coach  driver.  I  got  my  employer's  permission  to  accept  the  new  job  and  went 
to  work  at  it. 

"^\'e  married  earlier  in  those  days  than  now.  Nowadays  a  man  is  not  an  old 
bachelor  until  he  passes  50  and  a  woman  is  not  an  old  maid  until  she  gets  to 
be  40,  and,  you  know,  she  is  never  that  old  before  she  is  married.  When  I  was 
young,  girls  married  at  14  and  boys  before  they  were  20.  My  wife  had  $12.50 
in  silver  and  I  had  $151  in  silver,  which  w-as  our  total  wealth  when  we  got 
mar-ried.  We  built  a  log  cabin  and  went  to  work.  The  high  price  of  living  did 
not  bother  us  then.  It  did  not  require  so  much  for  us  to  live.  I  don't  think  we 
were  any  less  happy,  however." 

Bledsoe's  Ferry  is  an  historic  crossing  of  the  Osage  in  Benton  county.  In 
pioneer  days,  there  was  a  trail  and  later  a  road  which  crossed  Missouri  diag- 
onally from  northeast  to  southwest.  It  began  at  Palmyra  and  ended  in  the 
Cherokee  Nation.  Bledsoe's  Ferry  was  the  halfway  place.  Near  Bledsoe's 
was  a  large  settlement  of  the  Shawanoese  or  Shawnees. 

A  One-Passenger  Railroad. 

St.  Louis  people  were  given  early  a  small  object  lesson  in  railroad  operation. 
A  little  railroad  was  brought  to  the  city  and  put  on  exhibition.     The  Baptist 


384  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  iMISSOURI 

church  at  Third  and  Market  was  rented.  A  circular  track  was  built  on  staging. 
The  rolling  stock  was  a  miniature  locomotive  and  one  car  which  held  a  single 
person.  Steam  was  raised  in  the  locomotive  and  the  little  train  was  sent  around 
the  track  at  a  lively  rate  for  such  a  short  circuit.  This  was  the  summer  of  18,50. 
Probably  not  twenty  people  in  the  city  had  seen  a  railroad  previously.  An  ad- 
mission fee  was  charged  and  a  small  amount  was  collected  for  a  ride  in  the 
one-passenger  car.  The  object  was  educational,  for  St.  Louis  was  just  at  the 
beginning  of  agitation  for  railroads.  At  the  same  time  admission  was  charged 
to  cover  expenses.     A  newspaper  said:. 

The  public  will  be  much  gratified  by  a  visit  to  the  miniature  railroad  exhibited  at 
the  old  Bapti.st  church.  This  combination  of  art  and  science,  although  in  miniature,  i» 
complete  in  all  its  parts,  and  exhibits  in  one  view  all  the  apparatus  necessary  for  railroad 
traveling.  With  a  few  ounces  of  coal,  and  a  small  measure  of  water,  it  winds  its  way 
round  on  a  circular  track  of  one  hundred  feet  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles  an  hour,  carry- 
ing a  person  of  the  largest  size   in  the  car. 

The  First  Iron  Horse. 

A  little  locomotive,  the  first  real  iron  horse  that  St.  Louisians  saw,  was 
brought  up  the  river  on  the  Chariton  in  1838.  The  boat  went  on  to  Meredosia. 
a  town  with  considerable  expectations  on  the  Illinois.  There,  in  the  summer  of 
1838,  eight  miles  of  railroad  was  built,  in  an  easterly  direction  toward  "the 
Athens  of  Illinois,"  Jacksonville.  The  civil  engineer,  who  ran  the  line  and  su- 
perintended the  construction  was  George  P.  Plant,  the  son  of  a  Massachusetts 
cotton  manufacturer.  Mr.  Plant  came  to  St.  Louis  a  couple  of  years  later  and 
became  the  head  of  the  great  milling  firm.  The  contractor  who  did  most  of 
the  construction  work  was  T.  T.  January,  who  also  came  to  St.  Louis  soon  after- 
wards with  his  brother  Derrick  A.  January.  The  Januarys  were  Kentuckians. 
brothers-in-law  of  the  Massachusetts  man.  The  little  railroad  was  given  the 
high  sounding  name  of  the  Northern  Cross.  Two  men  who  became  prominent 
in  St.  Louis  a  few  years  later  participated  in  the  opening  of  the  railroad  in 
November,  1838.  They  were  Charles  Collins,  in  honor  of  whom  Collins  street 
was  named,  and  Miron  Leslie. 

In  the  winter  of  1839,  a  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  David  R.  Porter,  sent 
to  the  legislature  a  message  dwelling  on  the  importance  to  that  state,  of  "a 
continuous  railroad  to  the  city  of  St.  Louis."  He  was  ridiculed  for  such  a  wild 
suggestion.  The  next  year  a  burlesque  message,  purporting  to  come  from  the 
governor,  was  printed  and  widely  circulated  in  Pennsylvania.  At  that  time, 
1840.  Texas  was  a  country  of  refuge  for  some  Americans  as  well  as  an  at- 
tractive region  to  the  good  settlers.  The  bogus  message  contained  this  para- 
graph which  was  esteemed  an  excellent  joke  at  the  expense  of  Governor 
Porter : 

"During  the  last  session  of  the  legislature,  in  a  special  message,  I  took  occasion  to 
recommend  the  construction  of  a  continuous  railroad  to  St.  Louis  in  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri. As  there  are  few  spectacles  more  sublime  than  the  voluntary  retraction  of  an 
erroneous  opinion  by  a  public  officer,  I  have  determined  to  present  that  spectacle  to  the 
world.  I  therefore  withdraw  my  special  recommendation  and  in  its  stead  recommend 
a  continuous  railroad  to  the  Republic  of  Tt.xas.  This  is  done  because  more  of  our  party 
friends  are  traveling  in  the  latter  direction." 


STAGING  IN  THE  OZARKS 


FIRST  LOCOMOTIVE  IN  MISSOURI 

On   December   1,    1852,   the   first    loeomotive 

whistle  was  heard  on  the  Paciiic  track  just  west 

of  Fourteenth  Street.     The  locomotive  was  of 

St.   Louis  manufacture  bv  Palm   &   Robertson. 


'    -\ 


OVERLAND  TRAIN 
Organized  to  leave  Western  Missouri  for  California  followin<r  the  dis- 
covery of  gold 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  387 

Early  Railroad  Projects. 

St.  Loui.s  had  10,000  inhabitants  when  Mayor  John  F.  Darby  sent  a  railroad 
message  to  the  board  of  aldemien.  That  was  the  first  formal  railroad  project  in 
Missouri  or  anywhere  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  time  was  February,  1836. 
The  road  then  proposed  was  to  run  from  St.  Louis  to  Fayette  in  Howard  county. 
Acting  on  Mayor  Darby's  message,  the  board  of  aldermen  called  a  meeting  of 
the  citizens.  The  meeting  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  U])  an  address.  In 
effect  the  address  was  a  call  to  the  counties  interested  to  send  delegates  to  a 
railroad  convention  to  be  held  in  St.  Louis  in  April.  1836.  Eleven  counties  were 
represented.  The  delegates  were  entertained  at  the  expense  of  the  city  and  were 
banqueted.  Two  projects  were  endorsed.  One  of  them  was  a  railroad  south 
from  St.  Louis  to  Iron  Mountain.  The  other  was  for  a  railroad  to  St.  Charles 
and  westward  through  the  counties  north  of  the  Missouri  river. 

At  the  next  session  of  the  legislature,  1836-7,  George  K.  ]\IcGunnegle,  a  rep- 
resentative from  St.  Louis,  introduced  a  bill  to  charter  the  St.  Louis  and  Iron 
Mountain  and  the  bill  passed.  That  was  the  beginning  of  railroad  legislation  in 
Missouri.     The  legislature  declined  to  vote  aid  to  the  enterprise. 

After  Mayor  Darby's  message  and  the  convention,  ten  years  went  by  with 
only  agitation  to  mark  development  of  railroad  sentiment  in  St.  Louis.  On 
the  20th  of  December,  1847,  wires  reached  the  Mississippi.  St.  Louis  was  put 
upon  the  telegraph  map.  This  stimulated  the  railroad  movement.  A  com- 
mittee of  citizens  was  appointed  to  ask  the  legislature  for  authority  to  vote 
on  a  subscription  of  $500,000  by  St.  Louis  toward  the  building  of  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  railroad.  The  route  had  been  surveyed  from  Cincinnati  through 
Vincennes  to  the  Mississippi.  After  some  delay  the  legislature  provided  for 
the  submission.  The  proposition  passed.  That  was  the  first  of  many  contribu- 
tions by  St.  Louis  toward  railroad  construction. 

By  mass  meeting  in  the  rotunda  of  the  court  house  popular  sentiment  in 
St.  Louis  was  committed  to  the  project.  Mayor  John  M.  Krum  presided.  An 
address  to  citizens  favoring  a  loan  of  $500,000  was  adopted.  It  was  prepared 
by  Thomas  Allen,  Frederick  Kretschmar,  John  McNeil,  Willis  L.  Williams, 
Samuel  M.  Bay,  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon.  Samuel  Hawken,  Trusten  Polk,  Daniel  D. 
Page,  Lewis  V.  Bogy  and  A.  L.  Mills.  The  mass  meeting  led  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  vigilance  committee,  as  the  body  was  called,  of  ten  men  from  each 
ward  "to  attend  the  polls  on  Monday  and  secure  favorable  consideration  of  the 
subject."  The  $500,000  loan  to  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  went  through  by  a 
heavy  majority  carrying  five  of  the  six  wards. 

"This  vote  may  be  hailed  as  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  St.  Louis,"  said 
the  current  newspaper  account.  "It  is  the  first  instance  in  which  she  has  put 
forth  her  eflforts  to  the  accomplishment  of  a  great  enterprise  and  she  has  come 
up  to  the  full  amount  desired  with  a  promptness  and  a  heartiness  which  evince 
that  she  understands  her  interest  in  the  proposed  work." 

The  First  Railroad  Eastward. 

The  citizens  as  well  as  the  municipality  promoted  the  building  of  the  first 
railroad  eastward.  St.  Louis  was  strongly  represented  by  Mayor  Luther  M. 
Kennett,  John  O'Fallon.  James  H.  Lucas,  .Andrew  Christy,  Daniel  D.  Page  and 


388  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

others  among  the  incorporators  who  obtained  from  the  Illinois  Legislature  in 
the  winter  of  1851  the  incorporation  of  the  St.  Louis  and  Vincennes  railroad. 
This  was  the  western  half  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi.  The  directors  held 
meetings  in  St.  Louis.  They  chose  John  O'Fallon  the  first  president.  They 
added  to  the  St.  Louisans  on  the  board  Charles  P.  Chouteau  and  Robert  Camp- 
hell.  While  the  city  of  St.  Louis  aided  with  $500,000,  St.  Louis  bankers  carried 
the  financial  load. 

The  Ohio  and  Mississippi  railroad  enterprise  received  no  encouragement 
from  Illinois  in  the  beginning.  Cincinnati  and  Vincennes  were  anxious  for  the 
extension  of  the  road  to  St.  Louis.  They  sent  Abner  T.  Ellis  and  Professor 
O.  M.  Mitchell,  the  noted  astronomer,  to  St.  Louis  to  obtain  encouragement. 
Illinois  was  worse  than  indifferent.  The  state  had  a  well  defined  policy  not 
to  encourage  railroads  which  would  build  iij)  cities  outside  of  the  state.  To  ob- 
tain permission  to  build  a  railroad  across  Illinois  from  Vincennes  to  St.  Louis  it 
was  necessary  to  overcome  this  opposition.  Not  long  afterwards  Illinois  became 
liberal  with  charters  to  build  railroads  anywhere.  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon  was  strong 
in  public  life  when  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  movement  started.  He  suggested 
the  subscription  of  $500,000  by  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  and  later  as  state  senator 
put  through  the  legislation  which  permitted  the  county  of  St.  Louis,  which 
included  the  city,  to  subscribe  $200,000. 

On  the  7th  of  February,  1852,  St.  Louis  inaugurated  the  building  of  the 
first  railroad  eastward.  Headed  by  the  mayor,  Luther  M.  Kennett,  and  escorted 
by  the  directors  of  the  company,  the  participants  in  the  ceremony  and  a  large 
number  of  interested  citizens  crossed  by  ferry  boat  to  the  east  side.  The 
celebration  was  distinctively  a  St.  Louis  affair.  Charles  D.  Drake,  the  St.  Louis 
lawyer,  afterwards  United  States  senator,  called  the  assemblage  to  order  and 
announced  the  programme.  President  O'Fallon  spoke  and  so  did  Abner  T.  Ellis, 
representing  Vincennes.  Mayor  Kennett,  always  happy  in  his  references,  re- 
minded the  audience  that  St.  Louis  had  previously  crossed  over  to  the  Illinois 
side  to  build  first  sand  and  then  stone  dykes.  Now  the  city  proposed  to  add 
iron  bands  to  its  relations  with  Illinois.  The  officers  of  the  Pacific  railroad 
were  present.  Thomas  Allen  told  how  much  it  would  mean  to  the  first  railroad 
west  from  St.  Louis  to  have  this  first  railroad  east.  Charles  D.  Drake  loaded 
a  wheelbarrow  with  sand  and  gravel.  Mayor  Kennett  trundled  to  the  place 
which  the  contractor  pointed  out.    The  work  was  begun. 

Resourceful  "Dan"  Gaxrison. 

When  Daniel  R.  Garrison  had  completed  all  but  seven  miles  of  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  he  ran  out  of  rails.  A  shipment  from  England  had  been  made 
but  it  might  be  months  enroute.  The  Terre  Haute  railroad  was  in  course  of 
construction.  On  the  levee  at  St.  Louis  lay  a  consignment  of  rails  for  the 
Terre  Haute.  There  wasn't  money  enough  in  the  bank  of  Page  &  Bacon, 
the  institution  which  was  financing  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  to  buy  a  ton  of 
these  rails  from  the  competing  road.  The  consignment  was  being  conveyed 
across  the  river.  In  some  manner,  never  fully  explained,  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  these  rails  to  lay  the  seven  miles  was  loaded  on  Ohio  and  Mississippi  cars. 
This  had  been  done  before  the  owners  discovered  the  mistake.    The  sheriff  of  St. 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  389 

Clair  county,  with  a  posse,  came  after  the  Terre  Haute  rails.  Mr.  Garrison 
received  the  officer  courteously  and  invited  him  and  his  party  on  board  of  the 
train  to  take  a  short  ride  while  they  talked  about  the  claim  to  the  rails.  A 
railroad  ride  was  a  novelty.  It  appealed  to  the  sheriff  and  the  posse.  But 
when  the  train  approached  the  eastern  botmdary  of  St.  Clair  county,  it  did  not 
stop.  Imperative  business  prevented  Mr.  Garrison  from  returning  with  the 
train.  The  legal  papers  were  of  no  effect  beyond  the  county  line.  Before  the 
sheriff  got  within  his  jurisdiction  again  the  rails  were  down  and  the  last  spike 
had  been  driven.  Very  projjerly.  when  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  ojiened, 
the  business  men  of  .St.  Louis  ])resented  to  Mr.  Garrison  a  fine  set  of  silverware. 

When  Benton  Reversed  Himself. 

For  ten  years  after  St.  Louis  began  the  agfitation  for  railroads  Benton  and 
his  following  opposed  government  aid  to  them.  Coming  back  from  Washington 
in  1839,  the  senator  said  in  a  speech:  "Ever  since  the  day  when  General  Jack- 
son vetoed  the  Le.xington  and  Maysville  road  bill,  internal  improvement  by  the 
genera]  government  was  no  longer  to  be  considered  as  among  the  teachings  and 
doctrines  of  the  democratic  party.  It  is  the  old,  .antiquated,  obsolete  and  ex- 
ploded doctrine  of  Henry  Clay's  'American  system.'  Look  at  Illinois,  where 
whig  rule  obtained  for  awhile,  overwhelmed  in  debt,  unable  to  pay  the  interest 
on  her  bonds.  Look  at  Missouri,  a  state  free  of  debt — a  state  governed  by 
democracy." 

In  1849  Benton  reversed  himself.  He  made  the  speech  more  frequently 
quoted  than  any  other  in  what  he  liked  to  call  the  "six  Roman  lustrums"  of  his 
senatorial  career.  The  occasion  was  the  national  convention  held  in  St.  Louis 
to  promote  the  1)uilding  of  a  transcontinental  railroad  from  the  Mississippi  to 
San  Francisco,  iienton  participated.  Enthusiasm  reached  its  highest  pitch  when 
with  all  of  his  oratorical  magnetism,  he  pointed  toward  the  west  and  exclaimed : 
"There  is  the  Fast.  There  is  India!"  The  words  of  prophecy  gave  Harriet 
Hosmer  the  ins])irati()n  for  the  statue  of  Benton  which  stands  in  Lafayette  park. 
.\dvocacy  at  last  of  that  which  he  had  most  strenuously  opposed  won  for  Ben- 
ton his  greatest  renown. 

The  invitation  to  Benton  to  participate  in  the  railroad  convention  of  1840 
was  carried  by  John  F.  Darby,  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  movement.  He  said  to 
the  senator,  as  he  afterwards  narrated  :  "Colonel  Benton,  we  expect  you  to  aid 
us  in  this  matter,  .'^t.  Louis  from  her  central  position  is  entitled  to  have  the 
road  start  from  here.  We  shall  have  opposition  and  much  to  contend  with. 
Douglas  is  striving  hard  for  the  I'residency,  and  he  will  try  to  have  the  Pacific 
road  start  from  Chicago  instead  of  St.  Louis,  run  through  Iowa,  and  give  us 
the  go-liy.  .Should  Douglas  succeed  in  his  presidential  aspirations,  it  will  give 
him  additional  power  and  influence." 

The  reply  of  Senator  Benton,  as  Mr.  Darby  reported  it,  was :  "T  shall  l)e 
there,  sir;  I  shall  attend  the  convention,  and  advocate  the  building  of  the  road 
from  St.  Louis  to  San  Francisco.  Douglas  never  can  be  President,  sir.  No, 
sir.  Douglas  never  can  be  President.  His  legs  are  too  short,  sir.  His  coat,  like 
a  cow's  tail,  hangs  too  near  the  ground,  sir." 


390  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Miss  Hosmer's  conception  represents  Benton  holding  a  map  and  looking 
down  to  it.  One  who  was  present  described  Benton  as  assuming  his  most  im- 
pressive pose,  throwing  back  his  head  and  stretching  out  his  right  arm  to  indicate 
the  course,  as  he  said  in  deep  tones: 

"Let  us  beseech  the  national  legislature  to  build  the  great  road  upon  the  great  national 
line,  which  imites  Europe  and  Asia — the  line  which  will  find  on  our  continent  the  bay  of 
San  Francisco  at  one  end.  St.  Louis  in  the  middle,  tlie  national  metropolis  and  great  com- 
mercial emporium  at  the  other  end — the  line  which  will  l)e  adorned  with  its  crowning  honor. 
the  colossal  statue  of  the  great  Columbus,  whose  design  it  accom|)lishes,  hewn  from  the 
granite  mass  of  a  peak  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  overlooking  the  road — the  pedestal  and 
the  statue  a  part  of  the  mountain,  pointing  witli  outstretclied  arm  to  the  western  horizon 
and  saying  to  the  flying  passenger,  there  is  tlie  East — there  is  India !" 

Secret  History  of  the  Convention. 

Back  of  the  railroad  convention  of  1849  was  a  chapter  of  very  interesting 
secret  historj'.  It  is  told  in  the  manuscript  collection  of  the  papers  of  Samuel 
Treat,  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Missouri  Historical  Societ)'.  Samuel 
Treat  was  a  newspaper  may,  afterwards  judge  of  the  United  States  district 
court  at  St.  Louis  for  many  years.  He  left  this  memorandum,  revealing  how 
Benton  and  Calhoun  were  reached  by  the  managers  of  the  railroad  movement 
of  '49 : 

"Colonel  Benton's  course  with  regard  to  the  projected  road  was  very  equivocal.  He 
had  spoken  of  the  buffalo  tracks  as  indicative  of  the  true  route  and  ridiculed  the  course 
through  the  pass  on  the  42nd  degree  as  urged  by  Whitney.  So  matters  stood  when  the 
famous  Memphis  convention  was  held,  at  which  Calhoun  presided.  At  that  convention 
Calhoun  overcame  his  constitutional  difficulties  about  the  limitations  of  the  Federal  Con- 
^titution  by  denominating  the  Mississippi  river  as  an  inland  sea.  As  Mr.  Calhoun  in- 
sisted that  the  Federal  government  had  no  right  to  enter  a  state  for  any  of  its  enterprises, 
I  wrote  to  him  with  regard  to  the  proposed  convention  at  St.  Louis  favoring  a  Pacific  rail- 
road  and  the  enclosed   is   his  answer. 

"It  became  important  to  secure  the  aid  both  of  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Colonel  Benton, 
hence  a  private  interview  with  some  of  my  friends  in  the  city  council,  and  with  Colonel 
D.  H.  Armstrong  and  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon  and  others.  We  induced  the  passage  of  a  city 
resolution  urging  Colonel  Benton  not  only  to  favor  but  to  make  a  speech  in  aid  of  the 
enterprize.  The  history  of  that  convention  is  well  worth  recording.  Colonel  Benton 
yielded  to  our  solicitations  and  made  his  renowned  speech,  one  of  the  grandest  of  his 
efforts   which   is  burlesqued   in  his   statue   in   Lafavette  park. 

"In  the  height  of  his  enthusiasm,  after  referring  to  the  eft'orts  of  Modern  History  to 
reach  India  and  Columbus'  discovery,  he  exclaimed,  pointing  west,  that  there  should  be 
carved  out  of  the  tallest  peak  of  Cordilleras  a  statue  of  Columbus  with  outstretched  hand 
pointing  westward,  indicating  'There  is  the  East.  There  is  India.'  The  statue  (in  Lafay- 
ette park)  represents  him  as  studying'  a  map  to  find  out  where  India  was,  representing 
nothing  of  the  boldness  and  grandeur  of  his  exclamatioh. 

"The  constant  hostility  and  rivalry  between  Colonel  Benton  and  Mr.  Calhoun  made 
it  important  that  both,  if  possible,  should  be  brought  to  aid  the  plan  for  a  railroad  to  the 
Pacific  ocean.  Few  seem  to  remember  the  political  difficulties  then  in  the  way.  Benton 
was  brought  to  the  support  of  the  enterprize  through  playing  on  his  hostility  to  Calhoun, 
despite  his  former  opposition  to  the  project.  I  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Calhoun  to 
overcome  his  scruples.     The  enclosed  is  the  result.' 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  391 

J.  C.  Calhoun  to  Samuel  Treat. 

"My  dear  sir : 

"Agreeably  to  your  request,  I  enclose  rrty  answer  to  the  committee  to  you.  I  have 
left  it  open  for  your  perusal.  After  you  have  read  it,  wet  the  seal  with  your  tongue  and 
press  it  down  with  your  thumb.  I  have  made  my  answer  short  and  comprehensive.  I 
thought  under  circumstances  it  would  be  better.  If  St.  Louis  should  in  full  deliberation 
thought  to  be  preferable  as  the  eastern  terminus  I  would  heartily  give  it  my  support,  but 
I  think  the  course  you  suggest  the  best,  at  least  for  the  present,  to  fix  the  terminus  for 
the  present  at  Independence  or  some  other  place  on  the  western  limits  of  the  state.  It 
will  do  much  to  conciliate  all  the  different  interests. 

"I  am  glad  to  learn  that  Benton  has  fixed  his  doom.  It  is  a  wonder  he  has  been  able 
so  long  to  impose  on  the  country.     His  fall  will  be  one  step  to  a  better  state  of  things. 

"It  is  vastly  important  that  you  should  have,  at  this  time,  a  true  and  able  paper. 

"Yours  truly, 

"Sam'l  Treat."  "J.  C.  Calhoun. 

Benton,  the  Prophet. 

"Benton  was  not  a  southern  Democrat,"  said  George  G.  Vest,  "he  was  a 
national  Democrat.  He  appreciated  more  thoroughly  than  any  man  of  his  era 
the  possibilities  of  that  vast  country  west  of  the  Mississippi,  destined  to  be- 
come the  seat  of  empire  on  this  continent.  I  heard  him  at  a  little  town  on  the 
Missouri  river,  standing  with  his  right  arm  extended,  declare,  with  the  air  and 
tones  of  an  ancient  prophet,  'There  is  the  East ;  there  is  the  road  to  India.'  And 
upon  his  bronze  statue  in  Lafayette  park  in  St.  Louis  today,  upon  the  pedestal, 
are  engraved  these  prophetic  words.  He  declared,  and  men  laughed  at  him 
when  he  said  it,  that  this  continent  would  be  bound  together  by  bands  of  iron 
which  would  carry  our  produce  to  the  Pacific  slope  to  feed  the  innumerable  mil- 
lions in  Asia  and  the  Orient." 

In  February,  1849,  Senator  Benton  presented  to  the  Senate  his  bill  "to  pro- 
vide for  the  location  and  construction  of  a  central  national  road  from  the  Pa- 
cific ocean  to  the  Mississippi  river,  with  a  branch  of  said  road  to  the  Columbia 
river."  That  was  the  year  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  and  of  the 
great  rush  of  gold  seekers  across  the  continent.  In  setting  forth  his  views  on 
the  bill,  Senator  Benton  used  these  prophetic  words: 

"When  we  acquired  Louisiana,  Mr.  Jefferson  revived  this  idea  of  establishing  an  inland 
communication  between  the  two  sides  of  the  continent,  and  for  that  purpose  the  well- 
known  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark  was  sent  out  by  him.  About  thirty  years  ago  I  began 
to  turn  my  attention  to  this  subject.  I  followed  the  idea  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  Lasalle  and 
others,  and  attempted  to  revive  attention  to  their  plans.  I  then  expressed  the  confident 
belief  that  this  route  would  be  established,  immediately  with  the  aid  of  the  American 
government,  and  eventually,  even  without  that  aid,  by  the  progress  of  events  and  the 
force  of  circumstances.  I  go  for  a  national  highway  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific, 
and  go  against  all  schemes  of  individuals  or  of  companies,  and  especially  those  who  come 
here  and  ask  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  give  themselves  and  their  assigns 
the  means  of  making  a  road  and  taxing  the  people  for  the  use  of  it. 

"I  propose  to  reserve  ground  for  all  sorts  of  roads,  railway,  plank,  macadamized. 
More  than  that,  room  for  a  track  by  magnetic  power,  according  to  the  idea  stated,  I  believe 
by  Professor  Henry,  and,  to  me,  plausibly  pursued  by  Professor  Page,  of  the  Patent 
Office,  if  that  idea  ripens  into  practicability,  and  ^•ho  can  undertake  to  say  that  any  idea 
will  not  become  practicable  in  the  present  ages. 


392  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"An  American  road  to  India  througli  the  heart  nf  our  country  will  revive  upon  its 
line  all  the  wonders  of  which  we  have  read  and  eclipse  them.  The  western  wilderness 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Mississippi  will  start  into  life  under  its  touch.  A  long  line  of 
cities  will  grow  up.  Existing  cities  will  take  a  new  start.  The  state  of  the  world  calls  for 
a  new  road  to  India,  and  it  is  our  destiny  to  give  it,  the  last  and  greatest.  Let  us  act 
up  to  the  greatness  of  the  occasion  and  show  ourselves  worthy  of  the  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances in  which  we  are  placed  hy  securing,  while  we  can,  an  .\merican  road  to  India 
—central  and  national — for  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  now  and  hereafter,  for  thousands 
of   years   to  come." 


Promotion  of  the  First  Missouri  Railroad. 

The  Pacific  railroad  movement  was  born  in  St.  Louis  the  year  that  flames 
swept  the  business  district  and  6,000  deaths  from  cholera  decimated  a  population 
of  60,000.  In  ]\Iay  of  that  year  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon  introduced  in  the  common 
council  the  resolution  calling  the  national  convention  and  in  October  the  con- 
vention met.  The  movement  reached  the  legi.slative  stage  in  Congress  thirteen 
years  later  while  Missouri  was  under  the  Civil  war  cloud.  Political  expediency 
moved  the  lii^e  far  to  the  northward  of  the  city  where  the  campaign  of  education 
for  a  transcontinental  railroad  had  received  its  earliest  and  greatest  impetus. 
Missouri  not  only  lost  the  transcontinental  railroad,  but  for  many  years  saw  it 
operated  to  its  disadvantage. 

Popular  was  the  movement  which  led  to  the  building  of  the  first  railroad  for 
Missouri.  Public  meetings  were  held.  A  charter  was  obtained.  At  the  meet- 
ing held  on  the  31st  of  January,  1850,  the  project  passed  beyond  the  stage 
of  addresses  and  resolutions.  Subscriptions  were  called  for.  James  II.  Lucas 
ofifered  to  be  one  of  three  to  make  up  $100,000.  John  O'Fallon  and  Daniel  D. 
Page  promptly  joined  him.  These  gentlemen  subscribed  $33,000  each  and  tossed 
a  coin  to  determine  who  should  have  the  privilege  of  taking  the  odd  $r,ooo. 
John  O'Fallon  won  it.  Thomas  Allen,  J.  and  E.  Walsh,  JoslTua  B.  Brant  and 
George  Collier  signed  for  $10,000  each.  A  subscription  list  was  opened  at  the 
Merchants'  Exchange  and  committees  were  appointed  to  canvass  the  several 
wards  of  the  city.  \\'ithin  two  weeks,  before  the  middle  of  February,  citizens 
of  St.  Louis  had  subscribed  for  stock  in  the  Pacific  railroad  as  it  was  then 
called  to  the  amount  of  $319,000. 

There  were  165  contributors  to  the  bonus  of  $96,950.  These  subscriptions 
were  gifts  outright,  not  for  shares  of  stock.  James  H.  Lucas  headed  the  list 
with  $11,000.  Edward  J.  Gay  gave  $5,000.  One  of  the  subscribers  was  living 
until  the  spring  of  1909 — J.  B.  Gazzam,  who'  was  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Douglas,  Gazzam  &  Co.  The  name  of  Peter  Richard  Kenrick  appeared ;  the 
archbishop's  contribution  was  $1,500. 

As  work  progressed  subscriptions  continued  to  come  in.  The  building  of  the 
Pacific  railroad  was  a  popular  movement  through  the  ten  years  before  the 
Civil  war,  St.  Louisans  made  overland  journeys  along  the  projected  route 
and  held  mass  meetings  in  the  counties.  In  1855  the  individual  subscriptions 
had  reached  nearly  $1,000,000.  The  city  of  St.  Louis  had  subscribed  $500,000 
and  the  county  of  St.  Louis  the  'same  amount.  The  county  of  St.  Louis  had 
issued  $875,000  in  bonds  to  aid  the  construction.     Actuated  by  the  public  spirit 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  393 

which  attended  every  step  in  the  building  of  the  first  railroad  from  St.  Louis 
westward,  the  president  of  the  company  served  the  first  year  without  salary. 
The  next  year  he  accepted  a  salary  of  $1,500.  After  that  he  resigned,  arguing 
that  change  of  presidents  would  contribute  to  maintain  popular  interest  in  the 
project.  In  four  years  of  the  decade  beginning  with  1850  the  people  of  St. 
Louis  subscribed  $6,400,000  to  four  railroads.  About  one-half  of  this  amount 
was. voted  in  corporate  capacity.  The  other  half  was  subscribed  by  individuals. 
The  four  enterprises  thus  encouraged  were  the  Missouri  Pacific,  thelron  Moun- 
tain, the  North  Missouri,  now  known  as  the  Wabash,  and  the  Ohio  and  Mis- 
sissippi, now  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio. 

Ground  Breaking  Ceremonies. 

The  F"ourth  of  July  was  ground  Ijreaking  day  for  the  first  steam  railroad  out 
of  St.  Louis.  Captain  Henry  Almstedt  fired  his  national  salute  at  sunrise. 
Shortly  after  seven  o'clock,  the  military  and  the  civic  bodies  began  to  report  to 
Grand  Marshal  Thornton  Grimsley  on  Fourth  street.  Flags  were  flying  every- 
where— from  the  engine  houses,  the  newspaper  offices,  the  hotels,  the  business 
houses.  Shortly  after  eight  o'clock  officials  of  the  state,  the  governor  and  his 
staff  wheeled  into  Washington  a\enue  and  the  long  column  started  for  Mincke's 
ground  on  the  edge  of  Chouteau's  Pond  just  west  of  Fifteenth  street.  At  the 
head  of  the  procession  were  escorted  officials  of  the  state,  the  president,  di- 
rectors and  engineers  of  the  Pacific  railroad,  the  orator  of  the  day,  the  judges 
and  officials  of  the  courts,  the  mayor,  the  aldermen  and  city  officials  and  the 
editorial  corps  of  St.  Louis. 

Then  came  the  Grays  and  the  Dragoons,  and  the  Missouri  Artillery,  and  the 
Yagers  and  the  Swiss  Guards.  The  fire  department  and  a  long  line  of  civic 
societies  followed.  At  the  speakers'  stand  near  the  pond,  the  band  played  the 
Grand  Pacific  Railroad  march  which  Mr.  Balmer  had  composed  for  the  day. 
Thomas  Allen,  the  president  of  the  company,  told  of  the  popular  movement 
which  had  led  up  to  the  event  they  were  celebrating.  His  estimate  of  the  cost 
of  the  road  from  St.  Louis  to  Kansas  City  and  of  the  business  it  would  do  is 
interesting.  He  said :  "We  have  found  our  distance  across  the  state  to  be 
.'ibout  300  miles,  and  our  grades  easy,  the  maximum  not  exceeding  forty-five  feet 
to  the  mile  and  that  occurring  only  on  a  short  distance.  The  cost  is  estimated 
below  the  average  cost  of  railroads,  at  about  $20,000  per  mile,  or  about  $6,- 
000,000  for  the  whole  completed." 

President  Allen  said  that  the  investigation  made  indicated  that  the  road  the 
first  year  after  completion  would  do  passenger  business  of  $457,900  and  freight 
business  of  $470,200,  a  gross  profit  of  fifteen  per  cent  on  $6,000,000.  It  was 
thought  the  cost  of  operation  might  be  forty  to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  gross  earn- 
ings. When  Air.  Allen  concluded,  a  prologue  in  verse  composed  for  the  occasion 
by  A.  S.  Mitchell,  the  newspaper  man  who  had  become  secretary  of  the  railroad 
company,  was  recited  by  J.  M.  Field,  the  brilliant  writer  and  actor.  Edward 
Bates  delivered  the  oration  of  the  day.  He  dwelt  upon  the  resources  and  pos- 
sibilities of  the  Mississippi  valley,  but  before  he  finished  he  emphasized  the 
ambition  of  these  first  Missouri  railroad  builders:  "But  whither  does  it  tend? 
When  vou  have  constructed  the  road  to  the  frontier  of  the  Missouri,  what  power 


394  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

can  stop  it  there?  Beyond  lie  the  extended  plains  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Ar- 
kansas, New  Alexico,  Utah,  California,  Oregon,  the  Pacific  and  the  old  Eastern 
World." 

The  governor  of  the  state,  Austin  A.  King,  was  prevented  by  illness  from 
being  present.  To  the  mayor  of  St.  Louis,  Luther  M.  Kennett,  fell  the  duty  of 
throwing  the  first  dirt.  President  Allen  presented  the  spade.  Saying  he  would 
proceed  "to  make  the  first  cut  in  the  line  of  the  Pacific  railroad,"  the  mayor, 
with  the  band  playing  the  "Governor's  March,"  led  the  way  to  the  edge  of  the 
pond  and  began  to  dig.    As  the  first  dirt  was  thrown  the  crowd  cheered  lustily. 

As  they  walked  home  from  that  breaking  of  ground  for  the  first  railroad  out 
of  St.  Louis,  James  E.  Yeatman  asked  John  O'Fallon: 

"Colonel,  do  you  think  it  will  pay?" 

"No,"  said  Colonel  O'Fallon,  with  deliberation:  "not  in  my  time.  Perhaps 
not  in  yours.    Eventually  it  will  be  profitable." 

Colonel  O'Fallon  was  one  of  the  largest  subscribers  to  the  stock  of  the  orig- 
inal company.  He  had  made  his  investment  with  the  conclusion  that  he  would 
not  see  financial  returns  from  it.  After  a  little  pause  he  resumed  the  conversa- 
tion: 

"Mr.  Yeatman,"  he  said,  "you  will  please  not  mention  the  amount  of  my 
subscription." 

Railroad  Red  Letter  Days. 

From  1850  to  i860  every  beginning  of  a  new  railroad  and  completion  of  a 
division  and  every  progressive  step  of  consequence  in  railroad  building  was  cele- 
brated with  enthusiasm.  When  the  North  Missouri,  now  the  W'abash,  was  built 
to  St.  Charles  there  was  celebration.  When  ground  was  broken  in  1852  at  Han- 
nibal for  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph,  now  the  Burlington,  a  boat  load  of  St. 
Louisans  went  up  to  the  barbecue.  In  those  days  all  men  of  affairs  in  Missouri 
were  holders  of  railroad  stock.  They  subscribed  because  it  was  considered  a 
civic  duty.  At  the  opening  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  to  Hermann,  ladies  attended 
the  feast.  When  the  old  North  Missouri  extension  from  Macon  to  Iowa  was 
started  Mrs.  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon  lifted  the  first  shovel  of  dirt. 

Notable  days  for  St.  Louis  were  those  of  1852  and  1853  when  the  first  rail- 
road went  into  operation.  On  the  first  day  of  December,  1852,  the  first  loco- 
motive whistle  west  of  the  Mississippi  river  sounded  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  The  locomotive  stood  on  the  Pacific  railroad  track  just  west  of  Four- 
teenth street.  Thomas  Allen,  president  of  the  Pacific,  T.  S.  O'Sullivan,  Mr. 
Copp,  secretary  of  the  company ;  WiUiam  R.  Kingsley,  and  a  few  others  con- 
nected with  the  road  climbed  on  board  for  the  initial  trip.  Charles  Williams,  the 
machinist,  operated  the  engine.  The  train  was  run  out  to  the  end  of  the  track 
laying  a  short  distance  beyond  the  Tower  Grove  crossing.  This  was  the  be- 
ginning of  railroad  operation  in  Missouri. 

A  little  later  St.  Louis  celebrated  the  formal  opening  of  the  first  completed 
section.  The  directors  of  the  company,  members  of  the  legislature  who  were 
passing  through  St.  Louis  on  their  way  to  JetTerson  City  and  a  few  others  were 
invited  to  have  what  was  for  many  of  them  their  first  experience  in  "riding  on 
the  rail."     The  section  of  road  then  fipened  was  from  the  St.  Louis  terminus  to 


A  Ml.S.--urKl   PACK  TliAlX  TO  sAXTA  KK.  iMJu 


TERMINI'S  OK  OLD  SANTA  VK  TRAIL 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  397 

Sulphur  Springs  as  it  was  then  called — afterwards  Cheltenham.  Two  coaches 
were  occupied  by  the  guests.  The  distance  traveled  was  about  five  miles.  At 
Sulphur  Springs  lunch  was  served  and  speeches  of  congratulation  were  made. 
Mayor  Kennett,  Edward  Bates  and  James  H.  Lucas  made  speeches.  "For  a  new 
road,  we  may  say  advisedly  that  there  is  not  a  better  built  road  in  the  Union," 
the  paper  commented  next  morning. 

A  St.  Louis-Made  Locomotive. 

The  next  railroad  red  letter  day  for  St.  Louis  was  the  lyth  of  July,  1853, 
when  twelve  passenger  cars  carried  over  600  official  guests  ofit  to  Franklin,  as  it 
was  then  called,  to  celebrate  the  opening  of  the  first  division,  thirty-nine  miles 
long.  A  couple  of  months  before  that  the  road  had  been  put  in  regular  operation 
to  Kirkwood,  named  after  the  first  chief  engineer.  The  board  of  directors  had 
resolved  that  "the  fare  for  passengers  from  this  time  forth  is  not  to  exceed  three 
cents  per  mile,  with  proper  and  liberal  deduction  for  in  and  out  passengers." 
The  board  also  ordered  that  trains  should  stop  at  "Rock  Spring,  Cheltenham, 
about  five  miles ;  the  River  des  Peres,  a  little  beyond  Sutton's ;  and  Webster  col- 
lege, which  is  two  and  one-half  miles  this  side  of  Kirkwood."  The  St.  Louis 
Grays,  with  Jackson's  band  of  the  regular  army  accompanied  the  excursion  train 
to  Franklin,  now  Pacific.  Franklin  consisted  of  a  depot  building  in  a  forest  of 
lars^e  trees.  Those  passengers  who  had  watches  timed  the  journey  from  St. 
Louis  and  expressed  their  agreeable  surprise  that  the  time,  allowance  being 
made  for  all  stops,  was  one  hour  and  fifty-nine  minutes.  Newspaper  histor}- 
preserves  the  comment  that  this  was  considered  "a  fair  speed  for  a  new,  par- 
tially unballasted  and  untried  road."  After  the  banquet  there  were  speeches, 
of  course.  One  of  the  most  significant  was  made  by  Luther  M.  Kennett,  who 
congratulated  the  audience  that  the  cars  were  of  St.  Louis  manufacture  and 
"drawn  by  a  locomotive  made  in  St.  Louis  and  by  St.  Louis  mechanics.  Palm 
and  Robertson,  to  whose  enterprise  and  public  spirit  the  company  and  the 
citizens  of  St.  Louis  generally  are  indebted  for  so  important  a  movement  toward 
our  city's  advancement  to  wealth  and  prosperity."  The  cost  of  the  construc- 
tion of  the  thirty-nine  miles  Mr.  Kennett  stated  had  been  "a  trifle  over  $1,- 
6cK),ooo."  The  Missouri  Pacific  was  completed  to  Kansas  Citv  in  the  fall  of 
1865. 

It  is  told  of  one  Missourian  that  when  he  was  called  upon  by  railroad  pro- 
moters to  donate  right  of  way  across  his  farm  he  replied:  "Take  it,  gentlemen; 
take  all  you  want — everything  I  have  if  necessary;  only  leave  me  my  wife  and 
children."  When  railroad  building  was  new  in  Missouri,  a  farmer  who  was  in 
town  heard  some  one  say  the  construction  gang  was  about  ready  to  lay  rails. 
He  hunted  up  the  superintendent  and  asked  if  the  comi)any  wanted  3,000  good, 
sound  white  oak  rails. 

In  the  zeal  to  push  railroad  enterprises  across  the  state,  bonds  were  issued 
when  the  markets  were  depressed.  To  the  Iron  Mountain  railroad  the  state  gave 
aid  in  the  sum  of  $3,501,000.  Some  of  these  bonds  sold  as  low  as  67.  The 
$3,000,000  of  Hannibal  &  St.  Joe  bonds  sold  for  $567,304.94  less  than  par.  The 
discount  on  $4,350,000   North   Missouri  bonds  was  about   $560,000.     The  onlv 


398  CEXTEXNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

state  bonds  issued  to  hclj)  railroad  Ijuilding  which  brought   par  were  those  for 
the  Platte  railroad. 

Overland  Mail  by  Sta.g-e  and  Rail. 

The  arrival  of  the  first  overland  mail  made  the  loth  of  October,  1858,  a 
notable  day  for  St.  Louis.  \\  hen  the  Missouri  Pacific  train  steamed  into  the 
Seventh  street  station,  there  was  great  cheering  from  the  assembled  crowd.  John 
Bmtertield  slepijed  from  a  car.  I  le  was  overwhelmed  with  congratulations.  The 
Hon.  John  F.  Darby  delivered  an  address  of  welcome.  Butterfield  responded. 
The  mail  was  escorted  to  the  postoffice  on  Third  and  C)live  streets  and  with 
ceremony  delivered  to  the  ])ostmaster.  It  had  come  through  from  San  Francisco 
in  twenty-four  days,  twenty  hours  and  thirty-five  minutes,  a  great  achievement 
for  that  period.  Prexiously  the  mail  service  between  the  Pacific  coa<t  and  the 
states  had  been  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  Shorter  time  was  demanded. 
The  government  established  the  overland  mail  with  Butterfield  as  agent.  The 
first  mail  stage  left  .San  Francisco  September  16,  1858.  The  route  was  from 
.San  Francisco  to  Los  Angeles,  462  miles  in  80  hours :  to  Yuma,  282  miles  in  ^2 
hours,  20  minutes;  to  Tucson,  280  miles  in  71  hours,  20  minutes;  to  Franklin, 
},(^o  miles  in  82  hours ;  to  Colbert's  Ferry  on  Red  river.  z'^zY^  miles  in  Ti^  hours, 
25  minutes;  to  Fort  Smith,  192  miles  in  38  hours;  to  Tipton,  Missouri,  the  rail- 
road terminus,  318^  miles  in  48  hours,  55  minutes;  to  .St.  Louis  by  railroad,  160 
miles  in  1 1  hours,  40  minutes. 

The  builders  of  the  Pacific,  now  the  Missouri  I'acific.  decided  on  five  and 
one-half  feet  as  their  gauge.  The  minority  protested  and  urged  the  adoption 
of  the  gauge  of  (jeorge  .Stephenson,  which  was  becoming  general  in  the  eastern 
states — four  feet,  eight  and  one-half  inches.  This  was  met  by  the  unanswerable 
argument  that  the  Mississippi  would  never  be  bridged  at  St.  Louis  and  the  citv 
might  with  entire  safety  adopt  its  own  railroad  gauge.  Within  a  little  more 
than  a  decade,  the  bridge  was  in  course  of  construction.  St.  Louis  was  agitated 
over  suggestions  of  methods  to  reduce  the  Missouri  Pacific  to  standard  gauge 
— four  feet,  eight  and  one-half  inches.  Daniel  R.  Garrison — in  railroad  circles 
they  called  him  "Old  Dan,"  because  there  was  a  nephew  Daniel — found  the 
way.  And  w^hen  the  thing  was  done  the  whole  city  marveled  at  the  ease  of  it. 
The  conditions  were  economy  and  minimum  of  interference  with  business.  In 
a  single  day  the  300  or  more  miles  of  track  was  reduced  from  five  feet,  six  inches 
to  the  standard.  Only  one  rail  was  moved  inward.  Before  that  was  started, 
the  track  layers  drove  the  new  inner  line  of  spikes  into  the  ties  the  entire  dis- 
tance. Early  one  morning  the  tracklayers  drew  the  old  inner  line  of  spikes, 
moved  the  rail  inward  against  the  new  line  of  spikes  and  fastened  it  there.  The 
road  was  ready  for  operation  before  night. 

Pioneer  Railroad  Building. 

John  David  Foote  was  fifteen  years  old  when  he  began  railroad  building  in 
Missouri.  That  was  in  1857.  True  to  this  state  of  steady  habits,  Mr.  Foote  was 
still  a  railroad  man  living  in  northwest  Missouri  fifty-three  years  afterwards. 
He  recalled  some  of  those  pioneer  experiences  in  Missouri  railroad  grading, 
first  trains,  and  big  snow  .storms: 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  399 

"I  commenced  driving  team  on  construction  when  I  was  fifteen.  Each  teamster 
looked  after  two  carts  and  two  horses.  Ox  teams  hauled  the  grading  plows  through  the 
cuts.  Twenty-five  cents  a  day  and  board  was  my  wage.  The  men  who  did  the  shoveling 
got  50  cents  a  day  and  board.  The  first  contract  I  worked  on  was  a  mile  west  of  Stewarts- 
ville.  I  was  only  a  little  fellow  then  and  it  was  hard  for  me  to  handle  the  harness  on 
the  big  mules.  So  Tom  Martin,  the  contractor,  told  Mike  Shay  to  make  me  'jigger 
boss.'  The  'jigger  boss'  was  the  fellow  who  handed  out  the  reg'lars  to  the  boys  on  the 
work.  It  was  an  old-fashioned  whisky,  strong  enough  to  burn  a  cut  through  the  hills, 
as  well  as  a  plow,  if  they'd  only  thought  of  using  it  that  way.  All  the  laborers  were 
Irishmen,  great,  brawny  fellows,  ready  for  a  scrap  or  frolic  on  any  occasion,  and  they'd 
think  a  contractor  was  walking  on  the  constitution  of  the  country  if  he  didn't  give  'em 
their  jiggers  when   they  got  dry,   which   was   some   frequent. 

"Mike  Fox  was  working  a  team  on  the  dump  one  day  when  it  came  time  to  minister 
to  him.  It  seems  he  had  got  a  pretty  good  jag  on  before  I  came  along,  but  I  didn't 
know  that.  When  I  poured  out  the  usual  allowance  Mike  put  his  big  fingers  around  the 
cup  so  it  would  hold  more  and  put  away  his  double-jigger  at  a  swallow.  Next  thing  I 
knew  Mike,  his  horse  and  cart  were  rolling  bumpety-bump  down  the  high  embankment. 
Finally  they  landed  at  the  bottom  and  Mike  found  himself  sitting  down  amid  the  wreck. 

"'Johnnie,'  he  called  out,  "would  you  moind  fetching  yez  jigger  down  here — I  don't 
believe  I  can  get  up  there.' 

"But  that  ended  my  job  as  jigger  boss.  They  blamed  Mike's  mishap  on  me,  and 
appointed  a  man  who  had  the  firmness  to  say  no  when  the  applicant  already  had  enough. 

When  Liberty  Celebrated. 

"When  they  were  laying  the  track  on  the  Cameron  and  Kansas  City  branch,  as  it  was 
then  called,  in  August,  1867,  the  people  of  Liberty  were  so  anxious  to  get  the  road  com- 
pleted there  as  soon  as  possible  that  they  made  a  contract  to  pay  the  company  a  large 
bonus  if  the  rails  were  laid  and  spiked  by  a  certain  date.  '  We  were  rushing  hard,  but  6 
o'clock  on  the  last  day  found  us  with  still  three-quarters  of  a  mile  to  go,  and  the  time 
would  be  out  at  midnight.  Mr.  Weed  was  superintendent,  and  he  was  some  worked  up 
over  that  bonus.  He  told  us  we  had  to  get  in  before  the  clock  struck  12,  if  the  boiler 
bust.  To  make  it  worth  while  he  promised  us  double  pay  that  night,  and  said  every 
saloon  in  Liberty  would  entertain  us  free  from  midnight  on  till  morning,  they  having  been 
prepared  for  the  occasion.  Vou  know  in  those  days  there  weren't  any  temperance  societies, 
and  they  didn't  make  such  a  hullabaloo  about  drinking  as  they  do  now.  Most  everybody 
drank,  more  or  less.' 

"Scattered  along  the  right-of-way  were  headlights  and  lanterns  for  the  men  to  work 
by.  And  we  did  work,  I  tell  you !  W^e  thought  that  track  had  to  be  in  there  on  time,  or 
the  world  would  come  to  an  end.  You  never  saw  such  a  busy  crowd.  The  people  came 
out  to  watch  as  we  got  near  town,  and  when  the  last  spike  was  driven  against  the  rail 
that  marked  the  end  the  crowd  cheered  like  they  do  when  they  elect  their  man  President. 
The  job  was  finished  before  12,  and  the  town  run  wide  open  the  balance  of  the  night. 

"When  the  engine  came  along,  pushing  its  car  of  rails,  spikes,  etc.,  it  was  the  first 
time  a  great  many  people  there  had  ever  seen  a  railroad  train.  The  engine  whistled  and 
the  bell  was  rung  until  everybody  in  town  was  aroused,  and  soon  the  entire  population 
came  down  to  the  track  to  see  what  was  going  on.  and  to  lend  a  fiand  in  the  cheering. 

The  First  Train  from  St.  Joe  to  Easton. 

"While  I  was  working  on  construction  I  got  to  see  many  sights  like  that.  The  advent 
of  the  railroad  was  the  biggest  sort  of  thing  that  could  happen,  same  as  a  passenger  air- 
ship would  be  now,  I  reckon.  When  the  first  train  was  run  out  of  St.  Joe  to  Easton 
they  had  a  big  picnic  and  barbecue.  The  engineer  and  fireman — two  heroes  of  the  occasion 
— went  over  to  the  grounds  to  get  their  dinner,  and  when  they  came  back  their  little 
engine — little  as  compared  with  the  engines  of  today — was  surrounded  by  men,  women 
and  children,  curiously  peering  under  at  the  works  and  everything  they  could  see.  The 
crowd  was  so  thick  that  many  were  forced  in  close.     It  must  have  been  a  suggestion  of 


400  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  Old  Nick  that  prompted  the  engineer  to  climb  aboard  and  let  loose  a  wild  volley  of 
shrieks  from  the  whistle.  In  a  second  pandemonium  had  spread  her  wings  and  was 
tumbling  the  people  about  like  corks  in  a  gale.  The  engine  hadn't  budged  an  inch,  but 
they  supposed  when  they  heard  that  fearful  noise  it  would  certainly  do  something,  and 
none  wanted  to  take  chances  on  which  way  it  might  take  a  notion  to  go.  I  thought  that 
engineer  ought  to  have  been  stood  on  his  head  in  his  own  tank;  he  just  leaned  out  of 
his  window  and  laughed  till  the  tears  run  down  his  cheeks.  Some  of  the  people  didn't 
stop  running  till  they  got  way  back  in  the  woods.  The  effect  on  'em  was  about  the 
same  as  if  a  platoon  of  soldiers  had  fired  directly  at  'em.  You  see,  an  engine  was  an 
uncanny  thing  then,  and  people  thought  they  were  liable  to  blow  up  at  any  time,  just 
like  a  racing  steamboat. 

"The  worst  snow  I  have  any  recollection  of  occurred  about  thirty  years  ago.  It 
was  accompanied  by  a  hurricane,  which  filled  the  big  cuts  to  a  depth  of  eight  feet  and 
more.  About  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  were  put  to  work  with  shovels  on  the  snow 
west  of  Cameron.  We  started  in  Saturday  night  and  worked  all  day  Sunday  and  far 
into  Monday  without  a  rest.  There  was  a  long,  high  embankment,  swept  clean  by  the 
wind,  and  then  a  long,  deep  cut,  in  which  the  snow  was  deep  and  compact.  There  were 
five  engines  coupled  together,  waiting  to  butt  through,  but  first  we  dug  large  holes  to 
the  track  about  fifty  feet  apart,  so  as  to  give  the  engines  a  'foothold.'  Every  pound  of 
steam  was  crowded  on  when  the  signal  was  given,  and  the  train  of  engines  came  on  like 
a  hurricane,  cleaving  the  snow  like  the  prow  of  a  battleship  and  sending  a  spray  fifty 
feet  in  the  air.  And  that  without  a  snovvplow,  just  the  naked  engine.  The  distance  was 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  though  they  slowed  down  considerably,  they  managed  to 
pull  through.  The  head  engine  butted  its  stack  and  headlight  off,  and  the  engineer  couldn't 
get  out  of  his  cab  until  they  dug  the  snow  out  of  the  gangway.  It  was  sure  a  Santa 
Claus   string  of   engines   when   that  job   was   done." 

Begfinnings  of  Systems. 

Tlie  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  railroad,  the  fir.st  to  cross  Missouri,  started  at 
Hannibal  in  the  office  of  John  H.  Clemens,  father  of  Mark  Twain.  This 
meeting  was  held  at  Hannibal  in  the  spring  of  1846.  Z.  G.  Draper  was  chosen 
president,  and  R.  F.  Lakenan,  secretary.  At  the  next  session  of  the  legislature, 
in  1847,  the  charter  was  obtained.  Then  followed  enthusiastic  meetings  and 
conventions  all  along  the  proposed  route.  And  then  the  movement  slumbered 
until  1850.  In  1 85 1  the  legislature  began  the  voting  of  bonds  on  condition  that 
the  company  raise  and  e-xpend  corresponding  amounts.  The  counties  and  the 
towns  voted  bonds.  That  was  the  method  of  railroad  financing  in  Missouri  be- 
fore the  war.  In  the  fall  of  1851  ground  was  broken  at  Hannibal  with  a  great 
procession,  much  oratory  and  bell  ringing  and  cannon  firing.  The  next  year 
Congress  voted  600,000  acres  of  good  land  in  aid  of  the  road.  Contracts  were 
let  but  construction  dragged.  It  was  not  until  February  13,  1859,  that  the  first 
through  train  ran.  The  rate  was  five  cents  a  mile  and  some  times  more  for  pas- 
sengers. The  road  was  known  in  Missouri  as  "Old  Reliable."  The  Hannibal 
&  St.  Joe  was  started  from  both  ends.  It  was  completed  in  Mumpower's  field 
two  miles  east  of  Chillicothe  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  February  13. 
The  junction  of  the  two  ends  was  celebrated  by  the  transportation  of  several 
barrels  of  water  from  the  Mississippi  at  Hannibal  to  St.  Joseph  where  the  bar- 
rels were  emptied  into  the  Missouri.  This,  as  the  orator  said,  typified  the  union 
of  the  two  great  water  courses  of  the  American  continent. 

The  original  idea  of  the  Wabash  was  a  railroad  from  St.  Louis  and  St. 
Charles  northwesterly  along  the  dividing  line  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Missouri  river  vallevs  to  the  Iowa  line  and  thence  to  Des  Moines.     The  name 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  401 

was  the  North  Missouri.  This  road  was  chartered  in  1851  and  reached  Macon  in 
1859.  Not  until  1864  did  the  North  Missouri  take  over  the  two  shorter  roads,- 
the  Chariton  and  the  Missouri  Valley  and  build  through  to  Kansas  City. 

When  Paramore  built  700  miles  of  three-foot  gauge  road  through  Missouri 
and  Arkansas  and  into  Texas  with  only  $12,000  a  mile  bonded  debt,  it  seemed 
as  if  standard  roads  with  larger  indebtedness  could  not  compete.  There  was 
much  sentiment  in  St.  Louis  favorable  to  the  narrow  gauge  idea.  But  it  died  out 
and  the  narrow  gauge  became  standard.  Samuel  W.  Fordyce,  first  receiver  and 
then  reorganizer  of  the  Cotton  Belt,  as  the  road  was  called,  worked  out  the  rail- 
road problem  demonstrating  that  a  standard  gauge  was  best. 

Duty  of  a  Railroad  President. 

While  Stewart  was  president  of  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joe  his  policy  was  to 
make  the  new  means  of  transportation  as  popular  as  possible  with  Missourians. 
One  night  the  president  was  traveling  over  the  road, — it  was  before  the  era 
of  the  sleeping  car, — when  a  baby  set  up  an  outcry  which  disturbed  the  whole 
coach.  The  mother  tried  in  vain  to  quiet  the  little  one.  Stewart  arose  from 
his  seat,  went  to  the  mother  and  said : 

"Madam,  my  name  is  Stewart.  I  am  president  of  this  road  and  it  is  my 
duty  to  look  after  the  comfort  of  the  patrons.     Hand  that  baby  to  me." 

He  took  the  baby  in  his  arms  and  walked  up  and  down  the  aisle  until  he 
put  it  to  sleep. 

The  man  who  built  the  first  railroad  bridge  across  the  Ohio  river,  who 
located  and  supervised  the  building  of  the  famous  Georgetown  loop, — a  master 
piece  of  railroad  engineering, — who  told  the  Union  Pacific  how  to  cross  Great 
Salt  Lake,  chose  the  Ozarks  for  his  declining  years  and  rests  in  the  cemeterj' 
at  Oakland.  The  name  of  Jacob  Blickensderfer  is  identified  with  the  solution 
of  so  many  railroad  engineering  problems  as  to  make  him  an  historic  figure 
in  his  profession.  President  Grant  selected  him  to  adjust  and  complete  the 
great  public  improvement  contracts  which  redeemed  Washington  in  1870.  Mr. 
Blickensderfer  was  identified  with  the  building  of  the  Otegon  Short  Line.  He 
supervised  the  construction  of  the  main  line  of  the  L'nion  Pacific  from  Green 
river  to  Ogden.  He  built  the  bridge  across  Snake  river.  An  early  connection 
as  chief  engineer  with  the  Frisco  led  to  his  appreciation  of  the  Ozark  countrj'. 
When  the  years  came  on  Mr.  Blickensderfer  made  his  home  in  Laclede  county 
and  lived  there  the  rest  of  his  life.  Descendants  of  Jacob  Blickensderfer  are 
numerous  in  Missouri. 

Railway  Mail  Service  Origiiiated  in  Missouri. 

"The  father  of  railway  mail  service"  was  General  William  A.  Davis  of  St. 
Joseph.  Senator  Cockrell  and  Representative  James  N.  Burnes  assembled  docu- 
mentarj'  evidence  of  this  paternity.  General  Davis  left  papers  which  embraced 
drawings  of  cars  and  similar  data  showing  what  he  was  planning  as  early  as 
1862.  He  was  postmaster  at  St.  Joseph  at  one  time  and  for  many  years  con- 
nected with  the  service.  He  took  great  pride  in  the  efficiency  of  his  office  and 
when  crowded  with  work  used  to  go  out  on  the  railroads  fifty  or  sixty  miles  to 
get  that  much  additional  time  in  sorting  and  arranging  mail  matter.     This  gave 

Vol.  I— s« 


402  CEXTEXNIAI.  11IS'1"()K^■  C)V  MISSOURI 

him  the  idea  that  much  of  the  work  then  being  done  in  the  otVices  could  be  trans- 
acted en  route,  and  that  a  great  deal  of  time  could  be  saved  in  the  transmission 
of  matter.  On  the  5th  of  August,  1862,  Mr.  Davis  reported  to  the  assistant 
postmaster  general  what  was  the  practical  beginning  of  railway  mail  service : 

"I  have  the  honor  to  report  that  in  obedience  to  verbal  orders  received  throuRh  Mr. 
Waller,  special  agent  of  the  department,  one  of  the  clerks  and  myself  left  here  on  Satur- 
day, 26th,  so  as  to  be  in  Quincy  on  Monday,  28th  ult.,  to  commence  the  distribution  ot 
the  overland  mail  on  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joe  railway.  Finding  that  the  mail  cars  had 
not  been  arranged  according  to  promises  made  to  Mr.  Waller,  instead  of  going  to  Quincy 
I  proceeded  to  Hannibal  and  succeeded  in  getting  cars  temporarily  fixed,  in  which, 
though  with  some  inconvenience,  I  think  the  work  can  be  done  until  the  new  cars  are 
ready.  The  distribution  was  commenced  on  Monday  at  Palmyra,  and  I  assisted  the  clerk, 
going  up  as  far  as  Clarence,  at  which  place  I  turned  back  with  the  clerk  who  had  come 
down  to  go  up.  On  Tuesday  assisted  up  to  the  same  point  and  turned  back,  and  dis- 
tributed the  mail  going  up  on  Wednesday  myself.  We  have  now  gotten  through  with  a 
week's  service,  and  c.nn  confidently  report  that  when  the  accommodations  are  furnished 
that  are  promised  by  Mr.  Hayward,  superintendent  of  the  road,  the  distribution  can  be 
done  entirely  to  your  satisfaction.  The  excuse  given  by  the  officers  at  Hannibal  for 
not  having  cars  ready  was  that  they  had  been  daily  expecting  both  Mr.  Hayward  and 
Mr.  Nettlcton,  neithe^  of  whom  had  arrived  when  I  got  there  on  Saturday.  Mr.  Hay- 
ward got  home  on  Wednesday  last  and  I  saw  him  on  Friday.  He  promised  to  have 
the  cars  got  up  specially  for  the  mail  service,  and  have  them  run  through  to  West 
Quincy.  This  will  be  all  that  is  necessary  to  secure  the  entire  success  of  the  distribu- 
tion on  the  road,  providing  that   we  have  competent  men  to  do  the  work." 

John  L.  liittingcr,  who  was  postmaster  at  St.  Joseph  following  General 
Davis,  wrote  a  letter: 

"Mr.  Davis  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  department  for  over  forty  years  and  knew 
every  detail  of  the  service,  and  had  handled  the  overland  mail  from  the  start.  Tlie 
exigencies  of  the  war  rendered  the  operating  of  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  railroad 
exceedingly  difficult,  and  almost  every  train  would  be  beliind  time.  As  the  overland  mail 
coaches  were  expected  to  leave  on  their  journey  across  the  plains  promptly,  of  necessity 
they  frequently  had  to  go  without  a  great  portion  of  the  eastern  mail.  Mr.  Davis 
conceived  the  idea  of  distributing  the  mail  on  the  cars,  and  laid  the  plans  before  me.  I 
was  satisfied  they  were  good,  and  urged  him  to  go  ahead  and  request  authority  from  the 
department  and  experiment.  He  was  granted  the  necessary  authority,  and,  with  clerks 
detailed  from  the  St.  Joe  office,  under  his  personal  supervision  the  railway  mail  service 
between  Quincy  and  St.  Joseph  was  soon  ir  successful  operation.  How  credit  ever  came 
to  be  given  to  any  other  person  than  Mr.  Davis  for  originating  this  service  I  never  could 
conceive." 

The  assistant  postmaster  general  at  the  tiine,  A.  N.  Seevely,  referring  to 
the  report  and  to  the  letters  of  Maj.  Bittinger  and  others,  said:  "These  letters 
have  revived  recollections  of  my  conversations  with  Mr.  Davis  and  personal 
ob.servations  which  I  had  the  opportunity  of  making  in  1863  at  St.  Joseph,  and 
on  the  cars  between  that  place  and  Hannibal,  and  I  now  feel  quite  well  satisfied 
that  Messrs.  Bittinger'  and  others  truly  state  the  facts  concerning  Mr.  Davis' 
work  in  connection  with  the  postal  car  service.  I  talked  with  Mr.  Davis  in 
St.  Joe  during  my  visit  there,  preparatory  to  a  trip  on  the  overland  stage,  and 
believe  that  the  idea  of  assorting  mails  on  the  cars,  instead  of  delaying  them 
for  that  purpose  in  the  distributing  post  office  in  St.  Joseph  w-as  entirely  original 
with   himself." 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  403 

^^ally  years  afterwards  the  United  States  government  prepared  a  history 
of  the  railway  mail  service  frcmi  its  inception  in  1862  and  jjave  the  credit  of 
it  to  another  man  in  whose  honor  a  statue  was  erected.  Wlit-n  the  manuscript 
copy  of  this  history  was  examined  it  appeared  that  red  ink  hnes  had  been 
drawn  through  the  name  of  William  A.  Davis  and  the  mention  of  his  connection 
with  the  tirst  organization. 

The  Right  to  Regulate. 

Of  the  millions  for  which  the  state  became  responsible  through  aid  of  rail- 
road construction,  Missouri,  after  years  of  legislation  and  waiting,  got  back 
about  two-fifths.  But  the  state  also  acquired  the  conceded  right  to  regulate 
rates  on  freight  and  passenger  traffic.  To  the  statesmanship  of  Governor 
Fletcher,  Alissouri  owes  this  wise  reservation  of  the  right  to  regfula-te.  That 
Missouri  did  not  pioneer  the  way  to  partnership  by  the  state  in  the  profits  of 
railroad  operation  was  because  the  lawmaking  power  ignored  a  second  sugges- 
tion of  the  governor.  In  the  same  message  that  urged  the  provision  for  rate 
regulation,  Governor  Fletcher  said :  "The  present  is  perhaps  also  the  best 
occasion  for  requiring  (in  all  cases  where  it  may  be  legally  done)  of  all  rail- 
roads a  small  annual  tribute  to  the  state,  which  could  be  .so  insignificant  in 
amount  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  profitable  operation  of  the  roads,  but  which 
would  in  the  aggregate  ultimately  grow  to  be  a  sum  sufficient  to  carry  on  the 
state  government  without  the  levy  of  any  taxes  on  the  people  for  state  pur- 
poses." 

When  in  1865  the  Fletcher  administration  entered  upon  the  solution  of  the 
railroad  problem  in  Missouri  there  were  826  miles  of  road  in  the  state.  When 
in  1868  the  last  of  the  foreclosures  and  sales  were  completed  there  were  1,394 
miles  and  on  the  Southwest  Branch,  which  the  state  had  operated,  2,000  men 
were  making  the  dirt  fly.  Fremont,  who  was  dispossessed  of  the  Southwest 
Branch,  had  been  the  head  of  the  Republican  ticket  for  the  presidency  in  1856 
Fisk,  who  succeeded  Fremont,  to  successfully  demonstrate  railroad  operation 
by  the  state,  was  to  become  a  national  standard  bearer  of  the  Prohibition  party. 
The  roads  which  state  money  built  and  on  which  the  state  ex]iended  about 
$20,000,000  are  today  the  trunk  lines  of  the  Missouri  Pacific,  the  Iron  Mountain, 
the  Wabash,  the  Frisco  and  the  Burlington  system  in  Missouri.  They  are  the 
main  stems  of  7,000  miles  of  railroad  valued  at  more  than  $350,000,000  within 
the  limits  of  the  state. 

Soon  after  the  Civil  war  the  governor  of  Missouri,  Thomas  C.  Fletcher, 
addressing  a  special  message  to  the  legislature,  said : 

"I  suggest  in  any  disposition  you  make  of  this  road  there  be  reserved  the 
right  of  the  state  to  regulate  the  charges  for  carrj'ing  freight  and  passengers, 
and  that  a  penalty  be  annexed  for  exceeding  such  rates.  It  is  not  an  inappro- 
priate occasion  to  add,  in  this  connection,  that  so  far  as  you  have  power  over 
the  several  railroads,  by  existing  circumstances,  this  right  ought  to  be  reserved 
to  the  legislature,  and  thus  as  fully  as  possible  provide  for  the  iirotection  of  the 
people  from  exorbitant  charges  on  the  part  of  these  corporations,  which  have 
a  monopoly  of  a  business  that  might  be  used  to  the  great  detriment  of  the 
people." 


404  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

At  that  time  the  state  practically  owned  every  mile  of  railroad  in  Missouri. 
Of  one  road  the  governor  had  taken  actual  possession;  he  was  operating  it. 
The  other  roads,  while  being  operated  by  companies,  belonged  to  the  state  by 
virtue  of  long  existing  default  on  the  bonds  which  the  state  had  issued  to  the 
companies  to  aid  construction.  Foreclosures  were  impending  in  all  of  these 
cases.  Nothing  stood  in  the  way  of  seizure  save  the  question  of  future  policy. 
Should  the  state  take  charge  of  the  roads  which  its  money  had  built  and  run 
them  ?  It  may  seem  strange  but  the  fact  is  that  not  even  minority  sentiment 
supported  the  affirmative.  Several  sessions  of  the  legislature  were  required  to 
work  out  the  problem. 

The  roads  were  uncompleted.  Only  one  of  them  had  reached  the  western 
border  of  the  state.'  Millions  had  been  absorbed  in  construction.  Large  sections 
of  the  state  were  entirely  without  the  expected  facilities.  Of  the  first  consid- 
eration in  the  adjustment  were  terms  which  would  insure  more  construction. 
For  what  had  been  spent  the  legislators  and  the  public  gave  only  secondary 
thought.  In  driving  bargains  the  state  endeavored  to  recover  something  of  what 
had  been  invested,  if  that  word  may  be  used,  but  the  amount  of  money  was  not 
deemed  of  so  much  importance  as  the  condition  of  future  building. 

In  the  foreclosure  of  the  state's  lien  and  in  the  sale  of  the  road  to  the  new 
company,  as  each  settlement  was  made,  was  found  the  opportunity  to  which 
this  far-sighted  governor  drew  attention.  The  experiment  of  railroad  owner- 
ship is  an  historical  fact.  Of  greater  significance^  perhaps,  is  the  regulation 
feature  which  was  made  part  of  the  readjustment  of  relations  with  the  rail- 
roads of  Missouri. 

The  Original  Charters. 

When  the  recommendations  for  foreclosure  and  sale  were  made  Missouri 
had  no  rate  power  over  railroads.  Charters  granted  from  1847  to  1857,  the 
period  of  railroad  beginning  and  construction,  authorized  the  companies  to  fix 
their  own  passenger  and  freight  rates.  These  charters,  in  specific  terms,  ex- 
empted the  railroads  from  the  operation  of  the  statutes  on  the  subject  of  rate 
■  regulation.  Like  some  other  western  and  like  some  central  states,  Missouri, 
yielding  to  the  strong  popular  desire  to  stimulate  railroad  construction,  granted 
charters  with  extremely  liberal  provisions.  But,  as  was  not  the  case  in  many 
other  states,  Missouri,  through  the  disastrous  effect  of  the  Civil  war,  found 
the  opportunity  to  amend  radically  her  relations  with  the  railroads. 

Urged  repeatedly  by  Governor  Fletcher,  the  general  assembly,  as  one  rail- 
road after  another  was  foreclosed  and  sold,  inserted  in  the  bills  which  became 
acts  a  provision  subjecting  the  roads  to  rate  regulations.  This  provision  the 
railroad  companies  opposed  but  were  compelled  to  accept.  The  only  concession 
made  was  that  the  right  of  regulation  by  the  state  should  not  become  effective 
.until  ten  years  after  the  passage  of  the  act  by  the  legislature  of  1868.  An 
amendment  cutting  out  the  provision  for  rate  regulation  was  defeated  by  a 
vote  of  sixty-four  to  forty-two.  Those  opposing  the  rate  regulation  provision 
were  about  equally  divided  between  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties. 
At  that  time,  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  war  many  residents  of  the  state  were 
disfranchised.      The    Republicans   had    a   majority    in    the    legislature.      By   the 


Charles  G.  Warner 


S.  H.  H.  Clark 


r>.  I?.  Garrison 


A.    A.     rahii.-ii; 


A  GROUP  OF  MISSOURI  RAILROAD  MANAGERS  OF  A  PAST  GENERATION 


TRAILS  AXD  TRACKS  407 

series  of  acts  the  right  of  rate  regulation  after  ten  years  was  not  only  stipu- 
lated by  the  legislature  but  was  formally  accepted  by  the  reorganized  railroad 
companies  as  one  of  the  conditions  upon  which  they  regained  their  properties. 

An  Experiment  in  State  Ownership. 

Missouri's  experiment  in  state  ownership  of  railroads  was  not  of  popular 
choice  It  resulted  from  circumstances  chief  of  which  was  the  Civil  war.  Con- 
ditions at  the  time  seemed  most  disastrous.  They  prompted  legislation  which 
gave  the  state  a  commanding  position  toward  the  railroads,  which  made  Mis- 
souri the  successful  pioneer  in  the  field  of  government  control  of  common  car- 
riers. In  actual  possession  and  operation  of  railroad  property  the  state  had  an 
experience  novel  and  interesting,  although  not  very  important  in  the  light  of 
the  railroad  management  of  these  times.  The  governor  of  Missouri  became 
a  railroad  manager.  He  established  rates,  ran  trains,  maintained  the  tracks, 
even  added  betterments  to  the  property,  and  showed  balances  on  the  right  side 
of  the  ledger.  The  governor  was  proud  of  the  record  of  railroad  management 
by  the  state.  He  gave  the  people  the  facts  in  his  messages  to  the  general  assem- 
bly. But  he  did  not  advise  continuance  of  state  ownership  of  railroads.  In  fact, 
he  told  the  legislature  and  the  people  that  '"the  paramount  want"  of  the  state 
was  completed  railroads.  In  that  view  popular  sentiment  coincided.  State 
ownership  found  no  advocates,  notwithstanding  the  experiment  on  a  scale  some- 
what impressive  for  those  days  was  entirely  encouraging. 

Missouri  did  not  yield  readily  or  extravagantly  to  the  early  agitation  for 
railroads.  In  1836  and  the  years  following  there  were  importunate  advocates 
of  state  aid  of  railroads.  Mass  meetings  were  held.  Conventions  were  organ- 
ized. Ringing  resolutions  were  adopted.  Illinois  was  contributing  millions  of 
dollars  of  state  aid  for  railroads  within  her  borders.  The  influence  of  this 
boom  of  the  nearby  neighbor  was  felt  on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi.  It 
did  not,  however,  result  in  action  by  the  ^Missouri  legislature.  Partly  owing  to 
inherent  conservatism,  partly  because  of  the  waterway  facilities,  Missouri  moved 
slowly  in  the  building  of  railways. 

State  Policy  in  1850-60. 

The  policy  of  state  aid  to  railroads  began  in  Missouri  in  1S51.  Charters 
were  granted  and  bills  were  passed  authorizing  the  issue  of  bonds,  guaranteed 
by  the  state,  to  construct  railroads.  The  condition  attached  to  the  aid  was  that 
the  railroad  company  must  put  up  $50,000  of  its  own  funds  for  each  grant  of 
$30,000  bonds  by  the  state.  This  policy  was  given  free  trial  until  1855  when 
the  people  of  Missouri  made  the  disagreeable  discover)-  that  the  state  had 
authorized  the  issue  of  $9,000,000  bonds ;  that  the  railroad  building  was  progres- 
sing very  slowly ;  that  the  cost  was  twice  or  three  times  the  original  estimates : 
that  these  bonds  which  had  commanded  a  premium  when  issued  were  below  par 
and  selling  at  an  alarming  discount.  .\  change  in  the  policy  was  imperative, 
but  the  change  that  took  place  seems  inexplicable  to  this  generation  which  can- 
not realize  the  railroad  mania  of  that  decade  before  the  war.  The  railroad  com- 
panies admitted  that  they  were  at  the  end  of  outside  resources.  They  had  raised 
and  spent  all  that  could  be  obtained  in  subscriptions   from  counties,  cities  and 


4U«  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

individuals.  Tliey  made  the  astounding  proposition  that  the  state  authorize 
the  issue  of  $10,000,000  more  in  aid  bonds,  $19,000,000  in  all.  They  asked 
that  this  aid  be  made  available  to  them  as  they  contributed,  not  dollar  for 
dollar  as  before  but  one  dollar  of  their  money  for  two  dollars  of  state  bonds. 
Fine  promises  were  made  that  with  this  aid  the  roads  would  be  pushed  through 
to  the  westetn  and  southern  borders  of  Missouri.  Strange  to  tell,  the  legislators 
were  convinced  by  the  reasoning  that  with  this  additional  $10,000,000  the  roads 
would  be  completed  and  that  without  it  the  state  might  lose  what  had  been  put 
in.  The  bill  passed,  authorizing  the  issue  of  $10,000,000  to  be  applied  in  the 
proportion  of  two  dollars  of  state  money  to  one  dollar  of  railroad  subscriptions. 

Governor  Price's  Veto. 

Governor  Sterling  Price  vetoed  the  bill  and  in  doing  so  he  said  to  the  general 
assembly:  "The  bill  is  tantamount  to  a  measure  to  bankrupt  the  treasury  and 
to  blast  tne  reputation  of  the  state."  He  charged  that  the  companies  in  bad  faith 
had  sold  aid  bonds  and  used  the  proceeds  to  pay  interest  upon  previous  issues 
instead  of  for  construction.  But,  the  assembly  passed  the  bill  over  the  veto. 
During  two  years  the  bonds  were  issued  on  the  new  basis  of  two  dollars  of  the 
people's  money  for  one  dollar  of  the  railroad  money.  The  railroad  building  went 
on  slowly  through  Missouri. 

In  1857  came  the  financial  crisis.  The  issue  of  aid  bonds  was  suspended. 
Tempted  again  by  the  hope  of  a  spurt  which  might  rush  the  roads  to  completion 
the  legislature  authorized  large  issues  of  bonds  on  condition  that  the  railroads 
expend  small  sums,  practically  giving  to  the  companies  these  issues.  Beginning 
with  1859  the  companies,  one  after  another,  ceased  paying  interest  on  the  aid 
bonds.  The  state,  to  maintain  its  credit,  was  compelled  to  issue  and  sell  addi- 
tional bonds  to  meet  the  defaulted  interest.  In  the  spring  of  1861  came  the  war. 
The  companies  stopped  building  railroads.  The  state  stopped  paying  interest  on 
the  bonds.  The  results  of  the  ten  years'  policy  of  aid  to  railroads  showed  state 
bonds  issued  as  follows : 

Pacific    railroad    $  7,000,000 

Southwest   branch    4,500,000 

Iron  Mountain    3,501,000 

Cairo   and   Fulton 650,000 

Platte   county    700,000 

North   Missouri    4,350,000 

Total $20,701,000 

The  discount  and  commission  for  the  selling  of  these  bonds  were  $2,713,826. 
The  net  cash  to  the  railroads  was  $17,927,174.  And  not  one  of  the  railroads 
was  completed.  Cities  and  counties  had  contributed  through  subscriptions  $7,- 
200,000.  The  state  aid  had  been  $2.61  for  every  dollar  put  in  from  city,  county 
and  private  subscriptions.  Of  private  subscriptions  to  stock  the  companies  had 
obtained  only  $1,500,000.  Of  the  $27,917,000  put  into  Missouri  railroads  in  the 
decade  before  the  war,  $26,400,000  was  public  funds,  or  about  $17  of  the  peo- 
ple's money  to  every  dollar  raised  by  the  railroad  companies  from  private  in- 
vestors.    St.  Louis  county  and  city  lost  $5,450,000. 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  409 

The  Railroad  Problems  of  1865. 

With  the  return  of  peace  in  1865,  Missouri  faced  a  railroad  problem  that 
required  four  years  for  solution.  It  held  first  liens  on  the  roads.  Principal  and 
interest  of  this  railroad  aid  debt  reached  $31,735,000,  before  the  policy  of  set- 
tlement had  been  fully  carried  out.  No  advocacy  of  permanent  state  owner- 
ship was  developed.  Popular  sentiment  almost  universally  demanded  comple- 
tion of  the  roads  across  the  state.  Under  such  conditions  of  public  feeling 
Governor  Fletcher  recommended  and  the  general  assembly  passed  measures 
which  at  the  same  time  foreclosed  the  liens  and  transferred  the  roads  on  con- 
ditions intended  to  expedite  construction  and  to  save  as  much  as  possible  on 
the  bonded  debt.  Each  road  presented  a  problem  somewhat  different  from  the 
others.  One  road  which  gave  the  state  most  trouble  and  which  prompted  the 
experiment  in  railroad  operation  by  the  state  was  known  then  as  the  Southwest 
Branch;  it  is  now  a  part  of  the  main  stem  of  the  Frisco  system.  Of  this  road 
the  state  took  actual  possession  under  circumstances  which  Governor  Fletcher 
explained  to  the  general  assembly  in  a  special  message  in  January,  1868,  as 
follows : 

"The  Southwest  Pacific  railroad  was  disposed  of  to  General  John  C.  Fremont  who 
offered  for  it,  under  all  of  the  circumstances,  a  very  liberal  price.  He  was  then  repre- 
sented and  believed  to  be  wealthy  and  able  to  influence  a  large  amount  of  capital  for 
such  an  enterprise.  He  united  it  with  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  railroad,  a  corporation 
which  was  organized  under  an  act  of  Congress  with  power  to  build  a  railroad  from 
Springfield,  Missouri,  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  with  a  grant  of  land  for  that  purpose  exceed- 
ing in  quantity  and  value  any  grant  ever  made  to  a  corporation  in  America.  He  paid 
$325,000  to  the  state,  as  required  by  the  terms  of  sale.  The  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad 
company  laid  down  the  track  and  extended  the  road  to  Little  Piney,  a  distance  of  about 
twelve  miles  from  its  former  terminus,  built  one  or  two  bridges,  and  partially  constructed 
one  across  the  Gasconade  and  did  some  grading  west  of  that  point.  On  the  expiration  of 
one  year  from  date  of  sale  I  was  satisfied  that  the  sum  of  $500,000  had  not  been  ex- 
pended in  the  work  of  'graduation,  masonry  and  superstructure  of  the  extension  of  the 
road'  as  required  by  the  contract.  The  contractors  and  laborers  were  not  paid.  But 
little  work  was  being  done.  The  means  and  credit  of  the  company  appeared  to  be  ex- 
hausted. All  of  its  operatives  and  employes  were  unpaid.  And  no  reasonable  ground 
remained  for  hope  of  a  compliance  on  its  part.  Under  the  power  given  me  by  law  I 
took  possession  of  the  road  and  appointed  General  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  agent,  to  operate 
it  until  the  general  assembly  shall  otherwise  dispose  of  the  same  for  the  purpose  of 
foreclosing  the  state's  lien  or  mortgage." 

The  Southwest  Branch  Experiment. 

A  report  of  about  six  months  operation  of  the  road  by  the  agent  of  the  state 
show  receipts  to  have  been  $118,970.83.  The  expenditures  for  the  same  period 
were  $112,006.38.  General  Fisk  retained  the  working  organization  of  the  road. 
As  the  receipts  exceeded  expenses,  he  paid  the  officers  and  employes  the  salaries 
and  wages  past  due,  applying  in  this  way  during  the  six  months  the  sum  of 
$18,535.29.  The  report  further  shows  the  purchase  out  of  the  receipts  of  several 
thousand  ties.  An  engine  house  was  built  at  Little  Piney.  A  tank  house  at 
Sullivan  was  added  to  the  equipment.  The  report  concludes:  "Extensive  re- 
pairs have  been  made  on  engines  and  cars  and  the  track  has  been  placed  in 
most  excellent  condition." 

In  a  special  message  the  governor  recommended  that  road  be  given  away  to 


410  CEXTEXXIAL  HISTUKV  OF  MISSOURI 

secure  its  completion.  Legislation  paved  the  way  for  the  organization  of  a  com- 
pany which  giiaranteeed  extension.  The  agent  of  the  state,  General  Fisk,  as- 
sisted in  the  organization  of  the  company,  continuing  to  operate  the  road  at  a 
profit  over  running  expenses  until  tiie  company  was  ready  to  give  the  guaran- 
tees required  and  to  take  over  the  property. 

The  strongly  controlling  motive  which  prompted  the  state  administration  in 
the  policy  toward  the  railroads  during  the  reorganization  period  is  very  well 
shown  in  the  message  which  Governor  Fletcher  sent  to  the  legislature 
upon  the  foreclosure  and  sale  of  the  Iron  Mountain.    He  said: 

"It  is  my  opinion  that  this  road  should  have  l)rought  a  larger  sum.  but  the  para- 
mount want  of  the  southeast,  of  St.  Louis,  and  of  the  state  was  the  completed  railroad, 
and  not  the  contingency  of  a  few  thousand  dollars  more  from  its  sale,  which,  if  oh- 
tained,  would  be  no  adequate  compensation  for  delay,  or  even  risk  of  delay,  in  the  long 
deferred  enterprise.  The  owners  of  this  road  are  now  citizens  of  a«d  property  holders 
in  St.  Louis.  They  have  obtained  possession  of  it  at  a  price  which  they  can  afford  to 
pay.  The  state  has  constructed  railroads  which  have  built  up  the  commerce  of  St. 
Louis  until  that  commerce  is  strong  enouijh  to  build  railroads.  So  short  a  line  as  this 
and  one  which  will  redound  so  materially  to  the  benefit  of  every  interest  of  the  city  will 
surely  find   St.  Louis  capital,  enterprise  an<l  energy  to  build   it." 

One  of  the  oldest  and  best  informed  citizens  of  Missouri,  connected  with  the 
Southwest  Branch  and  associated  with  General  Fisk  in  the  reorganization  period, 
re])lying  to  an  inquiry  for  his  recollections  of  state  operation  of  the  road,  wrote : 
"What  we  of  the  southwest  wanted  was  the  completion  of  the  road  and  to  that 
end  we  bent  all  of  our  energies." 

The  Reckless  Railroad  Bond  Issues. 

The  financial  condition  of  Lafayette  county  in  1875  illustrated  well  the  evil 
results  of  the  reckless  bond  issues  in  Missouri  up  to  that  time.  Lafayette  was 
settled  largely  by  well-to-do  pioneers  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Its  fer- 
tility of  soil  made  it  one  of  the  most  prosperous  of  the  Central  Missouri  coun- 
ties. Although  the  county  had  a  frontage  on  the  river  and  enjoyed  the  benefits 
of  water  transportation,  the  progressive  people  voted  readily,  even  lavishly, 
in  encouragement  of  various  railroad  projects.  Lexington,  the  county  seat, 
was  one  of  the  wealthiest  cities  of  the  state.  It  offered  extraordinary  advantages 
in  the  way  of  higher  education.  "Limerick  Lawn"  on  the  outskirts  of  Lexing- 
ton was  one  of  the  finest  country  estates  in  Missouri.  In  February,  1875,  a  com- 
mittee of  citizens,  composed  of  William  T.  Gammon,  W'illiam  C.  Beattie,  J.  O. 
Lockhart,  ^^'.  B.  Major  and  A.  A.  Lessueur,  reported  the  results  of  their  in- 
vestigation of  the  county's  indebtedness.  They  found  that  Lafayette  county  and 
townships  had  outstanding  $1,346,436  with  unpaid  coupons  of  $105,000  more. 
This  was  a  little  more  than  21  per  cent  of  the  total  assessed  valuation,  real  and 
personal,  of  the  county.  The  people  of  Lafayette  had  voted,  either  stock  or 
bond,  support  to  five  different  railroad  propositions.  Some  of  these  elections 
had  been  held  when  many  citizens  were  disfranchised  on  account  of  the  Civil 
war.     The  committee  summed  up  Lafayette's  genera!  condition : 

"Lands  in  the  county  are  reduced  in  value  and  are  almost  unsalable;  successive  bad 
crops,    with    the    burdensome    taxation,    have    impoverished    many   of    our    farmers    to    the 


TR.\ILS  AND  TRACKS  '       411 

extent  that  they  are  compelled  to  borrow  money  to  pay  their  taxes,  or  let  them  go  un- 
paid. Business  is  prostrate  and  emigration  to  our  midst  has  ceased.  The  rate  of  taxa- 
tion, which  in  some  of  the  townships  is  over  five  and  one-half  per  cent,  is  an  oppressive 
one  in  a  flourishing  community,  and  doubly  so  in  one  like  ours,  where  we  have  been 
visited  with  successive  droughts,  and  the  plagues  of  various  insects  which  have  ruined 
many  large  sections  of  country  in  sister  states,  and  which  have  had  the  effect  in  this 
county  not  only  of  destroying  our  crops,  but  of  decimating  our  flocks  and  herds  to  such 
an  extent  that  in  many  instances  our  farmers  will  have  to  mortgage  their  farms  to  pur- 
chase stock  for  the  season  of  1875.  The  private  debt  of  the  county  has  been  continually 
increasing  until,  were  the  amount  of  mortgages  upon  real  and  personal  estate  included 
in  our  report  and  added   to   the   grand  total  of  our  indebtedness,   it   would  be   startling." 

Railroad  Dispatching  in  the  Early  Days. 

At  the  end  of  fifty  year.s'  continuous  senice  on  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph 
railroad.  Engineer  I.  \.  \\'ilber  retired.  Among  his  recollections  of  pioneer 
railroading  in  Missouri  was  this: 

"In  the  early  6o's  we  were  on  a  westbound  train  and  had  an  order  to  meet  an  east- 
bound  train  at  Bevier  at  midnight.  Bevier  was  the  great  coal  mining  town.  On  arriving 
we  found  the  other  train  had  not  yet  reached  there.  It  was  a  beautiful  summer  night 
and  my  fireman  and  I  got  out  on  top  of  the  cab  and  laid  down  to  take  a  nap  in  the 
moonlight.  It  appeared  the  conductor  and  brakeman  were  also  taking  a  snooze  on  top 
of  the  caboose.  At  day  break  the  conductor  woke  up  and  aroused  us.  When  we  all  got 
stretched  out  and  thoroughly  awake  we  decided  to  proceed,  but  one  thing  bothered  us — 
had  that  train  gone  through?  If  it  had,  not  one  of  us  had  heard  it.  Bevier  was  not  a 
telegraph  office  then.  Some  future  great  railroad  man  suggested  that  we  walk  over  to 
the  coal  shed  and  make  a  search  through  the  coal  tickets  and  if  we  found  on  file  there 
a  coal  ticket  with  the  number  of  the  engine  we  had  orders  to  meet  we  would  know  that 
the  train  had  passed  us  in  the  night.  Sure  enough  we  found  the  ticket  there.  We 
reached  the  division  at  Brookfield  four  hours  late.  Xo  questions  were  asked  us  and  we 
had  no  statements  to  give  out.  I  don't  suppose  the  superintendent  or  dispatcher  ever 
discovered  our  little  dereliction,  for  every  fellow  worked  out  his  individual  salvation  in 
those  days  the  best  he  could." 

How  Gould  Bought  the  Missouri  Pacific. 

Jay  Gould  bought  the  Missouri  Pacific  railway  in  November,  1879,  paying 
therefor  $3,800,000.  Three  days  earlier  he  could  have  closed  the  contract  for 
half  that  sum.  At  the  time  Gould  was  controlling  the  \\'abash  and  was  very 
apprehensive  about  competition  by  the  Missouri  Pacific.  B.  \V.  Lewis,  for 
many  years  a  prominent  Missourian,  had  been  president  of  the  old  St.  Louis. 
Kansas  City  and  Northern.  On  the  consolidation  it  became  a  part  of  the  Wa- 
bash. Lewis  was  placed  in  charge  of  affairs  of  the  Wabash  representing  Gould. 
He  had  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  Garrisons  who  controlled  the  Missouri 
Pacific.  By  reason  of  that  personal  understanding  Lewis  was  able  to  preserve 
pleasant  relations  between  the  Wabash  and  Missouri  Pacific  managements. 
Commodore  C.  K.  Garrison  of  New  York  was  the  moneyed  man  behind  the  Mis- 
souri Pacific.  His  brother  was  the  chief  executive  officer.  Between  Commodore 
Garrison  and  Mr.  Gould  there  was  no  good  feeling.  It  was  gossip  that  the  com- 
inodore  had  said  if  Gould  ever  came  into  his  office  he  would  have  him  put  out. 

In  1879  Mr.  Lewis  desired  to  retire  from  railroad  management  and  take  up 
other  business.  He  offered  his  resignation  to  Gould  who  demurred.  Mr.  I^wis 
insisted  that  his  resignation  be  accepted.     Gould  explained  that  he  believed  the 


412  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

continuance  of  good  relations  between  the  two  railroads  depended  upon  the  re- 
tention of  Mr.  Lewis.    The  latter  was  still  determined  to  leave  the  Wabash. 

"But  where  will  I  get  any  one  who  can  take  your  place  and  get  along  with 
the  Missouri  Pacific?"  asked  Mr.  Gould. 

"Why  not  buy  the  Missouri  Pacific?"  responded  Mr.  Lewis. 

"I  never  thought  of  that,"  replied  Kir.  Gould,  "but  it  can't  be  done." 

"How  do  you  know?     Have  you  tried  it?" 

"No,  but  it  can't  be." 

"Yes,  it  can,"  insisted  Mr.  Lewis. 

As  the  result  of  the  information  which  Mr.  Lewis  gave  him  about  the  Mis- 
souri Pacific  Mr.  Gould  drove  to  the  office  of  the  Garrisons.  He  did  not  see  the 
commodore.     He  saw  another  member  of  the  family  and  said : 

"I  will  give  you  $1,500,000  for  that  old  Missouri  Pacific  road  of  yours." 

"It  ought  to  be  worth  $2,000,000  at  least,"  was  Mr.  Garrison's  answer. 

After  some  further  conversation  Mr.  Garrison  said  he  would  consult  with  the 
commodore  and  see  Mr.  Gould  again.  There  was  a  meeting  the  next  day  at 
which  the  commodore  was  present,  and  when  the  question  of  price  came  up  the 
commodore  said  the  amount  would  have  to  be  $2,800,000. 

Mr.  Gould  expressed  surprise  and  said:  "I  could  have  bought  it  yesterday 
for  $2,000,000." 

"But  you  can't  today,"  said  the  commodore  in  a  decided  manner.  The  in- 
terview was  a  very  brief  one.  The  Garrisons  had  their  doubts  whether  Mr. 
Gould  really  intended  purchase.  The  next  day  Mr.  Gould  called  again  and  said 
he  was  ready  to  close,  whereupon  the  commodore  informed  him  that  the  price 
had  been  raised  since  the  day  before  to  $3,800,000  for  the  road.  This  time 
Gould  did  not  hesitate.    He  simply  said: 

"Well,  if  this  increase  is  going  on  right  along  I  guess  we  had  better  stop  it 
right  here.     I  will  take  it." 

The  Garrisons,  according  to  the  best  information  obtainable  turned  over  to 
Gould  $600,000  of  the  $800,000  capital  stock  in  the  company,  but  when  the  com- 
pany affairs  were  transferred  there  were  $1,500,000  and  a  number  of  bonds  in 
the  treasury.  The  $600,000  par  value  of  .stock  bought  from  the  Garrisons  cost 
Mr.  Gould  $2,500,000.  In  August,  1880,  came  the  consolidation  of  the  branches 
including  the  St.  Louis  and  Lexington,  the  Kansas  and  Eastern,  the  Lexington 
and  Southern,  the  St.  Louis,  Kansas  and  Arizona,  the  Missouri  River  and 
Leavenworth  and  Atchison  and  Northern,  into  the  Missouri  Pacific  system.  This 
gave  Mr.  Gould  a  system  having  995  miles. 

Previous  to  the  purchase  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  Mr.  Gould  had  been  looked 
upon  as  a  speculator  rather  than  a  railroad  financier.  He  now  began  active 
work  to  extend  the  system.  He  purchased  from  Thomas  Allen,  Henry  G.  Mar- 
quard  and  others  the  control  of  the  Iron  Mountain.  As  the  deal  was  being 
closed  Mr.  Gould  tendered  to  Thomas  Allen  his  check  for  $1,000,000.  Mr. 
Allen,  with  a  conservatism  characteristic  of  him,  said  he  would  like  to  have 
the  check  certified.  Mr.  Gould  smiled  and  went  with  Mr.  Allen  to  the  bank 
upon  which  the  check  had  been  drawn,  had  it  certified  and  handed  it  back  to 
Mr.  Allen. 


TRAILS  AND  TRACKS  415 

Missourians  and  the  Transcontinental  Railroad. 

The  Union  Pacific  railroad,  as  Congress  planned  in  1862,  was  to  be  a  trans- 
continental line  with  a  fork  at  the  east  end.  It  was  to  start  from  Kansas  City 
and  Omaha,  the  two  branches  uniting  at  the  one  hundredth  meridian.  The 
company  first  reaching  the  junction  was  to  have  authority  to  go  across  the  con- 
tinent and  to  receive  the  subsidies.  The  rivalry  between  the  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska builders  was  sharp.  It  went  beyond  the  mechanical  problems  of  rail- 
road construction.  The  Kansas  men  came  to  .St.  Louis  for  help.  John  D.  Perry 
was  the  first  man  of  means  who  listened  to  the  appeals.  He  advanced  money. 
He  was  joined,  in  the  organization  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railway  company  by 
Carlos  S.  Greeley,  Adolphus  Meier,  Giles  F.  Filley,  \\'illiam  M.  McPherson, 
Stephen  M.  Edgell.  Robert  E.  Carr,  Sylvester  H.  Laflin,  John  How,  James 
Archer  and  Thomas  L.  Price.  Later  George  D.  Hall  and  Daniel  R.  Garrison  be- 
came associates  of  the  others.  It  was  a  St.  Louis  organization,  through  and 
through,  even  to  the  messenger  boy  in  the  general  offices  of  the  company  at 
Lawrence,  who  was  Lilburn  G.  McNair,  descendant  of  Missouri's  first  governor. 

When  the  St.  Louisans  reached  Fort  Riley,  they  decided  not  to  turn  north- 
ward to  the  proposed  junction  with  the  Omaha  line,  at  the  one  hundredth 
meridian,  but  to  build  on  through  Kansas  to  Denver.  The  bond  subsidy  only 
aided  them  to  Monument.  400  miles  from  Kansas  City.  From  that  point  to 
Denver  the  road  was  completed  without  government  help  in  1S70.  Three  years 
before,  Mr.  Perry  and  his  St.  Louis  associates  had  put  surveying  parties  in  the 
field  to  run  the  lines  for  a  transcontinental  line  through  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona  to  the  coast.  With  the  engineering  information  showing  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  route  the  St.  Louisans  went  to  Congress  offering  to  build  through 
to  the  coast  if  given  the  encouragement  which  had  been  extended  to  the  Union 
Pacific.  Again  influences  at  the  capital,  operated  in  favor  of  the  northern  route. 
If  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Perry,  Mr.  Meier,  Mr.  Greeley  and  the  other  St. 
Louisians  had  been  accepted,  the  reduction  in  army  expenses  would  have  offset, 
almost,  the  subsidies ;  a  southern  line  to  the  coast  would  have  been  put  through 
ten  years  earlier  than  it  was.  The  purpose  of  the  enterprising  St.  Louisans 
was  to  build  from  some  point  on  the  Kansas  Pacific,  in  western  Kansas,  south- 
westerly through  southern  Colorado,  New  Mexico  and^  Arizona  to  San  Diego 
and  thence  to  San  Francisco.  Boston  capital  subsequently  took  up  the  plan 
and  the  route  and  built  the  Santa  Fe.  St.  Louis  waited,  through  no  local  fault, 
for  the  transcontinental  road  which  she  had  nursed  in  1849. 

One  more  act  of  injustice  was  done  St.  Louis  when  the  Kansas  Pacific 
reached  Denver  and  connected  with  the  Union  Pacific.  The  Kansas  Pacific  was 
entitled  to  interchange  of  traffic.  The  obligation  was  repudiated  by  the  Union 
Pacific  management.  St.  Louis  directors  carried  through  the  panic  of  1873  a 
floating  debt  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  which  would  have  been  taken  care  of  easily 
if  the  Union  Pacific  had  followed  the  act  of  Congress.  Through  co-operation 
of  foreign  bondholders  the  St.  Louisans  bore  that  burden  and  the  expected  sale 
to  which  other  interests  were  looking  for  the  acquisition  of  the  road  was  averted. 
This  arrangement  with  the  bondholders  followed  a  visit  of  the  president  of  the 
road,  Robert  E.  Carr,  to  Europe,  and  a  frank  presentation  of  the  situation.  In 
the  history  of  railroad  financing  in  the  United  States  there  is  no  more  admirable 


416  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

chapter  than  that  of  the  handhng  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  by  John  D.  Perry  and 
his  St.  Louis  associates. 

Agricultural  Pathfinder  of  the  Plains. 

When  the  Kansas  Pacific  was  completed  through  to  Denver,  a  St.  Louisan 
went  up  the  Kaw  valley  and  over  the  plains  teaching  the  world  that  there  was 
no  Great  American  desert.  In  1870,  Richard  Smith  Elliott  began  the  series  of 
demonstrations.  He  broke  prairie  in  Kansas  with  bufTalo  staring  at  him  from  the 
dunes.  He  carried  on  his  little  experiment  stations  where  nobody  else  believed 
things  would  grow.  He  sowed  the  first  grain  in  a  belt  which  now  sends  many 
millions  of  bushels  of  wheat  to  market.  He  started  the  tree  growing  which 
has  since  dotted  central  and  western  Kansas  with  groves.  Henry  T.  Mudd  and 
Charles  W.  Murtfeldt,  president  and  secretary  of  the  Missouri  state  board  of 
agriculture,  Elliott's  neighbors  in  Kirkwood,  went  out,  saw  the  results  of  the 
experiments  and  reported  on  them  with  confidence.  Eastern  agricultural  editors 
traveled  out  to  Kansas,  saw  Elliott's  green  patches  on  the  plains  and  came  back 
marveling.  Their  editorials  encouraged  the  migration  of  tens  of  thousands  to 
farms  west  of  the  Missouri.  Elliott  of  St.  Louis  was  the  agricultural  pathfinder 
of  the  plains. 


Courtesy  Missouri  lllslurieal  Suciety 

WILSON  PRICE  HUNT 
Chosen  by   Astor  to  head   the  expedition 
n\>    the    Missouri    River    and    across    to    the 
Columbia. 


AXTOINE   SOULARD 
Surveyor  of  Upper  Louisiana.     Author  of 
'  'The  Incalculable  Riches  Along  the  Banks 
of  the  Mis.souri,   March    1805." 


[•'rom   till-    I'l.'i-ir    (■li.,i|iiMii    ri-lhTt;.i!j 

BILL   BOATS  OX   WHICH    FIHS   WKRK   BROICHT    1H)\VX    THE   MISSOURI    RIVER 

TO  ST.  LOUIS 
Vol.  1—27 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY 

"The  First  Thirty" — The  Landing — Auguste  Chouteau's  Journal — IVhcn  "the  Spirit'  IVas 
Born — Vain  Projects  to  Rival — De  Tregei's  Daughters — Rise  and  Fall  of  Fort  St. 
Charles — Xo  Favors  to  Royalty — British  Trade  Competition  Thwarted — Ambitious 
North  St.  Louis — French  Habitants  Buildcd  WcU^From  Forty-fourth  City — Labor, 
Capital — Labor  and  "the  Spirit" — A  Series  of  Crises — Fire,  Flood  and  Pestilence — The 
Decade  of  Disasters — Financial  Honor  Demonstrated — Civil  War's  Paralysis  of  Com- 
inerce — The  Oldest  Trading  Body  in  the  United  States — From  Rivers  to  Rails — The 
After-War  Handicap — Political  Favor  for  Northern  Routes — The  Vital  Test  Well  Met 
— Amcricanisation  of  the  Community — Relations  zcith  Trade  Territory — A  National 
Financial  Recognition — Renaissance  of  the  Gallery — Architectural  Misfits — The  Climate 
Libel — A  Record  of  Cheerful  Giving — Some  Factors  in  the  Creation  of  "the  Spirit" — 
The  First  Agricultural  Society  Formed  in  1822 — "A  St.  Louis  Manufactured  Stove" 
— The  St.  Louis  Fair — Pioneer  E.rhibits — The  St.  Louis  Exposition — How  the  Way  to 
the  World's  Fair  Was  Paved — .'iftermath  of  the  Universal  E.vposition — When  St. 
Louis  Dealt  with  Graft — Solidarity  a  Characteristic  through  the  Century — Wisdom  of 
the  Founders  Vindicated. 

"We  are  a  peculiarly  self-centered  people.  We  own  our  city-  We  have  always  stood  ready  to  furnish 
capital  to  others.  We  are  strong  and  prosperous  financially.  But  we  are  perhaps,  too  independent — 
we  need  to  be  brought  more  closely  into  contact  with  the  outside  world.  W'e  need  to  have  a  certain 
narrowness  of  vision  altered.  We  need  to  learn  something  of  our  own  merits  and  possibilities  so  that 
many  of  our  own  people  will  realize  a  little  better  than  they  do  that  St.  Louis  is.  in  its  own  way,  as  great 
a  city  as  any  on  the  continent." — Da-rid  R.  Francis'  Inspiration   for  tiic   IVorld's  Fair  of  lf)04. 

"The  First  Thirty."  as  they  were  called  in  colonial  days  of  St.  Louis,  landed 
at  the  foot  of  what  is  now  Walnut  street  the  evening  of  the  14th  of  February, 
1764.  They  had  poled  and  dragged  their  heavily  laden  boat  up  the  ice-fringed 
bank  of  the  Mississippi  some  sixty  miles  from  Fort  de  Chartres.  It  had  been 
a  voyage  of  days.     The  First  Thirty  slept  that  night  on  the  boat. 

Where  the  landing  was  made  was  a  sandy  beach  rising  gently  from  the 
river's  edge  to  a  cliff  of  limestone  varying  from  thirty  to  fifty  feet  in  height. 
Back  of  the  blutY  of  limestone  was  a  i)lateau  with  heavy  forest  growth.  Through 
the  limestone  strata,  the  water  from  springs  and  rains  and  melting  snows  had, 
in  the  many  years,  worn  a  gully. 

In  the  morning  of  the  15th  of  February,  Auguste  Chouteau  led  The  First 
Thirty  up  the  gully  to  the  plateau  and  showed  them  several  trees  recently 
marked.  There,  began  the  building  of  .St.  Louis.  There,  was  begotten  the 
spirit  of  a  community. 

Laclede  was  a  younger  son  of  the  dominant  family  in  Bedous,  of  the  famous 
province  of  Beam,  in  the  extreme  southwest  of  France.  He  was  educated  to 
be  an  engineer.  He  had  the  vision  of  the  engineer  when  he  chose  the  location 
of  St.  Louis.     But  he  had  more  than  engineering  wisdom  when  he  told  the  of- 

419 


420  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  -MISSOURI 

fleers  at  Fort  Chartres  that  he  was  going  to  form  a  settlement  which  might  be- 
come one  of  the  finest  cities  of  America.  Those  officers  were  on  the  point  of 
turning  over  the  great  fort,  in  its  time  one  of  the  most  costly  on  the  western 
continent,  to  the  British,  and  were  going  down  the  river  taking  as  many  of  the 
French  settlers  as  they  could  induce  to  leave  the  country.  France  had  ceded 
all  of  the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  to  CJreat  Britain  as  part  of  the  bar- 
gain which  ended  the  Seven  Years  war.  Worse  than  that,  was  the  news  which 
awaited  Laclede  when  he  came  to  Fort  de  Chartres  after  his  three  months  of 
toiling  up  the  river  with  his  expedition  to  found  a  settlement.  France  had 
ceded  the  territory  west  of  the  river  to  Spain. 

St.  Louis-Under-the-Hill. 

St.  Louis  became  a  city  by  incorporation  in  1823.  American  newcomers 
obtained  control  of  the  municipal  government  at  the  first  election,  outvoting 
the  French  "habitants"  by  a  slender  majority  of  seventeen.  The  settlement  of 
Laclede  ceased  to  be  "St.  Louis-under-the-Hill."  It  was  spreading  beyond  the 
first  ridge,  four  blocks  from  the  edge  of  the  Mississippi.  The  "hill"  of  early 
St.  Louis, — Colonial  St.  Louis, — was  where  the  courthouse  stands  today.  Tra- 
dition has  it  that  Laclede  finally  determined  upon  the  site  of  St.  Louis  as  he 
stood  on  this  hill,  then  somewhat  higher  than  it  is  now.  The  founder  looked 
eastward  down  two  gentle  terraces,  through  a  forest  of  large  trees  to  the  river. 
He  gazed  westward  over  a  succession  of  gentle  depressions  and  elevations. 

The  story  of  this  selection  of  the  site  of  St.  Louis  is  told  in  a  journal  kept 
by  Auguste  Chouteau,  written  in  a  firm,  careful  hand.  Auguste  Chouteau  stood 
beside  Laclede  that  December  day  of  1763  when  the  site  of  St.  Louis  was 
chosen.  Laclede  and  Chouteau  had  come  up  from  Fort  de  Chartres,  forty  miles 
down  the  river  where  the  expedition  had  stopped.  Tradition  has  it^  that  they 
explored  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi  as  far  north  as  the  Missouri  river. 
Auguste  Chouteau  wrote  in  his  journal  still  preserved:  "After  having  ex- 
amined all  thoroughly,  he  fixed  upon  the  place  where  he  wished  to  form  his 
settlement,  marked  with  his  own  hands  some  trees  and  said,  "You  will  come  here 
as  soon  as  navigation  opens  and  will  cause  this  place  to  be  cleared  in  order  to 
form  our  settlement  after  the  plan  which  I  shall  give  you.'  " 

And  when  they  had  returned  to  Fort  de  Chartres.  as  Auguste  Chouteau  remem- 
bered to  write  in  his  Journal.  "He  said  to  M.  de  Neyon  and  to  his  officers,  that 
he  had  found  a  situation  where  he  was  going  to  form  a  settlement  which  might 
become  hereafter  one  of  the  finest  cities  of  America  ( une  des  plus  belles  villes 
de  I'Amerique),  so  many  advantages  were  embraced  in  this  site,  by  its  locality 
and  its  central  position  for  forming  settlements." 

Early  but  Unsuccessful  Rivals. 

The  first  attempt  to  overshadow  St.  Louis  with  a  rival  was  only  three  years 
after  the  landing  of  Laclede's  "First  Thirty."  A  high  born  Frenchman,  who 
had  served  in  the  navy  of  his  country  and  who  had  considerable  fortune,  came 
up  the  Mississippi  in  1767.  established  himself  in  a  stone  mansion  and  founded 
a  settlement  at  what  he  called  Carondelet.  He  had  seven  very  attractive  daugh- 
ters.    The  young  Frenchmen  of  St.  Louis  went  down  to  Carondelet.  serenaded 


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THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY  423 

de  Treget's  daughters  and  danced  with  them.  They  ran  furious  pony  races 
with  de  Treget's  settlers.  I'ut  they  still  li\ed  and  did  business  in  St.  Louis. 
Carondelet  became  a  town  and  then  a  city.  It  expected  to  become  the  "Birming- 
ham of  the  United  States"  and  made  strides  in  that  direction,  building  up  great 
industries.  It  remained  a  separate  community  103  years  and  voted  itself  into 
annexation  with  St.  Louis  in  1870. 

About  the  time  that  de  Treget  founded  his  settlement  a  few  miles  south 
of  Laclede's,  the  Spanish  governor  at  New  Orleans  conceived  the  plan  of  build- 
ing a  fort  and  founding  a  colony  on  the  high  bluflfs  overlooking  the  junction  of 
the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi  rivers  some  miles  north  of  St.  Louis,  or.  San 
Luis  as  he  called  it.  The  secret  instructions  given  to  the  expedition  that  was 
sent  show  that  the  Spanish  governor  expected  his  colony  to  become  "of  greatest 
importance."  The  commander  of  the  expedition  was  instructed  not  to  take  the 
people  of  St.  Louis  into  his  confidence.  The  new  settlement  was  intended  to 
distance  St.  Louis.  The  fort  was  ^o  be  of  much  strength  for  that  period.  Con- 
struction was  begun.  The  fort  was  to  have  five  cannon.  .\  complete  and  an 
elaborate  plan  for  the  organization  and  conduct  of  the  community,  which  was 
to  supersede  St.  Louis,  was  provided  with  detail  characteristic  of  the  Spanish 
colonizers.  But  the  officers  in  charge  of  the  Spanish  governor's  ambitious  project 
were  not  slow  in  finding  out  that  Laclede  had  chosen  the  ideal  location  and  that 
he  had  imbued  his  St.  Louis  v^ith  a  spirit  that  did  not  quail  under  difficulties. 
Some  of  the  Spanish  officers  and  intended  colonists  settled  in  St.  Louis.  Only  a 
beginning  w-as  made  on  the  fort.  A  quartermaster  absconded.  The  Spanish 
expedition  became  indebted  to  the  business  men  of  St.  Louis.  When  another 
Spanish  commander  was  sent  from  New  Orleans  to  straighten  out  the  affairs 
of  the  proposed  Fort  Charles,  he  found  that  the  liberty-loving  Frenchmen  of 
Laclede's  settlement  had  actually  seized  the  property  of  the  King  of  Spain  and 
refused  to  surrender  it  until  their  bills  were  paid.  Fort  Charles  on  the  bluffs 
became  only  a  reminiscence. 

From  that  time  the  spirit  of  St.  Louis  dominated  in  the  settlement  and  de- 
velopment of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Not  that  these  were  the  only  attempts  to 
establish  population  and  commercial  supremacy.  There  were  a  score  of  them, 
all  unsuccessful.  St.  Louis  did  not  grow  rapidly  in  numbers  during  the  colonial 
period  but  the  progress  in  business  was  illustrative  of  the  spirit  of  the  com- 
mtmity.  Laclede  had  come  to  build  St.  Louis  with  what  he  supposed  was  an 
exclusive  privilege  to  trade  with  the  Indian  nations  of  the  Missouri  region. 
His  grant,  conferred  by  the  French  authorities  at  New  Orleans,  was  cancelled 
as  soon  as  it  reached  Paris  for  approval.  Neverth<-less,  within  three  years  after 
the  building  began,  February  15,  1764,  St.  Louis,  by  sheer  force  of  the  spirit  of 
the  settlement,  and  without  favor,  had  established  the  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade 
with  twenty-eight  Indian  nations.  These  included  not  only  tribes  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  but  also  cast  of  the  river  and  as  far  north  as  the  Great  Lakes. 
British  agents  came  west  and  spent  $50,cxx),  a  large  sum  for  those  days  before 
the  American  Revolution,  in  efforts  to  break  Laclede's  hold  on  the  trade  in  their 
territory  east  of  the  river.  In  five  years  the  fur  trade  of  St.  Louis  was  $80,000 
a  year.  That  trade  was  the  commercial  cornerstone,  the  basis  of  prosperity. 
Three  vears  after  the  first  steamboat  reached  the  river  front,  the  trade  of  St. 


4-J4  CEXTEXNIAL  illSTORV  UK  MISSOURI 

Louis    was   $2,500,000   annually.      And   it    went    on    steadily    mountinj^    until    it 
passed  annually  the  billion-tlollar  measure. 

Ambitious  North  St.  Louis. 

The  community  which  threatened  most  serious  rivalry  of  St.  Louis  in  a 
business  way  might  have  celebrated  its  centennial  four  years  ago.  .North  St. 
Louis  was  incorporated  June  29,  1816.  The  men  who  intended  to  build  bigger 
than  the  St.  Louis-under-the-hill  were  William  Chambers,  William  Christy  and 
'iliomas  Wright.  Major  Christy  had  come  to  St.  Louis  at  the  time  of  the  trans- 
fer lu  the  United  States.  He  was  a  Pennsylvanian,  stood  erect  with  a  soldierly 
bearing,  combed  his  hair  straight  back  from  his  forehead  after  a  fashion  of 
his  own  and  let  it  fall  to  his  coat  collar.  Easily  he  was  the  most  conspicuous 
jiersonalitv  in  .St.  Louis.  Meriwether  Lewis  selected  Major  Christy,  who  had 
seen  a  good  deal  of  military  life  to  be  commandant-in-chicf  for  the  Territory  of 
Louisiana  as  all  of  the  ujjper  portion  of  the  Louisiana  I'urchase  was  called,  and 
made  him  major-commandant  of  the  Louisiana  Rangers,  because,  as  he  said. 
Major  Christy  was  "wise  in  council  and  swift  in  action." 

Associating  with  himself  his  son-in-law.  Major  Thomas  Wright,  also  an  army 
officer,  and  Colonel  William  Chambers,  who  had  come  from  Kentucky,  ALijor 
Christy  established  North  St.  Louis.  A  glance  at  the  present  city  map  shows 
how  entirely  independent  of  old  St.  Louis  North  St.  Louis  was  intended  to  be. 
The  site  was  a  tract  botuided  by  the  river  on  the  east.  Twelfth  street  on  the 
west,  ALidison  street  on  the  south  and  Montgomery  street  on  the  north.  North 
St.  Louis  within  those  limits  is  today  one  of  the  most  outstanding  patches  on 
the  j)alcbwork  map  of  St.  Louis.  It  was  designed  to  appeal  to  the  .\merican 
settlers  who  were  flocking  in.  The  three  founders  were  related  to  two  Presi- 
dents. They  selected  for  the  streets  the  names  which  suggested  their  patriotic 
sentiments. — such  as  JNIadison  and  Monroe,  the  Presidents;  Clinton,  the  canal 
builder;  Benton,  then  coming  to  the  front  as  a  young  political  leader;  Warren, 
who  fell  at  Bunker  Hill. 

Chambers,  Christy  and  Wright  had  ad\anced  ideas  in  city  planning.  Along 
the  river  front  of  their  town  they  dedicated  a  strip  of  several  acres  for  public 
purijoses,  including  the  marketing  of  all  kinds  of  produce,  wholesale  and  retail. 
.Appropriately  they  called  this  "Exchange  Square."  ^^^estward  through  the 
heart  of  the  new  town,  extending  from  Exchange  Square,  was  dedicated  a 
street  of  more  than  average  width  to  which  the  name  of  North  Market  was 
given.  The  founders  held  out  inducements  for  steamboats  to  land  at  Exchange 
Square.  A  boatyard  was  established,  the  first  at  St.  Louis.  A  ferry  to  the  Illi- 
nois shore  was  operated.  Boats  ran  regularly  between  Alton  and  North  St. 
Louis,  while  the  more  conservative  St.  Louis-under-the-Hill  was  slow  to  recog- 
nize the  coming  use  of  steam  on  the  water. 

Near  the  center  of  North  St.  Louis  were  dedicated  three  circles  of  ground 
for  public  purposes.  One  was  for  a  "seminary,"  and  is  today  occupied  by  the 
Webster  school,  fittingly  named  because  when  the  godlike  Daniel  visited  the 
West  one  of  the  most  notable  features  of  his  entertainment  was  a  reception  to 
him  at  the  mansion  of  one  of  these  founders  of  North  St.  Louis.  .Another  of 
the  circular  reservations  was  set  apart  for  the  recreation  of  the  people  and  is 


MAJOR  WILLIAM  CHRISTY 

Foiiniler  of  Xortli  St.   Louis 


'■|,;l''Jlll"'V;.""""'  '"■==?'" 

Courtesy  Missouri  Historical  Socii-ty 

RESTDENOK  OF  MAJOR  \V11,L1AM   CHRISTV 

Built  of  stone  in  1818.     Considered  one  of  thf  finest  houses  in  St. 

Louis.     Till'  sceiic  of  umnv  notntile  functions 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY  427 

today  Jackson  park.  The  third  circle  was  for  a  church  and  cemetery.  It  is 
occupied  by  Grace  Episcopal  church.  \\  hen  the  cemetery  was  given  up,  the 
bones  of  two  governors  of  Missouri  were  among  those  removed  to  Bellefontaine. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  North  St.  Louis  remained  an  independent  community 
with  its  <jwn  government.     In  184 1  it  was  annexed  to  St.  Louis. 

The  Spirit  and  the  First  Labor  Problem. 

The  spirit  of  St.  Louis  has  not  been  the  domination  of  the  few  over  the 
many,  not  the  control  of  all  others  by  a  single  eletiient.  Nowhere  in  the  United 
States  has  there  been  a  more  satisfactory  relationship  between  the  capital  and 
labor  of  a  community  than  in  St.  Louis.  From  the  earliest  times  wage  earners 
have  found  here  uniformly  good  treatment.  When  this  was  no  more  than  a 
fur-trading  center,  labor  was  better  recompensed  than  in  other  sections.  The 
rate  of  pay  for  common  service  was  two  livres  a  day.  That  was  about  $11.25  a 
a  month.  In  the  same  period,  similar  labor  in  the  American  colonies,  and 
later  in  the  American  states  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  was  paid  $6.00  a  month. 
The  flatboatmen.  who  ranked  lowest  in  the  labor  scale  at  St.  Louis,  were  paid 
not  less  than  $8.00  a  month. 

Until  May,  1840.  the  working  day  of  St,  Louis  was  "from  sun  up  to  sunset." 
Mechanics  and  laborers,  when  employed  by  the  day,  began  as  the  sun  rose  and 
stopped  as  it  set.  This  made  a  day  of  varying  length.  In  the  summer  time, 
when  the  sun  rose  very  early,  an  hour  from  six  to  seven  o'clock  was  allowed  for 
breakfast.  The  day  was  broken  by  a  full  noon  hour  from  twelve  to  one.  This 
was  the  custom  when  the  bricklayers  started  a  movement  to  have  ten  hours  made 
a  working  day.  The  employers  refused  to  accede.  The  journeymen  stopped 
work  and  paraded  the  streets  without  disturbance.  They  called  a  mass  meet- 
ing in  the  afternoon  of  May  23d.  Members  of  all  trades  attended  the  meeting. 
By  someone's  happy  inspiration,  Thornton  Grimsley  was  nominated  for  chair- 
man, lie  was  a  manufacturer  who  had  built  up  a  large  business,  and  had 
found  time  to  perform  many  public  duties.  If  a  celebration  was  to  be  held. 
Thornton  Grimsley  was  the  first  one  thought  of  for  the  committee  to  inake  the 
arrangements.  He  was  the  grand  marshal  of  more  processions  than  any  other 
man  of  his  generation  in  St.  Louis.  He  was  a  high  officer  in  the  military  organ- 
ization of  his  day.  He  was  responsive  to  every  kind  of  a  public  call,  and  he  al- 
ways did  the  right  thing.  So  when  a  hard-fisted  bricklayer  moved  "that  Colonel 
Thornton  Grimsley  take  the  chair,"  the  colonel  didn't  flinch.  He  went  forward 
and  called  for  order  with  as  nuich  dignity  as  if  he  was  to  preside  over  a  gather- 
ing of  "our  best  citizens." 

Ten  Hours  Enough. 

The  colonel  exi)ressetl  the  sense  of  the  honor  he  felt  upon  being  called  upon 
to  be  chairman  of  a  mass  meeting  of  journeymen.  He  told  his  hearers  that  he 
would  discharge  the  duties  as  well  as  he  was  able.  .And  then  Colonel  Grimsley 
proceeded  in  his  own  excellent  way  to  solve  the  first  labor  problem  presented  to 
St.  Louis.  He  said  he  wasn't  a  bricklayer,  but  a  maker  of  saddles  and  harness : 
that  he  em])loyed  many  journeymen.  His  hearers  might  think  from  that  he  was 
not  in  sympathy  with  such  a  movement  as  the  mass  meeting  represented.  That 
would  be  a  mistake,  for  he  believed  a  ten-hour  dav  was  honorable  and  just. 


428  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"I  see  many  employers  of  journeymen  in  oilier  trades  before  me,"  Colonel 
Grimsley  went  on.  "If  they  come  into  this  ten-hour  system,  they  may,  in  some 
instances,  lose  a  little  time  of  painful  toil,  but  they  will  be  rewarded  for  the 
sacrifice  in  better,  willing  labor,  and  will  enjoy  the  smiles  of  wives  and  little 
children  at  the  early  return  of  their  husbands  and  fathers  from  labor,  if  they 
will  go  and  see  them." 

Thus  Colonel  C.rimsley  talked  until  he  had  the  sentiment  all  one  way. 
Other  employers  of  labor  followed  him  with  expressions  of  willingness  to  make 
the  concession.  U'ithout  legislation,  without  disorder,  with  a  single  day's  strike 
that  was  not  attended  by  an  unpleasant  incident,  the  ten-hour  labor  day  went 
into  effect  in  St.  Louis. 

Laying  the  Foundations. 

It  was  cliaracteristic  of  St.  Louis  in  the  earlier  generations,  and  the  same 
spirit  holds  good  today,  that  more  attention  was  given  to  laying  solid  and  broad 
business  foundations  than  to  the  acquisition  of  numbers.  When  the  Spanish 
flag  was  lowered,  in  1804.  St.  Louis  had  about  i.ooo  inhabitants.  Seven  years 
after  the  incorporation  of  the  city,  the  government  census  gave  St.  Louis  4,977 
people.  St.  Louis  was  then  the  forty-fourth  in  rank  of  population  among  the 
cities  of  the  Ll^nited  States.  Ten  years  later  it  had  moved  up  to  twentieth 
place.  In  1880,  St.  Louis  had  passed  in  population  thirty-eight  other  American 
cities  and  had  been  passed  by  only  one  other  city. 

Within  five  years  after  Laclede  and  Chouteau  marked  the  trees  for  the 
location  of  the  settlement  St.  Louis  had  a  jjopulation  of  about  900.  When 
Stoddard  raised  the  L'nited  States  flag  forty  years  after  the  founding  there 
were  not  many  more  inhabitants.  But  the  settlement  had  grown.  It  had  rooted 
deeply  and  broadly.  The  view  that  St.  Louis  had  waxed  slowly  between  1764 
and  1804  was  superficial.  It  failed  to  note  and  measure  a  spirit  of  develop- 
ment which  meant  more  than  the  census.  Every  year  saw  the  radius  of  the 
St.  Louis  sphere  of  influence  lengthen.  L'p  the  Missouri  crept  a  line  of  outposts 
tributary  to  St.  Louis,  each  far  more  important  to  the  settlement  than  hundreds 
added  to  the  population.  The  traders  established  and  cultivated  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  Indians.  They  learned  the  great  country  of  the  Inwei  Missouri 
intimately.  St.  Louis  was  to  become  the  gateway  of  the  stream  of  migration, 
the  starting  point  for  the  expeditions.  The  four  decades  from  Laclede  to  Stod- 
dard were  so  many  years  of  efficient,  important  preparation  for  what  was  to 
follow. 

Out  from  St.  Louis  in  all  directions  moved  the  expeditions.  Some  were 
military,  to  establi.sh  forts.  Some  were  scientific,  to  explore  and  to  exploit. 
-More  were  to  establish  communities,  to  open  commercial  avenues.  It  was  a 
peaceable  movement  for  the  most  part.  Troubles  with  the  Indians  were  not 
frequent  or  general  in  those  days.  The  real  Indian  wars  of  subjugation  or 
extermination  west  of  the  Mississippi  came  two  or  three  generations  later. 
The  Frenchmen  of  St.  Louis  paved  the  way  well  for  the  American  occupation 
gf  Louisiana.  A  branch  of  the  Chouteaus  started  Kansas  City  with  "Chouteau's 
landing."     Robidoux,  another  St.  Louisan,  established  a  post  which  became  St. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY  429 

Joseph.     One   of   the   Mcnards    founded   Galveston.     A    full   score  of   \\'estern 

cities  owed  their  l)eo^inning  to  St.  Louisans. 

The  Oldest  Commercial  Trading  Body. 

(  )n  a  dull  summer  day  of  1836  twenty-five  young  business  men  met  and 
formed  the  St.  Louis  Chamber  of  Commerce.  The  meeting  place  was  the  office 
of  the  Missouri  Insurance  Company  on  Main  street,  between  Olive  and  Pine 
streets.  The  primary  purpose  was  to  agree  upon  certain  regulations  which  the 
members  would  observe  in  their  business.  One  of  the  first  transactions  was 
adoption  of  a  tariff  of  commissions  to  be  charged  on  sales  of  produce  and  lead, 
on  purchases  and  shipments  of  produce,  on  payment  of  freight  bills,  on  advances 
to  customers,  on  jilacing  insurance,  and  on  adjustment  of  losses.  The  chamber 
also  fixed  the  schedule  of  fees  for  arbitration  of  business  disputes  and  the 
rates  of  service  for  agents  of  steamboats.  In  short,  the  young  men  determined 
that  business  in  these  lines  should  be  systematized.  They  founded  what  is 
today  the  oldest  commercial  trading  organization  in  the  United  States.  One 
of  the  most  active  of  the  twenty-five  was  George  K.  McGunnegle,  who  was  at 
that  time  a  member  of  the  legislature.  At  the  next  session,  McGunnegle  put 
through  a  bill  incorporating  the  chamber  and  giving  it  a  charter.  The  idea 
was  so  novel  that  the  legislature  conferred  power  upon  the  organization  to  do 
anything  it  pleased  which  was  not  "contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  land."  The  only 
■other  restriction  imposed  was  that  the  property  which  might  be  acquired  should 
"not  exceed  at  any  time  the  sum  of  S20.000."  In  the  very  beginning  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  took  on  the  character  of  a  public-spirited  movement.  The  mem- 
bership soon  overflowed  the  insurance  office. 

The  exchange  room  of  the  Missouri  Repiiblicaii  was  offered  to  the  Chanil>er 
of  Commerce  for  the  meetings,  and  was  accepted.  The  exchange  room  was 
much  frequented,  being  o])en  to  the  public.  exce])t  when  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  was  in  session.  C)ut  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  with  its  meetings 
to  consider  subjects  germane  to  business  interests  of  the  city,  and  out  of  the 
Merchants'  Exchange  and  news  room,  where  papers  were  kept  on  file  and  to 
which  business  men  resorted  for  conversation,  developed  the  idea  "on  'change." 
The  members  of  the  committee  of  seven  chosen  to  take  charge  of  this  Merchants' 
Exchange  movement  were  Adam  Black  Chambers  and  Xathaniel  Paschall.  news- 
paper men ;  John  D.  Daggett  and  John  B.  Camden,  both  of  whom  became  mayors 
of  St.  Louis;  Rene  Paul,  the  first  city  engineer;  William  Glasgow  and  Edward 
Tracy,  merchants. 

Financial  Honor  of  Extraordinary  Quality. 

Xo  over-speculation,  no  failure,  no  dishonest  methods  at  home  ever  have 
precipitated  panic  in  this  city.  There  have  been  local  bank  failures,  but  they 
were  not  of  such  importance  as  to  shake  general  confidence  in  the  financial  institu- 
tions of  the  city.  There  has  beeen  individual  dishonesty,  but  so  rare  and  so  e.xcep- 
tional  as  not  to  disturb  faith  in  the  honesty  of  the  hankers  of  St.  Louis.  No  wild 
wave  of  speculation  ever  swept  over  the  city.  Financial  straits  have  had  their 
beginning  elsewhere  and  this  communitv  has  shared  in  them -through  sympathy 
or  through  circumstances  beyond  local  control.    So  it  was  in  1853.  when  St.  Louis' 


430  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

financial  interests  demonstrated,  in  a  manner  which  deserves  to  be  called  historic, 
that  they  possessed  the  get-logcther  spirit.  Private  banks  had  performed  no 
small  part  in  the  building  of  St.  Louis.  They  had  supplied  the  facilities  which  a 
period  of  expanding  trade  demanded.  They  stood  close  to  the  business  interests. 
It  is  difficult  to  see  how  St.  Louis  could  have  gone  through  the  fifteen  years  before 
i860  without  these  private  banks.  Sole  dependence  upon  the  one  great  chartered 
bank  of  the  state  would  have  dwarfed  the  city's  legitimate  commerce,  would  have 
handicapped  enterprise.  The  bankers  of  St.  Louis  in  1853  carried  long  in  vivid 
memory  the  13th  of  January.  The  day  of  the  week  was  Saturday.  Page  &  Bacon 
did  not  open.  Down  and  up  Main  and  Second  and  Third  streets  the  news  spread. 
It  paralyzed  business  everywhere  but  in  the  banking  houses.  Groups  collected 
in  front  of  the  tellers'  windows.  Lucas  &  Simonds  cashed  checks  amounting  to 
$260,000.  Louis  A.  Benoist  &  Co.  paid  out  over  $100,000.  The  Boatmen's 
Savings  disbursed  over  $100,000.  L  J.  Anderson  &  Co.  and  E.  W.  Clark  & 
Brothers  paid  out  large  sums.  All  day,  for  in  those  years  banking  business  did 
not  close  at  noon  on  Saturdays,  the  houses  honored  the  checks. as  fast  as  pre- 
sented. When  evening  came  the  vaults  of  the  banks  of  St.  Louis  contained 
$800,000  less  than  in  the  morning.  Monday  morning  brought  restoration  of  con- 
fidence. The  run  stopped.  A  superb  act  of  financial  honor  did  it.  Ten  citizens 
whose  private  fortunes  amounted  to  over  $8,000,000  pledged  every  dollar  they 
possessed  in  support  of  the  credit  of  the  banks.  They  issued  this  notice  bearing 
their  signatures : 

To  the  Public — The  undersigned,  knowing  and  relying  on  the  ample  ability  of  the 
following  banking  houses  in  the  City  of  St.  Louis,  and  with  a  view  of  quieting  the  public 
mind  in  regard  to  the  safety  of  deposits  made  with  them,  hereby  pledge  themselves,  and 
offer  as  a  guarantee  their  property  to  make  good  all  deposits  with  either  of  said  banking 
houses,  to-wit:  Messrs.  Lucas  &  Simonds,  Bogy,  Miltenberger  &  Co.,  Tesson  &  Danjen, 
L.  A.  Benoist  &  Co.,  John  J.  Anderson  &  Co.,  Darby  &  Barksdale,  and  Boatmen's  Sav- 
ings  Institution. 

John  O'Fallon,  J.   H.   Brant.  James    Harrison, 

Ed.  Walsh,  L.  M.  Kennctt,  .^nd^ew  Christy, 

Louis  A.  La  Bcaume,  D.  A.  January,  Charles   P.  Chouteau. 

John   How, 

The  banks  opened  at  the  accustomed  hour,  prepared  to  meet  all  demands. 
The  excitement  subsided  as  quickly  as  it  had  arisen.  There  was  some  scarcity  of 
money  for  a  week,  but  no  panic. 

The  Crises  of  St.  Louis. 

In  the  progress  among  the  American  cities,  the  spirit  of  St.  Louis  has  been 
tested  and  proven  in  a  series  of  extraordinary  crises.  During  one  decade,  1840- 
50,  a  great  fire  destroyed  twenty-three  steamboats  along  the  river  front,  and 
fifteeen  of  the  principal  business  blocks,  with  losses  reaching  above  $3,000,000. 
The  highest  flood  in  the  recorded  history  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  submerged 
the  fertile  bottoms  of  Illinois,  opposite  St.  Louis.  It  extended  to  the  bluiifs  and 
covered  hundreds  of  square  miles.     An  epidemic  of  cholera  in  one  year  took 


COL.  THORNTON  GRIMSLEY 
Iiivciitiir  of  the  Dnijjooii   saddle.     Leader  in  tlie  iiioveiiient 
to   reduce   the    workiii};   d;iv   to   ten    lioiirs 


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Courtesy  Missouri  Historical  Society 

THE  MARKET  HOl'SE  AND  LEVEE  AT  ST.  LOUIS,  ABOUT  1840 


TH1-:  SPIRIT  OF  A  CTl'V  433 

thousands  of  the  ])iipulation.  St.  Louis  flcchneil  offers  of  aid  from  other  cities 
;iiid  increased  the  ])opulation  from  16,460  in  1840  to  77.860  in  1850. 

Then  came  a  crisis  even  more  serious, — the  Civil  war.  The  chief  business  of 
this  country  was  then  carried  on  along  north  and  south  lines.  St.  Louis  was  the 
central  gateway.  It  had  begun  to  build  the  first  railway  toward  the  Pacific,  con- 
tributing $6,000,000  toward  the  enterprise.  Steamboat  lines  radiated  from  the 
city  to  all  parts  of  the  N'alley.  Material  interests  sufYered  paralysis.  St.  Louis 
emerged  from  the  period  of  chaos  with  the  spirit  of  law  and  order  restored. 
Financial  honor  was  demonstrated  by  the  redemption  of  outstanding  notes  with 
1,'old  coin.  Only  one  other  bank  in  the  United  States  was  able  to  do  this.  But 
with  the  close  of  the  war,  the  spirit  of  St.  Louis  found  old  business  relations 
radically  changed.     With  ])eace  came  new  alignments. 

-Another  crisis  which  tested  the  spirit  of  St.  Louis  was  the  logical  sequence  ol 
ihe  foregoing.  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  a  sudden  calamity.  It  was  not  attended 
liy  the  revolutionary  conditions  of  war.  It  came  in  times  of  peace.  It  was  a 
long-drawn  trial  of  a  cominimity's  ability  to  depart  from  the  conditions  of  a 
hundred  years  of  development  and  to  adopt  new  ways.  This  crisis  occujjied  the 
Inst  third  i)f  thu  century.  .*^t.  Louis  had  waxed  mightv  and  far-reaching  on 
waterway  transpDrtation.  Xo  other  .American  inland  city  had  been  so  favored 
by  nature.  Rut  in  the  two  decades.  1870-90,  rails  took  the  place  of  rivers.  Again 
the  s])irit  of  St.  1  ouis  was  equal  to  the  test.  On  the  municipal  seal  is  a  steam- 
boat,— the  fit  emblem  of  the  many  years  of  St.  Louis  prosperity.  When  the 
war  ended  the  strong  men  of  the  community  gave,  first,  attention  to  the  revival  of 
the  river  traffic:  thev  invested  millions  in  fleetsof  the  finest  boats  that  had  been 
seen  on  western  rivers.  They  devoted  their  energies  to  the  recovery  of  what 
St.  Lou's  had  lost  by  the  war's  interrui)tion.  But  the  era  of  the  locomotive  had 
come.  Millions  of  St.  Louis  capital  invested  in  the  hope  of  the  restoration  of  the 
water  traffic  melted  away.  Xo  fither  city  of  .\merica  has  had  to  face  such  radical 
changes  in  its  coniinercial  and  industrial  life.  The  spirit  of  St.  Louis  was  equal 
to  this.  Rapid  as  was  the  change  from  the  steamboat  to  the  locomotive,  St. 
Louis  caught  the  cadence  of  the  shriller  whistle  and  moved  on.  losing  but  one 
rank  in  the  procession  of  American  municipalities. 

Liefore  the  war  tiie  main  traffic  routes  had  been  along  the  meridians.  Xow 
they  were  on  the  parallels.  Trade  arteries  ran  cast  and  west.  The  natural  gate- 
wav  for  these  changed  conditions  should  have  been  -St.  Louis.  Rut  the  dominant 
political  and  business  influences  were  exercised  strenuously  in  favor  of  the  more 
northern  parallels  along  the  Great  I.akes.  The  wonder  is  not  that  St.  Louis 
suft'ered  disadvantage  in  those  years  by  reason  of  close  relations  with  the  South 
I'.ut  that  the  spirit  of  ilie  city  was  able  to  accoiii|)lish  what  it  did  under  the  new 
order. 

The  Americanization  of  St.  Louis. 

St.  Louis  .Vmericanized  with  greater  rajiidity  than  any  other  large  .American 
city.  In  thirty  years  the  census  returns  have  sliown  almost  no  increase  in  the 
foreign  born  population.  .AH  of  the  growth  was  of  American  birth.  Germany 
born  dwellers  in  St.  Louis  have  been  more  numerous  than  natives  of  any  other 
foreign  land.  The  Ireland  born  came  next  in  strength,  but  the  most  recent  census 
shows  a  marked  falling  off  in  the  numbers  of  both  (iermany  born  and  Ireland 

Vol.  1—28 


434  CENTENNIAL  HJSTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

born.  If  it  had  not  been  for  an  increase  from  other  countries,  the  foreign  bom 
of  St.  Louis  in  thi.s  centennial  period  of  statehood  would  be  many  thousands 
below  the  number  several  decades  ago.  The  Russia  born  have  increased.  The 
Polanders  now  form  a  new  element  in  the  foreign  born  population,  innnbering 
several  thousands.  Natives  of  Switzerland  have  much  stronger  representation 
than  they  had  twenty  years  ago.  Another  country  which  shows  marked  increase 
in  its  contribution  to  the  foreign  born  population  of  St.  Louis  is  Sweden. 

Illustrative  of  this  strength  in  the  native  born  population  is  the  fact  that  of 
the  nearly  forty  mayors  the  city  has  had.  only  two  were  of  foreign  birth, — one 
from  Scotland  and  one  from  Germany.  Eight  of  the  mayors  of  St.  Louis  were 
natives  of  the  city,  five  were  born  in  New  York  and  three  were  Virginians, 
Kentucky,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland  each  contributed  two.  Other  states 
represented  in  the  roll  of  St.  Louis  mayors  are  Maine,  North  Carolina,  Massa- 
chusetts. Connecticut,  Ohio  and  Illinois. — significant  of  the  contributions  made 
by  all  sections  of  the  United  States  to  the  native  born  population  of  St.  T,ouis. 

A  National  Distinction. 

The  St.  Louis  industrial  district  is  the  third  largest  in  the  United  States.  St. 
Louis  for  years  was  one  of  the  three  central  reserve  cities  of  the  L^nited  States. 
Reports  of  recent  date  to  the  comptroller  of  the  currency  showed  that  the  banks 
and  trust  companies  of  St.  Louis  had  gained  $30,000,000  deposits  in  twelve  months. 
No  other  large  city  holds  closer  relations  with  its  territory  south,  southeast  and 
southwest.  Striking  recognition  of  this  relationship  was  shown  by  the  government 
in  the  selection  of  St.  Louis  to  be  the  location  of  one  of  the  Federal  Farm 
Loan  banks.  St.  Louis  was  the  only  Federal  Reserve  bank  city  given  a  Federal 
Farm  Loan  bank.  One  of  the  twelve  Federal  Farm  Loan  districts  was  so  defined 
by  the  Federal  Farm  Loan  board  as  to  embrace  territory  south,  southeast  and 
southwest  of  St.  Louis  and  this  city  was  given  bank  location.  This  action  of  the 
board  came  as  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  closeness  of  the  relationship  between 
the  city  and  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  district.  One  trust  company  of  St. 
Louis  has  a  record  of  more  than  $30,000,000  loaned  on  farm  mortgages,  nearly 
all  of  it  within  the  district  defined  by  the  government  board  on  rural  credits,  and 
without  a  dollar  of  loss.  Other  loan  companies  and  trust  companies  of  St.  Louis 
have  the  same  records  as  to  stability  and  extent  of  farm  loans  in  this,  district. 
.•"Shortsightedness  might  have  prompted  the  financial  interests  of  the  city  to  look 
with  indifiference  or  coldly  upon  rural  credit  plans  of  the  government  to  make 
possible  farm  loans  in  the  St.  Louis  territory  at  lower  than  the  prevailing  rates. 
The  bankers  and  trust  companies,  seeing  only  immediate  conditions,  might  have 
viewed  the  Federal  Farm  Loan  bank  as  an  invasion.  They  did  not.  They  saw 
in  the  long  run  an  uplift,  a  development  of  agriculture,  meaning  mutual  gain  to 
city  and  farm.  The  St.  Louis  clearing  house,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  determined 
to  invite  the  location  of  one  of  the  twelve  Federal  Farm  IjDan  banks  in  St.  Louis. 
The  bankers  and  trust  officials  of  St.  Louis,  headed  by  Chairman  Walker  Hill, 
made  such  forceful  and  convincing  presentation  of  the  conditions  in  the  proposed 
district  and  of  the  advantages  of  St.  Louis  as  the  location  that  the  government 
board  made  a  single  exception  in  the  case  of  this  city  and  gave  the  Farm  Loan 
hank  to  a  Federal  Reserve  city.  The  Federal  Farm  Loan  bank  of  St.  Louis 
came  into  existence  commanding  the  maximum  degree  of  confidence  on  the  part 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY  435 

of  the  farmer  borrower  and  the  farm  bond  investor  because  of  the  repute  the 
spirit  of  St.  Louis  had  estabHshed  in  the  generations  past. 

A  Home  Made  City. 

Tu  a  degree  which  gives  it  distinctive  character. — municipal  individuality  so 
to  speak, — St.  Louis  is  a  city  of  homes  and  a  home  made  city.  The  government 
census  showed  that  St.  Louis  had  105,650  detached  dwellings.  More  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  St.  Louis  families  were  living,  not  in  tenements,  or  flats,  or  hotels, 
or  apartment  houses,  but  in  separate  homes.  As  a  city  of  homes  St.  Louis  was 
placed  in  a  class  of  its  own  among  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States. 

Pioneer  St.  Louisans  built  "houses  of  posts," — not  the  log  cabins  of  the 
Americans  to  the  eastward.  They  cut  smaller  trees  into  posts  nine  feet  long 
and  set  them  on  end  to  form  the  walls  of  their  houses.  For  the  cheapest  construc- 
tion the  posts  with  the  bark  left  on  were  used.  For  a  better  class  of  colonial 
architecture  the  posts  were  hewn.  The  prudent  St.  Louisan  set  his  posts  on  a 
stone  foundation  a  little  above  ground.  Chinks  were  filled  with  clay  which 
hardened.  The  floors  were  of  slabs.  The  chimneys  were  of  flat  blocks  of  lime- 
stone. Every  house  had  its  porch,  or  "gallery"'  to  use  the  vernacular,  and  the 
porches  as  a  rule  faced  eastward  or  southward  to  catch  the  prevailing  breezes. 
Travelers  in  those  early  days  invariably  commented  upon  the  fine  climate  of  St. 
Louis.  As  the  fur  trade  prospered,  houses  of  stone  became  numerous  but  they 
were  never  crowded  together  and  the  gallery  was  never  forgotten  by  the  architects. 

With  the  invasion  of  "the  Bostons,"  as  the  early  arriving  Americans  were 
called  by  the  French  habitants,  came  Philadelphia  and  P)altimore  economies. 
Through  several  generations  it  was  the  custom  to  build  homes  on  narrow  lots; 
the  front  steps  flush  with  the  sidewalk,  or  at  best  only  a  few  feet  back,  and  often 
in  long  solid  rows.  The  newcomers  did  not  indulge  in  what  seemed  to  them 
the  imnecessary  luxury  of  a  gallery  or  piazza.  As  a  consequence  of  the  archi- 
tectural misconception,  St.  Louis  sufifered  from  an  unjust  reputation  which  clung 
to  it  through  two  generations.  F>ut  with  the  coming  of  the  trolley  cars,  the 
residence  sections  expanded  over  suburbs  which  rose  on  the  foothills  of  the 
Ozarks.  The  monotonous  brick  and  stone  rows  passed  forever.  St.  Louis 
returned  to  architectural  sanity  with  detached  homes,  side  as  well  as  front  and 
back  yards,  and,  not  to  be  overlooked,  the  east  piazza.  The  bad  summer  became 
only  a  fading  tradition. 

The  St.  Louisan  of  the  first  decade  did  not  have  to  go  beyond  the  limits  of 
Xaclede's  village  for  his  building  material.  He  was  given  a  quarter,  a  half,  or  a 
whole  block  of  ground,  according  to  his  ability  and  his  desirability  as  a  new 
citizen.  Trees  were  awaiting  the  axe.  Laclede,  the  born  engineer,  had  noted  and 
spoken  of  the  favoring  forest  when  he  selected  the  site,  and  told  Auguste  Chouteau 
where  to  begin  building.  Along  the  river  front  and  out-cropping  in  many  places 
were  ledges  of  limestone  easily  quarried.  Everywhere  beneath  the  mold  was 
tenacious  clay. 

The  St.  Louisan  of  this  latest  decade  does  not  have  to  go  beyond  the  city 
limits  for  much  of  his  building  material.  The  quarries  are  accessible  and  in- 
exhaustible, as  they  were  in  Laclede's  time.  The  brick  is  here.  The  sand  is 
pumped  from  the  river  bed  in  never  failing  supply.     Lime,  cement,  sewer  pipe, 


4:l(i  CEXTENNIAL  HISTORY  OV  MISSOURI 

tiles,  terra  cotta  are  local  prodncts.  turned  out  in  millions  of  dollars  worth  cverv 
year. 

Evidences  of  the  Spirit. 

Incidents  vvliich  illustrate  the  characteristic  spirit  of  St.  Louis  are  innumerable. 
In  1896  a  cyclone  swept  across  one  section  doing  manv  millions  of  dollars  dam- 
age. It  came  at  a  time  when  the.  city's  recovery  from  the  nationwide  financial 
dei)ression  was  beginning  to  be  apparent.  The  moral  fibre  of  the  community 
showed  itself  in  the  prompt  action  of  the  whole  community  to  relieve  the  local 
distress,  but  even  more  in  the  message  immediately  sent  forth  by  the  mayor. 
Cyrus  P.  W'albridge.  thanking  otlifr  cities  for  the  generous  tenders  of  aid,  but 
declining  all  and  declaring  that  St.  Louis  could  and  would  take  care  of  the 
stricken.  The  business  of  the  city  went  on.  the  devastated  sections  were  rebuilt, 
all  obligations  were  met,  and  a  world-wide  impression  which  might  have  done 
the  city  incalculable  harm  at  a  time  when  it  was  entering  ui^on  a  period  of  greatest 
progress,  was  corrected  and  changed  to  unstinted  admiration.  At  the  time  when 
the  spirit  of  St.  Louis  prompted  this  courageous,  self-reliant  stand,  one  business 
organization  of  the  city,  the  Ak'rchants'  I'.xchange,  had  a  record  of  cheerful 
giving  showing  nearly  $1,000,000  contributed  in  thirty  years  toward  the  relief 
and  encouragement  of  localities  sustaining  losses  from  various  forms  of  calamity. 
This  record  ojiened  with  handsome  amounts  given  for  relief  of  destitution  in 
Georgia.  /Mabaraa  and  other  southern  states  in  the  two  years  of  1S66  and  1867 
following  the  close  of  the  Civil  war.  Then  followed  contributions  well  up  in 
the  thousands  for  sufferers  from  yellow  fever,  that  one-time  awful  scourge  of 
southern  cities.  In  four  different  epidemics  these  St.  Louis  relief  funds  were  sent 
south.  The  earthquake  in  Charleston  and  cyclones  in  Texas  and  .Arkansas,  the 
(lalveston  flood  and  successive  overtlows  of  the  Mississippi  were  occasions  to 
which  St.  Louis  responded  ])n)niptl\-  and  generousK-. 

The  Mantle  of  Philanthropy. 

Once  in  its  history  the  St.  Louis  Provident  Association  faced  a  crisis  which 
threatened  to  close  its  doors.  Philanthropy  knows  what  a  panic  means.  The 
winter  of  1893-4  drained  the  resources  of  the  charity  organizations.  One  day 
Mr.  Scruggs  and  Mr.  Cupples  found  themselves  facing  an  empty  treasury  and 
the  demands  for  relief  almost  without  precedent.  They  sent  for  Adolphus  Busch 
and  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  the  three  men  sat  in  the  parlor  of  Mr.  Cupples'  home 
and  discussed  ways  and  means  to  keej)  the  institution  open.  The  next  day  Mr. 
Busch  came  back.  Me  brought  $10,000.  Half  of  it  was  his  individual  gift.  The 
remainder  was  from  Mr.  Leni])  and  other  brewers.  The  Provident  Association 
did  not  suspend. 

More  than  one  hundred  philanthro|)ic  organizations  occup)'  the  St.  Louis 
field.  With  very  few  exceptions  they  are  conducted  upon  the  cardinal  principle 
of  helping  the  unfortunate  to  help  themselves.  The  heart  of  St.  Louis  is 
charitable  but  in  the  exercise  of  charity  practical  judgment  goes  with  the  humane 
sentiment.  That,  in  large  measure,  explains  why  St.  Louis  has  no  slums,  like  the 
])lague  spots  of  the  other  large  cities  of  the  country.  As  he  rode  about  St.  Louis, 
several  years  ago.  Archbishop  Farley  of  \'ew  York  commented :  "In  St.  Louis  . 
the  workingmen  and  poorer  classes  are  much  better  taken  care  of  in  their  liomes 


ST.  LOriS  MUNICIPAL  BRIDGK  AND  APPROACH 


THE  OLD  MERCHANTS'  EXCHANGE  OF  ST.  LOUIS 
BuUt  before  the  Civil  War.     Located  on  Main  botwoon  Market  and  Wabiut  Streets.     On  tlie 
square  «hi<'h  "I^arlcde  reserved  for  a  plaza   and   wliidi  tlie  village,  town  and   eity  of  St.  Louis 
utilized  for  a  market  place  for  fifty  year.s. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY  439 

than  similar  classes  in  New  York.     I  have  seen  no  districts  in  St.  Louis  that  I 
could  call  squalid.     In  fact,  there  seems  to  be  no  real  squalor  in  the  city." 

Contributing  Factors  of  the  Spirit. 

The  experience  of  St.  Louis  affords  one  of  the  most  impressive  object  lessons 
in  the  benetits  of  fairs  and  expositions.  As  early  as  1822  an  agricultural  society 
was  formed  in  St.  Louis.  Fairs  were  held  at  irregular  intervals  to  exhibit  agricul- 
tural products.  Usually  the  place  selected  was  the  race  track.  Some  years  later 
St.  Louis  began  the  holding  of  what  were  known  then  as  mechanics'  fairs,  now 
called  expositions.  These  fairs  were  the  crude  developments  of  the  exposition 
idea.  They  were  exhibits  of  St.  Louis  industries  and  were  given  in  some  suitable 
building  in  the  city.  The  agricultural  fair  and  the  mechanics'  fair  of  St.  Louis 
were  entirely  separate,  conducted  by  different  organizations,  without  conflict  ot 
dates.  Thus,  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  November,  1841,  the  fair  of  the  agricul- 
tural society  of  St.  Louis  was  opened  at  the  St.  Louis  race  course.  On  the  24th 
of  the  same  month  the  mechanics'  fair  was  opened  in  buildings  on  the  block 
where  today  stands  the  Merchants'  Exchange  of  St.  Louis.  It  continued  three 
days.  The  exhibition  of  "a  St.  Louis  manufactured  stove"  at  the  exposition  of 
1842  was  the  public  beginning  of  what  became  and  is  now  one  of  the  chief 
industries  of  the  city. 

Out  of  these  earlier  fairs  developed  the  St.  Louis  agricultural  and  mechanical 
association  in  1855,  the  most  ambitious  movement  of  its  day  to  exhibit  agricultural 
resources  and  industrial  products  of  the  West.  The  association  obtained  a  large 
tract  of  ground,  erected  permanent  structures  and  gave  five  annual  fairs  before 
the  Civil  war  caused  suspension.  In  that  time  the  premium  Hst  had  grown  from 
$10,000  to  $25,000.  The  attendance  from  the  south  and  southwest  more  than 
doubled.  Immediately  after  the  war  this  annual  fair  at  St.  Louis  was  resumed. 
It  grew  to  have  a  premium  list  of  $40,000  a  year  and  an  attendance  of  from 
50.000  to  100.000  visitors  a  day.  It  was  continued  more  than  a  third  of  a 
century. 

The  St.  Louis  Fair. 

The  first  official  report  of  the  St.  Louis  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  asso- 
ciation has  been  preserved  by  the  family  of  G.  O.  Kalb,  who  was  for  twenty- 
seven  years  secretary  of  the  organization.  It  was  issued  in  1858.  It  described 
the  acquisition  of  "fifty  acres  of  wild  and  uncultivated  ground  three  miles  beyond 
the  city  limits."  It  told  of  the  construction  of  fair  buildings  which  included  "the 
largest  amphitheater  in  the  Union  and  a  galliiiarium  capable  of  accommodating 
any  quantity  of  the  feathered  tribes." 

"What  the  carnival  is  at  Rome,  the  fair  is  at  St.  Louis,"  the  report  stated. 
Signs  "To  the  Fair"  were  placarded  on  all  the  omnibuses  and  public  vehicles  as 
they  hastened  to  the  scene  of  attraction. 

At  the  fair  of  1858.  William  Fisch,  of  St.  Louis,  received  a  medal  for  an 
exhibition  of  "an  artificial  leg  and  arm.  which  he  wore  to  the  Fair  Grounds.'" 
Mr.  Overmuller.  of  Ste.  Genevieve,  received  a  premium  for  "a  petrified  ham. 
when  or  how  petrified  we  are  not  able  to  ascertain."  A  prize  for  "lucifer 
matches"  was  awarded  to  the  Missouri  Match  company,  of  Hannibal.  Mo.,  and 


440  CEXTEXXIAI.  JllSTOKV  OF  MISSOURI 

the  board  of  directors  expressed  "gratification  that  the  use  of  lucifers  was  becom- 
ing general  throughout  the  state." 

The  first  officers  of  the  association  were:  President,  J.  R.  Barret;  vice- 
jircsidents,  T.  Grimsley.  A.  Harper  and  Henry  Clay  Hart;  treasurer,  H.  S.  Turner; 
general  agent  and  recording  secretary,  G.  O.  Kalb ;  corresponding  secretary, 
O.  W.  Collett. 

When  the  Prince  of  \\'ales  was  touring  the  United  States  shortly  before  the 
Civil  war,  he  spent  a  day  at  the  Fair.  It  is  a  tradition  that  the  chairman  of  the 
reception  committee  desiring  to  call  the  attention  of  His  Royal  Highness  to  a 
])articularlv  fine  specimen  of  horse  flesh,  slapped  him  on  the  back  and  said 
genially : 

"Prince!  what  do  you  think  of  that?" 

Fdwards'  Program  of  the  I'air  in  1859  contained  this  urgent  "back  to  the 
farm"  argument : 

"There  is  not  in  this  Union  a  single  state  that  offers  stronger  inducements  to  miners, 
stock  raisers  and  hempgrowers,  than  the  State  of  Missouri,  and  yet  there  are  in  the  City 
of  St.  Louis  at  least  one  thousand  able-bodied  professional  gamblers,  five  thousand  hale 
and  hearty  young  men  in  drygoods  stores,  shops  and  other  jilaces,  performing  labor  so 
light  that  it  rightfully  belongs  to  females;  and  this,  too,  for  salaries  which  scarcely  pay 
their  necessary  expenses;  and  during  most  of  the  season  an  equal  number  who  have  no 
visible  means  of  support." 

The  Down  Town  Exposition. 

In  1S83  St.  Louis  returned  to  the  plan  of  separation  of  fair  and  exposition. 
\\  ith  a  capital  stock  of  $600,000  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  and  Music  Hall  Asso- 
ciation was  organized,  with  Samuel  M.  Kennard  at  the  head  of  it.  Upon  Mis- 
souri park,  occupying  two  full  city  blocks  between  Olive  and  St.  Charles,  Thir- 
teenth and  I-'ourteenth  streets,  a  building  specially  adapted  to  exposition  purposes 
was  erected.  X'early  a  score  of  years  the  annual  exposition  and  the  annual  fair 
were  conducted  successfully,  being  suspended  only  when  the  movement  to  cele- 
brate the  Centennial  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  took  definite  form.  In  the  first 
ten  years  of  its  existence  the  receipts  of  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  were  over 
$2,000,000.  In  its  twelfth  year  the  exposition  paid  a  dividend  to  stockholders  and 
contributed  $8,000  to  cyclone  sufferers.  The  average  yearly  attendance  was 
750.000  visitors. 

The  industrial  and  commercial  upbuilding  of  St.  Louis  is  to  be  attributed  to 
its  fairs  and  expositions  more  than  to  any  other  one  agency.  Moreover  these 
fairs  and  expositions  carried  on  through  five  generations  of  business  men  paved 
the  way  for  the  World's  Fair  of  1904  and  made  possible  its  success. 

The  World's  Fair. 

The  total  installation  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition  represented  an 
ex])enditure  of  over  $45,000,000.  St.  Louis,  through  the  city  corporation  and 
through  subscribing  shareholders,  contributed  $10,000,000.  The  Federal  gov- 
ernment appropriated  $5,000,000.  The  Federal  government  loaned,  in  addition, 
$4,('ioo,ooo,  every  dollar  of  which  was  returned  in  strict  accordance  with  the  act 
of  appropriation.  The  remainder  of  the  $45,000,000  represented  the  appropria- 
tions of  states  and  foreign  countries  and  the  cost  to  exhibitors.     The  exposition 


THE  Sl'lRIT  OF  A  CITY  441 

passed,  into  history  as  the  equal,  if  not  tlie  superior,  to  any  held  up  to  that  time. 
Pessimists  predicted  that  the  holding  of  such  an  exposition  would  be,  ultimately, 
(if  more  injury  than  benefit  to  the  city;  that  there  would  be  a  reaction  which 
would  depress  business  and  dejjreciate  the  value  of  property  and  make  the  people 
rejj;ret  that  they  had  vmdertaken  such  an  enterprise.  There  was  no  reaction. 
Prices  of  real  estate  the  year  after  the  exposition  closed  were  higher  than  at  any 
time  in  ten  years  preceding  and  have  since  steadily  advanced.  The  business  of 
St.  Louis — mercantile,  jobbing  and  retail — the  year  after  the  exposition  was  25 
per  cent  greater  than  the  year  previous  to  the  exposition  and  has  been  increasing 
ever  since.  Industrially.  .St.  Louis  gained  more  in  new  manufactures  and  in 
volume  of  production  during  the  five  years  succeeding  the  exposition  than  it  had 
in  the  fifteen  years  preceding.  Nothing  else  ever  contributed  so  much  toward 
bringing  the  people  of  St.  Louis  together  and  inspiring  a  consciousness  of  strength 
ap.d  of  mutual  confidence  as  did  the  World's  Fair  of  1904. 

During  the  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  days  of  the  Exposition's  existence 
there  passed  through  the  turn-stiles  and  were  counted,  19,694,855  persons.  These 
figures  do  not  comprise  the  census  of  the  Exposition's  population.  A  site  far 
exceeding  any  preceding  World's  Fair  encouraged  conditions  which  were  with- 
out precedent.  A  hotel  within  the  grounds  having  hundreds  of  employes  and 
thousands  of  guests  was  one  of  the  unusual  features.  The  collection  of  Filipino 
villages  and  camps  housed  a  permanent  community  equal  to  a  small  city.  The 
colonies  of  primitive  people  spread  over  many  acres  and  numbered  several 
hundreds  of  persons.  Within  their  camps  the  British  and  Boers  dwelt  in 
harmony  by  night  as  well  as  by  day.  The  JefTerson  Guard  and  the  Fire  Depart- 
ment were  intramural  contingents  having  no  occasion  to  pass  the  gates  when 
off  duty.  Military  camps  and  barracks  accommodated  visiting  bodies  numbering 
at  one  time  several  thousand  uniformed  men.  The  Pike  was  an  avenue  of  a  mile  on 
which  communities  from  all  parts  of  the  world  had  their  abiding  places  for  the 
Exposition  period.  There  were  other  elements  of  this  permanent  population. 
Many  of  the  buildings  erected  by  foreign  governments,  states  and  territories 
had  their  sleeping  and  living  rooms  as  well  as  public  accommodations.  Commis- 
sioners, officers  and  employes  seldom  left  the  grounds. 

I'inancial  results  of  this  Universal  Exposition  were  satisfactory.  It  has 
come  to  lie  the  accepted  condition  of  these  enterprises  that  they  do  not  return 
dividends  in  cash.  F.xpositions  are  "Timekee]iers  of  progress,"  "Milestones  of 
civilization,"  not  money  makers.  The  capital  iiuested  looks  to  indirect  but  not 
to  inadequate  returns.  If  any  exposition  pays  its  way  in  operation,  makes  to 
the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number,  then  the  individual,  the  corporation, 
the  government,  the  municipality  considers  the  trial  balance  satisfactory.  So 
judged  the  Universal  Exposition  of  1904  passed  into  history  as  having  been 
eminently  successful. 

The  revenue  from  xaricus  sources  amounted  to  Si  1.500,000,  the  chief  of  these 
vielding  as  follows : 

.^dmi5sio^    culliclidns    $6,250,000 

Concession    collections     3,000,000 

Intramural    Railroad    fares    627,473 

Service,   power   and   light   receipts 600,000 


442  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Interest   on    deposits    125,000 

Transportation    Department   collections    165.000 

Music  Department  receipts    82,871 

Premiums    on    souvenir   coins    67,000 

The  expenditures  of  the  management  to  the  close  of  the  Exposition  aggregated 
$25,000,000  leaving  a  surplus  sufficient  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  Post-Exposi- 
tion period,  economically  administered,  and  for  the  Art  Museum,  World's  Fair 
Pavilion  and  Jefferson  Memorial.  The  principal  disbursements  were  classified  as 
follows : 

Construction,   grounds    and   buildings    $17,177,864 

Maintenance  and   rents    1,729,249 

Division    of    Exhibits    2,086,580 

Division    of    Exploitation     1,305,792 

Protection,    police,    fire,    insurance 1,014,220 

Division   of   Concessions   and   Admissions 544,650 

Executive   and   administrative    402,441 

Division    of    Transportation    260,426 

Four-fifths  of  the  expenditures  of  the  Exposition  was^^or  the  buildings  and 
grounds.  Of  the  $11,000,000  earned,  the  sum  of  $9,500,000  was  from  admissions 
and  concessions.  The  cost  of  the  collection  of  this  revenue  barely  exceeded 
$500,000.  The  handling  of  the  revenues  was  a  model  in  methods  of  economy  and 
exactness  for  all  expositions  to  come. 

This  financial  showing  does  not  tak;  into  consideration  one  of  the  largest 
items  of  receipts  and  of  corresponding  outgo.  To  the  investment  should  be 
added  to  a  loan  of  $4,6oo',ooo  by  the  United  States  Government  advanced  in 
addition  to  the  original  $5,000,000  appropriated.  To  the  disbursements  must  be 
added  the  return  of  this  e.xact  amount  to  the  Government  from  the  revenues  of 
the  Exposition  period  in  strict  compliance  with  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Act 
of  Congress. 

Expansion  of  the  United  States  found  expression  in  participation  by  forty- 
three  states,  by  five  territories  and  by  all  territorial  possessions  save  Hawaii. 
This  participation  cost  $9,346,677.  Ten  years  before  forty-one  states  and  two 
territories  expended  on  a  World's  Fair  $5,539,428,  and  the  United  States  was 
proud  of  the  showing. 

Respect  for  a  World  Power  showed  itself  in  the  presence  at  this  Exposition 
of  sixty-two  foreign  nations  and  colonies,  and  in  the  expenditure  of  $8,134,500. 
This  expenditure  does  not  take  into  consideration  that  of  private  exhibitors  from 
foreign  countries,  but  only  the  amounts  expended  by  the  foreign  governments. 
At  Chicago,  in  1893,  were  represented  forty-five  foreign  nations  and  colonies 
bv  expenditures  aggregating  $5,982,894.  Paris  in  1900,  had  no  approach  to  this 
degree  of  universality. 

The  material  benefits  which  St.  Louis  received  from  the  World's  Fair  were 
set  forth  in  impressive  comparisons  by  the  Business  Men's  League.  During  the 
five  years  beginning  with  1906  and  ending  with  1910,  the  people  of  St.  Louis 
expended  $116,536,564  on  new  buildings.  During  the  preceding  five  years,  begin- 
ning with  1901  and  including  the  preparation  for  the  World's  Fair  and  the  costly 


MUMCll'AL   BRIDGE,   ST.   LOUIS, 
OPENED  JANUARY  20,   1917 


FIRST  TRAIN  OF  CXJAL  OVER  MUNIC- 
IPAL BRIDGE,  ST.  LOUIS 


ST.  LOUIS  MUNICIPAL  BRIDGE 


,r  L0U,5  ,^UNK,P»L   B>!lOe,E    AMD    APPI^OACHti. 


\ 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  CITY  445 

construction  for  the  exposition  purposes  the  amount  expended  was  $78,116,984. 
Instead  of  depression  after  the  World's  Fair,  St.  Louis  entered  upon  a  period  of 
improvements  and  general  prosperity  such  as  the  city  had  never  before  known. 
Business  doubled  in  ten  years. 

Bank  clearings  for  1900  were  $1,688,849,494  and  for  1910  they  were  $3,727.- 
949,379,  more  than  twice  as  much. 

In  iqoo  the  freight  brought  into  and  carried  out  of  St.  Louis  by  rail  and  river 
vvas  25.313,330  tons.     In  1910  it  was  51.918,110  tons,  more  than  double. 

Post  office  cash  receipts,  which  measure  the  volume  of  business,  were 
$2,031,664  in  1900  and  in  1910  they  were  $4,539,185,  an  increase  of  considerably 
more  than  100  per  cent. 

In  1900  the  people  of  St;  Louis  built  2,513  houses  of  all  kinds  at  a  cost  of 
$5,916,984.  In  1910  they  built  9,419  houses  and  spent  $19,600,063  upon  them. 

The  assessed  yaluc  of  real  estate  and  personalty  of  St.  Louis  in  1900  was 
$380,779,280,  and  in  1910  it  was  $556,725,320. 

One  Test  of  Missouri  Citizenship. 

The  native  Missourian  is  increasing  in  numbers.  He  is  holding  his  own  in 
the  competition  for  the  first  rank  of  successful,  useful  citizenship.  I-"or  the  com- 
mittee of  two  hundred  and  the  board  of  directors  which  initiated  and  conducted 
the  World's  Fair  of  1904,  were  chosen  representatives  of  all  interests.  When  the 
lists  were  analyzed  forty-one  native  Missourians  were  foimd  among  the  two 
hundred.  Of  this  number  twenty-six  were  on  the  board  of  directors.  There 
was  no  thought  of  place  ot  birth  when  the  men  to  carry  the  World's  Fair  burden 
were  chosen.  But  the  results  illustrated  in  a  striking  manner  how,  from  other 
countries  and  from  many  states,  have  converged  in  Missouri  the  men  who  do 
things.  Serving  as  directors  of  the  World's  Fair  were  ten  men  born  in  Germany ; 
three,  in  Ireland ;  one  in  Canada ;  one  in  England  and  two  in  Bavaria.  The 
natives  of  twenty-three  states,  adopted  Missourians.  were  directors.  They  were 
well  distributed.  New  Yorkers  led  with  nine.  Illinois  and  Ohio  contributed 
six  each.  The  other  states  and  their  sons  were:  Michigan,  two;  West  Virginia, 
one;  Arkansas,  one:  Maryland,  two;  \"ir,ginia,  four; Massachusetts,  two;  New 
Hampshire,  two;  New  jersey,  two;  North  Carolina,  two;  Kentucky,  five;  Iowa, 
one;  California,  one;  Indiana,  one;  Connecticut,  two;  Pennsylvania,  three: 
Georgia,  two;  Tennessee,  one;  \'ermont,  one;  Texas,  one. 

The  World's  Fair  movement  tested  the  quality  of  St.  Louis  citizenship  as  has 
no  other  demand  upon  the  municipality's  energies.  And  when  the  response  was 
studied,  it  showed  from  what  widely  scattered  sources  were  drawn  the  elements 
to  give  the  quality.  Xn  nationality,  no  section  of  this  country,  predominated. 
Nations,  all  quarters  of  the  United  States,  have  contributed  to  the  best  business 
and  professional  blood  of  the  city. 

In  the  committee  of  two  hundred,  besides  the  nationalities  in  the  board  of 
directors,  were  represented  Wales.  Hungary  and  .\ustria.  From  the  .\tlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  were  scattered  the  birthplaces  of  the  men 
who  made  the  \\'orkrs  Fair  possible  and  then  made  the  World's  Fair.  Missouri 
is  producing  the  best  type  of  the  .\merican  in  temperament  and  in  action  as  well. 


446  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Conscience  of  St.  Louis. 

St.  L()ui,s  has  had  its  local  issues  from  time  to  time.  Individual  leaders, 
elements  in  the  population,  geojjraphical  sections  of  the  city,  have  contended 
sharply  for  their  ambitions  or  their  respective  interests.  But,  from  the  year  of 
incorporation  to  the  present  day,  every  serious  crisis  confronting  and  every 
momentous  proposition  appealing  have  found  St.  Louisans  standing  together,  so 
closely  ranked,  so  nearly  unified,  as  to  make  the  majority  irresistible,  the  minority 
insignificant.  This  characteristic  of  St.  Louis  was  eflfective  in  the  World's  Fair 
■  oi  1904  to  a  degree  that  made  the  nations  marvel.  It  has  met  repeatedly  situa- 
tions of  gravest  character.  Without  the  loss  of  a  single  life  and  with  the  minimum 
of  damage  to  property,  St.  Louis  passed  through  the  railroad  riots  of  1877,  so 
disastrous  in  other  centers  of  transportation  and  population. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  first  decade  of  the  new  century,  the  conscience  of 
the  community  was  aroused.  Investigation  and  reform  were  undertaken,  official 
impurity  was  found,  but  the  moral  fiber  was  again  demonstrated  by  the  vigorous 
prosecution  and  conviction  of  grafters.  Conditions  in  St.  Louis  in  1900  were 
not  worse  than  those  in  other  large  cities,  but  St.  Louis  led  the  way  in  exposure 
and  in  banishment  of  official  wrong-doers.  "The  .Shamelessness  of  St.  Louis," 
was  an  utterance  of  superficial  observance  by  a  stranger.  A  city  which  could 
and  did  do  what  St.  Louis  did  to  correct  the  wrongs  in  official  life  is  not 
"shameless." 

Marvelously  the  .years  have  demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  the  selection  of  the 
site  for  St.  Louis.  The  first  chamber  of  commerce  was  built  where  Laclede  and 
Chouteau  marked  the  trees.  The  Merchants'  Exchange  of  today,  the  great 
trading  mart,  is  only  a  stone's  throw  distant.  Within  rifle  shot  of  where  the 
First  Thirty  landed,  the  trade  of  the  Missis.sippi  \'alley  still  centers.  St.  Louis 
spread  north,  west  and  south  from  Laclede's  fur  warehouse.  The  Market  street 
of  today,  which  divides  the  city  in  halves,  extends  westward  from  the  Place 
Publique  which  the  founder  reserved  when  he  made  his  plan  for  the  settlement 
which  was  to  be  "une  des  plus  belles  villes  de  I'.Amerique." 


CHAPTER  XllI 

ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIAXS 

Archaeologists  Disayree — Pu:zU>tg  Stone  Implements — Broadhead's  Theory — Missouri,  a 
Rich  Field — Bcckwith's  50,000  Indian  Relics — The  Mounds — A  Geological  Theory — In- 
vestigations of  Douglas.  Il'hclpley  and  Fotvke — .-I  Prehistoric  City — Amazing  Fortifica- 
tions— Adobe  Brick — Catr  Dwellers  on  the  Gasconade — Dr.  Peterson  on  the  Mound 
Builders — Evidences  of  a  Numerous  Population — Laclede  and  the  Missouris — A  Far- 
reaching  Indian  Policy — The  Nudarches — Friends  of  the  I'rench — Massacre  of  a  Span- 
ish Expedition  in  Missouri — Attempts  at  Civilication — The  Murder  of  Pontiac — Chou- 
■  teau  Springs — The  Osages'  Gift  to  the  Son  of  Laclede — A  Spanish  Governor's  Narrow 
Escape — Gratifications — The  Shatiiiee  Experiment — Hozc  Peace  IVas  Made — The  Exe- 
cution of  Tezuanaye — Good  li'ill  Transferred  with  Sovereignty — The  Advice  of  Delassus 
— Pike's  Diplomatic  Mission — British  Influence  Checkmated — il'isdom  of  IVilliam  Clark 
— Activities  of  Manuel  Lisa — "One-eyed  Siou.v" — The  Treaty  of  1812 — Elihu  H.  Shep- 
ard's  Tribute — "Red  Head,"  the  Friend  of  the  Indian — The  Council  Chamber — Gov- 
ernor Clark's  Museum — Ceremonial  Calls — The  Freedom  of  the  City — Indian  Coffee — 
Home  Coming  of  the  Osages — Migrations  of  the  Delawares — The  Rise  of  Colonel 
Splitlog — An  Indian  Capitalist. 

More  than  half  a  century  has  since  transpired  and  probably  every  person  engaged  in  that  embassy 
of  six  nations  is  d?ad,  but  that  act  of  General  Clark  alone  should  make  his  name  immortal. — Etiliu  H. 
Sliepard   on   Governor   IVilliam   Clark's   Indian   Treaty  of  iSi^. 

A  marvelous  collection  of  Indian  workmanship  in  stone  fills  many  cases  of 
the  Missouri  Historical  Society.  The  quality  varies  greatly.  Garland  C.  Broad- 
head,  the  geologist  and  archaeologist,  analyzing  these  evidences,  inclined  to  the 
theory  that  a  superior  race'  preceded  the  red  Missourians  known  to  white  men. 
He  said :  "On  the  surface  in  many  places  are  found  flint  arrow-heads,  both 
small  and  large,  some  roughly  made,  some  very  finely  worked ;  also  axes  of 
exquisite  workmanship.  The  rougher  flints  may  have  been  shap>ed  by  the  present 
Indians,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  of  the  present  tribes  could  shape  and 
j)olish  these  stone  implements  in  any  way  but  roughly.  Other  persons  of  higher 
artistic  attainments  must  have  shaped  them,  and  these  may  have  been  driven  oflf 
by  the  present  races  several  hundred  years  ago.  The  Toltecs  of  Mexico  have 
legends  that  they  were  driven  away  from  a  country  inhabited  by  them,  away  to 
the  northeast,  himdreds  of  years  ago." 

Some  Notable  Collections. 

Missouri  has  not  only  been  a  rich  field  for  the  archaeologist  but  it  has  been 
thoroughly  and  intelligently  worked.  In  St.  Louis  are  four  collections  each  of 
which  is  nationally  notable  in  a  distinctive  line  of  material.    St.  Louis  University 

447 


448  CEXTEXNJAI.  lllS'lom'  Ol-   MISSOURI 

has  the  l.ucas  Collection  of  American  Archaeology,  arranged  on  a  scientitic 
basis.  J.  B.  C.  Lucas,  who  ga\e  the  collection  to  the  uni\ersity,  traveled  widely 
and  interested  the  help  of  friends  in  gathering  .American  antiquities.  [)resenting 
the  results  to  his  friend,  the  late  I'resident  William  Hank  Rogers,  when  the 
latter  was  at  the  head  of  the  institution.  The  Lucas  exhibit  is  strong  in  its 
hammers,  celts,  flaked  flints,  notched  spearheads,  separated  arrow  points,  dis- 
coidal  stones  and  ornamented  pi])es.  It  illustrates  admirably  what  Gerard  Fowke 
described  at  length  in  the  thirteenth  annual  report  of  the  I'.ureau  of  Ethnology 
as  the  "Stone  Art."  With  the  Lucas  exhibit  are  associated  the  aboriginal  relics 
collected  by  the  missionary  fathers  who  went  out  from  St.  Louis  to  labor  among 
the  North  American  Indians.  Father  DeSmet.  Father  Ignatius  Panken,  Father 
Kupi)ens  and  others  sent  back  to  the  university  many  things  of  ethnologic  interest. 
The  contributions  of  these  missionaries  to  American  ethnology  and  linguistics 
were  treated  at  length  some  years  ago  by  James  Mooney  in  the  United  States 
■"Handbook  of  North  American  Indians  ^orth  of  Mexico." 

A  private  cellcclion  of  great  value  for  its  variety  of  chipped  spades  and  celts 
is  that  of  Dr.  M.  M.  Wheljiley.  It  is  said  to  lead  all  of  the  others  in  these 
specialties. 

The  Missouri  Historical  Society  collection  in  number  and  comprehensiveness 
is  probably  the  largest  in  the  United  States.  It  is  arranged  on  scientific  lines, 
having  received  the  careful  ])re]iaration  of  (ierard  Fowke.  The  series  of  arrow- 
heads and  spearheads  is  arranged  according  to  types.  Accompanying  the  cases 
of  the  Missouri  Historical  Society  is  much  detailed  descriptive  matter  making  the 
study  of  these  objects  interesting  to  the  average  visitor  as  well  as  to  the  student 
of  archaeology. 

,\  i)rivate  collection  of  note  was  made  by  Rev.  Frederic  Schulte  of  St.  Engel- 
bcrt"s.     This  was  especiallv  interesting  for  articles  made  of  hematite. 

Amos  Beckwith's  50,000  Relics. 

In  one  of  the  buildings  of  the  Cape  Girardeau  Normal  school  is  housed  the 
50.000  archaeological  objects  collected  by  Colonel  .\nios  Beckwith.  W'hen  the 
mu.seum  was  dedicated.  Louis  Houck.  the  historian,  told  how  Beckwith  became 
interested  in  archaeology,  and  with  what  zeal  he  jnirsued  his  investigation's  in 
Southeast  ^lissouri  during  forty  years.  Beckwith  was  born  on  a  plantation  in 
1840.  His  grandfather  came  to  Missouri  in  1812.  On  the  Beckwith  estate  was 
a  great  mound,  which  attracted  tlic  hoy"s  interest.     Mr.  Houck  said: 

"He  observed  t^hat  the  corners  of  this  mound  were  square  as  if  .the  work  had  been 
done  by  an  experienced  builder.  The  mound  was  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  higher  than 
the  general  level  of  the  land.  It  was  no  feet  wide  and  160'  feet  long.  The  top  was 
covered  with  burned  clay  to  a  depth  of  about  five  feet.  Fifty  feel  from  this  mound  there 
was  another  truncated  mound  nearly  as  high  and  seventy  or  eighty  feet  wide.  On  about  400 
acres  of  land  around  these  mounds  relics  of  every  description  were  found  by  the  negro 
plowmen  and  this,  too,  attracted  Beckwith's  attention.  .'\  few  miles  from  these  mounds, 
on  Pinhook  ridge,  he  saw  other  groups  of  mounds.  In  fact  in  almost  every  part  of 
Mississippi  county,  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  forests,  on  his  hunting  expeditions  and 
on  other  occasions,  he  observed  these  silent  memorials  of  the  prehistoric  inhabitants  of  the 
country.  At  first  he  considered  these  mounds  only  as  offering  a  harbor  of  refuge  for 
his  stock  in  times  of  overflow.  Then  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  mounds,  the  location 
and  possible  purpose  began   to   interest   him.     Thus   he   discovered   a   group   of  mounds   in 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS  449 

the   neighborhood   of   his  land,   which   became  known   as   "Beckwith's   Fort,'   because   plainly 
erected    for  defensive   purposes." 

Mr.  Houck  thought  that  Beckwith  was  prompted  to  take  up  archaeological 
research  and  collection  through  the  influence  of  Colonel  Norris  long  associated 
with  the  .Smithsonian  at  Washington.  Colonel  Norris  visited  the  mounds  of 
Southeast  Alissouri  and  took  Heckwith  on  several  exploring  expeditions.  He 
inspired  him  with  the  interest  to  learn  "what  these  prehistoric  [people  really  were, 
how  they  lived,  how  far  advanced  they  were  in  the  domestic  arts,  how  they 
cultivated  the  soil,  how  they  hunted,  what  was  the  character  of  their  institutions." 
The  result  was  that  Beckwith  gave  his  leisure  time  and  expended  much  of  his 
means  for  more  than  forty  years,  until  he  had  accumulated  ''one  of  the  greatest 
local  archaeological  collection'^  in  the  world."  Mr.  Houck  justified  this  estimate 
of  the  Beckwith  relics  because  "they  were  locally  collected  from  the  mounds  of 
the  upper  St.  Francois  basin  and  principally  from  mounds  in  Southeast  Missouri 
counties,  and  because  from  this  collection  can  be  secured  almost  a  perfect  picture 
of  the  domestic  institutions  and  civilization  of  a  group  of  the  race  of  so-called 
mound  builders  in  this  particular  locality." 

Allan  Hinchey's  Study  of  Beckwith's  Collection. 

Allan  Hinchey,  of  Cape  Girardeau,  has  made  rui  exhaiisti\e  study  and  analysis 
of  the  Beckwith  collection.    He  said : 

"The  handiwork  of  several  ages  may  be  seen,  some  of  the  articles  having  been  made 
after  the  coming  of  the  white  man,  others  apparently  several  centuries  before.  Some- 
thing can  be  learned  of  these  tribes  as  warriors,  as  growers  of  grain,  as  hunters,  as 
citizens,  and  even  as  to  their  religions  and  culture.  That  they  were  agriculturists  is 
proved  by  the  many  hoes  and  spades,  made  of  flint  and  stone ;  that  they  were  sun  worship- 
ers, by  the  number  of  ceremonial  vessels  ornamented  with  pictures  of  the  sun;  that  they 
were  warriors,  by  weapons  of  attack  and  defense:  that  they  were  citizens  of  some  sort 
of  society,  hi'  the  system  displayed  in  the  location  of  their  dwellings  and  places  of  public 
assemblage,  and  by  their  mode  of  burial.  That  they  had  reached  some  stage  of  culture 
is  shown  by  their  art  in  modeling  and  carving,  some  of  the  figures  equaling  in  workman- 
ship specimens  of  ancient  Egyptian  art.  both  as  to  execution  and  truthfulness  of  depicting 
the  characteristics  of  the  subjects.  That  they  were  somewhat  skilled  in  mechanics  is 
proven  by  the  exactness  of  their  measurements,  and  the  proper  proportions  used  in 
making  their  figures,   wares   and   implements. 

"These  relics  of  unknown  tribes  were  taken,  for  the  most  part  from  the  mounds  of 
Mississippi  county,  along  the  river  courses,  or  from  camping  places  or  villages.  Some 
of  them  were  found  in  excavations  several  feet  deep.  In  some  cases  articles  were  found 
at  a  depth  of  a  few  feet,  and  beneatli  them,  several  feet  deeper,  other  relics  were  un- 
earthed of  apparently  much  older  origin,  indicating  that  they  were  made  bj'  different 
people  at  different  times.  Most  of  the  human  figures  have  Indian  features,  while  some 
resemble  the  Caucasian  race,  and  one  bears  a  strong  likeness  to  the  negro. 

"Several  burial  urns  are  included,  the  largest  one  being  thirteen  inches  deep  and 
sixteen  inches  in  diameter.  In  this  urn  were  foun<l  human  bones  it  having  been  the  custom 
of  some  tribes  to  bury  the  bones  after  flesh  had  disappeared  following  a  long  suspension 
on  a  scaffold.  The  weapons  of  warfare  consist  of  axes  of  stone,  arrow  and  spearheads 
of  flint,  and  baked  balls  of  pottery  and  stone  to  be  used  with  slings.  Some  of  the  whet- 
stones and  polishing  stones  are  smooth  on  one  side  and  rough  on  the  reverse.  Some  of 
them  have  grooves  wherein  were  sharpened  the  points  of  weapons  and  working  tools. 
All  working  tools  found  in  the  excavations  of  Southeast  Missouri  are  of  stone  or  flint, 
except  one  awl  of  copper  about  two  inches  in  length.     There  are  many  pieces  of  pottery 

Vol.  1—29 


450  ■  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  UF  MISSOURI 

that  had  been  baked  by  fire,  some  of  them  liiglily  colored.  There  arc  i.ioo  splendid  speci- 
mens of  pottery — vessels,  water  bottles,  bowls  and  jars,  some  of  them  being  made  ap- 
parently after  the  coming  of  the  white  man,  others  centuries  before.  These  bottles  and 
bowls  are  made  to  represent  fishes,  birds,  beavers,  opossums,  raccoons,  frogs,  ducks, 
owls,  hawks,  turtles,  but  not  a  single  representation  of  a  snake  can  be  found  in  the 
entire   collection." 

Many  of  these  articles  of  ])Ottery  found  in  the  niotinds  of  Southeast  Missouri 
were  made  of  aluminous  clay  mixed  with  pounded  sliells. 

The  Indian  Mounds. 

The  scientists  dcxoted  a  great  deal  of  time  to  tlie  Indian  mounds  of  St. 
Louis.  They  located  twenty-seven  along  a  line  leading  north  of  the  city  and 
on  what  they  called  the  second  bank  of  the  river.  Each  of  these  mounds  was 
measured  with  care.  Several  of  them  were  from  four  feet  to  five  feet  in 
height.  The  largest  was  thirty-four  feet  high.  Some  were  round;  others  square 
or  oblong.  Some  were  arranged  to  form  a  partial  enclosure.  Several  were  in 
a  curve.  On  the  Illinois  side  of  the  river,  within  five  miles  from  the  river 
bank  opposite  St.  Louis,  the  scientists  found  seventy-five  of  these  mounds.  Long's 
expedition  reported  on  them : 

Tumuli  and  other  remains  of  the  labors  of  nations  of  Indians  that  inhabited  this 
region  many  ages  since  are  remarkably  numerous  about  St.  Louis.  Those  tumuli  imme- 
diately north  of  the  town,  and  within  a  short  distance  of  it,  are  twenty-seven  in  number, 
of  various  forms  and  magnitudes,  arranged  nearly  in  a  line  from  north  to  south.  The 
common  form  is  an  oblong  square,  and  they  all  stand  on  the  second  bank  of  the  river. 
It  seems  probable  that  these  piles  of  earth  were  raised  as  cemeteries,  or  they  may  have 
supported  altars  for  religious  ceremonies.  We  cannot  conceive  any  useful  purpose  to 
which  they  can  have  been  applicable  in  war,  unless  as  elevated  stations  from  which  to 
observe  the  motions  of  an  approaching  enemy;  but  for  this  purpose  a  single  mound  would 
have  been  sufficient,  and  the  place  chosen  would  probably  have  been  dififerent.  We 
opened  five  of  them,  but  in  only  one  were  we  fortunate  in  finding  anything,  and  all  that 
this  contained  was  a  solitary  tooth  of  a  species  of  rat,  together  with  the  vertebrae  and 
ribs  of  a  serpent  of  moderate  size,  and  in  good  preservation.  But  whether  the  animal  had 
been  buried  by  the  natives  or  had  perished  there,  after  having  found  admittance  through 
some  hole,  we  could  not  determine. 

The  Big  Mound. 

Every  St.  Louisan  of  scientific  bent  liked  to  talk  about  the  niounds.  Every 
tottrist  visited  them  and  wrote  of  them  as  being  the  greatest  of  natural  curios- 
ities. Edmund  Flagg  found  in  them  not  only  the  field  for  investigation  but  the 
opportunity  for  the  preservation  of  a  most  attractive  civic  feature.     He  wrote : 

They  stand  isolated,  or  distinct  from  each  other,  in  groups ;  and  the  outline  is  gen- 
erally that  of  a  rectangular  pj-ramid,  truncated  nearly  one-half.  The  first  collection  orig- 
inally consisted  of  ten  tumuli  arranged  .is  three  sides  of  a  square  area  of  about  four 
acres,  and  the  open  flank  to  the  west  was  guarded  by  five  other  small  circular  earth- 
heaps,  isolated  and  forming  the  segment  of  a  circle  around  the  opening.  This  group  is 
now  almost  completely  destroyed  by  the  grading  of  streets  and  the  erection  of  edifices, 
and  the  eastern  border  may  alone  be  traced.  North  of  the  first  collection  of  tumuli  is  a 
second,  four  or  five  in  number,  and  forming  two  sides  of  a  square.  Among  these  is  one 
of  a  very  beautiful  form,  consisting  of  three  stages,  and  called  the  "falling  garden."     Its 


TABLLT  TO   TOXTIAC 
Placed  in  Soiitlicni  Hotol  by  llio  Diiushfi-rs  of  tlio  AiiU'iicJin  Revolution 


INDIAN  ALARM  OF  MISSOURI  OVERLAND  TRAIN  ON  THE  SANTA  FE  TRAIL 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS  453 

elevation  above  the  level  of  the  second  plateau  is  about  four  feet,  and  the  area  is  ample 
for  a  dwelling  or  yard.  From  the  second  it  descends  to  the  first  plateau  along  the  river 
by  three  regular  gradations,  the  first  wtih  a  descent  of  two  feet,  the  second  of  ten,  and 
the  lower  one  of  five,  each  stage  presenting  a  beautiful  site  for  a  house.  For  this  pur- 
pose, however,  they  can  never  be  appropriated,  as  one  of  the  principal  streets  of  the  city 
is  destined  to  pass  directly  through  the  spot,  the  grading  for  which  has  already  com- 
menced. The  third  group"  of  mounds  is  situated  a  few  hundred  yards  above  the  second, 
and  consists  of  about  a  dozen  eminences.  A  series  extends  along  the  west  side  of  the 
street,  through  the  grounds  attached  to  a  classic  edifice  of  brick,  which  occupies  the  prin- 
cipal one;  while  opposite  rise  several  of  a  larger  size,  upon  one  of  which  is  situated  the 
residence  of  General  .\shley.  and  upon  another  the  reservoir  which  supplies  the  city  with 
water,  raised  from  the  Mississippi  by  a  steam  force  pump  upon  its  banks.  Both  are 
beautiful  spots  embowered  in  forest  trees;  and  the  former,  from  its  size  and  structure,  is 
supposed  to  have  been  a  citadel  or  place  of  defense.  In  excavating  the  earth  of  this 
mound,  large  quantities  of  human  remains,  pottery,  half-burned  wood,  were  thrown  up, 
furnishing  conclusive  evidence,  were  any  requisite  further  than  regularity  of  outline  and 
relative  position,  of  the  artificial  origin  of  these  earth  heaps.  About  six  hundred  yards 
above  this  group,  and  linked  with  it  by  several  inconsiderable  mouijds.  is  situated  one  com- 
pletely isolated,  and  larger  Jhan  any  yet  described.  It  is  upward  of  thirty  feet  in  height, 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long,  and  upon  the  summit  five  feet  wide.  The  form 
is  oblong,  resembling  an  immense  grave;  and  a  broad  terrace  or  apron,  after  a  descent  of 
a  few  feet,  spreads  out  itself  on  the  side  looking  down  upon  the  river.  From  the  exten- 
sive view  of  the  surrounding  region  and  of  the  Mississippi,  commanded  by  the  site  of 
this  mound,  as  well  as  its  altitude,  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  intended  as  a  vidette  or 
watch  tower  by  its  buHders. 

From  the  Big  Mound,  as  it  is  called,  a  cordon  of  tumuli  stretch  away  to  the  north- 
west for  several  miles  along  the  bluffs  parallel  with  the  river,  a  noble  view  of  which  they 
command.  They  are  most  of  then  ten  or  twelve  feet  high ;  many  clothed  with  forest 
trees,  and  all  of  them  supposed  to  be  tombs.  In  removing  two  of  them  upon  the  grounds 
of  Colonel  O'Fallon,  immense  quantities  of  bones  were  exhumed.  It  is  evident  from 
these  monuments  of  a  former  generation  that  the  natural  advantages  of  the  site  upon 
which  St.  Louis  now  stands  were  not  unappreciated  long  before  it  was  pressed  by  the 
European  footsteps. 

It  is  a  circumstance  which  has  often  elicited  remark  from  those,  who  as  tourists  have 
visited  St.  Louis,  that  so  little  interest  should  be  manifested  by  its  citizens  for  those  mys- 
terious and  venerable  monuments  of  another  race  by  which  on  every  side  it  is  environed. 
When  we  consider  the  complete  absence  of  everything  in  the  character  of  a  public  square 
or  promenade  in  the  city,  one  would  suppose  that  individual  taste  and  municipal  authority 
would  not  have  failed  to  avail  themselves  of  the  moral  interest  attached  to  these  mounds 
and  the  beauty  of  their  site,  to  have  formed  in  their  vicinity  one  of  the  most  attractive 
spots  in  the  west.  These  ancient  tumuli  could,  at  no  considerable  expense,  have  been 
enclosed  and  ornamented  with  shrubbery,  and  walks,  and  flowers,  and  thus  preserved 
for  coming  generations.  As  it  is,  they  are  passing  rapidly  away ;  man  and  beast,  as  well 
as  the  elements,  are  busy  with  them,  and  in  a  few  years  they  will  have  disappeared.  The 
practical  utility  of  which  they  are  available  appears  the  only  circumstance  which  has 
attracted  attention  to  them.  One  has  already  become  a  public  reservoir,  and  measures 
are  in  progress  for  applying  the  larger  mound  to  a  similar  use,  the  first  being  insufficient 
for  the  growth  of  the  city. 

Big  Mound  Park  Proposed. 

Public  sentiment  in  favor  of  preservation  of  the  Big  Mound  became  active 
at  one  time.  The  movement  contemplated  the  transfer  of  title  to  the  city. 
There  were  se\eral  owners.  It  was  proposed  to  have  transformed,  into  a  public 
garden   or   park,    three   or    four  blocks   of   ground,   the   central   part   of    which 


454  CEXTENNIAL  HIS'IOKN'  ol'  MlSSoTRl 

wdiild  be  the  l>ig  Mound.  Upon  the  Mound  w.is  to  he  constructed  a  pavilion. 
A  committee  of  pubHc-spirited  citizens  undertook  to  secure  the  transfer  of  the 
land  to  the  city.  A.  B.  Chambers,  editor  of  the  Missouri  Republican,  was  one 
of  the  foremost  advocates  of  the  plan.  ^Ir.  llenoist  was  the  owner  of  a  con- 
siderable ])art  of  the  ground  desired.  The  committee  waited  upon  him  and 
presented  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Big  .Mound  park.  .Mr.  Uenoist  declined 
to  transfer  his  part  to  the  city.     The  movement  was  abandoned. 

The  Geological  Theory. 

After  three  generations  of  scientists  had  made  much  in  the  way  of  specu- 
lation about  the  mounds  of  St.  Louis  and  vicinity,  there  came  geologists  who 
studied  the  soil  and  the  rocks  and  advanced  natural  theories  to  account  for 
most  of  these  landmarks.  Away  back,  in  the  ages  when  the  Mississippi  \'alley 
was  being  formed,  there  was  drift  clay  and  loess,  these  later  scientists  said, 
covering  St.  Louis  and  the  valley  roundabout  so  that  the  surface  was  fnjni 
fifty  to  sixty  feet  above  the  present  level.  Loess  is  almost  anything  ground 
up  tolerably  tine.  As  the  great  ri\ers  wore  out  their  channels  and  diminished 
in  volume  through  the  ages  they  left  many  elevations  in  and  around  St.  Louis 
"locally  known  as  'mounds,'  the  formation  of  which  has  generally  been  referred 
to  human  agency."  The  quotation  is  from  \\  orthcn  of  the  Illinois  geological 
survey,  whose  theory  has  been  accei)ted  widely  by  latter  day  geologists.  Sup- 
port to  this  theory  is  given  in  a  thesis  by  Ilcnri  llus  upon  whom  Washington 
L'niversity  in  ifX)8  conferred  the  degree  of  Doctor  oi  Philosophy.  W'orthen 
said  further  of  these  mounds : 

These  elevations  vary  in  height  from  ten  to  sixty  feet  and  more  above  the  level  of 
the  surrounding  bottom,  and  when  carefully  examined  are  found  to  consist  of  drift  clay 
and  loess,  remaining  in  situ  ju.st  as  they  appear  along  the  river  bluffs,  where  similar 
mounds  have  been  formed  in  the  same  way  by  the  removal  of  the  surrounding  strata  by 
currents  of  water.  We  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  a  good  section  of  the  large  mound  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis  exposed  by  digging  into  the  upper  end  of  the  mound 
for  material  to  be  used  in  filling  adjacent  lots.  It  was  found  to  consist  of  about  fifteen 
feet  of  common  chocolate  brown  drift  clay,  the  base  of  which  was  overlaid  by  thirty 
feet  or  more  of  ash-colored  marly  sands  of  the  loess,  the  line  of  separation  between  the 
two  deposits  remaining  as  distinct  and  well  defined  as  they  usually  are  in  good  artificial 
sections  of  the  railroad  cuts  through  these  deposits. 

Natural  Causes. 

The  jirofessor  concluded,  ruthlessly  disposing  of  the  theories  and  discus- 
sions of  the  gencnitions  of  scientists  who  had  measured  and  dug  into  and  described 
these  prehistoric  landmarks: 

Hence,  we  infer  that  these  mounds  are  not  artificial  elevations  raised  by  the  aborig- 
inal inhabitants  of  the  country,  as  has  been  assumed  by  antiquarians  generally,  but  on  the 
contrary  they  are  simply  outliers  of  loess  and  drift,  that  have  remained  as  originally  de- 
posited, while  the  surrounding  contemporaneous  strata  were  swept  away  by  denuding 
forces.  They  are  not  found  to  occupy  any  fixed  relative  position  in  relation  to  each  other, 
or  to  have  any  regularity  of  size  or  elevation,  and  hence  antiquarians  appear  to  have 
inferred  that  they  were  raised  simply-  to  serve  as  burial  places  for  the  dead.  But  the 
simple  fact  that  they  were  used  for  this  purpose  by  the  aljorigines,  wliich  seems  to  be  the 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS  455 

main  argument  relied  on  as  proof  of  their  artificial  origin,  seems  to  me  entirely  inadequate 
to  sustain  such  a  conclusion,  and  they  were  perhaps  only  selected  by  them  for  this  pur- 
pose on  account  of  their  elevated  position,  for  the  same  reason  that  they  selected  the 
highest  point  of  a  bluff  in  preference  to  any  lower  point,  to  serve  as  the  last  resting  place 
for  the  earthly  bodies  of  their  relatives  and  friends.  I  have  very  little  doul)t  that  many 
of  the  so-called  Indian  mounds,  in  this  state  at  least,  if  carefully  examined,  would  prove 
to  be  only  natural  elevations  produced  by  the  causes  above  named. 

A  Prehistoric  City. 

In  a  History  of  Missouri  by  Walter  Bickford  Davis  and  Daniel  S.  Durrie, 
published  in  1876,  is  an  account  of  a  prehistoric  city  in  New  Madrid  county.  At 
that  time,  forty  years  ago,  the  evidences  of  a  dense  population  were  said  to 
exist: 

"The  city  was  surrounded  bj'  fortifications,  the  embankment  with  covered  ways  con- 
necting the  outworks  which  have  been  traced  for  several  miles.  The  remains  of  mounds, 
serving  either  for  outlooks  to  watch  an  enemy,  or  as  cemeteries  for  the  burial  of  the  dead, 
in  which  are  found  skeletons,  associated  with  drinking  vessels,  are  also  found  distributed 
about  the  area  of  the  ancient  encampment.  The  indubitable  traces  of  the  dwellings,  streets 
and  avenues,  were  also  traced  over  large  portions  of  the  grounds,  the  proper  survey  of 
which  would  doubtless  tend  to  throw  new  light  on  the  origin  of  this  people.  The  houses 
were  quite  small,  from  eight  to  twelve  feet  in  diameter,  and  located  about  twelve  feet  apart. 
They  existed  in  regular  rows  with  streets  and  avenues  running  through  the  city  at  right 
angles,  at  proper  distances  apart.  The  foundations  of  the  dwellings,  if  not  the  entire 
structure,  were  made  of  a  kind  of  adobe  brick,  of  a  red  color  like  a  modern  brick,  but  of 
coarser  material.  The  brick  specimens  have  transverse  holes  passing  through  them,  sup- 
posed by  some  to  act  as  ventilators  to  the  dwellings.  The  bricks  being  laid  flatwise  in  the 
wall,  the  sides  of  the  house  would  be,  thereby,  pierced  with  a  multitude  of  holes  for  the 
admission  of  the  outside  air.  .Another,  and  more  probable,  theory  is  that  the  bricks 'in  a 
malleable  state  were  pierced  with  round  sticks,  for  the  more  readily  handling  and  burning ; 
and  the  same  having  been  burned  out,  left  the  impression  of  their  form  in  the  shape  of  a 
hole.  The  sites  of  these  ancient  habitations  are  plainly  observed  by  a  sunken  depression  of 
several  feet  in  the  ground,  leaving  evidence  of  cellars  like  those  seen  in  modern  times. 
At  first  sight  of  these  habitations,  the  observer  might  be  led  to  believe  that  these  ancient 
people  lived  in  cellars,  and  built  their  houses  underground ;  but  this  impression  will  vanish 
on  reflecting  that  accumulated  debris  of  ages  had  entombed  these  dwellings  beneath  the 
surface.  Besides,  on  one  side  of  the  ancient  city,  there  is  still  a  lake  or  marsh  which  at 
some  remote  period  may  have  overflowed  its  banks,  submerged  portions  of  the  site  of  the 
ancient  city  long  after  its  extinction,  and  added  its  deposits  to  the  accumulating  debris. 
The  site  of  the  city  is  now  covered  with  trees,  mostly  oak,  of  an  ancient  growth,  showing 
that  thousands  of  years  rolled  around  before  the  handiwork  of  these  early  Missourians 
was  exhumed.  The  pottery  consists  largely  of  drinking  cups,  culinary  utensils  and  bottles 
of  a  gourd  shape.  There  are  also  rude  trowels  and  tools  used  for  fashioning  and  orna- 
menting the  pottery,  and  whetstones  for  sharpening  the  stone  axes  and  other  instruments. 
But  the  fantastic  character  of  the  ornamentation  of  the  vessels  is  what  strikes  every  one 
with  surprise.  There  are  very  accurate  figures  of  fish,  frogs,  hedgehogs  and  such  animals 
as  existed  at  the  time ;  besides  among  the  feathered  tribe  are  the  goose,  duck,  owl,  hawk 
and  probably,  from  his  comb,  the  rooster.  There  are  miniature  busts  of  male  heads  carved 
out  of  clay,  representing  a  type  of  face  more  resembling  the  ancient  Aztec  race  than  the 
modern  American  Indian." 

Civilization  on  the  Gasconade. 

A  theory  of  prehistoric  civilization  on  the  Gasconade  river  was  advanced  by 
an  early  writer.    The  pioneer  settlers  found  saltpeter  in  the  caves  along  the  river. 


456  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

They  shipped  it  to  St.  Louis  with  some  profit.     They  established  several  powder 
factories  in  the  county  and  utilized  the  saltpejer.     This  writer  said : 

"Some  of  the  caves  are  very  large,  cofisisting  of  a  succession  of  rooms  joined  to  each 
other  by  arched  walls  of  great  height.  The  walls  are  uniformly  of  limestone  and  often 
present  the  most  beautiful  appearance.  When  these  caves  were  first  discovered  it  was  not 
unusual  to  find  in  them  Indian  axes  and  hammers,  which  led  to  the  belief  that  they  had 
formerly  been  worked  for  some  unknown  purposes  by  the  savages.  It  is  difficult  to  decide 
whether  these  tools  were  left  here  by  the  present  race  or  by  another  and  more  civilized 
which  preceded  them.  It  is  unusual  for  savages  to  take  up  their  residence  in  caves. — con- 
sidering them  places  to  which  the  Manitou  resorts, — and  they,  not  being  acquainted  with  any 
of  the  uses  of  saltpeter,  would  rather  avoid  than  collect  it.  The  circumstance  of  finding 
these  tools  in  the  caves  would  of  itself,  perhaps,  furnish  slight  evidence  that  the  country  of 
the  Gasconade  was  formerly  settled  by  a  race  of  men  who  were  acquainted  with  the  uses 
of  this  mineral,  or  who  exceeded  them  in  civilization,  or  the  knowledge  of  the  arts;  but 
there  are  other  facts  connected  with  these  about  which  there  can  be  no  mistake.  Near  the 
sawmills,  and  at  a  short  distance  from  the  road  leading  from  them  to  St.  Louis,  are  the 
ruins  of  an  ancient  town.  It  appears  to  have  been  regularly  laid  out,  and  the  dimensions  of 
the  squares  and  streets  and  of  some  of  the  houses  can  yet  be  discovered.  Stone  walls  are 
found  in  different  parts  of  the  area,  which  are  frequently  covered  with  huge  heaps  of 
earth.  .■Vgain,  a  stone  work  exists  about  ten  miles  below  the  mills.  It  is  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Gasconade,  and  is  about  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  square ;  it  appears  to  have  been 
originally  built  with  an  uncommon  degree  of  regularity.  It  is  situated  upon  a  high  bald 
clifT,  which  commands  a  fine  and  extensive  view  of  the  country  on  all  sides.  From  this 
stone  work  is  a  small  footpath  leading  to  the  cave,  in  which  was  found  a  quantity  of  axes. 
The  mouth  of  the  cave  commands  an  easterly  view,  and  also  a  view  of  the  path  to  the 
building  referred  to,  which  may  have  been  erected  to  some  iraaginarj-  deity." 

Missouri  Antiquities. 

Dr.  C.  A.  Peterson,  former  president  of  the  Missouri  Historical  Society, 
devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  to  the  study  of  Missouri  "antiquities."  He  summed 
up  his  conclusions  in  this  forcible  language : 

"But  credulity  has  been  taxed  to  the  utmost,  and  columns  of  crude  ideas  and  inane 
arguments  have  been  published,  by  half-baktd  archaeologists,  to  establish  a  great  antiquity 
for  the  mounds  and  an  advanced  civilization  for  their  builders,  and  the  extreme  and  ridicu- 
lous flights  which  the  imagination  has  been  permitted  to  take  in  building  up  the  story  of 
the  mythical  mound  builders  may  be  well  illustrated  by  this  case:  .\bout  thirty  years  ago 
an  amateur  archaeologist  in  exploring  quite  a  modern  Indian  mound  reported  that  he  had 
found  the  skeletons  buried  beneath  it  to  be  a  proper  complement  in  number  and  arranged 
in  proper  order  and  position  to  represent  the  principal  officers  of  a  Masonic  lodge  at  work, 
each  officer  being  equipped  with  implements  and  insignia  of  the  craft.  To  those  attached 
to  a  contemplation  of  mystery,  and  to  revellers  in  the  occult,  this  was  the  most  marvelous 
and  entertaining  discovery  ever  reported  in  American  archaeology,  but  there  were  a  few 
incredulous,  unfeeling  scoffers  who  would  not  accept  the  story  as  true  because  the  dis-^ 
coverer  did  not  produce  the  bones  of  the  candidate  and  the  goat.  In  conclusion,  let  it  be 
reiterated  that  there  was  never  an  iota  of  evidence  in  existence  tending  to  establish  the 
contention  that  some  people,  other  than  the  .'\merican  Indian,  erected  the  mounds  and  other 
earthworks  found  in  connection  with  them,  and  the  physical  condition  of  the  abandoned 
works,  and  their  contents,  does  not  justify  a  belief  that  any  of  them  were  erected  more 
than  one  thousand  years  ago." 

Missouri's  Indian  Population. 

That  the  Indian  population  of  Missouri  was  numerous  and  lived  in  this  region 
many  generations  before  the  white  man  came,  Walter  B.  Douglas,  Dr.  H.  ^L 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS  457 

W'helpley,  Gerard  Fovvke  and  all  other  investigators  agree.  One  Indian  mound 
in  Missouri  has  yielded  more  than  a  thousand  pieces  of  pottery.  The  capitol  of 
Missouri  was  built  upon  an  Indian  burial  mound.  When  the  excavation  for  the 
foundations  was  made  the  workmen  uncovered  many  human  bones  and  much 
pottery.  Indian  graves  were  found  on  most  of  the  high  blufTs  of  Cole  county 
overlooking  the  Missouri.  Arrow-heads  and  stone  implements,  tons  of  them,  have 
been  picked  up  within  the  limits  of  the  county. 

Some  of  the  Indian  communities  of  Missouri  were  much  more  civilized  than 
others.  They  had  industries.  The  Missouri  Historical  Society  has  a  great  clay 
bowl  three  feet  in  diameter  and  six  inches  deep.  It  was  found  at  Montesano, 
twenty  miles  south  of  St.  Louis,  where  there  are  fourteen  mineral  springs.  An 
Indian  town  of  considerable  size  was  located  at  Montesano.  The  bowl  was  one 
of  many  used  in  the  manufacture  of  salt  by  evaporation.  Gerard  F"o\vke,  the 
archaeologist,  said :  "This  bowl  may  be  300  or  it  may  be  3,000  years  old.  How 
long  the  Indian  settlement  remained  there  will  never  be  any  more  definite  to  us 
than  the  word  ancient  implies.  The  deposits  at  Montesano  give  us  no  clew  as  to 
this  question.  We  know  that  as  recently  as  100  years  ago  the  Indians  made 
salt  and  sold  it  to  white  settlers  and  traders.  But  whatever  the  age  of  this 
settlement,  we  do  know  there  was  an  Indian  village  at  the  spot  now  called 
Montesano.  They  were  a  tribe  inclined  to  manufacture  and  had  an  extensive 
salt  industry.  They  were  naturally  attracted  to  the  spot  by  the  springs,  and  the 
fact  that  they  could  keep  an  eye  on  the  surrounding  country  from  the  bluff  on 
which  the  springs  are  located.  Possibly  they  caught  the  salt-making  idea  from 
watching  their  animals  lick  the  rocks  over  which  the  salt  water  flowed." 

\'ice-President  Walter  B.  Douglas  of  the  Missouri  Historical  Society,  who 
had  devoted  much  study  to  the  traces  of  the  aboriginal  Missourians,  said:  "Many 
Indian  relics  are  fovmd  in  pits  which  the  Indians  used  for  storing  grain.  They 
dug  large  holes  in  the  ground  and  built  fires  in  them  to  bake  the  sides  and 
bottom.  The  baking  process  made  the  pits  as  hard  and  dry  as  though  walled 
with  brick.  Into  these  pits  the  Indians  poured  their  grain  to  keep  it  through  the 
winter.  They  were  great  granaries.  But  after  a  certain  time  moisture  in  the 
ground  would  find  its  way  to  the  grain,  and  the  pits  became  useless  as  store- 
houses. Then  the  Indians  used  them  as  dumps  into  which  they  would  throw 
refuse  of  all  kinds,  broken  arrow-heads,  pottery  and  bones.  Wherever  there 
was  an  Indian  village  of  any  size  these  pits  can  be  found.  I  believe  we  can  find 
some  of  these  pits  at  Montesano,  and  believe  they  will  show  the  size  of  the  Indian 
city,  whose  remains  are  buried  there,  and  give  up  many  interesting  relics." 

Laclede's  Indian  Policy. 

With  practical  tact  Laclede  treated  an  Indian  crisis  before  St.  Louis  was  two 
months  old.  At  the  same  time  he  established  an  important  policy  for  the  com- 
munity. Auguste  Chouteau  and  "the  first  thirty"  had  built  the  great  shed  for 
the  temporary  storage  of  the  goods.  They  had  put  together  cabins  for  them- 
selves. They  were  assembling  the  rock  and  the  timbers  for  Laclede's  house, 
which  was  to  serve  for  headquarters  for  the  fur  company.  The  Missouris  arrived 
from  the  west.  There  were  1J5  warriors  and  the  complement  of  squaws  and 
papooses.     No  hostility  was  shown.     On  the  other  hand,  there  was  embarrassing 


458  CENTEX XIA I.  UISTURV  C)l'"  MISSOURI 

friendliness.  'l"he  Missouris  nnnounced  that  tliey  wniiltl  build  a  village  and  live 
beside  the  white  men.  They  bcggetl  food.  They  helped  themselves  to  tools. 
Some  of  the  intending  settlers  who  had  come  over  frcmi  L'ahnkia  to  join  the 
settlement  showed  alarm  and  began  to  move  back  to  the  east  side.  Augustc 
Chouteau  sent  word  of  the  emergency  to  Laclede  at  Fort  Chartres.  Meanwhile 
he  put  the  squaws  to  work  for  pay  in  paint  and  beads  digging  the  cellar  for 
Laclede's  house  and  carrying  away  the  dirt.  The  founder  came  quickly  in  response 
to  Auguste  Chouteau's  call  and  with  due  formality  went  into  council  with  the 
Missouris.  The  chiefs  repeatefl  their  decision  to  become  part  of  the  settlement 
and  to  depend  upon  the  white  men  for  protection  against  their  enemies,  the 
Illinois  nation.     Laclede  listened  and  promised  an  answer  the  ne.xt  day. 

Auguste  Chouteau  remembered  that  diplomatic  speech  and  wrote  it  into  his 
diary.  It  was  a  speech  which  averted  a  crisis  and  which  laid  the  foundation  of 
an  Indian  policy  of  long  and  far-reaching  advantage  to  Missouri.  Laclede  called 
the  chiefs  together,  as  he  had  promised.  He  went  over  the  reasons  they  had 
given  for  joining  his  settlement.  He  reminded  them  that  by  moving  to  the  liank 
f)f  the  Mississippi  they  would  be  placing  themselves  within  reach  of  their  hered- 
itary enemies,  the  Illinois  nation.  He  pictured  an  awful  fate,  which  he,  with 
the  best  of  intentions,  could  not  avert,  if  they,  the  ]\lissouris,  came  to  live  wiiere 
they  could  be  so  easil)-  attacked  from  the  east  side  of  the  river. 

"I  warn  you,  as  a  good  father,"  he  said,  "that  there  are  600  or  700  warriors 
at  Fort  de  Chartres,  who  are  there  to  make  war  against  the  English,  which 
occupies  them  fully  at  this  moment,  for  they  turn  all  of  their  attention  below 
I'ort  de  Chartres,  fmni  whence  they  expect  the  iMiglish  ;  but  if  ihey  learn  you 
are  here,  beyond  the  least  doubt  they  will  come  here  to  destroy  you.  See  now, 
warriors,  if  it  be  not  prudent  on  your  part  to  leave  here  at  once  rather  than 
to  remain  to  be  massacred — your  wives  and  your  children  to  be  torn  to  pieces 
and  their  limbs  thrown  to  dogs  and  birds  of  prey.  Recollect,  I  speak  to  you  as 
a  good  father.  Reflect  well  upon  what  I  have  told  you  and  give  me  your  ansvi;er 
this  evening.  I  can  not  give  you  any  longer  time,  for  I  luust  return  to  Fort  de 
Chartres." 

That  night  the  Missouris  departed,  going  up  the  ri-\'er  of  their  name  to  their 
old  home.    Laclede  sent  to  Cahokia  and  brought  over  corn  to  give  them  for  food. 

Traditions  of  the  Missouris. 

The  Missouris  were  so  called  because  they  !i\ed  in  the  Missouri  river  country. 
The  name  had  been  given  by  the  Illinois  or  Illini  nation  of  red  men.  In  an 
earlier  time  the  Missouris  were  known  as  the  XTudarches.  They  had  established 
a  record  of  friendliness  with  white  people  long  before  ^lissouri  was  permanently 
settled.  Marquette  was  welcomed  by  them  nearly  a  century  before  the  coming 
of  Laclede.  The  good  disposition  of  the  Nudarches  or  Missouris  was  reported 
by  other  early  explorers.  It  is  history  that  in  1712  this  tribe  was  one  of  several 
which  marched  to  the  relief  of  the  white  settlement  at  Detroit.  But  the  Mis- 
souris distinguished  between  white  nations.  They  were  kindly  disposed  toward 
the  French.  For  the  Spaniard  they  had  a  different  feeling.  They  ambushed  and 
destroyed  a  Spanish  expedition  sent  up  from  ]\lexico  by  way  of  Santa  Fe  to 
the  Missouri  country.  An  account  of  this  afl'air  is  given  in  the  History  of 
Missouri  by  Davis  &  Durrie : 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS  459 

"As  early  as  1719  the  Spaniards,  alarmed  at  the  rapid  encroachinents  of  the  French  in 
the  Upper  and  Lower  Mississippi  valleys,  made  strenuous  exertions  to  dispossess  them ;  in 
order  to  accomplish  which  they  thought  it  necessary  to  destroy  the  nation  of  the  Missouris, 
then  situated  on  the  Missouri  river,  who  were  in  alliance  with  the  French  and  espoused  their 
interests.  Their  plan  was  to  excite  the  Osages  to  war  with  the  Missouris,  and  then  take  part 
with  them  in  the  contest.  For  this  purpose  an  expedition  was  fitted  out  in  Santa  Fe  for 
the  Missouri  in  1720.  It  was  a  moving  caravan  of  the  desert — armed  men,  horses,  mules, 
families,  with  herds  of  cattle  and  swine  to  serve  for  food  on  the  way,  and  to  propagate 
in  the  new  colony.  In  their  march  they  lost  the  proper  route,  the  guides  became  bewil- 
dered and  led  them  to  the  Missouri  tribe  instead  of  the  Osages.  Unconscious  of  their 
mistake,  as  both  tribes  spoke  the  same  language,  they  (the  Spaniards)  believed  themselves 
among  the  Osages,  instead  of  their  enemies,  and  without  reserve  disclosed  their  designs 
against  the  Missouris  and  supplied  tliem  with  arms  and  ammunition  to  aid  in  their  exter- 
mination. The  chief  of  the  nation  perceived  the  fatal  mistake  but  encouraged  the  error. 
He  showed  the  Spaniards  every  possible  attention,  and  promised  to  act  in  concert  with  them. 
For  this  purpose  he  invited  them  to  rest  a  few  days  after  their  tiresome  journey,  till  he  had 
assembled  his  warriors  and  held  a  council  with  the  old  men.  The  Spanish  captain  imme- 
diately distributed  several  hundred  muskets  among  them,  with  an  equal  number  of  sabres, 
pistols  and  hatchets.  Just  before  the  dawn  upon  which  the  company  had  arranged  to  march, 
the  Missouris  fell  upon  their  treacherous  enemies  and  dispatched  them  with  indiscriminate 
slaughter,  sparing  only  a  priest'  whose  dress  convinced  them  that  he  was  a  man  of  peace 
rather  than  a  warrior.  They  kept  him  some  time  a  prisoner,  but  he  finally  made  his  escape, 
and  was  the  only  messenger  to  bear  to  the  Spanish  authorities  the  news  of  the  just  return 
upon  their  own  heads  of  the  treacliery  they  intended  to  practice  upon  others." 

There  is  a  tradition  that  a  selected  party  of  the  Missouris  was  taken  to 
France  in  order  that  their  loyalty  might  be  rewarded  and  they  might  return  with 
impressions  of  the  white  men's  ways.  The  daughter  of  the  chief  who  was 
in  the  ])arty  became  converted,  was  baptized  and  married  a  French  officer.  After 
the  return  of  these  Missouris  to  the  Mississippi  Valley,  the  tribe  joined  other 
Indians  in  an  attack  on  a  French  post  and  massacred  the  people.  Auguste 
Chouteau  may  have  known  of  this  tradition,  and  that  may  have  increased  his 
alarm.  The  bad  name  given  the  Missouris  by  the  tradition  was  not  borne  out 
by  the  events  of  that  day  on  the  site  of  St.  Louis.  Subsequent  relations  between 
the  white  people  and  the  Missouris  were  friendly.  The  French  tried  to  instruct 
them.  The  priests  directed  missionary  efforts  toward  them.  Tint  the  Missouris 
did  not  accept  civilization. 

Extermination  of  the  Missouris. 

After  their  initial  visit  to  St.  Louis  the  Missouris  maintained  friendly  relations 
with  the  French  settlers  for  years.  They  camped  along  the  Missouri  river,  part 
of  the  time  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Charles.  The  entire  tribe  was  practically  wiped 
out  by  the  strategy  of  the  Sioux.  One  of  the  earliest  writers  of  St.  Qiarles 
county  history,  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  told  the  story.  At  the  time  of 
their  destruction  the  Missouris  were  living  on  a  plateau  along  the  river.  The 
location  was  about  twenty  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  JNIissouri  river.  It 
commanded  a  view  of  miles  up  and  down  the  river  and  was  partially  surrounded 
in  the  rear  by  a  range  of  hills.  Came  abounded.  The  Missouris  were  at  peace 
with  the  few  white  neighbors  who  had  settled  in  what  are  now  St.  Louis  and 
St.  Charles  counties.     The  narrative  of  the  St.  Charles  countv  historian  follows: 


460  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"The  Sioux  had  left  their  home  and  were  descending  the  Mississippi  river  in  force, 
"seeking  whom  they  might  devour,'  intent  on  robbery  and  murder.  Being  unincumbered 
with  women,  children  and  baggage,  their  light  canoes  soon  floated  them  to  the  borders  of 
our  country.  The  Missouris,  hy  some  means,  the  precise  character  of  which  history  has 
not  preserved,  became  aware  of  the  near  proximity  of  their  hereditary  foes,  and  sachems, 
warriors  and  braves  were  summoned  to  a  council  of  war;  and  commencing  with  tlie  young- 
est man  present,  they  proceeded  to  elicit  the  judgment  of  all.  each  rising  in  his  place  around 
the  council  fire  and  gravely  and  deliberately  giving  his  opinion,  and  the  burden  of  all  that 
warm  eloquence  was.  "let  us  engage  our  foes  and  our  fathers'  foes — their  enemies  and  ours.' 

"The  distance  from  the  encampment  of  the  Missouris  to  the  junction  or  "point"  made 
by  the  two  rivers  was,  as  it  is.  twenty  miles.  The  Siou.x  were  intending  to  descend  the 
junction  and.  leaving  their  canoes  in  safety,  depart  hither  and  thither  for  a  season  on  their 
accustcmcd  predatory  and  scalp-hunting  excursions.  The  Missouris.  knowing  this  usual 
cu.stom  of  their  enemies,  dispatched  all  their  available  force  to  the  point,  where  they  knew 
the  Sioux  generally  landed,  and.  hiding  in  ambush,  awaited  their  approach.  The  Sioux, 
however,  became  aware  of  the  position  of  the  Missouris,  and  instead  of  prosecuting  their 
journey  to  the  place  at  first  intended,  disembarked  at  a  point  several  miles  above,  and 
shouldering  their  light  canoes,  carried  them  across  the  neck  of  land  between  the  two 
rivers,  at  this  place  about  two  miles  wide,  and  launching  forth  on  Mis.souri's  muddy  stream 
while  their  enemy  of  the  same  name  was  anxiously  expecting  them  below,  proceeded  up 
stream,  with  the  intention  of  attacking  the  Missouris"  camp.  From  that  camp  the  party 
could  be  discerned  at  a  distance  of  three  miles,  and  those  in  camp,  supposing  it  was  the 
Missouri  party  returning  successfitl.  and  not  dreaming  of  the  sad  fate  that  awaited  them, 
prepared  to  welcome  back  their  fathers,  brothers,  husbands  and  sons.  But.  sad  inistake! 
No  sooner  had  the  Sioux  landed  than  they  fell  upon  their  defenseless  enemies ;  nor  did 
they  cease  till  every  woman  and  child  was  either  killed  or  driven  off  and  every  vestige  of 
the  camp  either  taken  or  destroyed.  Few  and  little  escaped  the  heartless  vengeance  of 
these  warriors ;  stimulated  and  frenzied  by  genuine  Indian  hatred,  the  destruction  was 
complete.  As  soon  as  their  savage  work  was  done,  withoiit  a  moment's  delay  they  hastily 
reembarked.  and.  as  swiftly  as  brawny  arms  could  urge  them  on,  descended  to  the  "Point* 
where  the  Missouris.  in  ignorance  of  what  had  transpired,  were  anxiously,  and.  as  hour 
after  hour  glided  by.  yet  more  and  more  anxiously  awaiting  them.  While  thus  momentarily 
expecting  the  approach  of  their  enemies  from  the  Mississippi,  they  were  suddenly  suri)rised 
by  the  war-whoop  at  their  backs.  But  a  moment  sufficed  for  them  to  spring  to  their  feet 
and  engage  in  the  deadly  conflict.  The  battle  raged  furiously,  and  so  fiercely  was  it  con- 
tested that  it  was  long  doubtful  which  party  would  be  compelled  to  bite  the  dust ;  but  the 
arms  of  the  Sioux,  nerved  by  unrelenting  hate,  were  strong,  and  they  prevailed.  The  vic- 
tory was  complete — few,  very  few,  of  the  Missouris  escaped — so  few  that  never  afterwards 
were  they  regarded  as  a  nation. 

""The  spot  at  which  the  Sioux  disembarked  on  the  Mississippi  river,  and  from  which 
they  commenced  to  carry  their  canoes  across  the  neck  of  land  to  the  Missouri  river,  as 
above  narrated,  is  well  known,  and  is  the  site  of  the  town  of  Portage  des  Sioux,  a  point 
of  some  importance  in  the  early  history  of  Missouri  territory,  one  of  the  oldest  settlements 
in  this  region,  still  retaining  much  of  the  quiet,  simple,  unique  character  always  found  in 
the  early   French   villages   of   the  country." 

Pontiac's  Funeral. 

(  )ne  nf  the  notable  days  of  the  adiiiiiiist,ration  of  St.  -\nge  de  Bellerive  at 
St.  Louis  was  the  military  funeral  givtn  to  an  Indian.  Pontiac  was  a  chief  of 
three  tribes  in  his  youth.  He  ruled  over  the  Ottawas,  the  Ojibways  and  the 
Pottawattt  mies.  He  consistently  sided  with  the  French  and  fought  the  British. 
In  one  of  his  orations  he  called  the  English  "dogs  dressed  in  red  who  have  come 
to  rob  you  of  vour  hunting  grounds  and  to  drive  away  the  game."  That  was 
the  year  that  Laclede  came  up  the  Mis.sissippi  to  found  St.  Louis.     France  was 


l^OXTIAC  A   TYPE   OF   THE   SHAWNEES 

Buried  witli  military  honors  ucar  what  is        Weleomcd  to  Missouri  b_v  Spanish  governors 
now     Broadway     and     Market    Street,     St. 
Louis. 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS         '  463 

surrendering  bj'  treaty  her  possessions  cast  of  the  Mississippi  to  England.  Pontiac 
led  an  uprising  against  the  new  authority.  "Pontiac's  war"  continued  until  1766. 
The  chief  was  compelled  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  English.  He  came  west  to 
the  Illinois  countrj'  and  found  a  congenial  retreat  in  the  French  community  of 
St.  Louis.  He  was  still  in  his  prime  but  disappointed ;  he  became  a  hard  drinker. 
St.  Ange  de  Bellerive  had  known  the  chief  in  better  days  and  treated  him  kindly. 
While  in  his  cups  Pontiac  was  enticed  across  the  river  to  the  vicinity  of  Cahokia 
by  a  Kaskaskia  Indian  and  killed  from  ambush.  It  is  tradition  that  an  English 
trader  bribed  the  Kaskaskian  with  a  barrel  of  rum  to  get  Pontiac  out  of  the 
way.  St.  Ange  went  after  the  body  of  the  chief.  Upon  the  return  to  St.  Louis, 
Pontiac  was  dressed  in  tlie  uniform  of  a  French  general,  a  gift  to  him  by 
Montcalm.  The  body  lay  in  state,  guarded  by  the  French  soldiers  who  had  come 
from  Fort  Chartres  after  the  evacuation.  At  the  hour  of  burial  military  honors 
were  paid.  Pontiac  had  never  been  baptized.  His  body  could  not  be  placed 
in  consecrated  ground.  A  grave  was  dug  for  him  a  short  distance  west  of  the 
cemetery.  Its  precise  location,  as  determined  by  the  ^Missouri  Historical  Society, 
was  twenty  feet  east  of  Broadway  and  fifty  feet  south  of  Market  street.  The 
full  garrison  paraded  at  the  funeral  and  the  entire  population  of  the  settlement 
attended. 

The  Gift  of  Chouteau  Springs. 

The  good  will  of  the  Indian  toward  the  French  pioneers  of  Missouri  was 
shown  in  substantial  ways.  A  locality  known  as  Chouteau  Springs,  in  Cooper 
County,  obtained  its  name  from  a  gift  of  land  made  by  the  Osages  to  Major 
Pierre  Chouteau,  the  son  of  Laclede,  as  early  as  1792.  The  Spanish  government 
approved  the  grant  and  the  United  States  later  confirmed  it.  Pierre  Chouteau 
spent  most  of  his  time  for  thirty  years  among  the  Indians.  How  he  won  their 
confidence  was  shown  in  the  words  of  the  land  gift,  which  was  signed  by  the 
principal  men  of  the  Osages : 

"Brother :  As  thou  hast,  since  a  long  time,  fed  our  wives  and  our  children,  and  that 
thou  hast  always  been  good  to  us,  and  that  thou  hast  always  assisted  us  with  thy  advice,  we 
have  listened  with  pleasure  to  thy  words,  therefore,  take  thou  on  the  River  La  Mine,  the 
quantity  of  land  which  may  suit  thee,  and  anywhere  thou  pleasest.  This  land  is  ours ;  we 
do  give  it  to  thee,  and  no  one  can  take  it  from  thee,  neither  today  nor  ever.  Thou  maycst 
remain  there,  and  thy  bones  shall  never  be  troubled.  Thou  askest  a  paper  from  us,  and 
our  names;  here  it  is.  If  our  children  do  trouble  thee,  you  have  but  to  .show  this  same 
paper;  and  if  some  nation  disturbs  thee,  we  are  ready  to  defend  thee.  At  the  fort  of  Grand 
Osages,  this  igth  of  March,  1792." 

The  Spaniards  and  the  Indians. 

If  the  French  fur  traders  and  merchants  accepted  Spanish  sovereignty  easily, 
the  same  was  not  altogether  true  of  their  Indian  constituents.  Down  the  Mis- 
souri came  a  chief  of  the  Osages  about  1770  to  see  the  new  flag  and  its  repre- 
sentative. Governor  Piernas  had  established  cordial  relations  with  Laclede  and 
with  St.  Ange.  It  didn't  occur  to  the  Spanish  don  that  the  red  chief  expected 
the  courtesy  of  one  governor  to  another.  Governor  Piernas  was  dignified.  The 
Osage  went  home  and  returned  with  a  band.  He  met  a  Shawnee  chief  who  was 
in  St.  Louis  to  see  the  governor  about  moving  to  some  land  south  of  St.  Louis. 


4(i4  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Shawnee  looked  inquiringly  at  the  war  bonnet.  The  Osage  was  drinking. 
He  confided  to  the  Shawnee  his  intention  to  avenge  the  slight  the  Spanish 
governor  had  put  upon  him ;  he  was  going  to  kill  him  at  the  first  opportunity. 
The  Shawnee  saw  the  way  to  win  favor  for  himself.  He  provoked  the  Osage 
to  quarrel  and  killed  him  with  a  blow  of  the  knife.  The  Osage  chief  was  buried 
on  Grand  Terre,  or  Big  Mound,  which  gave  the  name  to  Mound  street,  and 
there  the  Osages  came  year  after  year  in  the  colonial  period  to  mourn  and  to 
decorate  the  grave. 

American  historians  have  charged  Cortcz  and  Pizarro  and  other  Spaniards 
with  atrocious  treatment  of  the  Indians.  They  have  never  given  credit  where 
due  for  the  tactful  course  pursued  toward  the  natives  by  white  men  who  settled 
and  governed  in  Missouri  for  more  than  sixty  years.  In  all  of  the  relations  with 
Indian.'-,  during  the  pioneer  generations  of  this  country,  there  is  no  period,  no 
place  which  can  offer  comparison  with  the  record  established  in  Missouri.  In 
the  years  of  Spanish  dominion  at  St.  Louis  there  were  times  when  financial 
stringencv  was  felt.  Salaries  were  reduced.  Soldiers  were  not  paid  for  months. 
Retrenchment  was  ordered.  But  the  annual  presents  or  "gratifications,"  as  they 
were  called,  for  the  Indian  nations  were  not  passed  by.  At  the  time  of  the 
American  occupation  the  presents  made  by  the  Spanish  government  to  the  Indians 
in  Upper  Louisiana  amounted  to  $12,000  a  year.  An  official  gunsmith  was 
located  at  St.  Louis  to  repair  the  guns  of  the  Indians.  He  received  $140  a  year 
from  the  government.  The  Indians  made  visits  to  St.  Louis  to  have  their  fire- 
arms put  in  order. 

When  Louis  Lorimier  came  in  1794  to  found  Cape  Girardeau  on  the  Spanish 
grant  given  him.  he  was  welcomed  by  the  Indians.  There  were  three  Indian 
villages  up  Apple  Creek,  twenty  miles  above  its  mouth.  These  Indians  made 
considerable  progress  toward  civilization.  They  lived  in  cabins  of  hewn  logs 
with  shingles  on  the  roofs. 

One  of  the  schemes  of  Spanish  governors  was  the  settlement  of  Shawnee 
and  Delaware  Indians  near  St.  Louis  and  Ste.  Genevieve.  They  thought  these 
Indians  could  be  partially  civilized  and  made  useful  as  allies  to  ward  off  attacks 
from  wilder  tribes  in  the  west.  The  Shawnees  and  Delawares  profes.sed  to 
like  the  arrangement.  They  formed  villages  and  raised  corn.  But  the  young 
bucks  would  get  out  and  commit  depredations.  One  day  a  band  of  these  Indians 
came  I'.pon  a  St.  Louis  settler  named  Duchouquette,  who  was  alone  in  the  vicinity 
of  what  is  now  Lafayette  Park.  They  killed  the  white  man.  Francis  Duchou- 
quette was  some  distance  away,  and  saw  the  attack.  He  ran  to  the  village  and 
gave  the  alarm.  Officer  Tayon  called  for  help  and  led  a  posse  in  pursuit.  The 
Frenchmen  came  upon  the  Indians.  Duchouquette  saw  the  one  who  had  killed 
his  brother  and  who  was  wearing  the  fresh  scalp  tied  to  his  belt.  He  shot  him. 
Four  other  Indians  were  killed.  This  discouraged  the  Spanish  governors.  Dela- 
wares and  Shawanoes,  or  Shawnees,  as  commonly  called,  to  the  number  of  3,000 
Indians,  remained  in  Perry  County  until   1825. 

Execution  of  Tewanaye.  , 

To  illustrate  how  discreet  the  St.  Louisans  had  been  in  their  Indian  relations, 
Captain  Stoddard,  who  raised  the  American  flag,  told  of  the  speech  made  by  a 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIAXS  465 

truculent  chief  at  a  peace  conference  in  St.  Louis  a  few  years  previously.  This 
chief  said:  "We  have  come  to  offer  you  peace.  We  have  been  at  war  with  you 
many  moons,  and  what  have  we  done?  Nothing.  Our  warriors  have  tried  ever)' 
means  to  meet  you  in  battle :  but  you  will  not ;  you  dare  not  fight  us.  You  are 
a  parcel  of  old  women.  Wliat  can  be  done  with  such  a  people  but  to  make  peace 
since  you  will  not  fight  ?  I  come  therefore  to  ofifer  you  peace,  and  to  bury  the 
hatchet ;  to  brighten  the  chain,  and  again  to  open  the  way  between  us." 

The  treatment  of  Tewanaye.  the  Mascutin,  is  an  illustration  of  the  Indian 
policy  which  prevailed  in  the  early  days.  When  the  Osages  had  delivered  to 
Governor  Delassus  the  band  of  Mascutins  responsible  for  the  massacre  of  David 
Troter  and  his  son  and  for  the  burning  of  their  home  on  the  Meramec,  investi- 
gation showed  that  Tewanaye  was  guilty  and  that  five  others  who  were  brought 
in  were  not  guilty.  Tewanaye  confessed  his  participation.  His  execution  took 
place  in  January,  1803.  It  was  attended  by  a  great  demonstration.  The  militia 
companies  of  half  a  dozen  posts  marched  under  command  of  Governor  Delassus 
to  New  Madrid.  Tewanaye  was  unshackled.  The  sentence  of  death  was  read 
and  translated  for  him  in  his  own  language.  The  militia  ])araded  in  front  of 
the  standard.  The  execution  was  by  shooting.  The  other  Indian  prisoners  were 
so  placed  that  they  could  see  all  that  occurred.  The  body  of  Tewanaye  was 
placed  in  the  cofifin.  The  soldiers,  with  drums  beating,  marched  by.  The  Indian 
prisoners  were  unshackled,  taken  to  the  governor's  headquarters  and  turned  over 
to  their  chief,  Agyponsetchy  of  the  Mascutin  nation.  The  governor  returned  to 
St.  Louis.  The  militia  companies  marched  back  to  Cape  Girardeau,  Ste.  Gene- 
vieve, New  Bourbon  and  Platin.     There  was  no  more  trouble. 

Delassus  to  the  Tribes. 

In  March,  1804,  three  days  after  he  had  absolved  the  habitants  of  St.  Louis 
from  further  allegiance  to  Spain.  Governor  Delassus  formally  told  the  Indians 
assembled  at  St.  Louis  of  the  change.  He  did  so  at  the  request  of  Captain 
Stoddard.  The  American  captain  knew  how  well  Upper  Louisiana  had  fared 
with  the  Indians.  He  appreciated  the  friendliness  that  had  existed  between 
Spanish  authority  and  the  naticnis  of  the  Missouri.  He  asked  Governor  Delassus 
to  make  known  in  his  own  way  to  the  Indians  that  they  had  a  new  father.  The 
governor  complied.  To  a  formal  assemblage  of  Indians  in  front  of  the  govern- 
ment house,  in  the  presence  of  Captain  Stoddard  and  Meriwether  Lewis,  Gov- 
ernor Delassus  delivered  in  a  very  impressive  manner  this  address: 

"Delawares,  Abenakis,  Saquis  and  others : 

'"Your  old  fathers,  the  Spaniard  and  the  Frenchman,  who  grasp  by  the  hand  your  new 
father,  the  head  chief  of  the  United  States,  by  an  act  of  their  good  will,  and  in  virtue  of 
their  last  treaty,  have  delivered  i\\)  all  of  these  lands.  The  new  father  will  keep  and  defend 
the  lands  and  protect  all  of  the  white  and  red  skins  who  live  thereon.  You  will  live  as 
happily  as  if  the  Spaniard  was  still  here. 

"I  have  informed  your  new  father,  who  here  takes  my  place,  tliat  since  I  have  been  here 
the  Delawares,  Shawnees  and  Saquis  have  always  conducted  themselves  well :  that  I  have 
always  received  them  kindly:  that  the  chiefs  have  always  restrained  their  young  men  as 
much  as  possible.  I  have  recommended  thee,  Takinosa,  as  chief  of  the  natives;  that  thou 
hast  always  labored  much  and  well  to  maintain  a  sincere  friendship  with  the  whites  and 
that,  in  consequence  of  thy  good  services,  I  recently  presented  to  thee  a  medal  with  the 
portrait  of  thy  great  father,  the  Spaniard,  and   letters  patent  reciting  thy  good  and  loyal 

Vol.  1—30 


4G6  ■     CEXTKXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

services.  For  several  days  past  we  have  fired  off  cannon  shots  that  we  may  announce  to 
all  the  nations  your  father,  the  Spaniard,  is  going,  his  heart  happy  to  know  that  you  will 
be  protected  and  sustained  by  your  new  father  and  that  the  smoke  of  the  powder  may 
ascend  to  the  Master  of  life,  praying  him  ti>  shower  on  you  all  a  happy  destiny  and  pros- 
perity in  always  living  in  good  union  with  the  whites." 

The  American  occupation  was  followed  by  an  act  which  did  much  toward 
retaining  Indian  good  will.  In  April.  1806.  Lieutenant  Zebulon  M.  Pike,  back 
from  his  exploration  of  the  Upper  Mississippi,  was  ordered  to  get  ready  for 
an  expedition  westward.  The  object  was  to  escort  to  their  tribes  fifty-one  Osages 
and  Pawnees.  These  Indians  had  been  taken  prisoners  by  the  Pottawattomies. 
They  had  been  redeemed  by  the  United  States  government.  They  were  to  be 
restored  to  their  people  with  military  escort.  At  the  same  time  that  he  went 
on  this  diplomatic  mission.  Pike  was  to  conduct  an  exploration  to  the  far  south- 
west. The  Osages  and  Pawnees  never  forgot  Pike.  For  many  years  any  St. 
Louisan  was  sure  of  welcome  among  them. 

Manuel  Lisa,  the  Frontier  Diplomat. 

The  faith  which  St.  Louis  kept  with  the  Indians  from  Laclede's  day  was 
worth  more  than  an  army  when  war  came  in  1812.  British  influence  was  directed 
to  the  border,  and  was  at  work  ^mong  the  tribes  from  the  headwaters  of  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Upper  Missouri  long  before  a  gun  was  fired.  To  Governor 
William  Clark  in  St.  Louis,  Manuel  Lisa,  far  up  the  river,  more  than  a  year 
bffore  the  war.  sent  word  "the  wampum  was  being  carried  along  the  banks  of 
the  Missouri."  The  British  scheme,  Lisa  said,  was  "a  universal  confederacy" 
of  the  Indian  nations  preparatory  to  an  overwhelming  movement  on  Missouri 
when  war  caiue. 

A  grand  character  was  William  Clark  in  many  ways.  But  even  his  share  in 
the  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark  to  the  Pacific  was  not  a  greater  service  to 
his  country  than  his  manageinent  of  the  Indian  situation  in  the  Northwest  during 
the  war  of  1812.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  Clark  was  to  make  Manuel  Lisa  a 
sub-agent  of  the  tribes.  Xo  man  had  such  influence  over  the  Indians.  Lisa 
was  an  American  by  acquisition.  He  came  under  the  United  States  flag  when 
Upper  Louisiana  did  in  1804.  He  was  thoroughly  American.  "I  have  suffered 
enough  in  person  and  property  under  a  different  government,"  he  wrote,  "to 
know  how  to  appreciate  the  one  under  which  I  now  live." 

"Captain  Manuel,"  as  the  Indians  called  him.  began  the  organizing  andarming 
of  the  tribes  to  fight,  not  against  "The  Republic."  as  he  liked  to  call  the  United 
States,  but  against  the  Indian  allies  of  Great  Britain.  When  the  war  ended 
Lisa  was  fairly  ready  to  begin.  He  had  forty  chiefs  and  several  thousand  warriors 
ready  to  go  against  the  British  Indians  on  the  Upper  Mississippi.  The  Missouri 
frontier  had  been  saved  from  the  Indian  nations  on  the  Upper  Mississippi. 
Governor  Clark  sent  trusted  representatives  with  messages  of  conciliation.  .Among 
these  emissaries  was  the  One-Eyed  Sioux,  a  famous  chief  who  visited  St.  Louis 
frequently  and  was  a  great  admirer  of  General  Pike,  the  explorer.  The  One- 
Eyed  Sioux  came  to  St.  Louis  with  the  information  that  a  party  had  been  made 
up  to  attack  the  .American  frontier.  He  undertook,  as  Governor  Clark's  request, 
to  visit  a  number  of  triljes  and  to  use  his  influence  against  the  British.     He  was 


ABORIGINAL  IMISSOURIANS  467 

imprisoned,  maltreated  and  threatened  with  death  by  the  ISritish,  but  was  true 
to  the  confidence  Clark  placed  in  him.  When  the  war  was  over  the  One-Eyed 
Sioux  came  back  to  St.  Louis  and  was  honored.  As  long  as  he  lived  he  treasured 
and  showed  with  great  pride  the  commission  he  received  to  represent  Governor 
Clark  in  his  diplomatic  efforts  with  the  Upper  Mississippi  tribes. 

The  Indian  Treaty  of  1812. 

In  May,  1S12,  General  William  Clark  assembled  at  St.  Louis  chiefs  of  the 
Great  and  Little  Osages,  Sacs,  Renards,  Delavvares  and  Shawnees  and  took  them 
to  Washington  to  make  a  treaty.  They  made  peace  with  each  other  before  starting. 
These  chiefs  were  received  by  President  Madison  just  before  the  war  with  Great 
Britain.  They  w-ere  taken  to  eastern  cities  and  made  much  of.  The  act  was 
wise,  far  settlers  were  crowding  into  St.  Louis  and  scattering  in  the  Missouri 
country.  Long  afterwards  Elihu  H.  Shepard.  the  historian,  paid  just  tribute 
to  William  Clark  and  testified  to  the  lasting  results  of  his  Indian  policy: 

"He  was  feared  and  beloved  by  the  Indians.  He  understood  their  character  almost  by 
intuition,  and  could  foresee  their  plans  and  intentions,  and  was  their  constant  friend  and 
protector  from  the  impositions  of  white  men.  When  they  were  all  assembled  preparatory 
to  leaving  on  their  long  journey,  their  mutual  friend  advised  them  to  make  peace  with  each 
other,  which  they  accordingly  did  for  themselves  and  their  respective  people,  and  all  buried 
the  hatchet  and  left  their  friends  at  home  in  peace  with  all  their  neighbors.  On  the  follow- 
ing day.  May  the  5th,  i8iJ,  General  Clark  departed  with  all  the  chiefs  of  those  powerful 
tribes,  each  preserving  in  their  features  and  attire  some  peculiarity  or  custom  of  their 
particular  tribe  or  nation. 

"More  than  half  a  century  has  since  transpired,  and  probably  every  person  engaged  in 
that  embassy  of  six  nations  is  dead,  but  that  act  of  General  Clark  alone  should  make  his 
name  immortal.  Those  six  nations  still  exist  and  have  kept  their  people  on  terms  of  friend- 
ship with  each  other  to  this  late  daj'.  The  object  of  the  embassy  was  fully  accomplished. 
The  Indians  arrived  at  Washington  city  several  days  before  the  declaration  of  war  against 
Great  Britain  in  l8l2,  and  were  presented  to  President  Madison,  who  held  a  council  and 
made  a  satisfactory  treaty  with  them,  after  which  they  were  shown  through  many  large 
cities  on  their  return  to  St.  Louis,  and  escorted  to  their  homes  laden  with  many  tokens  of 
esteem  and  confidence,  which  are  still  preserved  and  shown  to  strangers  as  worthy  of 
veneration  and  lasting  preservation  by  all  lovers  of  peace  and  friendship." 

"Red  Head,  "  the  Indians'  Friend. 

Officially  William  Clark  was  "Incjian  agent."  In  fact,  he  was  "the  friend 
of  the  Indian."  .A  part  of  the  life  of  St.  Louis  were  the  ])ilgrimages  of  the 
red  men  to  visit  '"Red  Head,"  as  all  of  them  called  him.  When  rivers  ran 
clear  of  ice  in  the  spring  the  canoes  began  to  come.  They  were  beached  along 
the  then  unoccupied  river  front  above  St.  Louis.  From  Morgan  street  to  Bremen 
avenue  there  were  only  five  houses.  Little  camps  were  formed.  .At  some  tune 
of  the  open  season  every  tribe  at  peace  sent  the  head  men  to  St.  Louis.  If  the 
tribe  was  small  a  canoe  or  two  was  sufficient.  Delegations  from  the  larger 
Indian  communities  required  a  flotilla.  With  the  chiefs  came  their  squaws  and 
pappooses.  When  the  camp  site  was  chosen,  a  member  of  the  party  went  down 
to  notify  General  Clark.  That  meant  rations.  In  the  moniing  the  chiefs  and 
their  retinues,  painted  and  decked  out  in  full  ceremonial  dress,  came  down  for 
the  formal  council.  These  assemblages  were  held  in  a  large  hall  which  General 
Clark  had  built  near  his  home.    "The  Council  Chamber,"  it  was  called.     It  served 


468  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  .MISSOURI 

the  ])urpose  of  a  niuseiiiii  of  Indian  dress,  manufactures,  utensils  and  curios. 
These  things  covered  the  walls.  They  added  to  the  inipressiveness  of  the  formal 
receptions.  In  the  council  chamber  the  general  met  the  Indians,  exchanged 
salutations,  giving  without  stint  the  tiiue  which  these  taciturn  people  seemed  to 
think  the  dignity  of  the  .occasion  demanded.  He  listened  to  the  speeches.  He 
replied  through  the  interpreters,  using  the  native  figures  of  speech  which  meant 
so  much  to  the  visitors.  He  met  their  aboriginal  dignity  with  the  suave  courtesy 
of  the  Virginian.  He  was  patient  and  kindly  with  them.  After  the  talk  the 
Indians  looked  over  the  museum,  pointing  out  and  commenting  on  those  things 
best  known  to  the  tribe  to  which  they  belonged.  Week  after  week  General 
Clark  held  these  receptions  as  the  successive  delegations  arrived.  In  the  long 
history  of  Indian  afTairs  of  the  United  States  there  is  no  line  of  policy  which 
is  quite  similar  to  this  which  (ieneral  Clark  adopted.  .-\nd  it  may  be  added  that 
there  has  been  no  course  of  official  action  which  sur])assed  this  in  effective  results 
with  the  red  men. 

Indian  Etiquette  in  St.  Louis. 

Having  paid  the  visit  of  ceremony,  the  delegation  enjoyed  for  a  few  days 
the  freedom  of  the  city.  Fivery  morning  the  chiefs  and  their  families  painted 
and  put  on  their  feathers  and  robes.  They  stopped  at  house  after  house,  beating 
upon  their  drums,  singing  their  chants  and  doing  thti  dances.'  Ceremonial  from 
the  Indians'  point  of  \iew,  these  calls  might  be,  but  somewhat  disconcerting  to 
the  newcomers  in  St.  Louis  they  often  were.  Indian  etiquette  made  it  proper 
to  raise  the  latch  and  walk  in  without  using  the  knocker  or  speaking  a  word. 
Standing  within  the  Indian  looked  about  him,  and,  after  a  few  moments'  delibera- 
tion, uttered  his  "how  I"  Then  followe<l  a  handshake  with  each  person  in  the 
room.  A  small  gift  was  expected,  and  then,  as  the  interest  of  the  involuntary 
host  waned,  the  proud  Indians  took  the  hint  and  moved  up  the  street.  Here 
and  there  they  came  to  the  house  of  a  hunter  or  trader  who  had  known  them 
in  the  wilderness.  There  the  entertainment  was  elaborated.  "Indian  coffee" — 
coffee  with  just  enough  of  the  bean  to  give  color,  a  very  weak  imitation — was 
served.  Fat  slices  of  bacon  were  cooked  and  handed  round.  Firewater — hot 
stut? — was  the  stirrup  cup.  Two  or  three  days,  perhaps  a  w-eek  or  ten  days,  the 
visits  and  the  hospitality  continued.  Then  at  daybreak  the  canoes  were  pushed 
into  the  water  and  the  prows  were  turned  up  stream.  St.  Louis  saw  no  more  of 
the  head  men  of  that  tribe  until  the  following  year.  So  long  as  General  Clark 
lived  this  coming  and  going  of  the  chiefs  of  a  hundred  tribes  was  of  yearly 
occurrence.  Westward  up  the  rivers  and  over  the  prairies  pioneers  pushed 
their  picket  line  of  settlement.  They  slept  peacefully.  Not  a  war  whoop  dis- 
turbed the  night.  Red  Head's  Indian  jiolicy  was  mightier  for  protection  than 
an  army  of  soldiers  would  have  been. 

Governor  Clark's  Museum. 

Schoolcraft  spoke  of  Clark's  collection  as  "arranged  with  considerable  effect." 
h'dward  James  Glasgow  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight  told  Thwaites,  the  historian, 
he  well  remembered  General  Clark's  Indian  museum,  which  he  visited  when  a 
boy.  General  Clark  lived  at  Main  and  Vine.  He  had  four  other  houses  in  the 
block,  fronting  Main.     One  of  these  houses  was  the  large  hall,  in  which  were 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIANS  469 

displayed  the  curiosities,  open  to  the  public.  The  collection  included  bows  and 
arrows,  battle  clubs,  stone  axes,  birch  bark  canoes  which  were  suspended  from 
the  ceiling,  Indian  dresses,  decorated  with  feathers,  bones  and  mastodons. 

When  General  Clark  died,  his  houses  were  divided  among  his  heirs.  The 
collection  was  sent  for  safe  keeping  to  a  public  museum.  After  a  while  the 
showman  shipped  his  curiosities,  including  the  Clark  collection,  by  way  of  Xew 
Orleans  to  England.  The  Clark  family  learned  of  it  too  late  to  recover.  Many 
years  afterwards  a  member  of  the  family  thought  he  saw  some  of  these  things 
in  London.  The  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar  visited  St.  Louis  in  1825  and  examined 
with  much  interest  the  collection.     He  wrote  of  it : 

We  then  went  to  see  Mrs.  Clark,  who,  through  the  secretary  of  her  husband,  Mr. 
Ale.xander,  exhibited  to  us  the  museum  collected  by  the  governor  on  his  travels,  and  since 
considerably  augmented.  Mr.  .Mexander  showed  us  articles  of  Indian  clothing  of  different 
kinds,  and  various  materials.  Except  the  leather,  the  larger  part  of  these  materials  were 
American,  or  rather  entirely  European  in  their  origin.  A  single  garment  alone  was  made 
by  the  Cherokees  of  cotton  which  was  pulled,  spun,  wove  on  a  loom,  made  by  an  Indian 
and  even  dyed  blue  by  them.  Besides  several  weapons  of  different  tribes,  wooden  toma- 
hawks, or  battle-axes,  in  one  of  them  was  a  sharp  piece  of  iron  to  strike  into  the  skulls 
of  their  prisoners;  another  made  of  elk-horn,  bows  of  elk-horn  and  of  wood,  spears, 
quivers,  and  arrows,  a  spear-head  of  an  Indian  of  the  Columbia  river,  hewed  out  of  a 
flint,  a  water-proof  basket  of  the  same  people,  in  which  cooking  can  be  performea,  several 
kinds  of  tobacco  pipes,  especially  the  calumet,  or  great  pipe  of  peace.  The  heads  of  this 
pipe  are  cut  out  of  a  sort  of  argillaceou?  earth  or  serpentine;  in  time  of  vi-ar  the  spot 
where  this  earth  is  dug  out.  is  regarded  as  neutral,  and  hostile  parties,  who  meet  each  other 
at  that  place,  cannot  engage  in  anything  inimical  against  each  other.  The  pipe,  which  the 
^  commissioners  of  the  United  States  use  at  treaties  with  the  Indians  has  a  heavy  silver 
head  and  a  peculiarly  handsome  ornamented  wooden  stem. 

Farther,  Mr.  Alexander  showed  us  the  medals  which  the  Indian  chiefs  have  received 
at  different  periods  from  the  Spanish,  English  and  .American  governments,  and  the  por- 
traits of  various  Indian  chiefs  w-ho  have  been  at  St.  Louis  to  conclude  treaties  with  the 
governor,  who  is  also  Indian  agent.  Among  the  remarkable  things  in  natural  history,  we 
noticed  an  alligator,  eight  feet  long;  a  pelican;  the  horns  of  a  wild  goat,  shot  by  the 
governor  in  his  tour  among  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  the  horns  of  a  mountain  ram,  and  those 
of  an  elk,  several  bearskins,  among  others,  of  the  white  bear;  buffalo,  elk,  skunk,  which 
were  sewed  together  in  a  robe,  skins  of  martens,  ferrets,  etc.,  etc. ;  moreover,  several  petrifi- 
cations of  wood  and  animal  subjects,  among  others,  of  elephants'  teeth,  a  piece  of  rock-salt, 
tolerably  white,  yet  not  shooting  in  crystals,  as  the  English;  various  crystals;  a  large 
piece  of  rock  crystal;  very  handsome  small  agates,  wliich  are  here  taken  for  cornelians, 
etc.  Among  the  curiosities,  the  most  remarkable  were  two  canoes,  the  one  of  animal  hide, 
the  other  of  a  tree-bark,  a  peace-belt  which  consists  of  a  white  girdle  set  with  glass  beads, 
two  handsbreadths  wide;  farther,  snowshoes.  nets  which  are  drawn  over  an  oval  frame, 
also  the  rackets  which  they  use  in  playing  their  game  of  ball. 

The  Indians'  Reception. 

Maximilian,  Prince  of  W'ied.  while  in  St.  Louis  about  1833,  attended  one 
of  the  Indian  receptions  at  the  council  chamber,  and  gave  this  description  of  it: 

General  Clark  invited  us  to  a  small  assembly  which  he  was  to  hold  in  his  house  with 
the  Indians.  We  accordingly  repaired  thither.  This  meeting  took  place  in  the  apartments, 
which  are  ornamented  with  a  highly  interesting  collection  of  arms  and  utensils,  which  the 
general  had  secured  on  his  extensive  travels  with  Captain  Lewis.  The  rooms  contain, 
likewise,  portraits  of  the  most  distinguished  Indian  chiefs  of  the  different  nations.  General 
Clark,  with  his  secretary,  was  seated  opposite  to  the  Indians,  who  sat  in  rows  along  the 


470  CEXTKXNIAL  HISTORY  ol"  MlSSOfRI 

walls  of  the  apartment.  We  strangers  sat  at  the  general's  side,  and  near  him  stood  the 
interpreter,  a  French  Canadian.  The  Indians,  ahout  thirty  in  numlier,  had  done  their  best 
to  ornament  and  paint  themselves ;  they  all  looked  very  serious  and  solemn,  and  their  chief 
sat  at  their  right  hand.  The  general  first  told  them,  through  the  interpreter,  for  what 
reason  he  had  assembled  them  here;  on  which  Keokuk  rose  with  the  calumet  in  his  left 
hand,  gesticulating  with  his  right  hand  in  harmony  with  his  thoughts;  he  spoke  very  loud 
in  broken  sentences,  interrupted  by  short  pauses.  His  speech  was  immediately  translated 
and  written  dowji.  The  conference  lasted  about  half  an  hour.  General  Clark  had  intro- 
duced us  to  the  Indians,  telling  them  that  we  had  come  far  over  the  ocean  to  see  them. 
They  all  testified  their  satisfaction  in  a  rather  drawling  "hah !"  or  ,"ahah  I"  Before  and 
after  the  sitting  all  of  the  Indians  passed  us  in  a  line,  each  giving  us  his  right  hand,  and 
looking  steadfastly  into  our  faces.  They  then  withdrew,  headed  by  their  chiefs.  The  gen- 
eral had  told  them  that  they  should  persevere  in  their  amicable  sentiments  as  hitherto ;  and 
they  had  expressed  the  wish  that  their  brothers  mii;lit  soon  he  set  at  liberty,  because  their 
wives  and  children  at  home  were  suffering  iuinger  and  distress.  Upon  this  the  general 
advised  them,  when  Black  Hawk  and  his  associates  should  be  set  at  liberty,  to  keep  a 
watchful  eye  over  them.     On  this  condition  he  would  intercede   for  the  prisoners. 

Keokuk  and  Black  Hawk. 

The  conference  followed  Ihc  lilack  ll;i\vk  war  "in  Xorthern  Illinois.  The 
Indians  had  come  down  the  Mississippi  to  .St.  Louis,  seeking  for  the  release  of 
the  prisoners  ,  who  were  conlined  at  Jefferson  Barracks.  Prince  Maximilian 
descrihed  Keokuk: 

The  chief,  or  leader  of  the  Indians  assembled  here  was  the  Saukie  chief,  Keokuk, 
a  slender  man  of  middle  size,  with  agreeable  features,  not  very  different  from  those  of  a 
European,  though  of  a  darker  color.  He  wore  a  colored  calico  shirt,  and  on  his  breast 
a  large  medal,  which  he  had  received  from  the  President  of  the  United  States;  and  like- 
wise wore  a  figured  handkerchief  around  his  head,  and  was  wrapped  in  a  green  l>lanket. 
He  carried  in  his  hand  a  calumet  ornamented  with  feathers.  His  face  was  not  painted, 
his  ears  not  disfigured,  and  it  was  affirmed  that  he  was  not  of  pure  origin.  He  wore  brass 
rings  round  his  neck  and  wrists. 

The  vi.siting  Indians  were  allowed  to  go  to  the  llarracks  ;ind  to  see  their 
kinsmen.     T'rince  Maximilian  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  witness  the 


General  Clark  introduced  us  to  General  Atkinson,  the  commandant  of  the  place. 
.\fter  resting  a  short  time  in  his  house  we  proceeded  to  a  spacious  empty  hall  in  one  of 
the  adjoining  buildings,  where  the  Indians  were  already  seated  in  rows.  The  general  sat 
opposite  to  them  surrounded  by  the  spectators,  among  whom  were  several  ladies.  When 
all  were  assernbled,  Keokuk,  with  the  aid  of  the  interpreter,  delivered  an  address  to 
General  Atkinson,  who  replied;  after  which  the  prisoners  were  introduced.  First  of  all - 
Black  Hawk  appeared,  a  little  old  man,  perhaps  seventy  years  of  age,  with  gray  hair,  and 
a  light  yellow  complexion;  a  slightly  curved  nose,  and  Chinese  features,  to  which  the 
shaven  head,  with  the  usual  tuft  behind,  not  a  little  contributed.  These  po^r  men  entered 
with  downcast  looks;  and  though  no  Indian  betrayed  any  lively  demonstration  of  emotion, 
such  feelings  were  very  manifest  in  many  of  them.  Tlie  prisoners  gave  their  hands  to 
their  countrymen  all  round  and  then  sat  down  with  them.  Tw-o  of  the  Indians,  known 
as  particularly  dangerous  men,  one  of  them  the  celebrated  Winnebago  propliet,  who  has  a 
repulsive  countenance,  had  chains  with  large  iron  balls  at  their  feet.  The  other  prisoners 
were  not  chained  and  we  were  told  that  they  were  taken  out  every  day  by  the  guard  to 
walk.  The  speeches  now  recommenced.  Keokuk  spoke  often  and  interceded  for  the 
prisoners.      General    .'\tkinson    repeated    to    tliem    pretty    nearly    what    Genera!    Clark    had 


TWIN  OSAGE  PAPOOSES 
First  twins  (if  the  tribe  ullowed  to  live.     Osages  considered  . 
twins  misfortune.     Mother  and  baliies  were  hurled  alive  when 
Osages  lived  in  Missouri  before  the  whites  came. 


■ 

BP^I 

p 

^  V '     ^ 

p^  ■ 

^ 

KK-O  KUK  WAH  I'AH  SHO-SAH.   OSAGE   CHIEF 

The  watchful  Fox.    Chief  of  the  Sac  and  Tlie  Osage   Indians  were  closely  identified 

Fox   t riles.      This   picture   reproduced    from        with    history    of    Missouri.       Head    shaved, 
an  old  daguerreotype.  leaving   a    tuft    of   hair   on   crown,   a    tribal 

distinction. 


ABORIGINAL  MISSOURIAXS  473 

already  said,  on  which  the  Indians  again  uttered  their  "hah !"  or  "ahah !'  When  the 
speeches  were  ended  the  company  withdrew  and  left  the  prisoners  alone  with  their  country- 
men to  give  free  vent  to  their  feelings.  The  sight  of  old  Black  Hawk  and  the  whole  scene 
of  the  prisoners  and  their   friends  was  affecting. 

The  Winnebago  chief  was  known  better  as  \\'hite  Cloud.  He  was  the  bad 
medicine  man  who  encouraged  Black  Hawk  to  repudiate  the  treaty  by  which 
Illinois  had  been  given  up  to  white  settlement.  White  Cloud  was  a  Winnebago 
on  his  mother's  side.  He  lived  on  Rock  river  in  Illinois.  While  he  was  a  prisoner 
at  Jefferson  Barracks  the  medicine  man  was  painted  by  the  artist.  Catlin.  Soon 
after  the  visit  of  Prince  Maximilian,  the  Indian  prisoner  Black  Hawk  w^as  sent 
on  a  tour  to  eastern  cities  in  order  that  he  might  be  impressed  with  the  strength 
of  the  white  people. 

General  Henry  Atkinson  was  prominent  in  the  military  life  of  St.  Louis 
for  many  years.  He  was  a  Xorth  Carolinian  and  rose  through  the  grades  to 
be  a  brigadier  general.  He  was  connected  with  the  expeditions  which  went  out 
from  St.  Louis  to  the  Yellowstone  in  1819  and  1825.  His  most  notable  service 
was  command  of  the  United  States  troops  in  the  war  against  Black  Hawk  when 
that  warrior  and  his  followers  invaded  Illinois  in  1832.  After  that  war  General 
Atkinson  was  stationed  at  Jefferson  Barracks  until  his  death  in  1842.  General 
Atkinson  was  known  among  the  Indians  as  "White  Beaver." 

The  Pants  Leg  Reservation. 

The  Osage  Indians  were  strongly  attached  to  their  Missouri  homes.  For 
years  after  they  were  removed  to  the  Indian  Territory  they  made  it  an  annual 
custom  to  return  to  Henry  County  for  a  visit.  ^lost  of  the  Delawares  moved 
from  Indiana  and  Illinois  in  1819  to  Missouri,  locating  near  the  present  site  of 
Springfield.  Ten  years  later  they  sold  their  Missouri  lands  to  the  government 
and  were  expected  to  go  on  a  reservation  near  the  present  city  of  Leavenworth. 
Some  of  the  Delawares  objected  to  this  change  after  viewing  the  promised  land 
because  they  said  the  fork  formed  by  the  Kaw  and  Missouri  rivers  looked  too 
nuich  like  the  trousers  of  a  white  man.  They  refused  to  go  to  what  was  called 
at  that  time  "The  Pants  Leg  Reservation,"  and  were  sent  into  the  Indian  Territory 
near  Fort  Sill.  During  theih  residence  in  Missouri  the  Delawares  gave  the  white 
people  very  little  trouble.  They  becarne  allies  of  the  Tehe  band  of  Cherokees 
and  did  some  fighting  against  the  Osages. 

The  Story  of  Colonel  Splitlog's  Rise. 

A  Missouri  Indian  founded  a  city,  developed  a  mine  and  built  a  railroad. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  parallel  in  any  other  state  to  this  performance.  The  Mis- 
souri Indian  was  a  member  of  the  Wyandotte  tribe.  He  was  Chief  Splitlog, 
but  after  he  became  a  capitalist  and  made  things  boom  in  the  southwestern  corner 
of  the  state,  he  was  better  known  as  Colonel  Splitlog.  For  many  years  he  lived 
near  Kansas  City  on  the  Wyandotte  Reser\ation.  \\'hen  his  people  dissolved 
tribal  relations  and  accepted  a  division  of  their  lands  from  the  United  States, 
Splitlog  was  one  of  the  chiefs  who  negotiated  the  treaty.  After  the  tribe  dissolved, 
the  Splitlog  family  remained  near  the  mouth  of  the  Kaw  and  the  ex-chief  began 
to  show  his  ability  bv  steamboating  in  a  small  way.     As  Kansas  City  grew,  the 


474  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Splitlogs  were  able  to  sell  their  land  at  a  good  |)rice.  They  moved  to  the  banks 
of  the  Cowskin,  or  as  it  was  sometimes  more  elegantly  termed,  the  Elkhorn.  The 
ex-chief  kept  a  store  and  sold  goods  to  the  Senecas.  Me  built  a  house  that  was 
the  wonder  of  the  whole  Seneca  nation.  It  had  two  full  stories,  was  handsomely 
painted  and.  more  wonderful  than  all.  it  had  a  big  "observatory"  on  top.  The 
young  members  of  the  family  develo[)ed  musical  talent  and  the  old  chief  bought 
them  a  full  set  of  band  instruments  and  hired  an  instructor.  A  local  manager 
conceived  the  idea  of  a  concert  tour.  The  Splitlog  boys  started  out  with  the 
()ld  man's  blessing  and  some  cash  in  advance,  .\bout  the  third  concert  pros- 
perity proved  too  much  for  them.  The  boys  took  the  town  and  the  town  marshal 
took  them.  The  Splitlog  cornet  band  left  Missouri  and  went  back  to  the  nearby 
reservation. 

About  1885  Si)litlog  became  associated  with  sunie  professional  ]jromuters. 
The  southwest  corner  of  Missouri  was  electrified  one  day  with  the  announcement 
that  silver  had  been  discovered  a  short  distance  south  of  Neosho.  When  the 
news  had  been  well  circulated,  it  was  found  that  Splitlog  and  his  white  associates 
had  obtained  leases  on  five  thousand  acres  jii  land,  Splitlog  contributing  the 
money  and  the  promoters  furnishing  the  brains.  The  Splitlog  Silver  Mining 
company  was  organized  with  tlie  old  chief's  favorite  son.  Joe.  as  president. 
Splitlog  City  was  laid  out  near  the  mines;  a  hotel  was  built  and  several  other 
business  structures  were  erected.  A  daily  stage  line  was  put  on. between  Neosho 
and  Splitlog  City.  Assays  from  ores  alleged  to  have  come  from  the  Splitlog 
mines  were  shown.  These  assays  were  made  by  reputable  firms  in  St.  Louis, 
Kansas  City  and  elsewhere.  They  gave  from  $40  to  $298  in  silver  ])cr  ton.  Some 
of  them  returned  gold.  Splitlog  displayed' a  watch  on  the  inside  of  which  was 
inscribed,  "The  case  of  this  watch  was  made  from  gold  taken  out  of  the  Splitlog 
Mines  in  McDonald  County,  Missouri." 

The  rush  to  Splitlog  C'ty  set  in.  On  the  country  roads  wagons  with  white 
tdjjs  "Bound  for  Splitlog"  could  be  seen  moving  in  all  directions.  There  was 
great  activity  in  sinking  shafts.  The  next  step  was  the  organization  of  a  railroad 
company.  Colonel  Splitlog  took  most  of  the  shares.  The  railroad  was  capitalized 
at  $3,000,000.  A  construction  company  was  foriued  with  a  capital  of  $350,000. 
Colonel  Splitlog  was  the  treasurer  of  the  construction  company.  About  thirty 
miles  of  roadbed  was  graded  and  six  miles  of  track  was  laid.  Colonel  Splitlog 
drove  the  first  spike,  which  was  of  silver  claimed  to  have  been  obtained  from  the 
Splitlog  mines.  The  motive  for  the  road  was  to  obtain  facilities  for  shipment  of 
the  ore 

After  Splitlog  had  invested  about  $175,000.  the  collapse  came.  Mrs.  Splitlog. 
influenced  by  other  members  of  the  family,  refused  to  sign  any  more  deeds.  The 
colonel  became  suspicious  of  his  white  associates,  who  departed  for  other  fields 
of  exploitation.  The  boom  collapsed.  Assays  of  ore  mined  by  independent  pros- 
pectors showed  only  a  trace  of  silver.  Eastern  men  took  hold  of  the  Splitlog  rail- 
road and  extended  it  north  and  south,  until  they  had  it  running  some  distance.  A 
cutoff  left  Splitlog  City  two  miles  to  one  side.  Then  the  builders  of  the  Kansas 
City,  Pittsburg  and  Gulf  got  the  road  and  pushed  it  south  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
making  the  Kansas  City  Southern  one  of  the  most  important  and  profitable  north 
and  south  lines  in  the  country. 


LIIAITRR  Xl\" 
MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS 

Raids  from  the  North — A  Grand  Jury  Warning — Thi;  Baltic  of  Sweet  Lick — "Big  Hands" 
Clark — Lincoln  County  Forts — "General"  Black  Hazvk — The  Zmnwalt  Sisters — An 
Indian's  Courting — How  Black  Hawk  Repaid  Hospitality — Farming  and  Fighting — 
The  Battle  of  the  Sink- Hole — Raid  on  Loutre  Island — Stephen  Cole's  Desperate 
Encounter — Montgomery  County's  Tragedies — Jacob  Groom's  Heroic  Act — Captain 
Jatncs  Callazvay  Ambushed — Battle  of  Prairie  Fork  Crossing — The  Pettis  •  CoMiify 
Alystcrx — .)  British  Officer's  Tomb — Fort  Cooper — Captain  Sarshall  Cooper's  Defiance — 
ll'lioi  Settlers  "Ported  Vp"^The  Seven  Widows  of  Fort  Hempstead — Killing  of 
Jonathan  Todd  and  Thomas  Smith — Fort  Cole — A  Long  Chase — Braxton  Cooper's 
Fight  for  Life — Stcphfu  Cooper's  Charge — Christmas  Eve  Mourning — Good  Old  Hannah 
Cole— The  A'orthwest  Pivot  Man — Major  Ashby's  Footrace  with  a  Chief — The  Panic 
in  Bluff  Setttemcnt-r-Ringtait  Painter's  Bloody  Combats — The  Pottazvattomie  War — 
Council  at  Portage  des  Sioux — Auguste  Chouteau's  Diplomacy — Death  of  Black  Buffalo 
— Big  Elk's  Peace  Oration — Intrigues  of  British  Fur  Traders — Captain  O'Fallon's 
Scathing  Report — Reniiniseences  of  John  B.  Clark — The  Big  Neck  War — Cabins  of 
the  IVhile  Folks — The  Battle  with  the  loivas — A  Remorseful  Chief — Father  De  Smet — 
The  Life  Work  of  "Blackgown" — Walk  In' Rain,  the  Letter  Writer. 

Put  in  your  minds  that  as  soon  as  the  British  made  peace  with  us  they  left  you  positively  i"  the 
middle  of  a  prairie  without  shade  or  co\'^r  a^inst  the  sun  and  rain.  The  British  left  you  positively  in 
the  middle  of  a  prairie,  worthy  of  pity.  But  w^e  Americans  have  a  large  umbrella  which  covers  us  against 
the  sun  and  rain  and  we  offer  you,  as  friends,  a  share  of  it. — Colonel  Auguste  Chouteau  at  the  huhan 
Council,  Fortage  des  Sioux. 

The  United  Slates  government  expended  one  thousand  million  dollars  in 
Indian  wars  within  the  boundaries  of  this  country.  Such  was  the  estimate  made 
by  an  annv  officer.  Of  this  billion  dollars  the  amount  required  for  the  settle- 
ment of  Indian  troubles  in  Mis.souri  was  insignificant.  During  two  generations 
the  French  i)ioneers  of  ^Missouri  lived  in  almost  continuous  peace  with  the  In- 
dians. The  rapid  iininigration  following  the  American  flag  in  1804  brought 
lighting.  lUit  with  the  Indians  who  lived  in  Missouri  the  settlers  had  few  serious 
difficulties.  They  suffered  far  more  from  the  war  parties  of  braves  which  came 
down  from  the  North,  some  of  them  traveling  hundreds  of  miles  to  prey  on 
the  little  communities  near  the  Missouri  river.  The  region  lying  north  of  the 
Missouri  and  west  of  the  Mississippi  was  raided  at  intervals  for  ten  years.  Bands 
of  the  Sacs,  the  lowas,  the  Foxes,  the  Pottawatomies  came  into  what  was  called 
the  "St.  Charles  district,"  now  St.  Charles,  Montgomery  and  Warren  counties. 

Even  before  the  white  settlements  these  northern  Indians  came  to  the  Mis- 
souri river  country  to  fight  other  tribes.  Wetmore's  Gazetteer  of  Missouri,  pub- 
lished in  1837,  said  that  on  Sweet  Lick  in  Monroe.  County  "there  is  a  battle  field 
so  thickly  covered  with  the  bones  of  combatants  slain  there  as  to  deserve  a  high 
place  in  the  annals  of  blood-letting.     The  conllict  was  between  the  Sac  and  Fox 

475 


47(5  CEXTEXNIAI.  HISTORY  ol'  .MISSOUKl 

Indians  and  the  Sioux.  Tradition  docs  not  ]iariicularize  the  battle,  nor  are  we 
able  to  determine  to  which  nation  of  these  red  warriors  victory  was  awarded  by 
the  Great  Spirit." 

The  situation  un  the  Missouri  frontier  was  anything  but  monotonous. 
Brackenridge.  who  went  up  the  Missouri  with  Manuel  Lisa,  told  of  an  incident  at 
Fort  (Jsage.  He  gave  the  story  as  narrated  to  him  by  an  officer.  The  trouble  had 
been  adjusted  ten  days  before  the  Lisa  party  arrived.  About  fifteen  hundred 
Osage  warriors  had  camped  near  the  fort.  Two  hundred  of  them  had  just  come 
back  from  a  raid  on  the  lowas.  Brackenridge  spelled  the  name  "Ayuwas.'*  The 
braves  were  so  lifted  up  over  the  exploit  that  they  insulted  the  soldiers  in  the 
fort.  One  of  these  warriors  defied  a  sentinel  at  his  post.  The  sentinel  was  com- 
manded to  fire  over  his  head.  This  producing  no  elTect  the  warrior  was  seized  by 
a  file  of  men,  which  he  at  first  treated  with  indifference,  declaring  that  if  he  was 
confined  he  would  get  some  of  the  white  man's  bread.  ITis  tune  was  changed, 
however,  by  a  liberal  application  of  the  cat-o'-nine-tails  to  his  back.  The  Indians 
were  excited.  They  rushed  forward  with  their  arms.  But  the  soldiers  paraded 
and  made  ready  a  few  cannon.  The  Indians  thought  proper  to  retreat.  They 
maintained  a  threatening  attitude  for  a  few  days.  To  show  their  s])ite  they  killed 
a  pair  of  oxen  belonging  to  Mr.  Audrain,  the  settler  near  the  fort.  The  officer  at 
the  fort  sent  for  the  chiefs  and  told  them  that  unless  two  horses  were  given  for 
the  oxen  he  would  fire  on  the  Indian  village.  The  chiefs  complied;  the  pipe  was 
smoked,  and  all  matters  were  adjusted. 

Lincoln  County  Forts. 

In  tlie  region  wJiicli  afterwards  became  Lincoln  county  there  was  conflict 
between  the  white  settlers  and  the  Indians.  Major  Christopher  Clark  was  the  first 
.^merican  to  settle  permanently  near  Troy.  He  located  about  three  and  one-half 
miles  southeast  of  that  city.  Other  settlers  followed  and  establislied  themselves 
along  the  Mississipjii  and  along  the  Cuivre.  Major-Clark  had  trouble  almost  imme- 
tliatelv  uyinu  his  settlement.  He  was  called  "Big  Hands"  by  the  Indians.  Several 
times  wandering  bands  fired  at  his  cabin,  and  on  one  occasion  shot  into  the  stable 
and  killed  a  horse. 

In  iS'04  three  sons  of  William  McHugh  who  had  settled  on  .Sandy  creek 
were  killed  at  the  ford.  They  were  boys  of  from  eleven  to  fifteen  years.  They  had 
been  sent  about  a  mile  from  home  to  bring  in  the  horses.  Dixon,  an  Indian  scout, 
was  with  the  boys  at  the  time,  but  escaped.  The  situation  became  so  serious  that 
a  number  of  forts  were  built.  Major  Clark  constructed  one  of  these  primitive 
buildings  of  defense.  He  placed  in  it  7,000  ])ounds  of  pork  and  other  pro\isions 
for  the  use  of  those  settlers  who  might  have  to  seek  for  shelter.  This  was  known 
as  Clark's  Fort.  On  the  site  of  what  is  now  Troy,  Wood's  Fort  was  built.  Stout's 
Fort  was  located  near  .Auburn.  The  most  important  of  these  fortifications  was 
on  the  river  blufif  near  Cave  spring.  This  was  called  Fort  Howard  in  honor  of 
Governor  Benjamin  Howard,  who  for  a  short  time  was  governor  of  the  territory, 
but  who  resigned  to  become  commander  of  the  rangers. 

Black  Hawk's  Treachery. 

Black  Hawk,  the  Sac  chief,  was  a  frequent  visitor  in  Northeast  Missouri  pre- 
vious to  1810  and  even  later.    His  Indian  name  was  "Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak." 


MAJOK  BEXJAMIX  O 'FALLON 

Hi'    reported    to    Gov.     Williniii    Chirk     tin 

iiitri<;n('s   of   tlie   British    fur   tnidi'r.s 


ROBERT  FORSYTH 
M;in.v  .ve:us  liulinn  agent 


-^^ 


'■^i-.\i.'iV^ 


THE  OLD  FORT  AM)  STOCKADE  ON  THE  HILL  AT  ST.  LOl  IS 
Present  site  of  tlie  Sonthern  Hotel 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  479 

The  literal  translation  of  this  Indian  name  is  Black  Sparrowhawk.  Black  Hawk 
was  not  a  chief  in  time  of  peace.  He  was  a  leader  of  hostile  parties  in  time  of 
war  and  that  gave  him  the  title  of  war  chief.  The  British  made  use  of  him  in  the 
war  of  1812.  They  gave  him  the  uniform  of  a  British  officer  and  called  him 
General  Black  Hawk.  They  gave  him  command  of  five  hundred  Indians  and 
expected  to  use  him  in  attacks  upon  America^  settlers  of  Illinois  and  Missouri. 
Before  the  war  of  1812,  Black  Hawk  spent  some  time  in  the  settlements  of  what 
is  now  Lincoln  county.  He  attended  dancing  parties  and  took  part  in  the  quad- 
rille, or,  as  it  was  commonly  called  then,  the  "French  Four  Dance."  For  a  while 
he  was  allowed  to  live  at  the  house  of  Adam  Zumwalt  which  was  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Cuivre  river  in  the  northern  part  of  St.  Charles  county.  Zumwalt 
did  whiskey  distilling  in  a  small  way.  He  had  four  daughters,  lovely  girls,  named 
Elizabeth,  Rachael,  Mary  and  Catherine.  Black  Hawk  paid  special  attention  to 
one  of  them  and  offered  to  buy  her  for  a  dozen  horses.  The  girls  utilized  Black 
Hawk's  infatuation  by  making  him  bring  them  water  from  the  spring,  dig  potatoes, 
cut  wood,  telling  him  that  that  was  the  w^ay  to  win  a  white  wife. 

The  settlers  treated  Black  Hawk  well,  depending  upon  his  influence  to  protect 
them  from  the  Sacs.  The  Indian  repaid  this  good  treatment  by  making  a  special 
request  in  1812,  when  the  British  gave  him  his  uniform  and  his  command  of  five 
hundred  Sacs  and  Fox  Indians,  that  he  be  allowed  to  make  an  immediate  attack 
upon  the  Northeast  Missouri  settlement,  explaining  that  he  had  spent  much  time 
there  and  was  well  acquainted  with  the  situation.  The  British  General  Proctor, 
however,  refused  and  sent  Black  Haw-k  into  Michigan  and  Northern  Ohio.  The 
war  chief  came  back  with  the  Sacs  tribe  on  Rock  river  in  Northern  Illinois  in 
1813.  The  next  spring  he  descended  upon  Missouri  settlements  of  his  own  accord. 
He  had  about  fifty  braves  when  he  landed  from  canoes  on  the  lOth  of  May  near 
Cap-au-Gris.  Dividing  his  party  he  led  one  band  into  the  timber  near  McLean's 
creek.  The  other  party  he  sent  up  the  Cuivre  to  make  a  pretended  attack  on  Fort 
Howard.  This  second  party  killed  a  ranger  named  Bernard  who  was  scouting  out 
from  Fort  Howard  in  the  woods.  The  alarm  was  given  and  the  rangers,  under 
Lieutenant  Massey,  came  out  of  Fort  Howard  and  drove  the  Indians  up  the 
Cuivre  but  without  a  fight.  Bla'ck  Hawk  and  his  followers  remained  in  Northeast 
Missouri  looking  for  parties  to  waylay  and  massacre.  On  the  T5th  of  May,  half 
a  dozen  men  and  boys  escorted  by  five  rangers  went  up  the  Cuivre  to  sow  turnips 
for  one  of  the  settlers.  At  that  time  the  pioneers  had  left  their  farms  and  were  in 
the  forts.  It  was  known  that  lUack  Hawk  and  his  followers  were  somewhere  in 
the  vicinity.  Two  of  the  men,  I'Vcd  Dixon  and  Roswell  Durkee,  were  riding  one 
horse.  As  they  passed  by  the  i)lace  where  Black  I  lawk  and  one  of  his  party  were 
concealed  the  Indians  fired.  Durkee  was  wounded.  Dixon  was  thrown  from  the 
horse  and  ran.  I'.lack  Hawk  pursued  him,  and  was  about  overtaking  him  when 
Dixon  stopped,  picked  up  a  big  stick  and  turned  toward  the  Indian.  Black  Hawk 
looked  at  Dixon  and  then  ran  away  although  he  was  carrying  his  rifle,  tomahawk 
and  knife. 

Years  afterwards  Black  Hawk,  in  the  so-called  autobiography  of  him,  ex])lained 
why  he  ran  away  from  Dixon.  He  said,  'T  knew  him;  he  had  been  at  Quash- 
qua-me's  \illage  to  learn  my  people  to  plow.  He  was  a  good  man  and  I  did  not 
wish  to  kill  him."    The  fact  was  that  Dixon  had  never  been  an  instructor  of  the 


480  CEXTEXNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Indians  and  was  a  good  fighter.  He  had  been  ])reseiit  at  the  murder  of  the 
McHugh  hoys  in  1804.  Dixon  recovered  his  horse  and  atteni])ted  to  save  Durkee. 
but  the  latter  had  been  scalped  and  was  dazed.  He  could  not  understand  what 
was  wanted.  Dixon  was  forced  to  abandon  him.  The  Indians  came  upon  Durkee. 
Tilack  Hawk  afterwards  said.  ''He  was  staggering  like  a  drunken  man.  all  covered 
with  blood.  This  was  the  most  tefrible  sight  I  had  ever  seen.  I  told  my  comrade 
to  kill  him  and  ])iit  him  out  of  his  misery.  1  coidd  not  look  at  him."  Other 
members  of  lUack  Hawk's  band  opened  fire  ui)on  Dixon's  party  and  killed 
James  I'owles,  one  of  the  rangers.  There  were  four  boys  in  the  party  that  had 
gone  out  to  sow  turnips.  They  were  swimming  in  the  creek  when  the  attack  by 
Black  Hawk's  band  occurred.  Henjamin  Allen  rode  up  to  them,  took  his  son 
Edwin  on  the  horse  and  told  the  other  boys  to  hide.  The  little  fellows  ran  from 
the  water,  caught  up  their  clothes  and  crawled  into  a  hollow  log.  Black  Hawk 
came  up  and  jumped  on  the  log.  He  afterwards  said,  in  his  autobiography,  "that 
he  saw  the  boys  hiding  but  thought  of  his  own  at  home  and  let  them  escape." 
One  of  the  boys  who  hid  in  the  log  was  Chauncey  Durkee  who  became  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Lewis  County.  In  telling  of  the  experience  he  said  that  he  looked 
through  a  knot  hole  and  saw  Black  Hawk  very  plainly. 

The  Battle  of  the  Sink  Hole. 

"Thf  battle  of  the  Sink  Hole"  was  one  of  the  few  Indian  fights  in  Missouri 
which  could  be  given  such  a  formal  title.  It  was  fought  near  Fort  Howard  in  what 
is  now  Lincf)ln  county  near  C'ap-au-(iris.  A  comjiany  of  mounted  rangers  under 
Captain  Peter  Craig  had  been  raised  in  Cape  (jirardeau  county  and  had  gone  to 
Northeast  Missouri  to  defend  the  settlements  against  Black  Hawk's  force.  One 
of  the  particijiants  in  the  battle  was  Colonel  John  Shaw,  a  hiuUer  and  explorer 
who  had  been  looking  for  gold  in  the  Ozarks.  He  joined  the  rangers  and  was 
in  the  Indian  campaign  of  181 4.  His  account  of  the  battle  of  the  Sink  Hole  was 
given  to  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society: 

"About  noon  five  of  the  men  went  out  of  Fort  Howard  to  Byrne's  deserted  house  on 
the  bluff,  about  one-fourth  of  a  mile  below  the  fort,  to  bring  in  a  grindstone.  In  conse- 
quence of  backwater  from  the  Mississippi  they  went  in  a  canoe  and  on  their  return  were 
fired  on  by  a  party  supposed  to  be  fifty  Indians,  who  were  under  shelter  of  some  brush 
that  grew  along  the  bluff  near  Byrne's  house,  and  about  fifteen  rods  distant  from  the 
canoe  at  the  time.  Three  of  tlie  whites  were  killed  and  one  mortally  wounded,  and  as  the 
water  was  shallow  the  Indians  ran  out  and  tomahawked  their  victims.  The  people  in  the 
fort  fired  on  the  Indians  across  the  backwater,  a  few  inches  deep,  while  another  party  of 
about  twenty-five  ran  to  the  right  of  the  water  with  a  view  of  intercepting  the  Indians 
who  seemed  to  be  making  toward  the  bluff  or  high  plain  west  and  northwest  of  the  fort. 

"The  party  of  twenty-five  and  Captain  Craig's  soon  united.  On  the  bluff  was  the 
cultivated  field  and  deserted  residence  of  Benjamin  Allen.  The  field  was  aliout  forty 
rods  across,  beyond  which  was  pretty  thick  timber.  Here  the  Indians  made  a  stand,  and 
here  the  fight  began.  Both  parties  fired.  As  the  fight  waxed  warm  the  Indians  slowly 
retired  as  the  whites  advanced.  .After  the  fight  had  been  going  on  perhaps  some  ten 
minutes  the  whites  were  reinforced  by  Captain  David  Musick,  of  Cap-au-Gris,  with  about 
twenty  men.  He  had  been  on  a  .scout  toward  the  head  of  Cuivre  river,  and  had  returned 
to  within  about  one-half  mile  of  the  fort,  and  about  one  and  one-half  miles  of  the  scene 
of  the  conflict,  and  had  stopped  with  his  men  to  graze  their  horses.  Hearing  the  firing 
they  instantly  remounted  and  dashed  toward  the  scene  of  battle.  Dismounting  in  the  edge 
of  the  timber  on  the  brow  of  the  bluff  and  hitching  their  horses,  they  rushed  through  a 
part  of  the   Indian  line,  and  shortly  after  the   enemy  fled,  a  part  bearing  to.  the   right  of 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  "  481 

the  sink  hole  toward  Bob's  creek,  but  the  most  of  them  taking  refuge  in  the  sink  hole, 
which  was  close  by  where  the  main  part  of  the  fighting  had  taken  place.  About  the  time 
the  Indians  were  retreating  Captain  Craig  exposed  himself  four  feet  beyond  his  tree  and 
was  shot  through  the  body  and  fell  dead.  James  Putney  was  killed  before  Captain  Craig, 
and  perhaps  one  or  two  others.  Before  the  Indians  retired  to  the  sink  hole  the  fighting 
had  become  animated,  the  loading  was  done  quickly  and  shots  rapidly  exchanged.  When 
one  of  our  party  was  killed  or  wounded  it  was  announced  aloud.  The  sink  hole  was  about 
sixty  feet  in  length,  and  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in  width  and  ten  or  twelve  feet  deep. 
Near  the  bottom,  on  the  southeast  side,  was  a  shelving  rock  under  which  some  fifty  or 
sixty  persons  might  have  sheltered^  themselves.  At  the  northeast  end  of  the  sink  hole  the 
descent  was  quite  gradual,  the  other  end  it  was  much  more  abrupt.  The  southeast  side 
was  almost  perpendicular.     The  other  side  was  about  like  the  steep  side  of  a  house. 

"On  the  southeast  side  the  Indians,  as  a  farther  protection  in  case  the  whites  should 
rush  up,  dug  under  the  shelving  rock  with  their  knives.  On  the  sides  and  in  the  bottom 
of  the  sink  hole  were  some  bushes  which  also  served  as  something  of  a  screen  for  the 
Indians.  Captain  Musick  and  his  men  took  part  on  the  northeast  side  of  the  sink  hole, 
and  others  occupied  other  positions  surrounding  the  enemy.  As  the  trees  approached 
close  to  the  sink  hole  these  served  in  part  to  protect  our  party.  Finding  we  could  not 
get  a  good  opportunity  to  dislodge  the  enemy,  as  they  were  best  protected,  those  of  our 
men  who  had  families  at  the  fort  gradually  went  there,  not  knowing  but  a  large  body  of 
Indians  might  seize  the  favorable  occasion  to  attack  the  fort  while  the  men  were  away 
engaged  in  the  exciting  contest.  The  Indians  in  the  sink  hole  had  a  drum  made  of  a 
skin  stretched  over  the  section  of  a  hollow  tree,  on  which  they  beat  quite  constantly,  and 
some  Indian  would  shake  a  rattle  called  she-shuqui,  probably  a  dried  bladder  with  pebbles 
within,  and  even  for  a  moment  would  venture  to  thrust  his  head  in  view,  with  his  hand 
elevated,  shaking  his  rattle  and  calling  out,  'peash !  peash!'  which  was  understood  to  be 
a  sort  of  defiance,  or,  as  Black  Hawk,  who  was  one  of  the  party,  says  in  his  account  of 
that  affair,  a  kind  of  bravado  to  come  and  fight  them  in  the  sink  hole. 

"When  the  Indians  would  creep  up  and  shoot  over  the  rim  of  the  sink  hole  they 
would  instantly  disappear,  and  while  they  sometimes  fired  effectual  shots  they  in  turn 
became  occasionally  the  victims.  From  about  one  to  four  o'clock  p.  m.  the  firing  was 
incessant.  Our  men  generally  reserved  their  fire  until  an  Indian  would  show  his  head. 
AH  of  us  were  studying  how  we  could  more  eflFectually  attack  and  dislodge  the  enemy. 
At  length  Lieutenant  Spears  suggested  that  a  pair  of  cart  wheels,  axle  and  tongue,  which 
were  seen  at  .•\llen"s  place,  be  obtained  and  a  moving  battery  constructed.  The  idea  was 
entertained  favorably,  and  an  hour  or  more  was  consumed  in  its  construction.  Some 
oak  floor  puncheons,  from  seven  to  eight  feet  in  length,  were  made  fast  to'  the  axle  in 
an  upright  position  and  port-holes  made  through  them.  Finally  the  battery  was  ready 
for  trial,  and  was  sufficiently  large  to  protect  some  half  a  dozen  or  piore  men.  It  was 
moved  forward  slowly,  and  seemed  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  Indians,  who  had 
evidently  heard  the  knocking  and  pounding  connected  with  its  manufacture,  and  who  now 
frequently  popped  up  their  heads  to  make  momentary  discoveries.  It  was  at  length 
moved  up  to  within  less  than  ten  paces  of  the  brink  of  the  sink  hole  on  the  southeast  side. 
The  upright  plank  did  not  reach  to  the  ground  within  some  eighteen  inches,  the  men 
calculating  to  shoot  beneath  the  lower  end  at  the  Indians.  But  tlie  latter  from  their 
position  had  a  decided  advantage  of  this  neglected  aperture,  for  the  Indians  shooting 
beneath  the  battery  at  an  upward  angle,  would  get  shots  at  the  whites  before  the  latter 
could  see  them.  The  Indians  also  watched  the  portholes  and  directed  some  of  their 
shots  at  them.  Lieutenant  Spears  was  shot  dead  ihnnigh  the  head,  and  his  death  was 
much  lamented,  as  he  had  proved  himself  an  intrepid  officer.  John  Patterson  was  wounded 
in  the  thigh,  and  some  others  behind  the  batter>'  were  also  wounded.  Having  failed  in 
its  design  the  battery  was  abandoned  after  sundown.  Our  hope  all  along  had  been  that 
the  Indians  would  emerge  from  their  covert  and  attempt  to  retreat  to  where  we  sup- 
posed their  canoes  were  left,  some  three  or  four  miles  distant ;  in  which  case  we  were 
firmly  determined  to  rush  upon  them  and  endeavor  to  cut  them  off  totally.  The  men 
generally  evinced  the  greatest  bravery  during  the  whole  of  the  engagement. 

Vol.  I— 31 


482  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Xiglit  was  now  coming  on,  and  the  reports  of  half  a  dozen  guns  in  the  direction  of 
the  fort  by  a  few  Indians,  who  rushed  out  of  the  woods  skirting  Bob's  creek  not  more 
than  forty  rods  from  the  north  end  of  the  fort,  were  heard.  This  movement  on  the  part 
of  the  few  Indians  who  had  escaped  when  the  others  took  refuge  in  the  sink  hole  was 
evidently  designed  to  divert  the  attention  of  the  whites  and  alarm  them  for  the  safety 
of  the  fort,  and  thus  effectually  relieve  the  Indians  in  the  sink  hole.  This  was  the  result, 
for  Captain  Musick  and  men  retired  to  the  fort,  carrying  the  dead  and  wounded,  and 
made  every  preparation  to  repel  a  night  attack. 

"The  men  at  the  fort  were  mostly  up  all  night,  ready  for  resistance,  if  necessary. 
There  was  no  physician  at  the  fort,  and  much  effort  was  made  to  set  some  broken  bones. 
There  was  a  well  in  the  fort,  and  provision  and  ammunition  to  sustain  a  pretty  formidable 
attack.  The  women  were  greatly  alarmed,  pressing  their  infants  to  their  breasts,  fearing 
they  might  not  be  permitted  to  behold  another  morning's  light,  but  the  night  passed  away 
without  seeing  or  hearing  an  Indian.  The  next  morning  a  party  went  to  the  sink  hole 
and  found  the  Indians  gone.  They  had  carried  off  all  their  dead  and  wounded  except  five 
dead  bodies  left  on  the  northwest  side.  From  all  signs  it  appeared  some  thirty  of  them 
were  killed  or  wounded.  Lieutenant  Gray  reported  eight  of  our  party  killed,  one  missing 
and  five  wounded.  The  dead  were  buried  near  the  fort  and  a  man  sent  to  St.  Charles 
for   medical   assistance.     Lieutenant   Gray   assumed   command." 

The  killed  in  Captain  Craig's  company  besides  himself  and  Lieutenant  Spears, 
were  Alexander  Giboney,  James  Putney,  Antoine  Pelkey,  Hubbard  Tayon,  and 
Francois  Lemmey.  The  wounded  were  John  Patter.son,  Benjamin  Hall  and 
Abraham  Letts. 

A  Grand  Jury  Warning'. 

The  jjrand  jury  at  St.  Louis  impressed  with  the  dangerous  situation  made  this 
presentment  to  the  court  at  the  June  term.  1805: 

"Destrict  of  Louisiana 
"Destrict  of  St.  Louis 

"We  the  Grand  Jurors  for  the  Destrict  of  St.  Louis  Having  the  Safety  of  the  Inhab- 
itants at  Heart,  and  as  a  Great  number  of  Savages  are  at  Present  in  the  Destrict  and  more 
are  Daily  Arriving — and  Whereas  some  evil  Disposed  persons  do  Sell  Barter  or  give  to  the 
Said  Savages,  Speritious  Liquors  in  such  quantitys  as  to  put  them  in  a  State  of  Intoxication, 
and  thereby  Endanger  the  lives  and  Propertys  of  the  Said  Inhabitants — We  the  Grand 
Jurors,  for  the  Destrict  Aforesaid  do  ernestly  request  the  Courts  to  take  the  Same 
Ameadiately  into  Concideration,  and  Devise  such  means  as  they  in  their  wisdom  may  think 
proper  to  prevent  the  like  in  Future. 

"John  Biggs  Foreman"' 

The  Raid  on  Loutre  Island. 

In  his  narratives  of  the  Indian  wars  of  Missouri  written  for  the  Globe-Demo- 
crat about  thirty  years  ago,  Major  R.  I.  Holcombe  told  of  these  tragedies : 

"In  the  summer  of  1807  occurred  a  memorable  and  ill-fated  expedition.  A  band  of  ten 
Indians,  Sacs  and  Pottawatomies,  came  down,  stole  seven  horses  belonging  to  the  settlers 
on  Loutre  island,  and  started  northward  with  them.  Five  islanders  set  ouf  in  pursuit. 
These  were  William  T.  and  Stephen  Cole,  James  Patton,  John  Gooch  and  James  Murdock, 
all  experienced  frontiersmen,  hardy  and  brave.  On  the  evening  of  the  second  day  out  the 
party  came  in  sight  of  the  Indians  on  the  Salt  river  prairie,  in  what  is  now  the  southern 
part  of  Ralls  county.  Moving  forward  a  mile  or  so,  and  darkness  coming  on,  they  went 
into  camp  on  the  bank  of  Spencer  creek,  intending  to  open  friendly  negotiations  with  the 
Indians  the  following  morning. 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  483 

"In  this  design,  however,  they  were  anticipated  by  the  savages,  who,  well  armed  with 
rifles  and  other  weapons,  attacked  them  furiously  in  the  night.  Wm.  T.  Cole  (commonly 
called  Temple  Cole),  Patton  and  Gooch  were  killed  in  their  blankets  at  the  first  fire. 
Murdock  slipped  under  the  bank  of  the  creek  near  by,  leaving  Stephen  Cole  alone  to  con- 
tend with  the  enemy.  Two  Indians  closed  upon  him.  One  of  them  stabbed  him  in  the 
back  from  behind,  the  other  encountered  him  in  front.  Cole,  a  very  powerful  man  and 
a  good  fighter,  wrested  the  knife  from  the  hand  of  the  Indian  in  his  front  and  plunged  it 
into  his  heart.  He  then  turned  upon  his  other  assailant  and  was  about  to  finisli  him,  when 
all  tlie  other  Indians  threw  themselves  upon  him,  and  having  to  contend  against  too  great 
odds,  he  cut  his  way  through  tlicm  and  saved  himself  by  flight,  favored,  of  course,  by  the 
darkness,  and  after  an  arduous  journey  of  three  days  and  nights  on  foot — for  he  had  been 
compelled  to  leave  his  horse  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians — he  succeeded  in  reaching  the 
island  and  Fort  Clemson.     Murdock  did  not  return  to  the  island  for  several  days. 

"Organizing  another  party.  Cole  returned  to  the  scene  of  the  fight  and  buried  his  dead 
comrades,  all  of  whom  had  been  scalped  and  otherwise  mutilated.  The  body  of  the  Indian 
he  had  killed  was  also  found.  Some  years  afterwards  the  skulls  of  the  murdered  men 
were  found,  and  thereafter  the  locality  was  known  to  the  settlers  as  'Skull  Lick.'  There 
is  no  name  better  known  in  the  history  of  the  Boone's  Lick  country  than  that  of  Capt. 
Stephen  Cole.  It  was  he  who,  in  1812,  built  Cole's  Fort,  the  first  county  seat  of  Howard 
county,  and  it  was  for  him  Cole  county  was  named.  He  was  killed  by  the  Indians  on  the 
plains  in  1824  while  engaged  in  the  Santa  Fe  trade. 

"In  1811  the  Indians  had  committed  some  outrages  in  the  Boone's  Lick  settlements,  in 
Howard  county,  and  over  near  the  Mississippi,  on  the  Salt  and  Cuivre  rivers,  in  Pike  and 
Lincoln.  It  was  suspected  that  the  perpetrators  were  the  Indians  of  the  Missouri.  Gen. 
Wm.  Clark,  then  in  command  of  this  department,  made  every  exertion  to  detect  them,  but, 
as  the  .'American  forces  were  not  yet  organized,  he  did  not  succeed.  Indian  forays  from 
the  north  were  repeated,  and  during  the  year  1812  from  Fort  Madison  (on  the  Illinois 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  a  little  below  the  mouth  of  the  Des  Moines)  to  St.  Charles  settlers 
were  murdered  and  their  homes  destroyed  by  the  savages. 

"At  last  Gov.  Benjamin  Howard  went  to  St.  Charles  and  ordered  Col.  Kibbe,  who 
commanded  the  militia  of  that  county,  to  call  out  a  portion  of  the  men  who  were  in 
requisition  to  march  at  a  moment's  warning.  He  organized  a  company  of  rangers  for 
continuous  service,  with  Capt.  James  Callaway,  a  grandson  of  Daniel  Boone,  as  captain. 
This  company  was  made  up  principally  of  St.  Charles  county  men,  all  hardy  woodsmen, 
active,  skillful  and  bold.  .\t  intervals  this  company  scoured  the  country  from  Salt  river 
to  the  Missouri,  and  performed  invaluable  service. 

"Gov.  Howard  also  established  a  small  fort  on  the  Mississippi  in  St.  Charles  county, 
which  was  garrisoned  by  a  company  of  regulars  from  Bellefontaine,  under  the  command  of 
a  Lieut,  Mason,  and  for  him  was  called  Fort  Mason.  Fort  Clemson,  on  Loutre  island,  was 
built  at  fhe  same  time.  Throughout  the  settlements  the  pioneers  themselves  built  a  number 
of  block  houses,  or  so-called  forts.  There  was  Daniel  M.  Boone's  Fort,  in  Darst's  Bottom, 
St.  Charles  county ;  Howell's  Fort,  on  Howell's  prairie ;  Pond's  Fort,  on  the  Dardenne 
prairie,  a  little  southeast  of  the  site  of  Wentzville ;  White's  Fort,  on  the  Dog  prairie; 
Hountz's  Fort,  eight  miles  west  of  St.  Charles;  Zumwalt's  Fort,  near  O'Fallon ;  Castlio's 
Fort,  near  Howell's  prairie;  Kennedy's  Fort,  near  Wright  City;  Callaway's  Fort,  near 
Marthasville,  and  Wood's  Fort  at  Troy.  But  for  these  establishments  and  Gov.  Howard's 
preparations  it  is  probable  that  the  whites  in  this  part  would  either  have  been  driven  out  of 
the  country   or   exterminated. 

Montgomery  County  Tragedies. 

"The  first  victim  of  the  Indian  War  of  1812  in  Montgomery  county  was  Harris  Massey, 
a  boy  of  17,  who  was  killed  here,  at  the  Loutre  Lick,  in  the  spring  of  1813.  In  the  previous 
winter  his  father,  Thomas  Massey,  had  left  the  shelter  of  Fort  Clemson,  where  he  had 
settled  in  1809.  and  come  to  the  Lick,  having  leased  the  land  from  Col.  Nathan  Boone. 
Massey  had  built  a  cabin  on  the  north  side  of  the  little  stream  known  as  Sallie's  Branch, 
and  had  cleared  a  small  field  on  the  south  side.    This  field  is  now  the  site  of  the  village  of 


484  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

llineola.  Young  Massey  was  killed  under  the  following  circumstances :  His  father  had 
gone  up  the  Loutre  to  examine  some  Indian  'signs'  that  had  been  discovered  the  previous 
evening.  When  he  left  he  set  Harris  at  work  to  plow  in  the  little  field.  He  directed  the 
boy  to  tie  his  rifle  to  his  back  while  at  work,  and,  if  the  Indians  appeared,  to  fire  on  them 
at  once.  After  a  time  the  boy,  as  is  presumed,  grew  weary  of  carrying  the  gun,  and  set 
it  against  a  tree  near  the  cleared  groiuid.  About  ib  o'clock  a  band  of  Sac  Indians  slipped 
down  Sallie's  Branch  and,  crawling  under  the  bank,  approached  within  loo  yards  of  the 
boy.  Two  Indians  fired  and  the  boy  fell.  With  savage  yells  the  'noble  red  men'  sprang 
out  and,  running  up  to  the  body,  offered  it  every  indignity.  They  tore  off  the  scalp,  and 
then  mutilated  the  body  in  a  manner  not  to  be  described. 

"Mr.  Massey's  family  at  the  house  were  in  plain  view  of  the  tragedy.  .\nn  Massey, 
one  of  the  daughters,  seized  the  dinner  horn  and  blew  one  blast  after  another  upon  it. 
This  seemed  to  disconcert  the  Indians  and  they  soon  fled.  Mr.  Massey  heard  the  horn 
and  hastened  home.  The  Indians  had  not  taken  his  horses,  and  he  succeeded  in  making  his 
way  with  his  family  to  Fort  Clemson,  distant  by  the  nearest  trail  eighteen  miles.  A  party 
went  out  and  buried  the  mangled  body  of  the  boy  on  the  hillside,  a  little  south  of  where 
he  fell.  Thereafter,  for  nearly  two  years,  there  was  no  attempt  at  settling  the  country 
back  of  the  river  by  the  islanders.  They  preferred  to  remain  quietly  under  the  protection 
of  the  fort. 

"In  the  spring  of  1814  occurred  the  next  tragedy.  .\  young  man  named  Daniel 
Dougherty  was  killed  by  the  Sac  Indians  at  the  Big  spring,  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
county.  He  belonged  to  the  colony  on  the  island,  and  volunteered  to  go  up  to  a  saltpeter 
cave  on  Clear  creek  (about  four  miles  southeast  of  Danville)  to  procure  some  saltpeter  for 
making  powder.  At  that  time  the  pioneers  made  their  own  powder.  As  he  did  not  return 
at  the  appointed  time  the  colonists  became  uneasy,  and  Jacob  Groom  and  Wm.  Stewart 
volunteered  to  go  in  search  of  him. 

"From  ilrs.  Lurinda  Snethen,  a  daughter  of  Jacob  Groom,  I  have* obtained  the  par- 
ticulars of  the  adventures  of  her  father  and  his  companion  on  this  occasion.  It  seems  they 
set  out  from  the  island  on  horseback,  taking  the  trail  to  the  cave  by  way  of  the  Big  spring. 
Groom  had  formerly  lived  at  the  spring  and  knew  the  locality  well.  A  quarter  of  a  mile 
north  of  the  spring,  and  100  yards  north  of  Possum  Branch,  as  the  two  men  were  riding 
along,  Stewart  suddenly  called  out :  'Lord  I  Jake,  look  at  the  Indians !'  Sure  enough,  there 
they  were,  only  100  yards  in  front,  half  of  them  mounted,  all  of  them  painted  and  armed— 
a  swarm  of  them. 

"The  two  scouts  turned  and  fled.  The  Indians  pursued  them,  yelling  and  shooting  with 
rifles  and  bows.  Crossing  'Possum  Branch  Groom's  horse  jumped  with  a  mighty  leap  and 
the  saddle  turned.  Groom's  feet  being  out  of  the  stirrups ;  but  he  clung  to  the  horse,  con- 
trived to  unfasten  the  girth  and  let  the  saddle  fall.  As  they  emerged  into  the  clearing  near 
Groom's  cabin  at  the  spring  the  Indians  gave  them  a  volley  of  bullets  and  arrows.  Both 
horses  were  badly  wounded,  and  Stewart  received  a  bullet  in  his  ankle.  A  mile  iputh,  the 
Indians  still  in  pursuit,  Stewart's  horse  fell  from  loss  of  blood.  Groom  stopped  and  took 
Stewart  up  behind  him,  or  else  he  must  have  perished. 

"Luckily,  both  men  reached  the  island  in  safety.  There  was,  of  course,  great  excite- 
ment, and  pickets  were  at  once  put  out  and  all  the  outlying  settlers  warned  in.  Capt.  Clem- 
son prepared  the  fort  for  an  attack,  but  it  did  not  come.  In  a  few  days  Capt.  Callaway's 
rangers  came  out  and  found  the  body  of  Dougherty  half  way  up  the  hill  from  the  Big 
spring  and  buried  it.  The  Indians  had  scalped  and  mutilated  it,  and  it  presented  a  sad 
spectacle.  Jacob  Groom  lived  to  become  an  honored  citizen  of  the  country,  and  was  for 
two  terms  a  member  of  the  Missouri  legislature. 

Captain  James  Callaway. 

"But  the  most  serious  casualty  that  befell  the  settlers  during  the  War  was  the  defeat 
and  death  of  that  gallant  spirit,  Capt.  James  Callaway,  and  a  portion  of  his  company  of 
rangers,  at  the  junction  with  the  Loutre  of  a  small  stream  called  the  Prairie  Fork,  in 
the  southern  part  of  Montgomery  county,  March  7,  1815.  I  think  I  have  stated  that  Capt. 
Callaway  was  a  son  of  Flanders  Callaway  and  a  grandson  of  Daniel  Boone.  Distinguished 
for  his  intelligence,  fortitude  and  courage,  he  was  selected  to  command  the  company  of 
rangers  by  Gov.  Howard,  and  up  to  the  time  of  his  death   was  one  of  the  most  active. 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  •  485 

daring  and  efficient  scouts  in  the  service,  and  occupied  a  prominent  position  in  the  aflfairs 
of  this  district.  He  had  been  in  many  an  Indian  fight,  and  in  August,  1814,  he  com- 
manded the  Missourians  who  formed  a  part  of  the  force  of  Maj.  Zachary  Taylor  that 
went  against  the  British  and  Indians  at  the  Rock  Island.  He  bore  a  gallant  part  in  the 
brave  but  unsuccessful  assault  on  the  strong,  cannon-crowned  intrenchments  at  that 
point,  and  on  the  American  retreat  he  covered  and  protected  the  rear. 

"On  the  6th  of  March  a  band  of  some  seventy-five  or  eighty  Sacs  and  Foxes  (some 
say  Sacs  and  Pottawatomies)  came  down  near  Loutre  island  and  stole  a  dozen  or  more 
horses  that  were  grazing  on  the  mainland,  and  succeeded  in  escaping  with  them  up  Loutre 
creek.  The  next  morning,  being  in  the  countrj',  scouting,  Capt.  Callaway,  with  fifteen  of 
his  rangers,  came  upon  the  fresh  Indian  trail  made  by  the  horse-thieves.  Following  it 
rapidly  up,  at  about  2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  they  came  upon  the  Indian  camp  and  the 
stolen  horses,  guarded  by  only  a  few  squaws.  .'MI  the  men  were  absent.  The  squaws  fled 
upon  the  approach  of  the  rangers,  and  were  not  pursued.  It  seemed  that  the  Indians 
had  scattered  and  retreated  altogether,  for  no  well-defined  trail  could  be  found,  and  it 
was  decided  to  discontinue  the  pursuit ;  so,  securing  the  horses,  Capt.  Callaway  started 
with  them  and  his  men  southward  down  the  Loutre  valley  for  the  island. 

"Lieut.  Jonathan  Riggs,  the  second  in  command  of  the  rangers,  was  an  old  Indian 
fighter  and  a  man  of  caution  and  good  judgment.  His  suspicions  had  been  excited  by  the 
disappearance  of  the  Indians,  and  he  said  to  Capt.  Callaway  that  they  had  dispersed  in 
order  to  mislead  them,  and  that  they  meant  to  swing  around  to  the  southward  and, 
forming  an  ambuscade,  intercept  the  rangers  on  their  way  to  the  island.  His  advice  was, 
therefore,  that  the  return  march  should  be  made  by  a  different  route.  But  Capt.  Callaway 
believed  that  the  Indians  had  left  the  country  and  would  not  again  be  seen.  Accordingly, 
he  dismissed  the  suspicions  of  Lieut.  Riggs  and  proceeded  with  his  men  by  the  route  over 
which  he  had  marched  out  that   morning. 

The  Ambush. 

"At  the  crossing  of  Prairie  Fork,  a  hundred  yards  or  more  from  the  Loutre.  the  little 
command  was  attacked.  Three  rangers — Parker  Hutchings.  Frank  McDermid  and  James 
McMillin — were  a  hundred  yards  in  advance  with  the  recovered  horses.  Just  as  they 
reached  the  south  bank  of  the  stream  a  volley  of  deadly  shots  rang  out  from  the  Indian 
ambuscade,  and  all  three  fell  dead  from  their  saddles  on  the  shore. 

"Hearing  the  firing  and  the  fierce  war-whoops  of  the  savages.  Capt.  Callaway  and 
his  twelve  men  dashed  bravely  up,  but  they,  in  turn,  received  a  murderous  fire  from 
their  ambushed  foes,  who  were  concealed  in  the  timber  on  a  hill  in  front.  Capt.  Callaway's 
horse  was  killed  and  he  received  a  bullet  through  his  left  arm,  escaping  death  at  the 
instant  by  the  ball  striking  his  watch.  He  sprang  from  his  horse  and  called  out  to  his 
men:  'Cross  the  creek  and  charge  them  and  fight  to  the  death!'  His  men  dashed  forward 
and  he  essayed  to  follow  by  swimming  the  cold  waters  of  the  stream,  then  swollen  to  a 
considerable  depth  by  recent  rains  and  melting  snow.  Doubtless  his  wounded  arm 
failed  him,  for  when  some  of  his  men  who  had  crossed  looked  back  he  was  drifting  and 
swimming  down  the  strong  and  rapid  current.  Just  then  an  Indian  shot  him  in  the  back 
of  the  head,  the  ball  lodging  in  his   forehead,  and  he  instantly  sank. 

"Lieut.  Riggs  and  his  comrades  fought  as  best  they  could,  but  all  their  efforts  availed 
nothing  against  a  foe  five  times  their  number  and  well  practiced,  and  at  last  the  lieutenant 
gave  the  order  to  retreat.  The  rangers  recrossed  Prairie  Fork,  and,  making  a  con- 
siderable detour,  crossed  it  again  a  mile  above,  and  the  next  morning  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing the  island.  Two  of  the  men  were  detached  and  sent  east  to  Wood's  Fort,  in  Lincoln 
county. 

"Of  the  sixteen  rangers  six  were  killed,  viz. :  Capt.  Callaway,  Parker  Hutchings. 
Frank  McDermid,  James  McMillin,  Thomas  Gilmore  and  Hir^m  Scott.  The  last  named, 
and  a  comrade  named  Wolf,  were  left  on  the  south  bank  of  the  stream  when  their  com- 
rades recrossed.  Wolf  escaped  to  the  island  and  was  the  first  to  bring  the  tidings  of  the 
disaster.  Xearly  every  man  in  the  party  was  more  or  less  severely  wounded,  and  every 
horse  was  struck.  The  loose  horses  of  the  settlers  were  of  course  lost.  It  was  never 
certainly  known  that  the  Indians  had  more  than  one  man  killed.  He  was  buried  on  the 
prairie,   near  the  present   site  of  Wellsville.'' 


486  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

A  Mysterious  Tomb  in  Pettis. 

A  strange  discovery  made  in  Pettis  county  a  few  miles  southeast  of  the  present 
location  of  Sedalia  was  interpreted  l)y  the  early  settlers  as  evidence  that  the  British 
were  active  in  stirring  up  the  Indian  troubles  in  Missouri  during  the  war  of 
1812.  Several  years  after  the  war  three  Missourians,  Joseph  Stevens,  Stephen 
Cole  and  William  Ross,  were  hunting  and  exploring  Central  Missouri  as  far  west 
as  Knob  Noster.  They  found  near  Flat  creek  what  appeared  to  be  an  Indian 
mound  of  unusual  construction.  On  one  side  a  hole  had  been  opened  as  if  by  the 
digging  of  wolves.  The  Missourians  crawled  through  and  found  a  room  about 
eight  feet  square  and  six  feet  high.  The  roof  was  supported  by  logs.  On  one  side 
of  the  room  was  the  body  of  a  white  man,  apparently  an  officer  in  full  uniform, 
including  a  cocked  hat,  lace  stockings,  morocco  slippers,  gold  lace  along  the  seams 
of  the  coat  and  gold  epaulets  on  the  shoulders.  The  body  was  seated  on  a  log. 
The  flesh  had  mummified  so  that  it  looked  like  leather.  What  attracted  the  hunters 
to  the  place  was  that  the  walls  of  the  tomb  arose  several  feet  above  the  general 
surface  of  the  ground.  The  logs  which  formed  the  roof  ran  up  to  a  point.  .  The 
walls  and  roof  had  been  made  of  prairie  sod  cut  deep.  The  tomb  was  protected 
from  the  rain  and  until  the  opening  must  have  been  practically  fire  proof.  A  gold 
headed  cane  was  beside  the  body.  The  theory  of  the  early  settlers  was  that  this 
man  had  been  a  British  officer  who  had  come  into  Missouri  during  the  war  of  1812 
for  the  purpose  of  stirring  up  Indian  troubles.  A  later  visit  was  made  to  the  place 
by  Joseph  Stevens  and  James  D.  Campbell.  It  was  found  that  the  roof  had 
partly  fallen  in  and  that  only  the  skeleton  and  clothes  remained.  The  epaulets 
were  carried  away  and  melted  into  a  large  ball  of  gold  er|ual  to  the  metal  in 
fifteen  or  twenty  dollars.    Ciradually  time  effaced  this  tomb. 

The  Cooper  Colony. 

.^eUlenient  began  in  Howard  county  with  the  arrival  of  Colonel  Benjamin 
Cooper  and  his  family  from  Kentucky  in  1808.  Cooper  laid  up  his  log  house  two 
miles  southwest  of  Boone's  Lick.  He  had  cleared  some  ground  and  had  planted 
his  first  crop  when  Governor  Meriwether  Lewis  notified  him  that  he  was  on 
ground  which  still  belonged  to  the  Indians  and  that  he  must  move  eastward  to 
some  point  below  the  mouth  of  the  Gasconade.  Cooper  then  settled  on  Loutre 
island  as  it  has  always  been  called.  Loutre  means  "Otter"  in  Engli.sh.  The  island 
took  its  name  from  the  very  attractive  Loutre  river  which  empties  into  the  north 
side  of  the  Missouri.  The  early  French  trappers  found  otter  on  the  stream  and 
bestowed  the  title.  They  are  said  to  have  trapped  in  that  locality  long  before 
the  settlement  of  St.  Louis.  The  ground  known  as  Loutre  island  is  opposite  the 
city  of  Hermann.  As  early  as  1800  ten  or  twelve  white  families  were  living  there. 
The  Cooper  family  remained  with  the  settlers  on  Loutre  island  until  the  spring 
of  1810  when  the  colonel  with  the  Hancock,  Thorp,  Wolfskill,  Ashcraft,  Ferrill 
and  Anderson  families  went  back  to  the  vicinity  of  Boone's  Lick  and  formed 
a  settlement  in  the  Missouri  bottoms  of  what  became  Howard  county.  Within 
two  years  there  were  several  hundred  people  living  there.  The  war  of  1812  came 
on.  Cooper  and  his  neighbors  realized  the  danger  from  Indian  attacks.  They 
built  three  forts  which  they  called  Fort  Cooper,  Fort  Hempstead  and  Fort  Kin- 
caid.  Fort  Cooper  was  southwest  of  Boone's  Lick.  Fort  Kincaid  was  nine  miles 
away  to  the  southeast  and  Fort  Hempstead  was  a  little  short  of  two  miles  north  of 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  ,  489 

Kincaid.  Cole's  Fort  was  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  just  east  of  Boonville. 
It  was  built  that  same  year  by  Captain  Stephen  Cole.  When  they  erected  these 
forts  in  the  vicinity  of  Boone's  Lick  the  settlers  organized  a  company  of  rangers 
with  Sarshall  Cooper  as  captain ;  Win.  McMahan,  first  lieutenant ;  John  Monroe, 
second  lieutenant,  and  Ben  Cooper,  junior  ensign.  There  were  one  hundred  and 
twelve  men  in  the  company,  the  older  having  had  experience  in  Indian  fighting 
before  thev  left  Kentuck\-  and  Tennessee.  The  neighborhood  was  so  well  or- 
ganized that  for  three  years,  until  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Indians  were  not  able 
to  surprise  the  settlements,  scouts  who  went  out  continuously  giving  the  alarms 
whenever  bands  appeared  in  the  neighborhood.  From  three  hundred  to  five 
hundred  Indians  came  down  on  three  occasions  to  attack  the  Boone's  Lick  set- 
tlers but  were  discovered  by  the  scouts  in  time  for  the  settlers  to  prepare.  Gov- 
ernor Howard,  as  soon  as  he  knew  of  the  declaration  of  war,  sent  a  messenger 
from  St.  Louis  to  Boone's  Lick,  advising  the  settlers  of  the  danger  that  the 
Indians  might  attack  and  telling  them  to  come  down  nearer  to  St.  Louis  if  they 
wanted  protection.  The  suggestion  was  declined.  Captain  Cooper  wrote  to  the 
governor  a  letter  showing  the  stuff  of  which  the  Boone's  Lick  pioneers  were 
made: 

"We  have  maid  our  Hoams  here  &  all  we  hav  is  here  &  it  wiui  men  us  to  Leave  now. 
We  be  all  good  .'\mericans,  not  a  Tory  or  one  of  his  Pups  among  us,  &  we  hav  2  hundred 
Men  and  Boys  that  will  Fight  to  the  last  and  we  have  loo  Wimen  &  Girls  that  will  tak 
there  places  wh.  makes  a  good  force.  So  we  can  Defend  this  Settlement  wh.  with  Gods 
Help  we  will  do.    So  if  we  had  a  fiew  barls  of  Powder  and  2  hundred  Lead  is  all  we  ask." 

The  Indians  succeeded  in  driving  away  about  two  hundred  horses  and  killed 
many  cattle  and  hogs.  The  settlers  "forted  up"  as  the  expression  was  in  those 
days.  That  is  to  say.  they  took  refuge  in  the  forts.  They  were  obliged  to  neglect 
their  farms.  The  only  corn  and  vegetables  that  could  be  raised  was  on  a  few  small 
fields  near  the  forts.  This  made  it  necessary  to  depend  largely"  on  bear  meat  and 
venison.  Whenever  parties  went  out  from  the  fort  to  cultivate  fields  they  were  in 
force  sufficiently  strong  to  defend  themselves.  Some  of  the  men  and  boys  attended 
to  the  crops  while  others  acted  as  scouts  in  the  woods  on  every  side.  It  was  not 
unusual  for  a  pioneer  who  was  following  the  plow  to  carry  his  rifle  slung  over  his 
shoulders. 

One  of  the  regulations  of  these  "forted"  communities  was  that  any  man 
assigned  to  guard  duty  who  was  found  asleep  must  grind  a  peck  of  corn  meal  and 
present  it  to  each  widow  in  his  fort.  There  were  seven  widows  in  the  community 
which  took  shelter  in  Fort  Hempstead.  Besides  the  three  principal  forts  of  the 
Boone's  Lick  county  there  were  a  number  of  smaller  forts.  Settlers  on  the 
south  side  of  the  ^lissouri  also  felt  the  necessity  of  protecting  themselves.     . 

■Victims  in  the  Boone's  Lick  Country. 

While  the  people  of  Boone's  Lick  country,  by  watchfulness,  averted  massacres 

and  general  engagements  during  the  war  of  1812,  they  did  not  escape  individual 
tragedies.  Major  R.  I.  Holcombe  visited  this  bloody,  debatable  ground,  searched 
the  records  and  talked  with  old  settlers.  In  1892  he  published  in  the  Globe- 
Democrat  a  circumstantial  and  thrilling  account  of  the  tragedies: 


490  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"The  first  victims  of  the  war  in  the  Boone's  Lick  country  were  Jonathan  Todd  and 
Thomas  Smith,  of  Fort  Hempstead,  who  were  killed  by  a  band  of  Sacs  and  Foxes,  in  the 
western  part  of  Boone  county,  in  the  spring  of  1812.  They  were  in  search  of  some  stray 
horses.  While  on  their  errand  they  came  suddenly  upon  the  Indians  near  Thrall's 
prairie,  not  far  from  the  present  boundary  between  Boone  and  Howard.  The  e.xacf  par- 
ticulars of  the  tragedy  can  never  be  known,  but  it  seemed  that  the  inen  inade  a  brave 
defense.  They  must  have  retreated  a  mile  or  more,  firing  as  they  fell  back  and  aiming 
well.  The  bodies  of  four  dead  Indians  (some  say  six)  were  afterward  found  on  their 
line  of  retreat.  At  last  they  were  killed,  both  near  together,  at  the  point  where  they 
had  halted  for  the  final  struggle.  The  Indians  mutilated  the  bodies  frightfully.  They 
scalped  them,  cut  out  their  hearts,  cut  off  their  heads  and  stuck  them  on  poles  by  the  side 
of   the   trail. 

"The  Indians,  numbering  perhaps  200,  went  eastward  a  few  miles  and  crossed  the 
Missouri,  putting  their  rifles  and  otlier  efTects  on  small,  crude  rafts  whicii  they  pro- 
pelled by  swimming  and  wading  behind  them,  the  water  being  at  a  low  stage,  before  the 
'June  rise.'  Their  object  was  doubtless  an  attack'  on  the  supposed  unsuspecting  settlers 
on  the  south  side. 

"But  the  next  day  after  the  killing  of  Todd  and  Smith  rumors  of  the  trouble  reached 
Cole's  Fort,  and  two  very  gallant  young  scouts,  James  Cole  and  James  Davis,  were  sent 
out  to  investigate  and  report.  They  crossed  the  river  and  went  some  miles  without  seeing 
anything  of  a  suspicious  nature.  They  then  started  to  return,  and  recrossed  the  river 
five  miles  below  Fort  Cole.  Half  a  mile  from  the  river  they  suddenly  discovered  the 
Indians  between  them  and  the  fort.  The  savages  at  once  set  after  them,  but  without 
firing  or  yelling,  fearing  perhaps  that  the  noise  would  alarm  the  people  at  the  fort.  The 
scouts  set  out  for  Johnson's  'factory,'  a  small  trading  post,  200  yards  from  the  Missouri, 
on  Moniteau  creek,  in  what  is  now  Moniteau  county,  a  distance  of  fully  twenty-five  luiles. 
It  was  a  long  chase  and  a  hard  one,  the  Indians  following  them  and  occasionally  coming 
within  gunshot.  They  reached  the  'factory'  at  dusk,  and  the  Indians  immediately  sur- 
rounded the  establishment,  but  did  not  attack,  intending,  probably,  to  do  so  the  next 
morning. 

"Cole  and  Davis,  undaunted  by  what  they  had  passed  through,  determined  to  make 
another  attempt  to  reach  home.  They  planned  to  cross  the  Missouri  and  make  their  way 
up  the  river  to  the  Howard  county  forts,  and  from  thence  back  to  Fort  Cole.  .\t  mid- 
night they  took  up  a  plank  from  the  floor  of  the  'factory,'  crawled  from  under  tlie  build- 
ing, and  made  their  way  to  the  Moniteau  creek,  where  they  found  a  canoe  in  which  they 
embarked  and  floated  noiselessly  down  the  stream.  Just  as  they  entered  the  river,  how- 
ever, an  unlucky  stroke  of  the  paddle  against  the  side  of  the  canoe  betrayed  them  to  some 
Indians  on  the  bank,  who  started  in  pursuit  in  two  captured  canoes.  The  scouts  were 
forced  to  return  to  the  south   side  and  hide  in  the  brush  till  daylight. 

"The  Indians  pursued  them  to  Big  Lick,  in  Cooper  county.  Here,  being  hard  pressed, 
the  scouts  halted  and  waited  until  their  pursuers  came  within  100  yards,  when  both  fired 
and  each  killed  an  Indian.  The  Indians  returned  the  fire,  but  without  effect,  and  the 
brave  fellows  succeeded  in  reaching  Cole's  Fort  in  safety.  The  Indians  skulked  about 
in  the  country  for  a  day  or  two.  but  did  not  oflfcr  to  attack  the  fort  and  soon  recrossed 
the  river. 

The  Campaign  Against  the  Miamis. 

"At  this  time  there  were  about  5fK>  Miami  Indians  encamped  near  the  present  site  of 
the  town  of  Miami,  in  Saline  county.  They  had  come  out  from  Ohio  and  Indiana  a  year 
or  two  previously,  and  were  supposed  to  be  friendly.  But  when  the  war  broke  out  many 
of  these  rascals  embraced  the  opportunity  to  steal  from  and  plunder  their  white  neighbors 
at  the  forts  whenever  they  could,  .^t  last,  in  July.  1813.  a  band  of  them  slipped  down 
into  the  Howard  settlements,  and  four  miles  northwest  of  Boonville  killed  a  settler  named 
Campbell  Bowlin  (Bolen),  of  Fort  Kincaid.  Bowlin  and  Adam  McCord  had  gone  frotn  the 
fort  to  Bowlin's  cabin  and  field  to  care   for  some  flax  that  had  long  been  neglected.     The 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  491 

treacherous  Miamis,  in  ambush,  fired  on  them  in  the  field  and  Bowlin  was  killed.  Their 
moccasin  tracks  in  the  field  were  followed  to  near  the  Miami  village,  thirty  miles  away, 
"Col.  Ben  Cooper  wrote  a  letter  to  Gov.  Clark,  at  St.  Louis,  inforniiiiK  him  of  the 
circumstances  and  of  the  general  conduct  of  the  Miamis,  and  asking  that  proper  action 
be  taken  against  them.  On  receipt  of  Col.  Cooper's  letter  Gov.  Howard  at  once  sent  a 
force  of  rangers  to  the  Miami  village.  The  Indians  surrendered  and  were  escorted  out 
of  the  country  after  the  stolen  property  had  been  restored   to  the  settlers. 

Fort  Cooper's  Fighting  Garrison. 

"In  September,  1813,  Braxton  Cooper,  of  Fort  Cooper,  was  killed  within  a  mile  or  so 
of  the  fort,  as  he  was  cutting  logs  for  a  cabin.  He  was  a  young  man  of  considerable 
physical  strength  and  great  courage.  He  had  his  rifle  and  knife  with  him.  and  the 
broken  bushes,  marks  on  the  ground,  and  other  circumstances  showed  that  he  had  sold 
his  life  at  the  highest  possible  price.  He  was  found  lying  on  his  face.  In  his  clenched 
right  hand  was  his  good  knife,  bloody  from  point  to  hilt;  by  his  side  lay  his  loaded 
gun.  He  was  not  scalped  or  mutilated,  and  everything  indicated  that  he  had  put  the 
Indians  to  flight  before  falling  dead  from  his  half  dozen  kullet  wounds.  Not  far  away 
was  found  an  Indian's  buckskin  hunting  shirt,  with  two  bloody  Ijullet  holes  in  it.  Cooper's 
faithful  dog  remained  by  his  side,  howling  as  if  for  help,  until  David  Boggs  and  Jesse 
Turner  crawled  out  to  him  during  the  night  and  recovered  the  body  of  his  master. 

"In  October  of  the  same  year  Stephen  Cooper,  then  a  boy  of  16,  and  another  young 
man  named  Joseph  Still,  both  of  Fort  Cooper  and  belonging  to  the'  rangers,  were  sent  up 
the  Chariton  river  on  a  scout.  They  were  returning,  when,  within  about  twenty-five  miles 
of  the  fort,  they  were  intercepted  by  over  100  Sac  Indians.  There  was  but  one  thing  to 
do.  The  two  rangers  rode  side  by  side  steadily  forward,  their  rifles  on  the  cock,  until 
within  100  yards  of  the  savages,  when  both  fired  and  then  charged.  Cooper  killed  a 
prominent  'brave'  and  Still  wounded  another.  Reaching  the  Indian  line  Still  was  shot 
dead  from  the  saddle,  Jiut  gallant  young  Cooper  dashed  through,  waving  his  rifle  and 
cheering,  and  succeeded  in  escaping  the  shower  of  bullets,  arrows  and  spears  sent  after 
him.  As  he  rode  a  good  horse  and  tlie  Indians  were  afoot  he  was  soon  safe,  and 
reached  the  fort  in  a  few  hours. 

"The  same  month  Wm.  McLane  was  killed  near  the  present  site  of  Fayette.  He, 
his  brother  Ewing,  and  four  other  men,  went  out  to  select  a  good  claim  for  one  of 
them.  They  came  upon  at  least  100  Indians — presumably  the  same  band  encountered  by 
Still  and  Cooper — and  started  to  return.  As  they  were  ascending  a"  slope  from  a  ravine 
that  empties  into  Moniteau  creek,  the  Indians  fired  and  McLane  fell  from  his  horse  with 
a  bullet  in  his  brain.  The  other  members  of  the  party  escaped.  The  Indians  scalped  Mc- 
Lane, hacked  his  body  to  pieces,  and  from  appearances  had  a  war-dance  over  it.  .\  strong 
party  of  rangers  went  out  to  punish  the  Indians  if  possible,  but  the  crafty  red  men 
burned  the  woods  and  destroyed  their  trail  so  that  it  could  not  be  followed.  A  week 
later,  however,  Capt.  Cooper's  rangers  came  upon  five  Indians  encamped  over  in  the 
Chariton  timber  and  wiped  them  all  out  in  a  twinkling.  On  the  body  of  one  of  the 
Indians  was  foimd  a  white  man's  scalp,  which  was  believed  to  have  been  McLane's. 

The  Perils  of  the  Salt  Makers. 

"Making  salt  at  Burckhartt's  Lick  to  supply  the  forts  was  a  perilous  business,  but  it 
had  to  be  done.  In  an  attack  on  the  salt-makers  at  this  lick  in  the  spring  of  181,?  Tames 
Alcorn,  Frank  Wood  and  two  other  men  drove  off  twenty  Indians,  killing  three  and 
wounding  others.  Frank  Wood  killed  two,  though  he  was  suffering  at  the  time  with  a 
severe  wound  in  the  arm  received   from  the   Indians  a  week  before. 

"In  another  attack  on  the  salt-makers  the  workmen  mounted  their  horses  to  retreat. 
In  reining  up  his  horse  John  .Austin  brought  up  the  animal's  head  so  as  to  shield  his 
own  person. 

"The  Indians  fired  and  shot  the  horse  in  the  head  and  it  fell.  .Austin  was  extricating 
himself  from  the  dead  animal,  every  moment  expecting  a  bullet  or  a  tomahawk,  when  a 
companion,  George  Huflf,  fired  on  the  advancing  warriors  and  actually  killed  two  of  them 


492  CEXTEXNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

at  a  single  shot.  The  otlier  Indians  fell  hack  and  took  to  cover,  while  Austin  and  Huff 
took  to  their  heels  and  escaped  to  Fort  Kincaid. 

"Over  on  the  Cooper  county  side  of  the  river,  and  especially  in  the  neighhorhood  of 
Cole's  Fort,  there  were  other  murders  from  time  to  time.  A  few  months  after  the  fort 
was  built  a  strong  hand  of  Indians  came  into  the  neighborhood.  At  the  time  there  were 
two  parties  from  the  fort  out  hunting.  In  one  of  these  were  two  men  named  Smith 
and  Savage,  who  on  their  way  to  the  fort  were  attacked  by  the  Indians.  At  the  first  fire 
Smith  was  severely  wounded,  but  he  staggered  on  to  within  fifty  yards  of  the  fort,  where 
he  was  again  wounded,  two  balls  entering  his  body.  He  fell,  and  Savage  turned  to  assist 
him,  but,  with  the  death  agony  upon  him.  the  stricken  man  handed  his  gun  to  Savage, 
saying:  'I  am  done  for;  take  my  gun  and  save  yourself,  and  help  the  people  in  the  fort.' 
Savage  then  ran  for  the  fort,  and  the  Indians  fired  twenty-five  shots  after  him  before 
he  could  get  inside  the  walls.  The  Indians  ran  up  and  scalped  Smith,  shook  the  gory 
trophy  at  his  friends,  and  barbarously  mutilated  his  body  in  plain  view  of  the  inmates  of 
the  fort,  and  then  retired  into  the  woods. 

"There  were  only  six  fighting  men  in  the  fort  at  the  time,  and  they  were  restrained 
from  firing  by  old  Aunt  Hanjiah  Cole,  who  urged  that  they  could  not  aflford  to  fight 
until  the  hunting  parties  had  all  returned.  These  parties  did  not  all  get  in  until  late 
in  the  night. 

"December  24,  1814,  Samuel  McMahan,  a  bold  settler  in  the  bottom  near  .\rrow  Rock, 
in  what  is  now  Saline  county,  was  killed  four  miles  west  of  Fort  Cole.  He  was  on  his 
way  to  the  fort  to  bring  up  his  cattle  corraled  there.  Two  young  men  named  Cole  and 
Roup,  and  old  Muke  Box,'  were  cutting  a  bee  tree  near  the  trail,  and  it  was  supposed 
that  the  Indians  were  crawling  upon  them  when  McMahan  came  riding  along.  They 
fired  on  him,  shot  him  through  the  body,  and  killed  his  horse.  He  sprang  up  and  ran 
toward  the  river,  but  the  Indians  soon  came  up  with  him,  and  killed  him  by  three  savage 
spear  thrusts  in  the  back.  They  then  scalped  him,  cut  off  his  head,  and  discmbowled  him. 
Hearing  the  firing.  Cole  and  Roup  ran  to  the  fort  and  gave  the  alarm.  Muke  Box  climbed 
a  tree,  and  as  the  Indians  were  returning  in  great  glee  from  the  killing  of  McMahan  he 
shot  one  of  them.  The  Indians,  in  some  alarm,  caught  up  the  body  and  bore  it  off,  limp 
and  lifeless,  but  it  was  afterward  found  in  a  ravine  a  mile  or  more  away. 

Brave  Sally  Gregg. 

"The  same  Christmas  Eve  \Vm.  Gregg,  who  had  ventured  to  settle  in  the  Big  Bottom, 
on  the  Saline  county  side,  was  killed.  He  was  crossing  the  river  on  his  return  to  his 
cabin  from  Fort  Cooper,  and  was  killed  in  his  canoe  as  he  was  paddling  to  the  shore  by 
some  Indians  in  ambush  on  the  south  bank.  His  brave  daughter.  Sally  Gregg,  recovered 
the  body  and  guarded  it  till  help  came.  The  next  day  the  men  at  Cole's  Fort,  re-enforced 
by  some  of  the  Howard  County  Rangers,  went  out  and  secured  the  mangled  remains  of 
McMahan.  James  Cole  carried  in  the  body  on  the  pommel  of  his  saddle,  and  David  Mc- 
Gee  brought  the  head,  wrapped  in  a  sheepskin.  The  remains  were  buried  on  the  site  of 
the  old  Boonville  Fair  Grounds. 

"The  following  day  all  of  the  settlers  living  in  the  vicinity  of  where  Boonville  now 
stands  repaired  to  the  house  of  good  old  Hannah  Cole,  in  East  Boonville,  and  within  a 
week  they  had  built  another  good,  strong  cabin  fort.  It  stood  on  the  edge  of  the  bluff, 
which  was  very  steep  at  that  point,  and  on  that — the  river — side  was  inaccessible  to  an 
attack.  Arrangements  were  made  for  a  plentiful  supply  of  water  from  the  river  in  case 
of  siege.  A  huge  well  bucket  was  fashioned  from  a  hollow  log  and  a  sort  of  flume  con- 
structed from  the  fort  down  into  the  water.  The  bucket  was  let  down  and  drawn  up 
through  this  flume  by  means  of  a  rope  and  windlass.  As  soon  as  the  fort  at  Hannah 
Cole's  was  completed,  the  old  fort  at  Capt.  Stephen  Cole's  a  mile  away,  was  abandoned 
and  all  the  settlers  gathered  into  the  new  fort.  But  these  precautions  proved  unneces- 
sary, as  the  killing  of  McMahan  and  Gregg  was  virtually  the  end  of  the  Indian  war  in  the 
Boone's  Lick  settlements,  although  small  bands  of  the  savages  occasionally  roamed 
through  the  country  a  \ear  or  so.  running  off  stock  and  committing  like  depredations." 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  493 

The  Miamis'  Version. 

A  different  version  of  the  trouble  with  the  Miamis  is  given  by  one  of  the 
early  writers  on  Indian  troubles  in  Missouri.  It  is  said  that  Colonel  Benjamin 
Cooper,  with  250  armed  settlers,  joined  Dodge  when  the  latter  reached  the  Boone's 
Lick  country  and  marched  with  him  against  the  Miamis.  They  swam  the  Mis- 
souri near  Arrow  Rock  and  went  to  the  fort  of  the  Miamis  but  the  Indians  had 
withdrawn  and  gone  into  camp.  The  Indians  at  once  surrendered.  They  had 
some  of  the  property  that  had  been  stolen  from  the  Boone's  Lick  settlers  but 
their  version  was  that  the  thieving  had  been  done  by  Sacs  and  Foxes  and  that 
the  stolen  property  had  been  sold  to  them  as  the  other  Indians  retreated  from  the 
Howard  county  raid.  Recognizing  some  of  their  property  in  the  hands  of  the 
Miamis,  Cooper's  men  began  to  take  possession  of  it.  Colonel  Dodge  com- 
manded that  this  summary  method  stop  and  that  an  investigation  of  the  cir- 
cumstances be  made.  Cooper  resented  the  interference  with  his  men.  Dodge 
called  on  his  regulars  to  stop  the  settlers.  Cooper,  so  tradition  has  it,  drew  his 
sword,  took  Dodge  by  the  collar  and  said :  "If  you  attempt  to  enforce  that  order, 
your  head  will  fly  off  your  shoulders  like  popcorn  off  a  hot  shovel."  The  Boone's 
Lick  settlers  had  their  own  way.  They  claimed  that  the  Miamis,  or  some  of  them, 
had  participated  in  the  raid  with  the  Sacs  and  Foxes.  It  developed  that  the 
Miamis  were  innocent. 

The  Council  at  Portage  des  Sioux. 

The  government  of  the  United  States,  after  the  acquisition  of  the  country, 
made  Auguste  Chouteau  a  colonel  and  looked  to  him  to  help  solve  immediate 
Indian  problems.  Having  stirred  up  the  hostility  of  the  tribes  as  a  part  of  the 
campaign  of  1812,  the  British  government,  under  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  in  1814, 
imposed  upon  the  United  States  the  responsibility  of  making  peace  among  the 
Indians.  And  the  United  States  selected  Auguste  Chouteau  as  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners to  bring  about  a  general  treaty.  Always  influential  with  the  Indians 
Colonel  Chouteau  achieved  his  greatest  feat  in  diplomacy  with  the  redmen  at  the 
council  held  at  Portage  des  Sioux,  across  the  Missouri  River  a  few  miles  above 
St.  Louis.  He  made  a  telling  talk  at  that  council,  using  with  rare  judgment  figura- 
tive speech  so  effective  with  Indians.  He  said:  "Put  in  your  minds  that  as  soon 
as  the  British  made  peace  with  us  they  left  you  in  the  middle  of  a  prairie  without 
shade  or  cover  against  the  sun  and  rain.  The  British  left  you  positively  in  the 
middle  of  a  prairie,  worthy  of  pity.  But  we  Americans  have  a  large  umbrella 
which  covers  us  against  the  sun  and  rain  and  we  offer  you,  as  friends,  a  share 
of  it." 

Auguste  Chouteau  was  a  man  of  pleasing  countenance,  light-haired,  with 
high  forehead  and  a  straight  nose,  always  smooth  shaven  and  carefully  dressed. 
At  Portage  des  Sioux,  while  one  of  these  Indian  conferences  was  in  progress,  a 
chief,  Black  Buffalo  of  the  Teton  Sioux,  died.  This  might  have  been  interpreted 
as  a  bad  omen  by  the  Indians.  The  white  men  were  disturbed  over  the  event. 
But  Big  Elk,  chief  of  the  Omahas,  averted  the  danger  by  an  oration.     He  said : 

"Do  not  grieve — misfortunes  will  happen  to  the  wisest  and  best  men.  Death  will 
come,  and  always  comes  out  of  season ;  it  is  the  command  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  all 
nations   and    people   must   obey.     What    is   past    and    cannot   be   prevented    should    not   be 


404  CEXTEXNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

gricvoil  lor.  Be  not  discouraged  or  displeased  then,  that  in  visiting  your  father  here  you 
have  lost  your  chief.  A  misfortune  of  this  kind  may  never  again  hefall  you,  but  this 
would  have  attended  you  pvhaps  at  your  own  village.  Five  times  have  I  visited  this 
land,  and  never  returned  with  sorrow  or  pain.  Misfortunes  do  not  flourish  particularly 
in  our  path — they  grow  everywhere. 

"What  a  misfortune  for  me  that  I  could  not  have  died  this  day,  instead  of  the  chief 
that  lies  before  us.  The  trifling  loss  my  nation  would  have  sustained  in  my  death  would 
have  been  doubly  paid  for  by  the  honours  of  my  burial — they  would  have  wiped  off  every- 
thing like  regret.  Instead  of  being  covered  with  a  cloud  of  sorrow — my  warriors  would 
have  felt  the  sunshine  of  joy  in  their  hearts.  To  me  it  would  have  been  a  most  glorious 
occurrence.  Hereafter,  when  I  die  at  home,  instead  of  a  noble  grave  and  a  grand  proces- 
sion, the  rolling  music  and  the  thundering  cannon,  with  a  flag  waving  at  my  head,  I 
shall  be  wrapped  in  a  robe  (an  old  robe,  perhaps),  and  hoisted  on  a  slender  scaffold  to 
the  whistling  winds,  soon  to  be  blown  down  to  the  earth — my  flesh  to  be  devoured  by  the 
wolves  and  my  bones  rattled  on  the  plains  by  the  wild  beasts. 

"Chief  of  the  soldiers — your  labors  have  not  been  in  vain ;  your  attention  shall  not  be 
forgotten.  My  nation  shall  know  the  respect  that  is  paid  over  the  dead.  When  I  return 
I  will  echo  the  sound  of  your  guns." 

The  British  Influence. 

In  his  nianagcnient  of  Indian  atifairs,  General  William  Clark  encountered  and 
combatted  influences  more  dangerous  than  the  savage  natures  of  his  wards.  Gen- 
eral Clark's  jurisdiction  extended  over  tribes  anywhere  west  of  the  Mississippi 
river.  Near  the  British  border  there  were  the  bloody  evidences  of  intrigue  in  the 
years  when  there  was  supposed  to  be  complete  peace  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  Stales.  Benjamin  O'Fallon  was  the  United  States  agent  for  Indian  affairs 
up  the  ^Missouri.  He  reported  to  General  William  Clark  at  St.  Louis.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1823  after  General  Ashley  and  his  party  of  fur  traders  had  suffered 
severely  from  the  attacks  of  the  Arickarees.  Captain  O'Fallon  sent  word  that 
General  Ashley  believed,  from  many  circumstances,  "The  British  traders  (Hud- 
son's Bav  Company")  are  exciting  the  Indians  against  us  to  drive  us  from  that 
quarter."  Captain  O'Fallon  added  his  own  \ie\v  to  General  Ashley's  suspicions. 
He  wrote : 

"I  was  in  hopes  that  the  British  traders  had  some  bounds  to  their  rapacity ;  I  was  in 
hopes  that  during  the  late  Indian  war,  in  which  they  were  so  instrumental  in  the  indis- 
criminate massacre  of  our  people,  that  they  had  become  completely  satiated  with  our 
blood,  but  it  appears  not  to  have  been  the  case.  Like  the  greedy  wolf,  not  yet  gorged 
with  the  flesh,  they  guard  over  the  bones ;  they  ravage  our  fields,  and  are  unwilling  that 
we  should  glean  them,  .\lthough  barred  by  the  Treaty  of  Ghent  from  participating  in 
our  Indian  trade,  they  presumed  and  are  not  satisfied,  but  being  alarmed  at  the  individual 
enterprise  of  our  people,  they  are  exciting  the  Indians  against  them.  They  furnish  them 
with  the  instruments  of  hell  and  a  passport  to  heaven — the  instruments  of  death  and  a 
passport  to  our  bosoms." 

Recollections  of  John  B.  Clark. 

General  John  II.  Clark  in  a  reminiscent  talk  at  his  home  in  Fayette  told  the 
writer  of  the  service  against  the  Indians  performed  by  the  Missourians  after  their 
own  homes  were  safe.  "The  troubles  that  Daniel  Boone  and  Cooper  and  the  other 
early  settlers  had  around  here  with  the  Indians  were  pretty  much  over  when  I 
came  to  Fayette.  Along  in  1812  there  was  a  good  deal  of  fighting  in  this  and  in 
Boone  and  Cooper  counties.    They  had  forts  near  Fayette.    But  when  we  came  in 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN'  WARS  495 

1818  it  was  pretty  safe  right  around  liere.  I  coiiinienced  studying  law  in  1819  in 
old  Judge  Tompkins'  ofifice  and  was  licensed  by  the  supreme  court  in  1824  to 
practice.  In  1823  the  county  seat  was  moved  from  Franklin,  on  the  river,  to 
Fayette,  and  I  was  appointed  county  clerk.  I  held  that  office  for  ten  years.  In  '24 
they  elected  me  a  colonel  of  militia,  and  in  '27,  brigadier-general.  That  meant 
service  in  those  days.  In  1832  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out.  The  governor 
ordered  me  to  take  a  regiment  of  mounted  men  and  go  under  General  Scott.  We 
were  out  three  months  and  must  ha\e  had  forty  battles.  Scott  was  fighting  Black 
Hawk  and  his  forces  over  in  Illinois.  I  was  ordered  to  keep  along  the  west  bank  of 
the  ^lississippi  and  prevent  the  lowas  and  other  tribes  from  crossing  over  to  join 
Black  Hawk.  They  kept  trying  and  we  were  in  for  a  fight  almost  even*-  day. 
That  service  lasted  three  months.  I  received  a  bullet  in  the  foot,  a  wound  in  the 
head  and  a  broken  leg  before  I  saw  the  end  of  it."' 

The  Northwest  Pivot  Man. 

Major  Daniel  Ashby  pushed  the  frontier  line  beyond  the  Boone's  Lick  country. 
He  came  in  1818;  and  when  he  raised  his  cabin  on  the  blu<?s  of  the  Chariton, 
'"there  was  no  white  man  between  him  and  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  the  west, 
and  there  was  none  between  him  and  the  Lake  of  the  W'oods  on  the  north."  He 
called  himself  "the  northwest  pivot  man  of  the  settlements  of  the  United  States." 

The  Ashbys  were  of  Virginia,  moving  to  Kentucky  and  settling  on  Salt  river, 
near  Harrodsburg.  True  to  the  family  form  for  pioneering,  Daniel  Ashby,  when 
he  had  married  Casander  Leeper  and  tested  his  nerves  by  acting  as  sheriff  of 
Hopkins  county,  moved  westward.  He  brought  with  him  a  group  of  adventurous 
spirits  including  Pleasant  Browder,  James  Leeper,  Thomas  Shumate  and  .\braham 
Sportsman.  As  capital  for  his  venture  in  Missouri  Ashby  drove  along  375 
stock  hogs.  His  first  enterprising  effort  was  to  learn  the  Indian  language.  In  a 
few  weeks  he  was  able  to  talk  to  the  lowas.  He  became  an  Indian  trader.  Duff 
Green,  the  Chariton  and  Franklin  merchant,  supplied  the  goods.  Ashby  did  the 
trading  and  divided  the  profits  with  Green.  For  five  years  this  trading  went  on. 
.■\nd  then  Ashby  became  the  man  of  acknowledged  influence  with  the  Indians  and 
leadership  among  the  settlers  on  the  Chariton  border.  Of  some  of  his  adventures 
with  the  Indians  in  the  twenties,  Major  Ashby  left  this  narrative  which  is  in  the 
possession  of  Perry  S.  Rader : 

"The  Indians  in  the  country  were  generally  friendly,  but  we  would  occasionally  have 
difficulties  with  them,  often  arising  from  misconduct  of  the  whites,  who  would  trade 
them  whiskey  or  cause  trouble  by  cheating  them  in  some  way.  An  Indian  will  steal ; 
they  even  celebrate  the  act  as  one  of  bravery.  I  have  been  at  their  celebrations  or  festi- 
vals. They  set  up  a  pole  with  snags  on  it  to  hang  things  on.  .Around  this  they  clear 
off  the  brush  or  grass  forming  a  ring,  about  which  they  dance,  sing  and  heat  their  little 
drums  with  one  stick :  one  fellow  will  come  in  and  hang  on  the  pole,  for  instance,  a  bear 
skin,  and  if  there  is  any  brave  there  who  thinks  he  is  a  better  bear  hunter  than  the  one 
who  hung  up  the  skin  he  will  take  it  down.  Then  the  crowd  or  referees  make  inquiry 
as  to  which  has  achieved  the  greatest  exploits  in  hunting,  capturing  and  killing  the  bear. 
Then  the  evidence  of  the  other  Indians  is  taken,  and  the  one  in  whose  favor  the  contro- 
versy is   decided  again  hangs  up   the  skin. 

"Then  they  dance  round  the  pole  and  beat  their  drums,  singing  in  celebration  of  the 
lucky  brave  who  has  been  decided  the  greatest  bear  hunter  of  the  tribe  or  nation.  Just 
so  with  stealing.     One  will  come  in  and  hang  a  bridle  on  the  pole,  and  if  no  one  disputes 


496  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

his  rights  he  is  praised  and  conceded  to  be  the  greatest  horse  thief  ot  the  tribe.  And  so 
on  with  the  most  trivial  articles.  The  squaws  take  no  part  in  the  dances,  but  sit  around 
and  look  on  smiling,  but  are  not  allowed  to  laugh  aloud.  If  a  squaw  happens  to  laugh 
aloud  at  any  of  the  performances  she  has  to  leave  the  ring  and  is  not  allowed  to  return 
during  the  festival.  They  generally  conclude  their  ceremonies  and  exercises  by  some  man 
bringing  in  a  boy  pappoose,  when  the  mother  is  permitted  to  join  in  the  jollification,  and 
a  great  one  it  is.  When  present,  as  I  often  was,  I  was  always  invited  to  participate 
with  them,  and  in  some  instances  I  have  done  so.  On  one  occasion  I  hung  on  the  center 
pole  a  large  buck  skin,  meaning  to  claim  that  I  was  the  best  deer  hunter. 

The  Laws  of  the  lowas. 

"They  had  some  kind  of  laws  between  themselves,  which  tliey  enforced.  On  one 
occasion  there  was  a  party  of  Indians  hunting  in  the  settlements  of  the  whites,  and  being 
scarce  of  meat,  killed  a  hog.  The  owner  went  to  the  agent  who  was  with  the  Indians,  and 
made  complaint  about  his  hog.  He  called  the  chiefs  together,  and  they,  sitting  as  a  court, 
heard  the  evidence  and  decided  that  each  one  of  the  party  participating  in  the  offence 
should  receive  forty  stripes  with  a  good  switch,  to  be  administered  by  White  Cloud,  a 
very  large  chief.  While  the  culprits  were  having  the  punishment  adjudged  inflicted  on 
them,  the  agent  went  to  the  scene  of  the  whipping  and  just  as  he  got  there  Wynoneway 
hauled  off  his  blanket  and  took  his  seat,  and  hugged  the  sapling  to  receive  his  forty 
lashes.  Now  Wynoneway,  or  in  English,  'Turkey,'  was  known  to, be  the  best  Indian  in 
the  nation  and  was  not  one  of  the  party  that  stole  the  hog,  and  in  reality  was  one  of  the 
best  men  of  the  nation.  On  seeing  this  the  agent  told  them  to  hold  on  and  asked  what 
Wynoneway  had  done  that  they  were  going  to  whip  or  'hiwassey'  him,  for  so  whipping 
is  called  in  the  Iowa  tongue.  They  explained  that  some  years  before  a  man  had  died, 
leaving  a  boy  whom  he  requested  Wynoneway  to  raise  for  him.  The  boy  had  been  with 
the  guilty  parties  and  being  too  small  to  whip,  Wynoneway  was  going  to  receive  it  in  his 
stead,  and  when  the  boy  got  large  enough,  then  Wynoneway  would  give  it  to  him.  The 
agent  told  Wynoneway  to  get  up  and  put  on  his  blanket,  that  it  was  not  necessary  for 
him  to  receive  the  lashes,  but  to  remember  it  and  deal  with  the  boy  as  he  thought  right 
hereafter. 

Major  Ashby's  Foot  Race  with  a  Chief. 

"Those  Indians  were  very  ambitious,  wishing  to  e.xcel  all  others  in  anything  they 
did.  In  shooting  with  a  rifle,  running  foot  races  and  similar  sports  they  especially  ex- 
celled. It  was  not  until  I  had  won  several  packs  of  skins  from  them  that  they  were  will- 
ing to  admit  my  superiority  as  a  marksman.  Whenever  an  Indian  does  anything  of  this 
kind,  or  has  any  kind  of  a  contest,  he  invariably  bets  something,  if  no  more  than  a  pipe, 
blanket,  skins  or  pony.  They  cannot  do  without  betting;  nevertheless,  if  they  stake  any- 
thing on  the  result  of  a  contest  and  are  beaten,  they  will  give  up  honorably.  .After  I 
had  beaten  many  of  them  running  I  went  to  Mr.  Robidoux's  trading  house  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  some  of  my  neighbors'  horses  that  had  been  stolen  by  the  Indians.  While 
there  I  observed  a  large,  fine  looking  chief  examining  me  very  closely,  and  after  a  while 
an  acquaintance  named  Jim  came  to  me  and  told  me  that  the  big  chief  Watchemoney, 
wanted  to  run  a  race  with  me;  that  some  of  the  men  had  been  telling  him  that  I  was 
the  muckeman  that  had  beaten  so  many  of  the  lowas  running  races.  I  told  Jim  to  tell 
the  chief  that  I  would  run  with  him.  We  prepared  for  the  race;  Watchemoney  put  up  a 
very  fine,  large  pipe,  beautifully  ornamented  with  beads,  porcupine  quills  and  feathers.  ~  I 
put  up  a  bridle  with  plated  bits  and  buckles.  We  ran,  and,  as  I  had  anticipated,  I  won  the 
fine  pipe.  I  took  it,  loaded  it  up  and  began  smoking,  .\fter  smoking  awhile  I  got  ready 
to  leave,  when  I  went  up  to  the  chief,  gave  him  back  his  pipe,  shook  hands  with  him  and 
left.  I  saw  a  great  change  come  over  the  chief's  countenance  when  I  gave  him  the  pipe. 
He  shook  my  hand  very  cordially  and  exclaimed,  'Good  muckeman.' 

"Muckeman  Run  Like  a  Muncha." 

"Tliere  was  an  Indian  who  came  in  with  a  large  party,  who,  as  I  ascertained  from 
'Iowa  Jim,'  had  come  expressly  to  beat  me  running.     So  we  put  up  a  pack  of  skins  worth 


T1[K  TOWN  CKIEK 
Scene  at  Third  and  I'lum  Streets.     Lost  child  advertised.     Tlie 
crier  carried  circulars,  rang  his  bell  to  attract  attention  and  made 
announcements.    A  St.  Louis  custom  about  1840.    From  a  painting 
by  Matt.  Hastings  in  the  Missouri  Historical  Society  collection. 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  499 

about  ten  dollars  and  ran  one  hundred  yards.  I  beat  him  some  fifteen  feet.  The  crowd 
of  Indians  who  had  come  with  him  jumped  up  and  down,  hallooed  and  made  all  kinds  of 
rejoicing.  I  was  surprised  at  these  demonstrations,  as  the  Indian  I  beat  I  supposed  was 
a  member  of  their  tribe;  but  Jim  told  me  he  was  an  Ottoe  Indian  that  had  been  amongst 
the  lowas,  and  on  returning  to  their  grounds  they  told  him  there  was  a  muckeman  (white 
man)  that  had  beaten  all  the  fast  lowas.  The  Ottoe  bragged  and  said  he  could  beat  all 
the  muckeman,  and  kept  up  this  boasting  during  the  entire  trip  down ;  he  would  show  by 
his  hands  how  the  race  would  be,  always  making  the  hand  representing  himself  beat  a 
long  distance.     His  defeat  appeared  to  do  the  lowas  more  good  than  it  did  me. 

"The  Ottoe  looked  badly  cowed,  but  at  last  he  said  the  distance  was  too  short,  and 
that  if  I  would  go  back  as  far  again  he  could  beat  me.  So  I  consented  and  he  put  up 
another  pack  of  skins  and  we  ran  two  hundred  yards.  I  had  never  run  that  distance 
before,  but  when  it  came  to  the  last  fifty  yards  the  Indian  gave  out  and  I  beat  him 
further  than  I  did  the  first  race.  The  Indian  then  said  the  lowas  had  not  told  him  how 
fast  I  could  run.  I  could  not  understand  him,  but  'Iowa  Jim'  told  me  what  he  said.  I 
told  Jim  to  tell  him  the  lowas  did  not  know  how  fast  I  could  run.  I  asked  Jim  what  the 
Ottoe  said,  and  Jim  'grinning,  replied  that  he  says,  'Vou  can  run  as  fast  as  you  please 
or  want  to.' 

"After  this  the  Indians  quit  running  with  me,  but  would  shoot  with  me  for  skins. 
When  asked  to  run  they  would  say,  'Muckeman  run  lika  a  muncha,'  which  in  English 
meant  '\Vhite  man  run  like  a  bear.'  They  would  say  of  the  Ottoe,  "He  can  run  well  but  not 
fast  enough.' 

"The  first  Indians  to  visit  me  after  I  came  to  Missouri,  did  so  early  in  the  spring. 
^  It  being  December  before  I  arrived,  the  Indians  had  all  left  their  hunting  grounds  and 
gone  to  their  towns  for  winter  quarters.  John  Harris  and  wife  were  living  with  me. 
Harris  and  myself  had  made  a  very  homely  cabin  without  windows  and  had  nailed  clap- 
boards on  the  insides  of  all  the  cracks.  When  spring  came  the  women  pulled  off  all  the 
boards  that  covered  one  crack  the  whole  length  of  the  cabin,  to  give  light  in  place  of  a 
window.  My  wife  and  Mrs.  Harris  were  sisters,  but  not  at  all  alike  in  disposition.  My 
wife  was  not  easily  frightened,  while  Mrs.  Harris  was  very  timid.  Neither  of  them  had 
ever  seen  an  Indian,  but  had  heard  many  frightful  stories  about  their  savage  cruelties. 

Getting  Acquainted  with  the  lowas. 

"One  bright  Sabbath  morning  in  .April,  we  all  were  seated  at  the  breakfast  table 
when  one  of  us  made  the  startling  discovery  that  the  open  crack  along  the  cabin  was 
filled  with  eyes  as  close  together  as  one  head  could  be  placed  by  the  side  of  another. 
When  Mrs.  Harris  saw  this  collection  of  eyes  she  cried  out  with  alarm  and  jumped  like 
a  chicken  with  its  head  cut  off.  As  soon  as  the  Indians  saw  what  an  alarm  they  had 
caused,  they  all  disappeared.  One  fellow  then  came  round  to  the  door — we  had  but  one — 
walked  in  and  sat  down.  None  of  us  knew  a  word  of  their  language.  I  asked  him  sev- 
eral questions  in  English  such  as  'what  nation  do  you  belong  to,'  etc.,  at  which  he  would 
put  his  finger  to  his  ear  and  shake  his  head  indicating  he  did  not  understand  me. 

"The  entire  party,  some  forty  or  fifty,  consisting  of  men.  squaws  and  pappooses.  went 
down  near  the  spring,  unpacked  their  ponies,  stretched  their  wigwams  and  stayed  there 
some  two  weeks.  At  first  I  noticed  that  some  of  the  men  appeared  saucy  and  went  about 
where  they  pleased,  frequently  invading  my  rights  and  interfering  with  my  property.  At 
this  time  lead  was  a  very  scarce  article  and  worth  twenty-five  cents  per  pound  and  hard 
to  get  for  that.  I  had  a  gun  which  carried  a  half-ounce  ball,  with  which  I  had  practiced 
shooting  at  a  mark  on  a  large  tree  near  the  cabin.  I  think  I  had  shot  two  or  three  pounds 
of  lead  into  the  tree.  One  morning  I  saw  a  large  stalwart  Indian  chopping  the  lead  out 
of  this  tree,  and  I  went  to  him  and  made  motions  for  him  to  stop  cutting  it  out,  but  he 
paid  no  attention  to  me,  and  at  last,  becoming  vexed,  I  jumped  at  him  and  caught  hold 
of  the  axe  handle.  He  jerked  it,  but  I  held  on  and  got  both  hands  on  the  handle  when  1 
gave  a  violent  jerk  and  brought  him  down  on  the  ground.  I  then  set  my  foot  on  his 
breast  and  wrenched  the  axe  out  of  his  hands  and  drew  it  up  as  if  I  intended  striking 
him  with  it,  when  he  whirled  over  and  ran  off  on  his  hands  and  feet  towards  the  Indian 
camp.     I  tlien  walked  to  my  cabin,  and  passing  near  the  camp  I  threw  the  axe  toward  the 


500  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Indian  camp.  That  fellow  never  came  near  my  cabin  again  while  they  encamped  there. 
N'one  of  the  rest  afterwards  interfered  with  anything  that  did  not  belong  to  them.  It  is 
a  trait  in  the  Indian  character  that  if  they  find  you  will  give  way  to  them  they  will  take 
everything  they  want,  but  if  jou  make  a  manful  resistance,  they  will  respect  your  rights. 
I  knew  some  timid  men  who  moved  out  to  the  frontier  and  the  Indians  came  and  learned 
from  the  advances  they  never  fail  to  make,  that  they  feared  to  resist  them  and  they  took 
everything  they  had  to  eat  and  compelled  them  to  remove  to  the  settlements. 

"I  was  from  home  one  day  helping  a  neighbor  raise  a  cabin ;  my  wife  went  with  me, 
leaving  three  children  at  home,  the  eldest  of  whom  was  a  little  girl  about  nine  years  old. 
Soon  after  the  departure  of  my  wife  and  myself  some  four  or  five  Indians  came  to  the 
house,  took  the  head  oflf  the  bee  stand,  took  out  as  much  honey  as  they  wanted,  dug  up  a 
lot  of  potatoes,  stole  a  pet  pig  I  had  in  the  yard  and  went  off.  The  children  ran  across  to 
our  neighbor  and  got  a  boy  to  come  and  let  me  know  of  the  depredations  the  Indians  had 
committed.  I  immediately  went  in  pursuit  of  the  red  rascals,  taking  with  me  a  neighbor 
and  a  large  negro  man,  and  after  following  on  their  trail  until  nearly  sunset  we  overtook 
two  of  them,  but  did  not  find  the  one  who  had  stolen  the  pig.  The  two  we  found  had 
some  potatoes  and  honey.  I  stripped  their  blankets  from  their  shoulders  ■and  pulled  their 
arms  around  a  sapling  and  held  them  one  at  a  time  until  the  negro  gave  them  a  whipping 
or  'hiwassey,'  as  they  called  it.  I  then  told  them  that  if  the-  pig  was  not  brought  back  to 
my  house  by  the  time  the  sun  was  up  the  ne.xt  morning,  I  would  take  their  tracks,  follow 
them  up  and  take  their  scalps.  I  then  went  home  and  sometime  during  the  night  I  heard 
the  pig  around  the  cabin  hunting  for  something  to  eat.  I  was  away  from  home  many 
times  afterwards  when  Indians  would  pass  my  cabin,  but  never  knew  them  to  take  or 
disturb  anything.  y 

A  Fight  with  a  Bad  Indian. 

"In  the  spring  of  T825,  I,  with  Henry  T.  Williams,  Thomas  Williams,  John  P.  Williams 
(the  latter  a  boy  some  ten  years  of  age)  and  Henry  C.  Sevier  went  on  a  surveying  expedi- 
tion up  the  Grand  Chariton  river,  and  while  thus  en,c;aged  we  were  attacked  by  an 
infuria^ted  savage.  At  first  a  sober  Indian  came  to  us  on  horseback  with  a  rifle  on  his 
shoulder  and  told  us  that  there  was  a  'bad  Indian'  comin;?  and  said  for  us  to  run.  Directly 
we  saw  an  Indian,  yelling  the  war  whoop  of  his  tribe.  I  told  Henry  T.  Williams  what  the 
Indian  had  said  and  Williams  said,  'Tell  him  to  stop  him,  for  if  he  comes  here  we  will 
kill  him.'  I  told  the  Indian  what  was  said  and  he  rode  back  to  meet  the  other  one,  and 
intercepted  him  several  times.  I  soon  saw  he  was  afraid  of  the  rabid  scoundrel,  and 
would  give  way  whenever  the  fellow  would  approach  him  w'ith  his  knife  drawn  in  a 
threatening  manner.  When  the  good,  or  sober,  Indian  found  he  could  not  stop  the 
infuriated  red  skin  he  rode  off  to  one  side  and  looked  on  awhile  to  see  what  would  happen, 
no  doubt  expecting  to  see  one  of  us  killed.  The  other  Indian  came  ahead,  yelling  at  the 
top  of  his  voice,  and  brandishing  his  knife  in  a  most  threatening  manner.  When  the 
attacking  savage  got  within  thirty  or  forty  yards  of  us.  our  men  became  alarmed  at  him 
with  his  large,  bright,  glittering  knife  in  his  right  hand,  with  his  thumb  on  the  handle, 
with  it  raised  over  his  head,  screaming  the  hideous  war  whoop,  which  is  enough  to  chill 
the  blood  in  every  vein  of  almost  any  man.  I  was  carrying  the  hind  end  of  the  chain ; 
Henry  T.  Williams,  the  compass;  H.  C.  Sevier,  the  fore  end  of  the  chain;  John  P.  Williams, 
the  ax.  The  boy.  John  P.  Williams,  was  near  me  and  I  called  to  him  to  hand  me  the  ax, 
which  he  promptly  did,  but  was  frightened  and  crowded  up  close  to  me,  so  close  in  fact 
that  I  had  to  shove  him  away  from  me  to  get  room  to  draw  my  ax  back  in  readiness  to 
strike.  This  was  done  in  great  haste,  for  the  Indian  with  his  knife  drawn  over  his  head 
was  within  ten  steps  of  me  and  coming  rapidly.  His  eyes  looked  green  like  a  wounded 
panther,  his  distorted  features  were  frightful ;  there  was  no  time  for  dodging.  I  did  not 
know  whether  the  poll  or  edge  of  the  ax  was  foremost,  but  luckily  for  the  Indian  the 
poll  was  foremost.  When  he  got  close  enough  I  struck  with  all  the  power  in  me ;  and 
had  the  edge  been  foremost  the  stroke  would  have  sent  the  ax  through  his  head ;  nothing 
could  have  saved  his  life.  The  poll  struck  him  on  the  right  cheek  and  burst  the  bone  all 
awaj-,  splitting  the  skin  and  flesh  up  into  the  eye  and  down  in  the  mouth.     The  lick  was  so 


MISSOURIS  INDIAN  WARS  501 

severe  and  given  with  such  force  that  the  weight  of  the  Indian  was  not  sufficient  to  stop 
the  force  of  the  ax,  which  weighed  seven  pounds.  Nor  was  my  grip  sufficient  to  retain 
the  handle.  So  the  ax  went  with  the  Indian  and  when  it  fell  it  kept  on  and  turned  over 
several  times  beyond.  I  then  ran  around  and  picked  up  the  ax,  but  saw  at  once  that  there 
was  no  danger  of  a  second  attack  from  that  Indian,  for  he  was  to  all  appearances  stone 
dead.  But  the  sober  Indian  on  the  pony  with  his  rifle  in  his  hand  was  the  next  one  to 
be  attended  to.  We  were  in  an  open  bottom  prairie,  and  the  Indian  could  ride  upon  us 
and  kill  one  or  more  of  us  and  safely  ride  away. 

"I  really  expected  when  he  saw  his  companion  lying  as  if  dead  he  would  shoot  one 
of  us.  In  case  he  shot  at  me  I  intended  to  hold  the  ax  as  well  as  I  could  in  front  of  me 
to  protect  my  vital  parts.  However,  he  rode  slowly  up  to  within  fifteen  or  twenty  steps, 
stopped  his  pony,  sat  there  silently  looking  on  for  a  few  moments,  dismounted  and  walked 
about  half  way  to  mc.  stopped,  laid  down  his  gun,  held  up  both  hands,  walked  this  way 
to  where  I  stood  and  said,  "Arropee,"  which  in  English  meant  'I  am  good.'  For  fear  he 
might  not  be  so  'arropee'  when  he  saw  his  comrade  was  killed,  I  walked  quickly  by  him 
and  picked  up  his  rifle.  Then  we  all  walked  up  to  where  the  Indian  lay,  and  Henry  T. 
Williams  said,  'You  have  killed  him.'  I  saw  that  he  was  lying  on  his  back,  with  a  frightful 
hole  in  his  cheek  up ;  so  no  blood  could  escape  except  down  his  throat.  I  then  laid  down 
the  ax  and  gun,  took  him  by  the  shoulder,  turned  him  over  and  beat  him  several  times  on 
the  back  so  as  to  make  the  blood  flow  from  the  lungs,  when  there  issued  from  the  wound 
a  great  quantity  of  blood,  some  of  which  was  curdled  and  looked  like  molded  candles; 
some  pieces  being  a  half-inch  long  that  came  out  of  his  wind  pipe. 

"After  beating  out  the  blood  as  well  as  I  could  I  turned  him  on  his  back  again,  and 
shortly  saw  signs  of  life  like  a  pulse  beating  low  down  in  his  stomach,  which  was  raised 
higher  and  higher  until  his  whole  stomach  heaved  up  and  the  breath  blew  out  of  the 
incision  made  by  the  ax,  splashing  the  blood  all  over  us  who  were  standing  near  him. 
By  this  time  I  had  become  cool  and  anxious  he  should  get  well,  though  I  thought  it  very 
doubtful.  The  sober  Indian  then  told  me  that  we  had  better  leave  there,  for  said  he, 
'There  are  thirteen  more  out  at  the  camp  on  the  river,  all  bad  Indians;  fire  water  too 
much,'  meaning  all  were  drunk. 

"I  then  told  Henry  T.  Williams  what  the  Indian  said,  and  we  agreed  after  consultation 
to  move  our  camp  into  another  township,  over  a  large  creek  that  was  full  of  water,  as  it 
had  been  raining  the  night  before.  Thomas  Williams  was  sick  at  camp.  I  told  Sevier  and 
John  P.  Williams  to  go  on  to  camp  and  prepare  for  moving.  After  some  time,  enough 
for  the  man  and  boy  to  get  to  the  camp,  thinking  perhaps  that  when  Henry  T.  Williams 
and  myself,  being  all  left  with  the  Indian,  started  to  leave  for  camp,  the  Indian,  who  was 
very  much  grieved  at  the  fate  of  his  companion  and  was  standing  crying  over  him,  might 
attempt  to  avenge  himself  and  comrade  by  shooting  one  of  us  as  we  were  going  away 
which  he  could  do  with  impunity,  for  we  both  were  unarmed,  I  concluded  to  leave  his 
gun  empty.  So  I  quietly  took  up  the  gun  and  fired  it  off  in  the  air.  The  Indian  was 
standing  perfectly  absorbed  in  watching  his  wounded  comrade,  not  thinking  of  the  gun 
being  fired.  So,  when  it  was  discharged,  making  a  very  loud  report,  he  was  very  badly 
frightened.  He  jumped  up  off  the  ground  and  exclaimed,  'Woo.'  Seeing  that  no  harm 
was  intended  him  he  patted  me  all  over  and  said :  '.Arropee !  arropee !  muckeman  !'  which 
in  English  meant,  'good,  very  good  white  man.'  I  then  lay  down  his  gun  and  we  started 
for  the  camp,  walking  pretty  rapidly.  Every  now  and  then  I  would  look  back  and  see  if 
the  Indian  was  loading  his  rifle,  which  I  knew  would  take  some  time,  so  we  might  be 
enabled,  if  necessary,  to  run  and  we  could  probably  make  the  camp,  where  we  had  an 
excellent  rifle  which  would  have  placed  us  on  an  equal  footing  with  him.  But  he  never 
touched  the  rifle  while  we  were  in  sight.  Aiter  a  little  while  he  put  the  wounded  Indian 
across  his  pony  like  a  sack  of  meal,  and  held  him  by  one  leg  with  one  hand,  and  led  the 
pony  with  the  other.  He  went  out  in  the  direction  they  came.  When  we  got  to  our  camp 
the  boys  had  everything  ready  to  leave.  I  told  them  I  had  never  known  them  to  be  so 
smart  in  getting  ready  to  leave  before.  From  there  we  crossed  the  east  fork  of  the 
Chariton  river  into  another  township,  where  we  remained  at  our  surveying  unmolested. 

"Some  six  months  after  this'  occurrence,  two  Indians  came  to  my  house,  one  of  whom 


502  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

was  named  Wahookey,  a  brother  to  the  one  with  whom  I  had  the  encounter.  They  both 
had  rifles ;  tliey  came  into  my  front  yard  and  Wahookey  commenced  by  saying,  'You  killed 
my  brother;  you  pay  me  six  ponies.' 

When  Wahookey  Weakened. 

"I  told  liim  his  brother  was  a  bad  Indian  and  tried  to  kill  me.  Wahookey  said  I  lied 
Henry  Ashby,  my  brother,  a  young  man  and  living  with  me,  was  present.  I  gave  him  the 
wink  and  walked  round  to  the  back  door  of  the  house,  as  the  front  door  was  shut.  I  told 
him  the  big  Indian  had  called  me  a  liar,  and  that  I  saw  he  was  determined  to  create  a 
disturbance  so  as  to  get  an  excuse  to  kill  me,  for  he  said  I  killed  his  brother.  I  then  told 
Henry  to  take  his  rifle  and  I  would  take  mine  (we  had  two  as  good  as  ever  were  and  both 
in  good  condition),  and  we  would  go  out  into  the  yard,  and  if  they  did  not  go  at  the  word, 
for  him  to  shoot  the  smaller  one  and  I  would  attend  to  the  big  one,  Wahookey. 

"At  this  point  Henry  made  a  suggestion,  about  which  I  frequently  laughed  at  him 
afterwards.  He  said,  'Here  is  a  crack  by  the  door ;  maybe  we  had  better  shoot  them  out 
of  it.'  'Oh,  no.'  said  I,  'we  may  scare  them  off  without  killing  either  oV  them,  which  I 
greatly  prefer,  so  we  will  go  round  the  house,  ready  to  shoot,  and  if  they  make  any  motion 
like  resistance,  we  can  shoot  before  they  can.' 

"So  we  went  around  and  prepared  to  shoot  in  an  instant.  I  then  spoke  in  an  angry 
tone  in  their  own-  language,  'Puck  a  chee.  Peas  cooney  ca  ha,'  which  meant,  'leave  or 
run,  you  mean  scoundrels.'  At  the  words  they  ran,  not  even  taking  time  to  shoulder  their 
rifles.  As  far  as  I  could  see  them,  the  farther  they  went  the  faster  they  ran.  I  did  not 
like  the  signs  of  the  times,  for  I  knew  the  Indians'  great  desire  for  revenge,  and  many 
of  my  friends  insisted  on  leaving  the  country  at  least  for  a  while.  I  did  think  for  a  while 
that  I  would  do  so,  but  never  did, 

"At  another  time  the  same  Indians,  in  company  with  eight  or  ten  others,  came  to 
Judge  Morse's,  about  two  and  a  half  miles  from  my  house.  Having  been  drinking  so  much 
that  it  made  them  outspoken  on  the  subject  of  being  revenged  for  the  death  of  the  Indian 
I  had  killed,  old  Wahookey  proposed  that  they  should  go  to  my  house  and  make  me  sleep, 
as  they  expressed  it;  but  in  the  company  was  my  friend,  Iowa  Jim,  who  opposed  the  plan 
of  making  me  sleep,  saying  I  was  a  good  warrior  and  his  best  friend.  Judge  Morse  could 
understand  some  of  their  language,  .so  he  secretly  put  his  little  son  on  a  horse  and  sent 
him  around  to  let  me  know  that  the  Indians  were  going  to  kill  me.  It  so  happened  that 
James  Leeper,  Champaign  Turpin,  John  Harris  and  James  Bourland,  all  my  neighbors, 
had  just  come  to  my  house,  bringing  their  guns  with  them  to  go  hunting.  After  the  little 
boy  delivered  his  message,  we  sent  him  home  around  so  as  not  to  meet  the  Indians  if  they 
were  coming.  We  also  sent  my  family  to  a  neighbor's  house.  We  saddled  our  horses  and 
took  them  round  to  the  back  of  the  farm  and  there  hitched  them  in  the  corn,  which  was 
very  high,  it  being  in  September,  and  concealed  ourselves  in  the  corners  of  the  fence  to 
await  the  coming  of  the  gang.  However,  fortunately  for  them,  my  friends  among  them 
prevailed,  and  they  passed  on  without  coming  to  my  house.  We  waited  until  sunrise  the 
next  morning,  having  passed  a  sleepless  night  in  considerable  anxiety,  expecting  an  attack 
from  them.  Even  if  we  had  repulsed  them  it  might  have  involved  the  settlements  in  an 
Indian  war.  This  was  "the  last  raid  they  ever  made  so  far  as  I  could  learn  afterward. 
Iowa  Jim  always  stood  by  me,  and  to  his  last  day  was  a  warm  and  devoted  friend  of  mine. 

Panic  in  the  Bluff  Settlement. 

"I  remember  another  difficulty  with  the  Indians  which  now  may  seem  a  very  small 
affair,  after  witnessing  the  terrible  battles  of  the  recent  Civil  war;  but  at  the  time  it 
happened  it  was  regarded  as  a  serious  engagement,  for  there  were  but  few  small,  sparsely 
populated  settlements  in  our  country,  and  a  little  disturbance  affecting  the  lives  and  happi- 
ness of  ourselves,  wives  and  children  naturally  would  create  a  great  commotion.  There 
was  a  small  band  of  Iowa  Indians  came  into  a  settlement,  on  a  creek  called  the  Wakenda. 
And  six  or  eight  men  in  company  with  the  notorious  Martin  Palmer,  who,  when  drinking, 
called  himself  the  'Ring-Tail  Painter,'  became  involved  in  a  difficulty  with  them.  They 
got   into   a   fight   with   the   Indians,   and   I   always   blamed  the   'Ring-Tailed    Painter'   with 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  503 

inciting  the  difficulty  and  bringing  on  the  bloodshed.  In  the  fight  the  whites  killed  three 
of  the  lowas  and  wounded  one  or  two  more,  at  which  the  surviving  Indians  went  on  the 
war  path,  threatening  to  get  the  balance  of  their  band  and  massacre  the  entire  settlements. 

"In  those  times  when  any  trouble  took  place  with  the  Indians,  all  the  frontier  settlers 
had  to  leave  their  homes  and  flee  to  the  large  settlements  for  safety  until  the  troubles 
passed  over.  At  this  time  there  was  a  small  settlement  called  the  Bluflf  settlement,  where 
I  lived,  which  was  one  of  the  outposts.  At  the  time  of  the  disturbance  I  was  in  Howard 
county,  and  on  my  return  to  my  home  I  crossed  the  Bowling  Green  prairie.  This  prairie 
was  about  six  miles  wide,  being  a  high,  level  second  bottom,  very  rich,  producing  tall, 
coarse  grass. 

"The  day  was  very  hot  and  the  green  head  flies  fairly  swarmed  around  me.  After 
pushing  through  the  grass  in  great  haste  across  the  prairie  so  as  to  get  rid  of  the  annoying 
flies,  I  got  within  about  a  mile  of  the  bluffs,  when  I  saw  some  kind  of  a  caravan  coming 
helter-skelter  towards  me.  Wondering  what  on  earth  it  was  I  hastened  to  meet  it.  When 
1  encountered  the  outfit  I  found  the  whole  Bluff  settlement  on  a  dead  run  to  a  larger 
settlement,  my  wife  and  children  in  the  crowd,  and  all  badly  frightened  over  the  prospect 
of  an  Indian  outbreak.  Of  all  I  had  met  with  this  was  the  worst.  .'Vt  first  I  tried  to 
persuade  all  of  them  to  return  to  their  homes;  but  I  could  not  do  this.  I  then  proposed 
that  we  should  return  to  the  timber  and  cut  down  trees  with  which  to  make  breastworks 
and  block-houses  so,  we  could  defend  ourselves  if  attacked,  but  the  excited  crowd  would 
not  hear  to  this.  Nothing  would  do  but  to  go  on  across  the  prairie,  and  so  on  we  all  went, 
with  the  green  head  flies  so  bad  that  they  bit  the  children,  making  them  cry.  Some  had 
horses  and  some  oxen  hitched  to  their  wagons.  My  family  was  in  a  large  sled  drawn  oyer 
the  dry  ground  by  a  large  yoke  of  oxen.  In  this  shape  on  we  went  pell-mell,  without  system 
or  order,  but  every  fellow  trying  to  be  foremost.  I  made  no  attempt  at  order  until  we 
entered  the  thick  bottom  tim1)er  south  of  the  Bowling  Green,  where  we  soon  got  rid  of  the 
worst  plague,  the  green  head  flies, 

"After  ftavelling  a  few  miles,  we  found  some  empty  cabins,  where  I  persuaded  all 
hands  to  stop  their  flight.  About  this  season  the  entire  country  had  the  real  shaking  ague. 
I  have  seen  twenty-two  persons  down  shaking  at  one  time.  There  were  four  families  in 
one  of  the  cabins  that  had  but  three  rooms,  counting  an  open  passage  as  one  room,  and 
here  in  this  bottom  and  in  this  crowded  condition  we  remained  for  ten  weeks.  During  this 
time  every  soul,  except  myself  and  a  black  girl,  had  the  ague.  I  did  not  stay  with  the 
party  all  the  time,  but  would  go  up  to  the  bluffs  and  hunt  all  day  around  my  cabin,  kill 
some  deer,  cook  and  eat  at  my  cabin,  and  sleep  about  the  centre  of  my  little  cornfield, 
under  a  large  lime  tree  that  had  retained  its  leaves  in  spite  of  my  having  cut  it  all  around 
in  the  spring.  The  leaves  of  this  tree  made  a  dense  shade  which  prevented  the  dew  from 
falling  on  me,  and  I  slept  comfortably  under  my  blanket. 

"Finally  the  difficulty  was  settled  with  the  lowas,  and  all  hands  were  well  pleased  to 
go  back  to  their  little  homes  on  the  bluffs.  All  the  next  winter  we  had  to  beat  all  the 
meal  we  ate.  But  the  next  fall  I  was  lucky,  for  I  heard  of  a  pair  of  hand  mill  stones 
down  in  Howard  county.  I  went  and  purchased  them,  got  them  fixed  up  in  a  gum  about 
four  feet  high,  and  with  a  small  hole  on  one  edge  of  the  upper  stone,  or  runner,  as  it  is 
called  in  a  mill ;  but  that  should  have  been  dubbed  by  some  other  name,  for  there  was 
very  little  run  to  it.  Still,  bad  as  it  was,  it  was  a  great  relief  to  all  the  settlement,  and 
on  many  a  night  have  I  awakened  and  heard  the  mill,  as  we  called  it,  clattering  away. 
The  reader  may  regard  this  in  what  light  he  pleases,  but  bread  got  in  this  manner  was  as 
sweet  as  any  I  ever  ate." 

Rules  of  War  in  Universal  Training  Days. 

"The  Sarcoxie  war"  was  one  of  the  Indian  incidents  in  which  no  bjood  was 
shed.  It  occurred  when  the  militia  law  of  Missouri  was  in  full  force  and  every 
able-bodied  man  from  eighteen  to  forty-five  was  required  to  turn  out  for  drill 
three  or  four  times  a  year.  Osage  Indians  had  been  assembling  in  the  vicinity 
of  Sarcoxie  and  acting  suspiciously.     Major  General  Joseph  Powell  called  out 


504  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

his  whole  division  and  marched  against  the  Osages.  The  Indians  protested  that 
they  had  come  to  hunt  and  fish,  and  readily  consented  to  be  conducted  back  to 
their  reservation.  General  Powell  marched  back  again  and  demobilized,  but 
committed  some  breaches  of  military  law  in  the  opinion  of  his  subordinates.  He 
was  tried  by  a  military  commission  and  dismissed  from  state  service.  The  charges 
were  made  by  Brigadier  General  Smith  of  the  Greene  county  troops.  Smith, 
himself,  did  not  escape  some  criticism.  He  attempted  to  pass  his  own  lines  on 
this  Sarcoxie  campaign  when  the  sentry,  who  had  seen  some  real  army  service, 
halted  him  with,  "Who  comes  there!"  "A  friend,"  said  General  Smith.  "Ad- 
vance and  give  the  countersign."  the  sentry  demanded.  "T  haven't  the  counter- 
sign," said  the  general,  "but  I  am  General  Smith  from  Springfield,  and  it  is  all 
right."  "Halt !"  the  sentinel  shouted,  "I  don't  care  if  you  are  General  Smith  from 
hell,  you  can't  pass  here  without  the  countersign." 

"Ringtail"  Parmer  was  the  hero  in  one  of  the  most  savage  Indian  fights  on 
record  in  Missouri  history.  A  band  of  Osages  on  a  robbing  tour  camped  near 
the  cabin  of  Widow  McElroy.  near  the  mouth  of  Fishing  river,  and  began  roast- 
ing corn,  shooting  pigs  and  trying  to  drive  away  the  horses.  The  widow  sent  her 
boy  of  ten  years  to  Parmer,  the  nearest  neighbor.  Parmer  and  his  son  went  to 
the  rescue.  When  they  reached  the  widow's  place  only  seven  of  the  Indians 
were  there.  Both  of  the  Parmers  fired  and  killed  two  of  the  Indians.  The 
remaining  five  ran  into  the  cabin  and  barricaded  the  door.  Without  waiting  to 
reload,  Parmer  climbed  on  top  of  the  roof  and  began  to  pull  of?  the  boards.  One 
of  the  Indians  ran  out  of  the  house.  Parmer  fired  and  wounded  him.  His  gun 
empty,  Parmer  drew  a  knife  and  jumped  down  from  the  roof,  ran  to  the  wounded 
Indian  and  cut  his  throat.  Parmer  and  his  son  kept  up  the  fight  until  they  had 
killed  three  more.  The  seventh  got  away  badly  wounded.  Then  they  dragged  the 
six  bodies  to  a  gully  and  threw  them  in. 

The  Pottawatomie  War. 

Shelby  county's  "Pottawatomie  war"  had  its  beginning  and  ending  in  the 
coming  and  going  of  about  sixty  friendly  Indians  from  Iowa  who  helped  them- 
selves to  a  few  pumpkins  and  some  corn  for  their  ponies.  But  while  the  scare 
lasted  it  was  realistic.  Settlers  mounted  their  horses  and  ran  them  into  Shelby- 
ville.  Malachi  Wood  was  one  of  these,  riding  one  horse  and  having  his  wife 
and  child  on  another.  Mrs.  Wood  dropped  the  child  and  shouted  to  Malachi 
who  was  ahead,  "Stop  Malachi,  stop!  I've  dropped  the  baby.  Stop  and  help 
me  save  it."  Malachi  called  back,  "Never  mind  the  baby.  Let's  save  the  old 
folks.    More  babies  can  be  had  !" 

A  free  fight  between  the  Shelbyville  company  and  the  volunteers  who  had 
come  over  from  Palmyra  to  help  exterminate  the  Pottowattomies  was  the  only 
serious  part  of  the  war.  This  occurred  after  the  Shelbyville  men  had  treated 
the  Palmyra  men.  The  latter  insisted  the  treating  should  go  on  for  an  indefinite 
number  of  rounds  and  said  it  was  a  bad  way  to  "invite  men  to  drink  and  then 
make  them  pay  for  it."  Shelbyville  and  Palmyra  men  mixed  in  a  beautiful  all 
around  row  and  then  made  up,  the  Shelbyville  men  adopting  a  resolution  thank- 
ing the  Palmyra  volunteers  "for  the  assistance  they  rendered  us  and  for  the 
entertainment  they  furnished  us." 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  505 

The  Osage  War. 

John  C.  McCoy,  the  pioneer  of  Jackson  County  and  seller  of  town  lots  in  the 
once  famous  Westport,  is  the  historian  of  the  Osage  war  of  1836.  In  187 1  he 
said:  "This  little  war  has  been  o\erlooked  by  modern  historians,  not  even  men- 
tioned by  them  for  the  last  thirty  years.  It  was  a  military  raid  from  the  border 
against  the  Osage  Indians.  Some  of  the  ruthless  savages  committed  murder 
upon  several  hogs  belonging  to  settlers  near  \\'estport.  The  command  numbered 
560  officers  and  men,  consisting  of  one  major-general,  two  brigadiers,  four 
colonels,  besides  lieutenants-colonels,  majors,  captains,  lieutenants,  chaplains, 
surgeons,  etc.,  ad  infinitum,  being  98  officers  to  command  432  privates.  It  is 
needless  to^tell  that  the  expedition  was  a  success.  Old  Gerard's  squaws,  papooses 
and  six  other  savages,  if  still  living,  have  a  sorrowful  recollection  that  the  way 
of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 

Big  Neck,  Leader  of  the  lowas. 

The  "Big  Neck  war"  occurred  in  the  summer  of  1829.  It  was  one  of  the  last 
of  the  more  serious  troubles  between  Missourians  and  Indians.  Big  Neck  was 
a  leader  among  the  lowas.  His  war  name  was  Mo-an-a-hon-ga,  which  means 
"great  walker."  The  tribe  also  knew  him  as  "The-man-not-afraid-to-travel."  In 
1824  Big  Xeck  went  to  Washington  with  General  William  Clark.  The  party 
included  several  chiefs  and  warriors  of  the  lowas,  headed  by  White  Cloud,  the 
principal  chief.  The  purpose  of  the  trip  was  to  make  a  treaty.  The  lowas  had 
been  living  in  the  northwestern  part  of  Missouri  along  the  Chariton.  Settlers 
were  coining  in.  The  government  desired  to  obtain  the  lands  of  the  lowas  and 
offered  in  payment  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  ten  years.  The 
treaty  was  made.  Big  Xeck  participating.  According  to  the  terms  the  Iowa  Indians 
were  to  move  from  the  land  purchased.  While  he  was  in  Washington  Big  Neck 
had  his  portrait  painted.  From  that  he  appears  to  have  been  a  fine  specimen 
physically  without  anything  to  indicate  why  he  should  have  been  given  the  name 
he  commonly  bore. 

After  the  Indians  came  back  from  Washington.  Big  Neck  disputed  that  provi- 
sion of  the  treaty  which  required  them  to  move  from  Northern  Missouri.  He 
claimed  that  his  band  should  be  allowed  to  live  in  what  was  known  as  "the  Clinton 
Country"  until  the  last  of  ten  annual  payments  in  1834.  The  Clinton  Country 
of  that  day  embraced  what  are  now  Adair,  Sullivan,  Putnam  and  Schuyler 
counties. 

In  1824  settlers  began  to  crowd  into  the  vicinity  of  Big  Neck's  band.  They 
formed  near  the  present  city  of  Kirksville  a  settlement  which  was  called  "The 
cabins  of  the  white  folks."  There  were  ten  or  twelve  families  in  the  settlement. 
Up  to  that  time  the  Clinton  Countn.-  had  been  a  favorite  region  for  hunters. 
The  Big  Neck  war  started  in  July,  1829.  Major  Holcombe  in  1892,  as  the  result 
of  much  investigation  of  records  and  after  gathering  the  recollections  of  the  oldest 
inhabitants,  wrote  this  graphic  account  of  the  war  for  the  Globe-Democrat: 

"Big  Neck  and  his  band  of  about  sixty  persons  came  down  from  the  far  north  and 
encamped  on  the  Chariton,  some  miles  above  the  cabins.  He  asserted  that  he  was  on  his  way 
to  St.  Louis  to  see  Gen.  Clark,  and  try  to  get  back  his  lands.  According  to  the  accounts  of 
the  old  settlers  the  Indians  were  very  insolent,  visiting  the  cabins,  demanding  food,  threaten- 
ing the  whites,  etc.    The  savages,  some  of  whom  spoke  English,  said :    'This  is  our  country. 


506  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

What  are  you  doing  here?  Vou  must  leave  or  we  will  drive  you  away.'  It  was  alleged  that 
the  stock  of  some  of  the  settlers  was  killed  and  their  gardens  and  fields  plundered. 

"As  might  be  expected  the  Indians  told  a  different  story.  'loway  Jim.'  or  'Maj.  Ketcher,' 
as  he  was  sometimes  called — an  Indian  who  spoke  good  English  and  who  was  well  known 
to  the  early  settlers  of  N'orth  Missouri — afterward  deposed  that  his  brethren  were  not  the 
aggressors.  He  said  that  while  the  band  was  in  camp,  resting  from  their  long  journey,  a 
party  of  whites  came  up  to  them  with  some  kegs  of  whisky.  It  was  not  long  until  the 
Indians  were  helplessly  drunk,  and  then  the  whites  swindled  and  robbed  them  of  their 
horses,  blankets,  and  nearly  everything  else  of  value,  shamefully  mistreated  some  of  the 
women  and  girls,  and  then  decamped.  Recovering  from  their  debauch,  the  Indians  realized 
how  dearly  they  had  paid  for  the  whisky,  and  being  hungry,  one  of  them  shot  a  settler's 
hog  and  brought  it  into  camp.  Big  Neck  rebuked  this  forager,  saying :  'That  is  wrong. 
It  is  true  we  have  been  robbed  and  are  hungry,  but  the  hog  was  not  ours,  and  you  should 
not  have  shot  it.' 

"The  settlers  became  alarmed.  Some  of  them  sent  off  their  wives  and  children.  A 
messenger  was  dispatched  down  into  the  lower  settlements  for  aid.  On  the  night  of  July  24 
he  reached  the  house  o-f  Wm.  Blackwell,  in  Randolph  county,  with  the  startling  intelligence 
that  the  Indians  were  on  the  warpath  !  Before  many  hours  the  news  had  spread  throughout 
that  county  and  into  Howard.  A  company  of  armed  and  mounted  Randolph  men,  about 
seventy-five  in  number,  under  Capt.  Wm.  TrammcU,  were  in  the  saddle  by  noon  of  the 
following  day  and  marching  for  the  scene  of  disturbance ;  that  evening  they  went  into  camp 
on  the  Chariton,  at  what  was  known  as  the  Grand  Narrows,  now  in  Macon  county.  The 
next  day  they  reached  the  cabins,  forty  miles  or  so  from  the  Narrows. 

"At  a  council  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  tlie  whites  determined  to  expel  the  Indians 
from  the  country,  and  recruited  by  the  men  at  the  cabins,  Capt.  Trammell  again  set  out.  In 
the  meantime  Big  Neck  and  his  band  had  retired  some  miles  up  the  Chariton  and  had  again 
gone  into  canip.  The  whites  advanced  to  the  camp,  and  after  a  reconnaissance  of  the  situa- 
tion, Capt.  Trammel!  swung  his  men  around  to  the  northward  and  coming  up  formed  a  line 
in  the  rear  of  the  Indians.  Dismounting  his  men  100  yards  away,  leaving  every  fourth  man 
to  hold  horses,  the  Captain,  followed  by  his  men,  advanced  to  the  wigwams  and  called  for 
an  interpreter.  'loway  Jim'  stepped  forward,  gun  in  hand,  and  Capt.  Trammell  said:  'Vou 
must  all  leave  this  country  at  once,  and  -stay  away.  The  land  lielongs  to  the  whites  and 
j'ou  have  no  right  here.'  Big  Neck,  through  the  interpreter,  answered :  'The  land  is  ours. 
We  will  leave  when  we  please.  I  am  going  to  see  the  Red  Headed  Governor  (Gen.  Clark) 
about  it,  and  he  will  say  I  am  right.' 

"loway  Jim  asserted  that  Big  Neck  had  his  pipe  with  him  in  token  of  his  friendly  dis- 
position, and  the  Indians  were  certainly  not  in  condition  to  fight.  Capt.  Trammell  was  a 
man  of  reasonable  prudence  and  good  judgment,  and  doubtless  the  difficulty  would  have 
been  amicably  arranged  then  and  there,  but  for  the  reckless  and  reprehensible  conduct  of  a 
hot-headed  settler  at  the  cabins  named  James  Myers. 

"Hardly  had  Big  Neck  spoken,  when  Jim  Myers  fired  his  rifle  and  shot  dead  the  chief's 
brother.  The  Indian  fell  backward,  .shot  through  the  breast,  giving  a  terrific  war-whoop  as 
he  tumbled  to  the  ground.  Another  settler  named  Owcnby  fired,  and  his  bullet  killed  a 
little  Indian  child,  the  daughter  of  the  Indian  killed  by  Myers. 

"The  Indian  squaws,  with  characteristic  shrieks  and  yells,  now  began  to  fly;  the  Indian 
men  came  'forward,  loading  their  guns  and  stringing  their  bows  as  they  advanced,  and  the 
battle  was  on.  They  raised  a  terrible  yelling  and  whooping,  and  their  battle  cries  were 
actually  so  unearthly  that  they  demoralized  some  of  the  whites.  Only  fifteen  men,  it  is  said, 
obeyed  Capt.  Trammell's  order  to  fire.  The  remainder  broke  for  their  horses  and  away 
from  the  field.  Only  two  or  three  of  Trammell's  men  fired  more  than  once.  The  Indians, 
however,  fought  well,  using  their  rifles  and  bows  to  good  advantage,  considering  the  wooded 
character  of  the  ground.  The  fight  was  soon  won,  and  Big  Neck,  supported  by  Mau-she-mo- 
ne  (the  'Big  Flying  Cloud'),  rallied  the  Indians  for  pursuit,  and  chased  the  whites  for  a 
mile  or  more. 

"During  the  fight  a  settler  named  Wm.  Winn  shot  a  squaw,  the  wife  of  the  Indian  and 
the  mother  of  the  child  killed  by  Myers  and  Owenby,  and   the  sister-in-law  of  Big  Neck. 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  507 

As  she  fell  she  called  out:  'My  brother,  I  am  going  to  die  innocent;  avenge  my  blood!' 
loway  Jim  leveled  his  rifle  and  shot  Winn  in  the  thigh,  fracturing  the  bone  and  bringing  him 
to  the  ground.  Big  Neck  himself  jerked  a  gun  from  the  hands  of  one  of  his  men  and  shot 
and  killed  Jim  Myers,  who  had  opened  the  fight.  Owenby,  who  shot  the  Indian  child,  was 
also  killed.  Several  other  whites  were  wounded.  Capt.  Trammell  received  an  arrow  in  his 
body,  which  was  not  extracted  for  some  days,  or  until  he  had  reached  home,  and  he  died 
from  the  wound  a  day  or  two  later.  He  had  ridden  a  hundred  miles  with  the  weapon  in 
his  vitals,  but  with  uncommon  fortitude  bore  his  sufferings  without  a  murmur,  and  busied 
himself  in  caring  for  his  men,  especially  for  the  wounded,  though  none  were  so  badly 
wounded  as  he.  A  few  of  the  Indians  were  wounded,  among  them  being  the  wife  or  squaw 
of  Big  Xeck;  she  had  a  severe  scalp  wound  from  a  bullet.  Four  or  five  of  the  white  men's 
horses  were  either  killed  or  captured. 

"When  the  Indians  returned  from  the  Ijrief  pursuit  of  the  whites  they  scalped  the 
bodies  of  Myers  and  Owenby  and  otherwise  mutilated  them.  Winn  was  found  on  the  battle- 
ground, with  his  thigh  broken  and  unable  to  escape.  Preparations  were  immediately  made 
to  burn  him.  He  begged  for  his  life,  but  his  appeals  were  unheeded.  A  pile  of  sticks  was 
soon  raised  and  fired,  and  the  body  thrown  upon  it.  As  the  flames  rose  Big  Xeck  came 
forward,  and,  pointing  to  the  Indian  dead  and  wounded,  addressed  the  dying  victim  in 
these  bitter  terms : 

'"See  there!  Look!  Vou  have  killed  those  dear  to  me — my  brother,  his  wife  and 
her  child.  See  the  blood  as  it  runs  before  you.  Look  at  that  woman  you  have  killed; 
her  arm  was  never  raised  against  a  white  man.  That  child  never  wronged  any  one.  They 
have  gone  to  the  Great  Spirit.  I  came  to  meet  you  with  the  pipe  of  peace  in  my  mouth. 
I  did  no  wrong.  You  fired  on  me,  and  see  what  you  have  done  I  See  my  own  squaw 
with  her  head  bleeding;  though  not  dead  she  is  wounded.  Now,  listen.  You  are  not  a 
brave;  you  are  a  dog.  If  you  were  a  brave,  I  would  treat  you  as  a  brave;  but  as  you 
are  a  dog.  I  will  treat  you  as  a  dog!' 

"Here  Big  Neck  paused,  and,  with  his  knife  drawn,  sprang  upon  the  writhing  body 
of  the  fated  white  man,  dragged  him  from  the  fire,  scalped  him,  and  then  cut  open  his 
breast,  tore  out  his  heart,  bit  off  a  piece  and  ate  it.  and  threw  the  remainder  back  into 
the  flames.  This  incident  was  related  by  loway  Jim  to  Gen.  Hughes,  and  was  corroborated 
by  finding  the  half-burned  and  mangled  body  of  the  unfortunate  Mr.  Winn. 

"The  retreating  whites  hurried  from  the  battlefield  down  the  Chariton  valley,  and, 
being  mounted — save  a  few  who  lost  their  horses  during  the  fight — easily  escaped.  Reach- 
ing the  cabins,  they  hurriedly  gathered  up  the  women  and  children,  and  pushing  rapidly 
on  southward,  traveled  all  night  without  halting  until  within  five  miles  of  Huntsville. 
From  here  the  women  and  children  were  sent  on  into  Howard  county.  The  Indians  did 
not  burn  the  cabins  and  destroy  the  settlement,  as  they  easily  might  have  done,  but  the 
next  day  after  the  fight  retreated  northward  in  alarm  at  the  probable  consequences  that 
might   follow. 

"Tidings  of  the  affair,  magnified  and -e.xaggerated,  of  course,  soon  spread  among  the 
settlements  along  the  Missouri,  and  there  was  intense  excitement.  A  considerable  force 
of  militia,  under  Gen.  P.  Owens,  of  Fayette,  was  raised,  by  order  of  the  governor,  and 
marched  to  the  scene.  A  regiment  or  battalion  of  this  force  was  commanded  by  Gen. 
John  B.  Clark,  Sr.  A  company  of  seventy-six  men  from  Chariton  county,  under  Maj. 
Daniel  Ashby,  acted  independently.  A  company  of  Randolph  and  Howard  countj-  men, 
acting  as  scouts,  and  led  by  Capt.  John  Sconce — a  noted  old  Kentucky  Indian  fighter, 
and  who  subsequently  commanded  the  Ray  county  company  of  the  Missouri  regiment  in 
the  Florida  war  of  1837 — was  sent  in  advance  to  reconnoiter.  It  reached  the  scene  first 
and  buried  the  bodies  of  Myers,  Owenby  and  Winn,  and  then  returning  met  the  com- 
mands of  Owens  and  Clark. 

"\Vhen  Gen.  Owens  came  up  to  the  scene  of  the  encounter  there  was.  of  course, 
not  an  Indian  to  be  found.  Big  Neck  had  retreated  northward  to  the  Des  Moines  river. 
Capt.  Sconce's  company  was  sent  on  the  trail  and  followed  it  forty  miles.  On  the  trail, 
not  far  from  the  battlefield,  Capt.  Sconce  found  the  body  of  an  Indian,  presumably  the 
brother  of  Big  Neck.  It  was  in  a  sitting  posture,  tied  to  a  tree,  and  very  elaborately 
dressed,   decorated    and   ornamented    with   a   profusion    of    beads,    porcupine    quills,    silver 


508  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  brass  rings,  a  Masonic  brooch,  etc.,  and  on  the  ground  at  its  side  lay  a  bow  and 
quiver  of  arrows  and  a  fine  pipe  tomahawk.  When  the  scouts  returned  and  reported 
that  the  Indians  had  left  the  country  Gen.  Owcn.s  marched  tlic  men  of  his  command 
back  to  their  homes. 

"Meanwhile  Gen.  .Atkinson,  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  had  ordered  Col.  Henry  Leaven- 
worth to  take  a  detachment  of  regular  infantry  from  the  then  cantonment  of  Leavenworth 
(now  Fort  Leavenworth)  and  assist  the  militia.  The  agent  of  the  loways,  Gen.  A.  J. 
Hughes,  was  also  ordered  to  co-operate.  At  that  time  there  was  a  camp  of  loways  in  the 
forks  of  Grand  river,  near  the  present  site  of  Chillicothe.  Capt.  Daniel  Ashby,  with  the 
Chariton  company,  had  been  sent  by  Gen.  Owens  to  this  town  to  see  if  tlie  Indians  were 
assisting  Big  Neck.  He  found  them  perfectly  quiet,  or,  as  they  expressed  it,  'ar-ro-pee,' 
friendly  and  all  right  every  way,  whereupon  he  marched  eastward  and  joined  Gen. 
Owens  on  the  Chariton.  Gen.  Hughes  delivered  eleven  of  the  principal  Grand  river 
loways  to  Col.  Leavenworth  (who  had  advanced  into  the  country  with  his  troops)  as 
hostages  for  the  good  conduct  of  the  band,  and  then  Col.  Leavenworth  returned  to 
the  fort." 

The  agent  of  the  lowas.  General  Hughes,  concluded  that  Big  Neck  must  be 
taken  personally  if  further  trouble  along  the  Chariton  and  Clinton  was  to  be 
averted.  With  four  men  the  agent  took  up  the  trail  of  Big  Neck's  band  and  fol- 
lowed it  nearly  four  hundred  miles  up  through  the  unsettled  Iowa  country.  On 
Skunk  river,  Hughes  met  a  Sac  chief,  whose  name  was  "The-Bear-Whose- 
Screams-Make-The-Rocks-Tremble."  This  chief  directed  the  agent  to  Big  Neck's 
camp  and  sent  ten  Indians  to  help  take  the  prisoner.  General  Hughes  reached  the 
village  very  early  in  the  morning  and  just  before  sunrise  stepped  into  Big  Neck's 
lodg^.     He  told  him  that  he  must  go  to  answer  for  the  troubles  in  Missouri. 

"I'll  go  with  you,"  the  Indian  answered.  "A  brave  man  dies  but  once,  cowards 
are  always  dying."  Big  Neck  and  his  band  were  conducted  by  Hughes  and  his 
four  companions  to  the  Mississippi  near  Fort  Madison.  The  Indians  were 
observed  to  be  holding  consultations.  Hughes  expected  an  outbreak.  He  ordered 
his  men  to  get  their  gttns  ready.  Big  Neck  had  sent  the  squaws  and  children 
forward  to  the  river  bluffs.  Unexpectedly  there  appeared  coming  down  the  river 
a  fleet  of  boats  filled  with  United  States  soldiers  under  Lieutenant  Morris.  The 
squaws  ran  back  from  the  bluffs  to  General  Hughes  and  begged  that  Big  Neck 
and  the  braves  be  spared. 

The  Indian  agent  was  certain  that  but  for  the  appearance  of  the  troops  he  and 
his  men  would  have  been  murdered.  Selecting  Big  Neck  and  about  ten  or  twelve 
of  the  Indians  who  admitted  they  had  been  in  the  fighting  along  the  Chariton, 
Hughes  put  them  aboard  the  boats  and  took  them  to  St.  Louis.  There  it  was 
ordered  that  they  be  put  on  trial  for  murder  and  that  the  trial  be  held  in  Ran- 
dolph county.  Big  Neck  and  the  others  were  taken  to  Huntsville  under  guard 
to  protect  them  from  the  settlers  as  well  as  to  insure  their  presence  in  court. 
The  trial  resulted  in  a  verdict  of  not  guilty,  the  jurors  rendering  it  without  leaving 
their  seats.  Big  Neck,  instead  of  rejoicing  over  his  discharge,  went  into  mourning. 
He  blackened  his  face.  Referring  to  the  treaty  he  had  made  at  Washington  and 
to  the  subsequent  troubles,  he  said :  "I  am  ashamed  to  look  on  the  sun.  I  have 
insulted  the  Great  Spirit  by  selling  the  land  and  the  bones  of  my  fathers ;  it  is 
right  that  I  should  mourn  always." 

Big  Neck  continued  in  mourning  according  to  the  traditions  until  he  was 
killed  in  a  fight  with  a  band  of  Sioux  who  had  stolen  some  of  his  horses  in  the 


Courtesy  St.  Louis  I'nlverslty 

FATHER  P.  J.  DK  SMKT,  S.  .1. 
"Black  Gown,"  the  Indian's  friend. 


MISSOURI'S  LXDIAN  WARS  511 

Upper  Des  Moines  country.  It  is  tradition  that  after  he  had  been  shot  and  while 
one  of  the  Sioux  was  taking  his  scalp,  Big  Xeck  drew  his  knife  with  one  hand, 
reached  up  with  the  other,  pulled  his  assailant  down  to  the  ground,  stabbed  him  to 
death,  scalped  him  and  then  fell  dead  across  the  body.  After  the  fight  the  Sioux 
warrior  lay  stretched  on  the  ground  with  Big  Neck  lying  across  him  with  the 
scalp  in  one  hand  and  the  knife  in  the  other. 

The  scene  of  "the  Heatherly  War"  was  near  the  border  between  Mercer  and 
Grundy  counties.  Those  counties  were  not  established  and  while  the  territory  was 
a  part  of  Carroll  county,  two  men,  one  named  Dunbar,  were  killed.  A  party  of 
Indians  was  in  the  vicinity  at  the  time  but  was  not  hostile.  The  Heatherlys  made 
their  appearance  in  Clay  county  claiming  that  the  Indians  had  murdered  the  two 
men.  Two  companies  of  militia  were  ordered  out  under  Colonel  Shubael  Allen 
and  sent  to  the  locality.  Upon  investigation  it  appeared  that  the  Indians  were 
innocent ;  that  the  charge  against  them  had  been  made  to  cover  up  a  crime  by 
white  men. 

Father  DeSmet  a  Whole  Peace  Commission. 

To  St.  Louis  the  government  looked  for  controlling  influence  of  Indian  troubles 
long  after  the  border  line  had  been  moved  far  westward.  Among  the  prized 
papers  of  St.  Louis  University  is  a  letter  from  the  Peace  Commission  giving  credit 
and  thanks  to  Father  DeSmet  for  preventing  an  Indian  uprising  in  the  Northwest 
as  late  as  1868.  The  .St.  Louis  missionar}-  left  a  bed  of  sickness  to  go  among  the 
Sioux  and  pacify  them.  He  addressed  one  war  council  of  30,000  braves.  Father 
DeSmet  repeatedly  rendered  most  valuable  service  in  averting  Indian  troubles. 
He  went  out  as  commissioner  at  the  request  of  the  government  when  an  outbreak 
was  threatened.  _On  one  of  these  occasions  General  Harney  was  at  the  head  of 
the  expedition:  when  the  forces  reached  that  part  of  the  west  where  the  outbreak 
was  threatened.  Father  DeSmet  left  the  camp  and  went  alone  among  the  Indians. 
Assembling  a  party  of  chiefs,  he  brought  them  with  him  to  General  Harney  and 
was  the  chief  agent  in  bringing  about  a  treaty  of  peace.  He  crossed  the  plains 
eight  or  ten  times.  He  made  half  a  dozen  trips  to  Europe  in  the  interests  of  the 
Indians.  He  was  devoted  to  the  theory  that  the  Indians  might  be  civilized.  The 
purpose  of  his  trips  abroad  was  to  enlist  sympathy  for  the  Indians  and  to  obtain 
for  them  agricultural  implements  and  money,  and  to  influence  the  young  men  on 
the  other  side  of  the  water  to  take  up  the  mission  of  civilization  work  among  the 
American  tribes.  In  1859  Father  DeSmet  took  a  small  skiff  at  Fort  Benton  and 
w^ith  three  oarsmen  descended  the  Missouri  river,  making  as  many  as  eighty  miles 
a  day. 

A  series  of  events. — one  of  the  most  notable  chapters  in  the  histon*'  of  North 
American  Indians, — led  up  to  Father  DeSmet's  life  work.  These  events  had  their 
natural  relationship  to  the  Indian  policy  which  Laclede  and  the  Chouteaus  in- 
augurated and  which  Governor  William  Clark,  Manuel  Lisa  and  the  Missouri 
fur  traders  fostered.  Four  chiefs  of  the  Flathead  nation  came  to  St.  Louis  in 
the  fall  of  1831.  They  had  been  six  months  on  their  way  of  3.000  miles.  They 
had  come  to  ask  that  missionaries  be  sent  to  teach  their  people  the  white  man's 
religion.  Two  of  the  chiefs  sickened  and  died  in  St.  Louis.  They  had  been 
baptized  and  were  buried  by  the  Catholic  priests.  The  other  chiefs,  after  being 
given  encouragement  that  black  gowns  would  be  sent,  started  back  but  never 


512  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

reached  their  people,  presumably  falling  victims  to  the  Sioux  or  some  other 
hostile  tribe. 

In  the  summer  of  1908,  sixty-seven  years  later,  a  great  camp  meeting  of 
Indians,  chiefly  Umatillas  and  Nez  Perces,  was  held  in  Eastern  Oregon.  A  leader 
in  the  services,  which  went  on  day  after  day  and  until  after  midnight,  was 
Kip-kue-pe-li-kin.  grandson  of  one  of  the  four  chiefs  who  made  the  fatal  journey 
to  St.  Louis  in  183 1.  Sermons  were  preached  in  two  Indian  languages.  Hymns 
were  sung  in  the  slow,  weird,  almost  monotonous  tones  of  the  Indian.  Converts, 
some  forty  of  them,  were  made.  This  was  only  one  of  the  consequences  of  that 
original  visit  of  the  chiefs  to  St.  Louis,  asking  for  knowledge  of  the  white  man's 
God.  In  1835,  the  Nez  Perces  sent  a  second  party  to  St.  Louis  to  pray  for  the 
coming  of  black  gowns.  Old  Ignace  headed  this  delegation.  Bishop  Rosati 
received  these  Indians  and  encouraged  them.  Old  Ignace  was  an  Iroquois  who 
had  migrated  with  a  band  of  his  people  years  before  from  a  Catholic  mission 
on  the  St.  Lawrence  river  to  the  far  Northwest  and  had  joined  the  Flatheads  in 
the  Bitter  Root  mountains.  Ignace  la  Mouse  had  told  the  Flatheads  of  the  black 
gowns  and  had  prompted  this  longing  for  the  white  man's  religion.  From  the 
visit  to  St.  Louis,  the  second  delegation  found  their  way  back  to  the  mountains. 
Two  years  later,  the  third  party  started  for  St.  Louis  but  was  killed  or  captured 
on  the  way.  In  1839,  the  fourth  expedition  seeking  the  black  gowns  appeared  in 
St.  Louis.  This  time  the  assurance  was  given  that  the  priest  would  go  the  fol- 
lowing spring.  One  of  the  Flatheads  went  forward  to  carry  the  good  news 
while  young  Ignace,  son  of  the  old  Iroquois,  waited  to  escort  the  black  gown. 

From  the  appeals,  repeated  and  persistent,  came  more  than  one  missionary 
effort  to  reach  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest.  Jason  Lee  headed  one  party  under 
safe  escort  of  Sublette's  fur  traders.  Marcus  Whitman  and  H.  H.  Spalding  went 
to  Oregon  and  established  the  Walla  Walla  mission."  On  the  fifth  of  April, 
1840.  Father  DeSmet  started  from  St.  Louis  with  young  Ignace.  He  found  the 
Flatheads  at  Pierre  Hole,  near  the  western  Wyoming  line.  The  Indians  had 
come  800  miles  to  meet  black  gown.  Bands  of  the  Nez  Perces,  the  Pend 
d'Oreilles  and  Kalispells  were  with  the  Flatheads.  After  spending  the  summer 
with  these  Indians,  Father  DeSmet  started  back  to  St.  Louis  promising  to  return 
the  next  year  with  helpers.  On  the  way  the  priest  was  surrounded  by  a  war 
party  of  the  Blackfeet  who  looked  curiously  at  the  gold  crucifix  glistening  on  the 
front  of  black  gown.  The  priest's  companion  answered  the  Blackfeet  chief's 
inquiry : 

"He  is  a  black  gown,  the  man  who  speaks  to  the  Great  Spirit." 

The  Blackfeet  brought  a  buffalo  robe  and  motioned  the  priest  that  they 
w-anted  to  hear  him  speak.  They  brought  food  and  looked  on  solemnly  when 
Father  DeSmet  said  grace.  Twelve  Indians  raised  the  corners  of  the  robe  and 
carried  the  priest  to  the  village  where  they  showed  him  all  possible  honor. 

In  the  spring  of  1841,  Father  DeSmet  went  back  to  take  up  his  lifelong 
work  for  the  civilization  of  the  Indians.  With  him  in  the  party  going  from  Mis- 
souri were  Fathers  Gregory  Mengarini  and  Nicholas  Point  and  three  lay  brothers, 
Joseph  Specht,  Charles  Huet  and  William  Classene.  From  this  beginning  came 
the  missions  of  the  Flatheads,  the  Coeur  d'Alenes,  the  Kalispells,  the  Colvilles, 
the  Spokanes  and  other  tribes. 


MISSOURI'S  INDIAN  WARS  513 

Far  reaching  were  the  results  of  these  missionary  efforts  inspired  by  the 
coming  of  the  Indian  embassies  to  St.  Louis  in  the  thirties.  Not  only  were 
Indian  troubles  averted.  Immigration  followed.  The  Northwest  was  saved  to 
the  United  States. 

Walk  In  Rain,  the  Model  Letter  Writer. 

In  the  summer  of  1820,  settlers  clashed  with  a  party  of  the  Sac  tribe.  They 
claimed  that  the  Indians  had  stolen  some  horses  and  other  property.  The  Mis- 
sourians  pursued  and  killed  and  wounded  several  Indians.  Sibley,  the  factor  at 
Fort  Osage,  wrote  to  the  chief  of  the  tribe  to  get  his  version  of  the  trouble  and 
received  this  reply : 

Little  Osage  Village,  August  20,   1820. 

We  are  glad  you  sent  us  a  paper  and  a  good  man  to  tell  us  about  your  men  killing 
three  of  our  men.  They  were  good  men,  but  they  were  killed  for  the  bad  men's  faults. 
You  say  they  began  the  quarrel ;  we  do  not  know  it.  You  call  us  Americans — then,  when 
we  go  among  the  Americans  and  want  victuals  and  to  smoke  the  pipe,  your  children 
ought  not  to  kill  us.  When  your  children  come  among  us  we  give  them  meat  and  corn, 
and  tobacco,  and  use  them  like  brothers — our  great  father  told  us  to  do  so  and  that  his 
children  would  do  the  same  to  us.  We  want  that  you  would  send  us  the  five  guns,  one 
bow  and  arrow,  and  five  powder  horns,  that  your  men  took  from  our  men  when  they 
killed  them.  You  demand  the  stolen  horses,  and  you  shall  have  them.  You  tell  us  to 
open  our  eyes  and  to  walk  in  the  good  road.  Your  men  have  killed  three  of  our  men, 
and  we  cannot  walk  in  the  good  road  and  let  your  men  walk  in  the  bad  road.  You  are 
very  exact  to  demand  of  us  all  the  trifling  things  that  our  bad  men  have  taken  from  the 
Americans,  and  you  shall  have  them,  or  an  equivalent  therefor.  You  cannot  think  hard 
when  we  demand  the  lives  of  our  good  men  that  your  bad  men  have  taken,  or  an  equiv- 
alent therefor.  We  cannot  now  go  to  see  you,  but  when  you  get  a  good  road  marked 
out,  and  get  into  it  with  your  men,  and  send  for  us,  we  will  go  and  see  you,  and  give 
up  all  the  horses  and  other  property,  and  with  pleasure  walk  the  new  and  pleasant  road, 
and  smoke  the  pipe  of  peace  like  brothers.  We  cannot  keep  our  young  bad  men  from 
mischief,  no  better  than  you  can  keep  your  young  bad  men  from  mischief.  We  have 
done  no  fault  but  are  willing  that  all  things  should  still  be  right.  Your  men  make  me 
cry  by  killing  our  men ;  but  our  men  don't  make  you  cry  by  killing  your  men.  .^11  the 
young  men  and  warriors  are  very  mad,  and  we  can  only  cry.  We  have  hard  work  to 
govern    them. 

"We  want  that  you  should  take  good  care  of  the  wounded  prisoner,  till  we  go  down 
and  see  you.  We  and  you  have  walked  in  the  good  road — it  may  be  that  we  have  both 
missed  it;  if  we  have  we  will  try  to  find  it,  and  both  keep  in  it  or  out  of  it — but  we  hope 
in  it.  We  want  to  say  more,  but  we  hope  this  is  enough  in  behalf  of  the  chief  war- 
riors and  head  men  of  the  Little  Osage  village. 

Walk  In  R.'MN, 
Principal   captain   of   the    L.   O.    village. 

N.  B. — We  thank  you  for  the  tobacco  you  sent  us ;  it  was  not  enough  to  give  us  all 
a  smoke — we  want  that  you  should  send  more  next  time. 

Conway,  the  Hero  of  the  Boys  of  1820. 

Captain  Joseph  Conway  was  the  hero  of  young  Missourians  of  1820.  He  had 
been  scalped  three  times.  He  had  been  tomahawked.  He  had  been  shot.  He 
had  been  left  for  dead.  The  stories  that  were  told  of  Captain  Conway  rivaled 
those  about  Daniel  Boone  and  Simon  Kenton.  Boys  got  behind  the  captain  and 
looked  with  admiring  awe  at  the  spots  from  which  the  Indians  had  cut  the  scalp 
locks.    Captain  Conway  was  a  Virginian.    He  came  west  early  in  life  and  fought 

Vol.  1—88 


514  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Indians.  When  the  Spanish  governor,  Trudeau,  was  encouraging  American 
settlers  to  come  west  of  the  Mississippi,  he  extended  a  special  invitation  to 
Captain  Conway.  About  the  time  that  Daniel  Boone  moved  over  from  Ken- 
tucky Joseph  Conway  accepted  a  grant  of  land  from  Trudeau  and  became  a 
resident  of  what  is  now  St.  Louis  county.  That  was  in  1798,  six  years  before 
American  authority  was  established  in  St.  Louis.  Conway  was  an  Indian  fighter 
from  the  time  he  could  carry  a  gun.  He  accompanied  Boone  and  Kenton  on  their 
campaigns  against  the  Indians.  Of  Conway  it  was  told  that  being  hard  pressed 
he  ran  from  tree  to  tree,  loading  and  firing  until  he  had  killed  seven  Indians.  He 
fought  with  Harmer  and  with  Wayne.  In  three  different  battles  he  sustained 
wounds.  At  one  time,  when  he  had  been  scalped,  he  was  made  a  prisoner  and 
with  his  undressed  wounds  was  compelled  to  walk  from  the  Ohio  river  to  Detroit. 
He  was  barefooted.  The  blood  ran  down  his  back  from  the  scalp  wounds.  A 
white  woman,  who  was  a  prisoner,  bound  up  Conway's  head.  On  the  Canadian 
border  Conway  was  held  in  captivity  four  years.  Those  experiences  preceded 
the  settlement  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis.  For  years  after  he  came  here  Captain 
Conway  held  himself  in  readiness  for  service  against  the  Indians  whenever 
trouble  threatened.  The  fame  of  the  old  borderer  was  worth  a  regiment  of  un- 
known men  for  restraining  effect  on  a  tribe  that  was  inclined  to  be  ugly.  Captain 
Conway  left  descendants  who  held  public  offices  in  St.  Louis.  One  of  his  sons 
became  sheriff.  A  thoroughfare  in  the  suburljs  of  St.  Louis  was  named  in  honor 
of  Captain  Conway. 


V. 
V. 


C 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  OZARKS 

Discovered  by  the  Pioneers — Overlooked  by  the  Railroads — Edmund  Jennings — The  Six 
Boils— A  Family  that  Hated  Andrew  Jackson^The  First  Settler— Good  Old  Times- 
Diary  of  a  Winter's  Journey — The  Spring  House — Primitive  Life  and  Death — The 
Sii'itcerland  of  America — An  Acquittal  Face — Feuds  that  Were  Not  Fatal — Geology  of 
the  Ozark  Uplift— Ridge  Roads— A  Journey  over  the  Hog  Backs— Thrift  in  the  Osage 
Hills— Captain  Ozi-cn's  Narrative  of  the  Hunt  for  Gold— Parson  Keithtcy—A  Secret 
Sub-Treasury— Nature's  Burial  Vault— Jay  Linn  Torrey—From  Rough  Rider  to  Model 
Farmer — The  Air  Drainage  of  the  Ozarks—Exit  the  Squatter— The  "Horse"  Apple- 
Fence  Corner  Peach  Orchards — Seedlings  and  Elbertas — From  Seven  and  One-half 
Cents  to  Four  Dollars  a  Bushel — The  Drying  Season — Home  Made  Evaporators — Sep- 
tember Scenes  at  the  Crop  Centers— Dried  Apples  by  Machinery—No  Bottom  Orchards 
— Rocks  or  No  Rocks— No  Demand  for  the  Pick-me-up—The  Theory  of  Heat  and 
Moisture  in  Stones — Apples  and  Altitude — Where  Fruit  is  Currency — Historian  Has- 
■vell's  Ocark  Stories — A  Macadamized  Bed  of  Strawberries — Flint  for  Mulch — A 
Yield  of  $500  on  Three-quarters  of  an  Acre — Peach  Trees  Planted  with  a  Crowbar 
—Not  a  Crop  Failure  in  Twenty-five  Years — The  Secret  of  the  Soil. 

The  traveler  in  the  interior  is  often  surprised  to  behold,  at  one  view,  cliffs  and  prairies,  bottoms  and 
barrefls.  naked  hills,  heavy  forests,  streams  and  plains,  all  succeeding  each  other  with  rapidity,  and  mingled 
with  pleasing  harmony.  I  have  contemplated  such  scenes,'  while  standing  upon  some  lofty  bluff  in  the 
wilderness  of  Missouri,  with  unmi.xcd  delight;  while  deer,  elk  and  buffalo  were  grazing  quietly  on  the 
plains  below. — Schoolcraft's  Adx'Cuturcs   in   the   Ozark  Moutttains. 

'"Ah !"  said  a  Scotchman  who  came  from  Glasgow  to  examine  a  mining 
proposition  in  the  Ozarks,  "this  reminds  me  of  my  ain  Heelands."  He  dehghted 
in  the  Ozark  coimtry.  With  the  roHing  ranges  of  green-ckid  hills,  the  preci- 
pices and  rock-covered  slopes  along  the  clear  streams  he  felt  much  at  home. 

In  1895  a  thoughtful  man  stood  before  the  great  map  of  the  United  States 
in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Representatives  at  \\'ashington  and  said:  "As  it 
appears  to  me  there  are  just  three  places  left  in  this  country  where  a  man  with 
a  little  can  go  and  have  an  almost  absolute  certainty  of  making  a  great  deal. 
That  is,  I  mean  we  have  three  regions  which  seem  to  have  been  passed  by  while 
the  rest  of  the  country  was  being  taken  up  and  to  which,  in  the  immediate 
future,  there  is  going  to  be  a  rush  of  capital  and  immigration.  They  are  the 
sections  in  which  he  who  locates  early  is  going  to  reap  the  advantages  of  rapid 
development. 

"One  of  these  locations,"  he  continued,  "is  that  southwestern  strip  of  the 
United  States  stretching  down  to  the  terra  caliente,  between  the  Rio  Grande  and 
the  Gulf.  I  don't  know  much  about  it,  was  never  there,  but  if  there  is  enough 
moisture,  and  there  ought  to  be  so  near  the  Gulf,  I  imagine  that  that  almost 
wholly  unoccupied  strip  is  going  to  be  a  great  place  for  tropical   fruit  culture 

517 


518  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

some  day.  Another  place  is  the  Indian  territory.  Of  course  it  is  necessary 
to  wait  for  the  action  of  the  government  opening  tliat  to  white  settlement,  which 
cannot  be  delayed  much  longer.  The  third  and  largest  of  these  three  places 
and  the  one  which  I  would  choose  if  I  was  going  somewhere' to  'grow  up  with 
the  country'  is  right  there.'' 

He  pointed  to  the  Ozark  country,  'ihis  man  had  never  been  in  South  Mis- 
souri. But  he  looked  on  the  map  and  he  saw  how  the  railroad  builders,  in  the 
rush  to  the  South  and  West,  had  gone  by  and  left  a  great  block  of  unoccupied 
territory.  The  twenty-five  years  that  have  passed  have  witnessed  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  Indian  reservations  into  a  state.  They  have  developed  the  possi- 
bilities of  Southwest  Texas.  They  have  focused  attention  upon  the  long  over- 
looked Ozarks. 

The  Old  and  New  of  the  Ozarks. 

A  strange  combination  of  old  and  new  the  Ozark  country  presents.  One 
meets  a  man  who  has  just  come  down  from  the  North,  and  is  enthusiastic  over 
the  home  he  has  just  acquired.  The  ne.xt  acquaintance  may  be  a  native  whose 
family,  back  to  his  great-grandfather,  has  lived  right  here.  The  Ozark  countrv 
was  settled  before  the  Missouri  X'alley  was.  The  oldest  town  in  Missouri, 
next  to  .St.  Louis,  is  in  the  Ozark  country.  Pioneers  found  their  way  into 
the  region  before  Missouri  was  a  state.  They  recognized  the  fertility  of  the 
valleys,  the  salubrity  of  the  climate,  and  they  made  their  homes  on  tliese  slopes 
and  plateaus  when  Iowa  was  Indian  country.  After  the  Louisiana  purchase  was 
made  and  the  vast  region  west  of  the  Mississippi  was  transferred  to  the  United 
States,  American  citizens  flocked  to  this  Ozark  country  of  .South  Missouri.  The 
descendants  of  those  old  pioneers  live  there  today.  They  scattered  widely.  They 
occupied  first  what  were  to  them  the  choicest  lands,  the  vallevs.  ,\nd  now,  a 
century  after  the  early  settlements,  there  are  between  the  vallevs  occasional 
stretches  of  virgin   forest  in  which  the  deer  graze  and  the  wild  turkeys  roost. 

Country  of  the  Six  Bulls, 

On  the  way  from  Springfield  to  the  wonderful  scenery  of  White  river  the 
traveler  is  in  "The  Country  of  the  Six  Bulls."  Most  of  the  residents  have  for- 
gotten, if  they  ever  heard,  the  origin  of  this  name  for  the  section.  .A.  hundred 
years  ago  Edmund  Jennings  came  out  from  Tennessee  and  lived  fifteen  years 
among  the  Indians  of  "Aus  Arcs,"  as  the  French  had  named  the  region.  Jen- 
nings was  a  mighty  hunter.  He  carried  back  to  Tennessee  marvelous  stories 
of  the  woods,  the  caves,  the  springs,  the  rivers  and  the  game.  He  called  the 
locality  "The  Country  of  the  Si.x  Bulls."  That  was  Jennings'  way  of  pro- 
nouncing "boils."  This  was  the  country  of  the  si.x  boils.  The  "boils"  were  si.x 
great  springs.  These  springs  boiling  up  from  the  enormous  reservoirs  under 
the  limestone  strata  started  six  rivers  on  their  courses,  Indian,  Shoal,  Center, 
James,  .Spring  and  North  Fork,  streams  of  considerable  size,  have  their  begin- 
ning in  the  six  boils.  Jennings'  stories  of  hunting  and  fishing  started  a  migra- 
tion of  Tennesseans  to  ''The  Country  of  the  Six  Bulls."'  The.se  settlers  came 
in  almost  as  soon  as  the  United  States  was  in  possession  of  the  Louisiana  terri- 
tory. They  crowded  out  the  Osages  and  the  Shawnees.  They  kejit  the  country 
and  the  curious  name  tliat  Jennings  had  given  it. 


THE  OZARKS  519 

Some  Ozark  Pioneers. 

The  Ozark  country  had  a  historian  in  the  person  of  A.  C.  Jeffrey.  Accopd- 
ing  to  his  researches  white  settlement  dated  back  to  1801.  It  is  traditional  that 
the  Spanish  explored  the  region  very  thoroughly  for  silver.  It  is  also  tradition 
that  they  found  the  white  metal — so  much  of  it  that  they  couldn't  carry  it  away, 
but  left  it  in  caves.  Mr.  Jefifrey  said  the  first  white  man  who  brought  his  family 
and  came  to  stay  was  a  Frenchman  named  Jehu  Falenash.  This  pioneer  came 
up  the  White  river  by  canoe  in  the  first  year  of  the  century.  One  of  these 
earliest  settlers  was  an  educated  Virginia  lawyer,  John  Carter  by  name.  Car- 
ter's nearest  neighbor  was  a  man  named  Irons,  with  whom  he  had  a  disagree- 
ment. Carter  accused  him  of  stealing  his  hog  meat.  Irons  retaliated  with  a 
story  that  Carter  and  his  son  Bill  were  making  counterfeit  money.  One  day 
Carter  made  his  appearance  at  Irons'  place.  He  had  learned  that  only  the  women 
folks  were  at  home. 

"Good  morning,  ladies,"  he  said,  with  much  gallantry.  "Cool  day.  I  believe 
I'll  come  in  and  warm." 

Without  an  invitation  he  pushed  his  way  into  the  house,  took  a  seat  by  the 
fire  and  began  to  peer  about.  He  saw  a  piece  of  bacon  hanging  in  the  rafters 
above  his  head,  the  usual  place  for  curing  meat  in  those  days.  He  began  to 
hum  as  if  to  him.self  an  improvised  song.     The  words  ran  in  this  way: 

"My  Billy  will  come  out  of  the  kinks  yet. 
If  that  silver  mine  goes  on,  he,  he." 

Looking  up  at  the  meat  among  the  rafters  he  added :      .  1 

"And  there  hangs  some  of  my  hog's  bacon,  he.  he." 

This  was  too  much  for  the  Irons  women.  They  hadn't  said  a  word  before, 
but  now  they  assailed  the  visitor  with  brooms  and  sticks  and  ran  him  off.  Carter 
considered  it  a  great  joke. 

Tennessee  and  Kentucky  contributed  some  noted  characters  in  the  early  set- 
tlement of  the  Ozark  country.  One  of  these  was  known  far  and  wide  as  Big 
Bill  Woods.  Big  Bill  and  his  father  came  while  the  war  of  1812  was  in  prog- 
ress, and  as  long  as  thev  lived  they  cursed  Andrew  Jackson.  Old  Man  Woods 
and  his  two  sons.  Bill  and  John,  so  the  story  goes,  enlisted  under  Andrew  Jack- 
son and  went  south  to  fight  the  Indians  and  the  British.  They  were  good 
enough  fighters,  but  had  little  idea  of  discipline.  John  Woods  was  on  picket 
duty  one  night  and  left  his  post.  The  court-martial  sat  on  him.  There  was 
no  defense,  and  yet  no  great  harm  had  been  done.  The  usVial  sentence  of  death 
was  passed,  with  a  recommendation  to  mercy.  But  it  happened  to  come  just 
at  a  time  when  Jackson,  having  reversed  many  of  these  court-martial  sentences, 
had  declared  that  the  next  one  should  be  carried  out.  When  the  case  of  John 
Woods  was  brought  to  him  the  general  refused  to  reprieve  him.  Old  Man 
\\'oods  and  Big  Bill  dressed  the  boy  and  saw  him  led  away  to  his  death.  Then 
they  deliberately  left  the  army,  crossed  the  Mississippi  river  and  settled  in  the 
Ozark  country.  Jackson  made  no  eft'ort  to  have  them  brought  back.  .\s  long 
as  Big  Bill  lived  the  mention  of  Jackson  would  bring  from  him  the  bitterest 
oaths. 


520  CENTENNIAL  HIBTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Good  Old  Times  in  the  Ozarks. 

.  Of  life  in  the  Ozarks,  of  Southwest  Missouri,  J.  A.  Sturges,  the  local  his- 
torian of  Pineville,  has  given  this  description. 

"The  people  who  had  located  here  were  generally  from  the  South,  more  being  from 
Tennessee  than  anj'  other  one  state,  and  had  brought  with  them  the  manners  and  customs 
peculiar  to  those  localities.  They  lived  in  primitive  style,  compared  with  the  present,  and 
were  nearly  self-sustaining.  A  cook  stove  was  a  rare  exception,  nearly  every  one  cook- 
ing by  the  fire  place  and  oven.  This,  by  the  way,  was  not  so  inconvenient  as  might  be 
imagined.  Many  a  delicious  'pone,'  rare  venison  saddle  and  luscious  gobbler  has  been 
cooked  in  this  way,  and  the  smell  that  ascended  to  heaven  was  enough  to  tempt  the 
appetites  of  the  gods. 

"A  sewing  machine  had  never  been  heard  of,  while  the  clank  of  the  loom  humming 
wheel  furnished  music  almost  as  sweet,  and  more  homelike  than  our  present  organs  and 
pianos.  The  old  fashioned  linchpin  wagons,  with  the  box  shaped  like  a  canoe,  many  with 
wooden  spindles,  could  be  heard  for  miles  as  they  groaned  and  creaked  over  the  rocky 
road.  They  raised  their  own  cotton  and  wool,  spun  and  wove  it  into  cloth  and  made  their 
own  garments.  The  latter  was  the  women's  work.  Of  course  every  family  cultivated 
enough  tobacco  for  home  consumption.  Wheat  and  corn  were  produced  and  there  were 
a  number  of  mills  to  do  the  grinding.  Distilleries  were  quite  numerous  and  manufactured 
the  pure  and  unadulterated  corn  juice  at  twenty-five  cents  a  gallon.  The  good  people, 
both  saints  and  sinners,  could  take  their  corn  to  the  still  and  lay  in  a  good  supply  of  the 
great  household  panacea  without  a  cent  of  cash.  One  didn't  have  to  get  'sick'  and  tell 
a  lie  and  sign  his  name  to  it ;  then  get  a  doctor  to  tell  one  and  sign  his  name  to  it  in  order 
to  get  a  drink  of  a  decoction  miscalled  whiskey.  No,  he  just  followed  the  injunction  of 
St.  Paul,  and  took  a  little  for  his  stomach's  sake  and  his  oft  infirmities,  and  of  a  quality 
that  would  have  met  the  approval  of  that  learned  apostle.  In  this  new  country  subject  to 
chills  and  malaria,  and  with  the  scarcity  of  doctors  and  drugs,  no  doubt  this  pure  liquor 
drove  disease  and  death  from  many  a  home. 

"Hogs  and  cattle  could  be  raised  with  very  little  feed,  the  former  being  frequently 
butchered  directly  from  the  mast,  while  deer,  turkey  and  other  game  were  found  in 
abundance.  .A.s  to  shoes,  every  neighborhood  had  a  tannery  and  every  man  was  a  shoe- 
maker. One  man  told  me  that  his  father  said  his  store  bill  before  the  war  did  not  aver- 
age five  dollars  a  year.  His  family  was  quite  large,  and  they  lived  comfortably.  Instead 
of  doing  without  they  simply  produced  what  was  required.  It  is  by  no  means  intended  to 
convey  the  idea  that  the  people  were  poor  or  lived  so  plainly.  Many  families  were  quite 
aristocratic,  had  well  furnished  houses,  and  gold  watches  and  jewelry  were  worn  exten- 
sively. People  were  hospitable,  extremely  so,  partly  because  it  was  born  and  bred  in 
them ;  partly  because  being  isolated,  it  was  regarded  as  a  treat  to  have  a  neighbor  or  a 
stranger  stop  to  dinner  or  over  night.  The  familiar,  'Halloa,  stranger,  git  down  and 
hitch  yer  boss  and  come  'n  and  stay  all  night;  the  ole  woman  '1  have  supper  d'rectly; 
boys,  take  the  critter  and  feed  it,'  has  greeted  many  a  weary  traveler  and  he  would  rest 
as  secure  as  tho'  guarded  by  a  regiment  of  soldiers." 

The  Diary  of  an  Ozark  Winter  Journey. 

The  Rountree  family  migrated  from  Maury  county,  Tennessee,  reaching 
Springfield  in  Januarj',  183 1.  That  was  the  year  of  the  great  snow  storm.  In 
the  Ozarks  the  snow  lay  eighteen  inches  deep  on  a  level  and  so  continued  for 
several  weeks.  What  journeying  to  the  new  home  in  the  Ozarks  meant  under 
such  conditions  is  told  in  a  diarj'  which  Joseph  Rountree,  the  head  of  the  family, 
kept.  The  trip  was  undertaken  in  November.  That  part  of  it  after  the  family 
reached  the  Mississippi  river  is  thus  recorded  in  the  diary: 

Thursday,  December  23d,  1830. — A  cloudy  day.  The  ice  w-as  very  thick  in  the  river; 
we  went  to  Kaskaskia ;  the  ice  nearly  quit  in  the  river  in  the  evening ;  at  night  it  rained 
and  froze  over.     Our  expence  was  $7l4c. 


THE  OZARKS  521 

Friday.  24th. — A  wet  morning.  We  prepared  for  crossing  the  river  after  breakfast ; 
we  had  removed  our  family  to  Peter  Robert  Derousse's,  at  the  lower  ferry,  on  Sunday 
last, — a  very  respectable  gentleman  with  a  peaceable  family;  we  found  the  ice  so  thick 
and  wide  on  the  other  side  that  we  could  not  land,  and  had  to  go  down  the  river  more  than 
a  mile,  where  got  a  landing,  and  it  took  until  about  an  hour  in  the  night  before  I  got  my 
wagon  and  family  over ;  we  had  to  make  five  trips ;  we  went  about  three  miles  and 
camped,  and  had  a  merry  night.     Expence,  $5. 

Saturday,  25th. — We  started  early;  proceeded  to  Ste.'  Genevieve  town;  Mr.  Beard 
had  to  get  a  skein  mended ;  my  family  stayed  with  a  very  friendly  French  family,  Bovie 
by  name;  in  the  evening  we  went  on  eight  miles  and  camped  at  Mr.  Bell's.  Expence, 
Si. 62^. 

Sunday.  26th.- — A  cloudy  cold  day.  We  traveled  on  and  about  2  o'clock  Mr.  Beard's 
hind  axletrce  broke  at  Mr.  Moreare's ;  we  proceeded  about  four  miles  further ;  we  traveled 
14  miles  and  camped  at  Mr.  Barrington's.     Expence,  62^c. 

Monday,  27th. — I  went  to  Mr.  Donaldson's,  found  them  well,  and  our  wagon  waited 
for  Mr.  Beard's,  and  then  went  on ;  camped  at  Mr.  Baker's ;  traveled  nine  miles  today. 
Expence,  $2.56^. 

Tuesday,  28th. — This  day  was  clear  and  cold.  We  traveled  on  very  well ;  found  that 
the  fore  bolster  of  Mr.  Beard's  wagon  was  broken ;  we  came  through  Mine  a  Burton  and 
got  a  new  bolster;   encamped  at   Mr.  Tucker's;   it  began   to  snow  before  day.     Expence, 

62^^C. 

Wednesday,  29th. — This  day  was  snowy,  rainy  and  freezing;  we  started  and  broke 
the  tongue  out  of  Mr.  Beard's  wagon ;  made  a  new  tongue,  traveled  seven  miles,  and 
encamped  at  Mr.   Compton's.     Expence,  $1. 

Thursday,  30th. — Started  on  and  it  was  snowing  and  freezing;  last  night  it  snowed; 
we  had  got  only  one  mile  this  day  until  Mr.  Beard's  wagon  turned  over  in  a  branch  and 
got  the  most  of  my  goods  wet;  we  had  to  take  up  camp  and  dry  our  things;  it  continued 
snowing.     Expence,   62J/2C. 

Friday,  31st. — This  day  we  packed  up  our  wagon  and  started  about  12;  traveled  7 
miles.     Expence,  $1.06^. 

Saturday,  January  i,  1831. — .^  clear  cold  morning;  it  moderated  a  little;  we  proceeded 
and  crossed  the  Cotway,  Huzza,  and  Dry  creeks ;  traveled  about  13  miles  and  encamped 
on  the  ridge  between  Dry  creek  and  the  Merrimac.    Expence,  $2.75. 

Sunday.  2d. — Cloudy;  we  started  early;  it  rained  very  hard  this  day  and  thundered; 
we  crossed  the  Merrimac ;  traveled  16  miles ;  encamped  at  Massey's  Iron  Works.  Ex- 
pence,  56;4c. 

Monda}',  3d. — Last  night  it  rained,  sleeted  and  froze  all  night ;  this  morning  it  began 
to  snow ;  we  continued  in  a  cabin  that  we  had  took  up  in ;  it  snowed  all  night.  Expence, 
62^0. 

Tuesday,  4th. — .^  cold  day ;  snow-  very  deep ;  continued  at  the  cabin  all  day.  Expence, 
$1.19. 

Wednesday,  ,ith. — A  clear  cold  day;  Mr.  Beard  took  his  load  about  four  miles  to  Mr. 
St.  Clair's,  and  we  deposited  it  there  and  returned  to  the  cabin.     Expence,  66  2-3C. 

Thursday,  6th. — Clear  and  cold ;  Mr.  Beard  took  his  departure  for  home,  we  continued 
in  the  cabin;  in  the  evening  Sidney  (Ingram)  and  me  went  to  look  us  out  a  place  for  to 
make  a  camp  near  St.  Clair's ;  we  concluded  on  a  place,  returned  in  the  evening,  and 
brought  home  Junius  and  Lucius,  who  had  went  to  another  cabin  on  the  Dry  fork  of  the 
Merrimac  the  day  before.     Expence,  $5. 

Friday,  7th. — We  began  to  prepare  for  making  our  camps,  but  in  the  evening  Joseph 
Phillabare  (Philabert)  came  on  and  we  concluded  to  go  with  him;  so  we  left  the  cabin, 
came  on  to  St.  Clair's,  and  stayed  all  night.     Expence,  62^c. 

Saturday,  8th. — We  started  about  10  o'clock  and  proceeded  up  the  bad  hill  with  some 
difficulty;  the  day  was  cloudy  and  cold,  the  snow  was  deep  and  it  snowed  some  more,  but 
we  traveled   18  miles.     Expence,  iSj^c. 

Sunday,  9th. — Quite  cold;   traveled  17  miles.     Expence,  $143. 

Monday.  loth. — Cloudy  and  cold;  we  proceeded  and  crossed  Rubidoo  (Robidoux)  ; 
traveled   15   miles.     Expence,  i/l/zC 


522  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Tuesday,  iith. — This  morning  it  was  very  snowy;  we  discovered  that  Mr.  Phillabare 
had  one  of  the  skeins  of  his  wagon  to  get  mended,  so  we  stayed  in  camp  till  nearly  12, 
and  then  traveled  about  12  miles  and  encamped  at   Stark's.     Expence,  8l'4C. 

Wednesday,  12th. — Cloudy  and  cold;  we  traveled  on  slowly  on  account  of  the  snow: 
crossed  the  Osage  fork  of  the  Gasconade,  and  traveled  14  miles.     E.\pence,  iS-J^c. 

Thursday,  13th. — A  cold  day;  but  we  traveled  on  pretty  well;  passed  Eastwood  and 
traveled  18  miles.     Expence,  iyViC 

Friday,  14th. — Last  night  it  snowed  very  hard;  we  encamped  at  the  Indian  Grave 
branch ;  the  snow  increased  in  depth  four  or  five  inches ;  we  traveled  with  a  great  deal  of 
difficulty ;   we  passed   Tygart's ;   traveled  20  miles.     Expence,  50  cents. 

Saturday,  15th. — It  continues  to  snow;  the  day  is  almost  intolerably  cold;  we  pro- 
ceeded on  our  way.  and  after  traveling  six  or  eight  miles  we  met  Joseph  H.  Miller  and 
Lemuel  Blanton  coming  to  meet  us.  Great  joy!  We  went  on  to  Robert  Patterson's, 
twelve  miles,  and  got  lodging  for  the  night  in  his  house, — the  first  night's  lodging  in  a 
house  since  we  left  the  cabin  at   Masscy's   Iron   Works.     Expence.  $1.25. 

Sunday,  i6th. — To-day  was  extremely  cold ;  snowed  a  little ;  we  proceeded  and  got 
to  Joseph  H.  Milker's  between  sunset  and  dark ;  found  the  people  about  the  Prairie  all 
well  and  glad  to  see  us  all  arrive  safe;  traveled  23  miles. 

The  Spring  House  in  the  Ozarks. 

J'he  spring  house  is  still  an  institution  of  the  Ozarks,  not  quite  so  omnipresent 
as  it  was  before  the  days  of  cities  and  ice  plants,  but  still  in  frequent  evidence 
as  one  of  the  chamis  of  this  section  of  Missouri  in  the  pioneer  days.  When  the 
settler  looked  around  for  the  choicest  site  for  his  cabin  home,  he  took  into  con- 
sideration the  location  of  the  spring.  No  Ozark  farm  was  without  at  least  one 
good  spring.  Some  had  half  a  dozen  of  these  streams  of  pure  cold  water  gushing 
from  the  limestone  ledges  in  never  failing  volume  no  matter  what  the  season. 
As  civilization  advanced,  the  spring  water  was  piped  to  many  Ozark  homes.  And 
in  time  came  the  installation  of  hydraulic  rams  which  carried  the  water  up 
grade  when  the  spring  was  at  a  level  lower  than  the  house.  The  next  thing 
after  the  house  was  built  in  the  early  days  of  the  Ozarks  was  the  construction 
of  the  spring  house.  An  old  timer  described  what  was  standard  architecture 
with  the  pioneers : 

"The  walls  were  made  two  to  four  feet  thick,  of  any  rough  stone  that  happened  to  be 
handy.  The  door  was  of  lieavy  oak  b9ards  and  fastened  with  a  stout  padlock.  Inside 
the  house  three  sides  were  usually  fitted  out  with  shelves  to  hold  the  great  crocks  of 
milk,  jars  of  cream  and  butter,  and  usually  the  spring  bowl  was  excavated  so  as  to  form 
a  pool,  having  a  uniform  depth  of  three  to  six  inches.  In  this  the  choicest  dairy  products 
were  placed  in  order  that  they  might  be  coolest,  while  overhead  stout  nails  or  hooks  were 
fastened  to  the  rafters  to  support  huge  roasts,  legs  of  mutton  and  veal,  which,  at  the 
temperature  of  forty-five  degrees  or  thereabouts,  would  keep  fresh  many  days.  Rats  and 
mice  were  almost  unknown  about  the  spring  house,  but  small  snakes  and  half  grown  frogs 
were  numerous,  and  when  the  country  maid  noticed  an  unusual  commotion  in  the  jar  of 
milk  she  was  handling  she  was  not  at  all  surprised,  or  frightened  either,  when  a  water 
snake  slipped  out  of  the  jar  and  disappeared.  Nor  was  the  family  alarmed  when  the 
head  of  a  frog  appeared  in  the  milk  pitcher  at  breakfast.  The  pitcher  was  promptly 
emptied  into  the  pigs'  trough,  and  the  frog,  if  not  devoured  by  the  pigs,  made  a  bee  line 
for  the  spring  branch.  Xobody  was  blamed  for  every  one  knew  that  the  covers  of  the 
jars  did  not  fit  and  that  frogs  and  snakes  were  to  be  expected  in  a  spring  house." 

A  household  institution  of  pioneers  in  the  Ozark  countrj-  was  the  laundry. 
When  Monday  came  the  Ozark  housewife  did  not  put  the  boiler  on  the  kitchen 


LIFE  IN  THE  OZARKS,  1870 


LIFE  IN  THE  OZARKS,  1920 


THE  OZARKS  525 

stove.  She  gathered  up  the  clothes  and  followed  the  well  beaten  path  from  the 
back-door  to  the  spring.  Every  Ozark  farm  has  its  spring.  Many  of  the  houses 
were  built  with  direct  reference  to  the  spring  and  some  towns  are  located  where 
a  volume  of  clear  cold  water  wells  up  and  flows  from  the  rocks  without  any 
apparent  relation  to  rainfall.  The  Ozark  housekeeper  of  early  days  had  a  great 
iron  pot  swinging  a  foot  and  a  half  from  the  ground.  The  tubs  stood  on  stones 
under  the  shade  of  thick  foliage.  The  water  was  dipped  with  a  gourd  from  the 
spring  and  the  kettle  was  filled.  A  fire  of  pine  or  hickory  was  built  underneath. 
There  the  week's  washing  was  done  and  the  clothes  were  spread  on  bushes  to  be 
gathered  and  carried  back  to  the  house  when  night  came.  The  outfit  of  the 
laundrv  remained  undisturbed  until  the  day  for  the  next  washing. 

"The  Switzerland  of  America." 

"The  Switzerland  of  America."'  is  the  descriptive  title  bestowed  upon  the 
Ozarks  by  the  residents  thereof.  And  the  aflfection  of  these  people  for  their 
Ozarks  is  akin  to  that  passion  which  the  Switzer  has  for  his  own  Alps.  The  late 
Aaron  D.  States,  of  Dade  county,  writer,  newspaperman  and  preacher,  was  a 
true  Ozarkian. 

In  "The  Cabin  by  the  Winding  Way,"  as  he  called  his  home,  he  wrote  this 
graphic  tribute,  "Why  I  like  my  part  of  the  country." 

"Why  do  I  like  it?  Listen!  It  is  South  Missouri  where  the  Ozarks  plaj-  with  the 
gossamer  clouds  and  the  mellow  sunbeams,  that  dance  over  meadow,  woodland,  tangled 
wildwood,  and  play  hide-go-seek  amid  labyrinth  and  dell.  Where  the  purest  crystal  water 
flows  in  classic  rivers  and  streams  and  from  never  ceasing  wells  and  springs  that  give 
health  and  life.  Where  talkative,  babbling  brooklets  quench  the  thirst  of  the  herds,  on 
the  mission  to  the  father  of  waters,  passing  through  bewitching  nature  gardens,  tickling 
the  roots  of  herb  and  fern,  then  spreading  into  a  broader  and  deeper  current  to  gladden 
the  hearts  of  the  husbandmen.  Where  the  golden  sunlight  warms  the  earth  the  quickest 
after  the  snows  and  sleets.  Where  the  earth  responds  to  every  honest  touch  of  the  soil 
tiller  and  assures  him  plenty  with  some  to  spare. 

"Not  so  very  far  from  thriving  cities,  near  the  trackage  of  the  endless  steel  rails  with 
the  master  city  of  the  middle  west  hard  by.  Near  a  modern  village  of  schools  and 
churches  and  where  everybody  is  hailed  as  brother,  and  should  I  forget  to  extend  the 
day's  benediction  in  passing  it  would  be  sufficient  cause  to  create  a  desire  in  the  afflicted 
to  learn,  'What  on  earth  has  happened?'  In  a  country  where  the  countr>Tnan  and  the 
townsman  sit  in  the  same  pew,  attend  the  same  social  functions,  whose  children  attend 
the  same  school.  Where  the  modern  car  is  found  both  in  town  and  countr>',  where  the 
public  highways  are  being  made  ideal  and  all  modern  improvements  find  a  people  ready 
to  adopt  every  measure  that  strengthens  industrial  worth  and  broadens  the  sphere  in 
making  life  worth  while.  Where  are  no  strangers,  and  should  one  come  within 
our  gates  he  is  soon  made  a  brother.  A  country  where  boosters  live,  live  not  alone  for 
self  but  are  willing  that  others  shall  live.  Where  mutual  interests  are  considered  above 
par  value — a  country  where  the  principles  of  a  common  brotherhood  are  practiced,  at 
least  in  part. 

"The  Ozark  range  of  mountains  is  distant  kin  to  the  Rockies.  It  extends  200  miles 
east  and  west  and  averages  a  little  over  100  miles  in  width.  This  scope  of  country,  the 
Switzerland  of  America,  is  fast  becoming  the  resort  for  thousands  of  pleasure  seekers 
each  year.  They  find  all  kinds  of  nature  wonderment,  little  cascades,  bewitching  grottoes, 
fruitful  fields  and  gardens,  with  farm  and  town  homes  that  are  akin  to  the  homes  of  city 
streets.  Pleasure  resorts  abound  everj-where.  Communitj'  houses  shelter  the  wear>'  pil- 
grim, log  and  cobblestone  bungalows  with  fertile  gardens  greet  the  visitor  in  all  the 
mountain   country.     No  visitor   need  be   too   far   distant   to  hear   the   pealing  of   the   high 


.-)2ti  CEXTEXxXlAL  HISTORY  Ol-  MISSOURI 

school  ami  collcgo  bell  in  order  to  find  pleasure  and  healthful  zone.  Mountain  roads  are 
being  made  ideal,  their  gentle  sloi)e  and  graceful  winding,  through  nature's  panorainas, 
give  the  visitor  a  touch  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful.  The  artist,  the  litcratus  and  the 
seeker  of  health  climb  the  mountain   peaks  and  with  glass  can  see   four  states. 

"I  am  a  child  of  nature,  I  love  my  mother.  She  has  fed  and  clothed  me  all  these 
years.  She  adorns  the  walls  of  her  home  with  master  paintings ;  she  seeks  to  soothe 
sorrow  and  strengthen  hope  and  faith.  After  awhile  she  will  clasp  me  into  her  bosom 
and  there   I  will  sweetly  sleep." 

Primitive  Life  and  Death  in  the  Ozarks. 

Great  and  radical  changes  in  the  eliaracter  of  the  ])(i])nlatioii  of  the  Ozarks 
has  taken  place  since  the  Civil  war.  Then,  it  was  the  opportunity  for  easy  living 
bv  the  chase  which  attracted  many.  .\  cabin  was  home.  Patches  of  corn  and 
tobacco  su])i)licd  necessity  and  luxury.  The  shot  gun  supplemented  the  larder, 
if.  indeed,  it  did  not  insure  more  than  half  of  the  living.  The  streams  swarmed 
with  tish.  Along  the  Piney  and  the  Gasconade  were  secret  stills,  and  the  lookout 
for  the  "revenooer"  was  continuous.  Not  all  of  the  Ozarks  was  thus  peopled, 
but  there  were  many  localities  where  primitive  life  was  the  rule.  Then  came 
settlers  to  whom  the  wonderful  climate,  the  sparkling  waters,  the  scenic  fascina- 
tion, the  rich  valleys,  the  fruit-raising  possibilities  of  the  slopes  appealed.  The 
Ozarks  began  to  realize  destiny  as  the  incomparable  summer  sanitarium  for  the 
citv  dweller.  Today  the  traveler  would  travel  in  vain  to  find  such  an  incident  as 
was  described  thirty  years  ago : 

"While  riding  along  the  Springfield  road,  I  approached  a  log  cabin,  and  was  attracted 
by  the  sight  of  half  a  dozen  farm  wagons  and  teams  scattered  about  in  the  vicinity,  and 
perhaps  two  dozen  people,  men,  women  and  children,  conversing  and  smoking  under  a 
big  oak  nc.ir  the  cabin  door.  It  was  near  sunset  in  the  early  autumn.  1  rode  up  near  the 
group  and  baited. 

"  'Howdy,'  said  a  tall  thin  man,  in  a  solemn  voice. 

"I  acknowledged  the  greeting  and  then  ventured  the  query.  "What's  going  on,   friend?' 

"  'Fun'ral,'  said  the  mail  who  first  greeted  me. 

""Funeral!     W'hy  who   is  dead?'  I  asked. 

"  'Joe  Angus'  little  'un.  Bin  waitin'  all  day  fur  the  preacher.  Won't  yer  bitch  an' 
stay  a  bit?' 

"I  got  off,  fastened  niy  horse  to  a  scrub  oak  and  walked  to  the  cabin  door,  which 
was  open.  A  slanting  bar  of  sunshine  pierced  the  foliage  and  penetrated  an  opening  in 
the  west  side  of  the  cabin,  which  by  courtesy  is  called  a  window.  It  rested  upon  the 
bowed  head  of  a  man  and  the  pale,  tear-damp  face  of  a  woman.  On  a  table,  by  the  open- 
ing in  the  logs,  I  could  see  the  outlined  figure  of  a  child.  Something  white  was  thrown 
over  it.  The  mother  rose  at  my  entrance  and  drew  back  tlie  covering  from  the  face  of 
the  rigid   figure. 

"  "Tbet's  my  poor  little  .'Xngy.'  said  the  woman,  with  a  hopeless  wail  in  her  voice. 

"  'Poor  little  .^ngy,  indeed,'  I  thought  as  I  looked  at  the  frail  bit  of  human  clay 
awaiting  everlasting  consignment. 

".\  clatter  of  hoofs,  the  murmur  of  voices  from  the  outside  and  the  minister  entered. 
The  women  came  after  him.  and  the  men  gathered  at  the  door. 

"The  ceremony  was  brief,  fervent  and  impressive ;  and  the  shadows  of  night  were  in 
the  corners  of  the  cabin  when  I  moved  out  into  the  air  again.  Every  man  that  was  stand- 
ing outside  when  I  entered  had  disappeared,  and  from  away  back  at  the  foot  of  a  bluff, 
near  the  river,  the  sharp  barking  of  dogs  could  be  heard.  Xo  questions  were  asked  as  the 
minister  followed  the  father,  who  bore  the  baby  form  now  wrapped  in  an  old  patch  quilt 
to  a  wagon  and  placed  it  gently  in  the  straw.  The  parents,  minister'  and  some  women 
got  into  the  vehicle  also.  Then  it  jolted  away  up  the  road,  just  as  the  moon  came  over 
the  bluff    in   silent,   silvery   splendor. 


THE  OZARKS  527 

"'Where  are  all  of  the  men  gone?'  I  asked  of  two  women  who  remained  behind. 

'"Do  ye  hear  them  dogs  a-yelping  down  thar?' 

"  'Yes.' 

"  "Thar's  a  coon  treed.    Reckon  the  men  's  gone  down  to  ketch  the  critter.' 

"There  was  no  surprise  expressed  and  no  comment  from  the  two  women  on  the 
propriety  or  impropriety  of  these  men  thus  leaving  the  cabin  of  a  friend,  while  the  closing 
rites  were  being  performed  over  his  dead  child,  to  join  in  the  chase  for  a  live  coon." 

He  was  an  Ozark  mountaineer  who.se  philo.sophy  brought  home  to  John  T. 
Crisp,  Missouri's  satirist,  tlie  futility  of  the  Civil  war: 

"I  was  riding  up  through  .Arkansas  with  Price's  army.  We  were  on  our  way  back  to 
Missouri.  The  Yankees  had  let  us  alone  so  long  we  thought  maybe  they  had 'quit  fight- 
ing or  had  forgotten  us.  We  were  getting  anxious  about  it.  Along  toward  night  I  met 
a  man  who  lived  up  there  in  the  mountains.  He  had  been  fishing,  and  had  his  string  of 
fish*  with  him.  He  was  going  home.  I  was  pretty  full  of  patriotism  and  notions  about 
duty.  You  see  I  had  studied  the  relations  of  the  states  to  the  nation,  and  the  relations  of 
the  states  to  the  states,  and  the  relations  of  the  states  to  the  territories,  and  the  relations 
of  the  citizen  to  the  states  and  to  the  nation.  I  thought  I  knew  all  about  it.  I  said  to  this 
man  away  up  in  the  Ozark  mountains : 

"'Why  aren't  you  in  the  army?' 

"'What  army?'  he  asked. 

"'The  Confederate  army,  of  course,  dern  you,'  said  I. 

'"Oh,  yes,'  he  said.     'I  did  hear  something  about  such  an  army.' 

"  'Yes,'  said  I,  growing  a  little  hot,  'I  thought  so.  .And  why  aren't  you  out  with  it 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  country?' 

"'What  country?'  he  asked. 

"  'This  country,'  I  said. 

He  looked  all  around  him  at  the  mountains,  and  then  said: 

"  'Stranger,  suppose  you  lived  in  this  country,  and  owned  all  you  wanted  of  it,  and  had 
all  of  the  use  of  it  you  wanted,  and  some  other  fellow  was  paying  the  taxes  and  the  ex- 
pense of  keeping  up  the  Government,  wouldn't  you  think  you  was  a  derned  fool  to  go  to 
fightin'  about  it  with  the  other  fellow?'" 

Honor  Among  Whitecappers. 

In  the  southern  part  of  Phelps  county  lived  a  man  who  had  the  name  of 
being  the  ugliest  resident  of  the  Ozarks.  He  had  white  hair,  slant  eyes  like  a 
ChinanTan,  no  eye-brows,  an  enormous  nose  which  bent  to  one  side  and  almost 
touched  the  cheek  bone.  He  was  tall  and  lank.  This  ugly  man  of  the  Ozarks 
was  arrested  for  cutting  timber  on  government  land  in  Pulaski  county  at  a 
time  when  United  States  officers  were  vigorous  in  punishing  offenses  of  that 
character.  He  was  taken  to  Springfield.  The  district  attorney  got  up  and  read 
the  charges  as  set  forth  in  the  indictment.  The  district  judge  then  presiding — 
he  need  not  be  named — looked  in  amazement  upon  the  prisoner.  As  the  dis- 
trict attorney  concluded  the  reading  of  the  indictment  the  judge,  without  waiting 
to  ask  the  prisoner  how  he  pleaded,  said  to  the  attorney,  "You  may  enter  nolle 
prosequi  in  the  prisoner's  case.  After  a  careful  scrutiny  of  his  physiognomy  I 
am  convinced  that  any  man  who  is  compelled  to  carry  that  face  is  punished 
fjuite  enough  for  the  amount  of  lumber  which  he  is  charged  with  having  unlaw- 
fully taken  from  government  lands.  You  are  discharged,  Mr.  Blank.  Go  as 
quickly  as  you  can,  and  don't  forget  to  take  your  face  with  you." 

After  the  war  there  was  some  illicit  distilling  and  some  "whitecapping" 
aloilg  the  Piney  and  Gasconade  rivers,  but  neither  the  production  of  moonshine 


528  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

nor  the  punishment  of  local  offenders  with  the  hickory  switch  was  very  serious. 
These  descendants  of  East  Tennessee  mountaineers  brought  their  industries 
and  their  codes  in  only  modified  form  to  the  Ozarks.  In  the  locality  mentioned 
there  was  only  occasional  night  riding.  The  leader  of  the  white  caps  was  a 
man  of  fine  presence,  splendid  physical  proportions  and  educated  as  a  physician. 
He  was  known  far  and  wide  along  the  creeks  for  his  care  of  the  sick  and 
suffering.     He  was  a  fine  sportsman. 

One  night  "Doc"  and  his  band  called  on  a  local  offender  near  Spring  creek. 
They  took  him  out  and  applied  the  switches.  The  man  recognized  the  white 
caps  and  reported  them.  Conviction  followed  and  sentences  of  three  months 
in  the  penitentiary  for  the  whole  party.  One  of  the  number  was  a  man  who 
had  a  small  farm  and  a  large  family.  After  sentence  had  been  pronounced 
"Doc"  arose  in  court  and,  addressing  the  judge,  made  this  plea  for  the  .one 
upon  whom  the  sentence  would  work  the  greatest  hardship: 

"Your  Honor,  this  man  is  the  head  of  a  large  family,  and  his  enforced  absence 
means  untold  sufferings  to  his  wife  and  children,  and  perhaps  the  loss  of  his  home. 
Without  doing  violence  to  the  official  code  can  not  I  serve  the  three  months  my  neighbor 
and  friend  has  charged  against  him?  I  am  bigger  and  stronger,  and  can  do  more  work 
for  the  state  while  he  is  at  home  fighting  the  battle  of  life  and  the  weeds  that  threaten 
to  destroy  his  corn  crop.  Your  Honor,  I  am  serious,  and  I  can  best  serve  the  state  when 
I  serve  my  friend  at  the  same  time." 

The  man  with  the  large  family  was  discharged.  Subsequently  all  of  the 
party  implicated  were  pardoned.    There  was  no  more  whipping  by  that  band. 

The  Ozark  Uplift. 

Missouri  is  the  oldest  part  of  the  continent.  As  the  crust  of  the  earth  cooled 
and  the  shrinkage  went  on,  convulsions  shattered  the  strata  and  threw  up  the 
mountain  ranges.  One  of  these  great  convulsions  reared  the  Rockies  and  piled 
sections  on  end  and  at  every  possible  angle.  Another  created  the  confusion  of 
the  Alleghanies.  But  earlier,  and  between  the  two,  there  occurred  an  entirely 
different  movement.  A  great,  irregularly  bounded  section  broke  off  from  the 
crust  around  about  and  was  raised  to  a  higher  level.  This  was  the  Ozark  uplift. 
With  everything  in  place,  its  strata  in  the  horizontal  positions  where  they  had 
formed,  the  great  section  now  known  as  the  Ozarks  was  carried  upward  gently 
and  made  the  beginning  of  North  America. 

The  "ridge  roads"  of  the  Ozarks  are  not  only  the  best  of  national  thorough- 
fares. They  afford  fascinating  entertainment.  For  many  miles  they  can  be 
followed  without  much  change  in  grade.  Every  few  rods  are  openings  among 
the  oaks  and  pines.  These  reveal  vistas  of  valley  farms  and  ranges  of  hills 
clothed  in  forest  garb  with  occasional  clearings  where  the  newcomer  is  preparing 
for  an  orchard.  Twenty  miles  of  this  varied  landscape  is  nothing  unusual  in 
the  views  from  these  ridge  roads. 

To  the  average  unscientific  man  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  descriptions  of 
the  Ozarks,  geologically  speaking,  was  given  by  Professor  W.  Albert  Chapman : 

"Deep,  narrow,  tortuous  valleys  wind  between  long,  oval  ridges  and  domeshaped 
hills,  the  trend  of  which  is  northeasterly.  Bluflfs  and  precipices  form  the  termini  of  many 
of  the  ridges.     Others  of  the  ridges  drop  by  easy  descent  to  the  valleys.     The  summits  of 


THE  OZARKS  529 

the  ridges  are  often  contracted  and  narrow.  Again  they  widen  into  parks  of  many  thou- 
!-and  acres  in  extent.  Here  are  seen  basin-like  depressions  perhaps  many  feet  in  diameter. 
Into  these  the  surface  waters  flow  to  find  entrance  into  subterranean  passages.  Occasion- 
ally irregular  pits,  with  precipitous  sides,  occur,  showing  where  the  upper  strata  have 
sunk  into  a  hidden  cavern.  While  the  general  position  of  the  strata  is  nearly  level,  there 
may  be  seen,  in  the  valleys  and  along  the  streams,  strata  in  somewhat  tilted  positions, 
caused  by  the  subsidence  of  a  mass  partially  undermined.  Fractures,  separations  and 
depressions  all  indicate  where  partial  settling  has  taken  place.  These  effects  and  other 
departures  from  the  general  rule  of  everything  in  place  are  the  results  of  the  erosive 
action  of  the  water.  Caverns  and  crevices  are  very  common  throughout  this  region.  Some 
(<f  the  strata  easily  decompose,  and  the  material  goes  to  make  up  other  formations  which 
often  fill  in  the  caves,  crevices,  sinks  and  faults.  In  this  way  from  decomposition  and 
disintegration  of  the  primitive  strata  have  come  soft,  pulverent  sandstones,  quartz,  quart- 
zite,  calcite,  satin  spar,  ony.x,  alabaster,  clays,  ochres,  iron,  lead  and  zinc  ores,  either  in 
compact   form  or  scattered  in  crystals. 

"The  alterations  everywhere  observable  in  the  exposed  strata  are  due  to  water  or 
atmospheric  agency.  That  can  be  seen  easily  by  examination.  In  some  places  the  process 
is  still  going  on.  Water  is  nearer  being  the  universal  solvent  than  anything  else.  Its 
erosive  power  becomes  almost  irresistible  after  it  has  filtered  through  soft,  carbonaceous 
substances.  The  soluble  parts  of  the  rock  are  dissolved  and  leached  out.  The  action 
of  the  air  completes  the  disintegration.  But  between  this  dissolution  of  strata  and  the 
production  of  secondary  formations  I  have  mentioned  there  takes  place  an  intricate  and 
complex  series  of  chemical  actions.  In  one  place  the  secondary  product  will  be  ore.  In 
another  there  will  be  no  such  culmination  of  force.  Carbonates  and  sulphides  may  be 
the  first  result  from  overcharged  solution.  Through  a  succeeding  change  the  material 
may  part  with  the  carbonic  acid  and  become  impregnated  with  sulphuric  acid.  Solutions 
of  potash  enter  into  the  subterranean  alchemy,  and  gradually  the  deposits  of  ore  in  various 
forms  come  about." 

Over  the  "Hog  Backs"  to  an  Ozark  City. 

Bonnet's  Mill  is  a  village  with  its  business  houses  in  a  narrow  •defile  and  its 
homes  clinging  to  the  sides  of  the  precipitous  bluffs  on  either  side.  Out  through 
this  defile  the  road  leads  to  I.inn.  And  with  the  first  climb  to  one  of  these 
Ozark  "hog  backs"  the  surprises  begin.  Talk  about  a  good  roads  movement! 
Here  is  a  traction  engine  hauling  a  great  scraper  and  turnpiking  long  stretches 
of  road  faster  than  fiftj-  teams  and  lOO  men  could  do  it. 

The  road  traverses  the  "hog  back"  from  snout  to  tail  and  sidles  down  to  a 
beautiful  valley  with  a  clear  running  stream  bounded  by  fields,  in  which  fifty 
bushels  of  com  to  the  acre  is  ripening.  Then  come  another  "hog  back"  and 
another  valley,  and  so  it  goes.  Every  valley  has  its  rich  fields  and  comfortable 
fann  buildings  and  contented-looking  people,  who 

"Laugh  and  the  crops  laugh  with  them.'' 

Thus  you  come  to  Linn,  the  county  seat  of  Osage,  one  of  the  quaintest  and 
prettiest  towns  of  its  size  in  Missouri,  a  municipal  gem  of  the  Ozarks.  Linn's 
site  is  a  ridge.  Along  the  center  of  the  ridge  extends  the  Main  and  almost  the 
only  street  of  the  little  city.  The  pioneers  did  not  skimp  the  street,  if  the 
ridge  was  narrow.  They  made  it  broad  enough  for  future  growth.  The  ridge 
spreads  on  either  side  a  hundred  feet  or  so  from  the  street  line,  and  then  drops 
away  rapidly  200  feet  to  the  two  valleys  which  bound  it.     The  resident  of  Linn 


530  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

may  look  from  his  front  window  on  the  street,  but  when  he  goes  out  the  back 
door  it  is  all  down  hill  to  the  barn. 

A  mile  and  more  the  town  of  Linn  lies  along  this  wide,  single  street,  on  the 
crest  of  the  narrow  ridge.  At  one  end  of  the  lofty  perch  for  a  town  is  the 
court  house,  an  impressive  structure  of  stone  and  brick,  of  solid  and  enduring 
look.  An  iron  fence  surrounds  the  yard.  The  old  residents  have  not  forgotten 
the  controversy  which  arose  when  the  court  house  having  been  completed,  the 
matter  of  the  proper  fence  was  under  discussion.  The  progressive  element  was 
for  something  which  would  befit  the  new  court  house.  The  more  conservative 
taxpayers  were  still  counting  the  cost  of  the  big  court  house.  One  old  farmer 
was  appealed  to  by  the  progressives. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "I  am  in  favor  of  public  improvements.  I  believe  in  being 
liberal.  We  have  got  a  fine  court  house.  We  certainly  ought  to  have  a  good 
fence.  I  would  be  in  favor  of  a  fence  at  least  eight  rails  high  and  staked  and 
ridered." 

The  court  house  and  its  surrounding  square  may  be  likened  to  the  head  of 
Linn.  The  body  and  the  tail  stretch  far  away  down  the  long,  wide  street.  Con- 
spicuous on  the  street  is  a  Catholic  church  larger  than  many  in  St.  Louis,  of 
almost  cathedral  proportions.  .A.nd  in  this  noble  house  of  worship,  miles  away 
from  the  railroad,  there  are  wall  decorations  each  of  which  cost  hundreds  of 
dollars. 

On  this  single  street  of  Linn  a  50-foot  lot  sold  for  $1,400.  With  bank  and 
stores  and  newspapers  and  good  schools,  these  people  have  no  idea  that  there 
is  a  better  place  than  Linn  for  home.  And  furthermore,  "the  best  fishing  in 
the  world"  is  within  half  a  dozen  miles  in  several  directions. 

Thrift  in  the  Ozaxks. 

Surprises  await  the  traveler  who  leaves  the  railroad  and  rides  away  into  the 
Ozarks.  One  of  them  is  the  county  of  Osage.  The  picturesque  journey  along 
the  Missouri  is  a  succession  of  magnificent  curves,  with  great  sweeps  of  the 
river  from  one  car  window  and  frowning,  overhanging  hills  from  the  other. 
Now  and  then  the  train  glides  across  a  narrow  valley,  giving  a  glimpse  of  great 
fertility.  But  almost  before  the  vision  has  taken  note  and  the  suggestion  of 
possibilities  beyond  has  formed,  the  limestone  cliffs  shut  in  again.  And  so  one 
passes  on  with  little  more  than  the  impression  of  mountain  and  river.  Well 
toward  the  state  capitol  the  road  crosses  a  river  and  then  another  of  still  greater 
breadth,  the  clear  blue  water  contrasting  strangely  with  the  always  dense  and 
silt-bearing  Missouri.  With  the  expanse  of  first  the  Gasconade  and  then  the 
Osage  comes  the  evidence  that  there  is  less  of  ruggedness  behind  than  the  river 
bluffs  might  indicate.  Nevertheless  it  will  awaken  astonishment  in  those  who 
have  passed  over  this  part  of  Missouri  by  rail  to  know  that  the  people  who  live 
up  the  valleys  and  behind  the  far  rolling  hills  pay  more  personal  taxes  than  do 
the  occupants  of  some  of  those  prairies  which  charm  the  eye  farther  west.  That 
is  the  practical  and  prosaic  comparison.  There  are  other  ways  of  looking  at  the 
Ozark  hills  and  valleys. 

Before  Linn  had  attained  the  dignity  of  a  good  bank,  the  cashiers  at  Jeffer- 
son City  were  not  a  little  astonished  at  the  run  upon  them  by  Osage  farmers 


NAVIGATION  IN  THE  OZABKS 


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AN    OZARK   BUNGALOW    LIVING    ROOM 


THE  OZARKS  533 

desiring  to  make  deposits  and  open  accounts.  These  farmers  came  from  fifteen 
to  thirty  miles  and  deposited  sums  raging  from  $500  to  $5,000.  The  money 
was  in  gold,  silver  and  paper,  and  bore  various  indications  of  having  been  in 
home-devised  safe  deposits.  Inquiry  showed  that  these  Osage  farmers  had 
accumulated,  in  their  careful,  thrifty  ways,  snug  fortunes.  Lacking  the  accom- 
modation of  a  bank  at  the  county  seat,  they  had  been  keeping  their  money  in 
hiding  places  at  home.  Smart  rogues  had  discovered  the  rich  field.  They  had 
learned  that  there  was  a  great  amount  of  "idle  cash"  in  the  Osage  farm  houses. 
They  had  been  at  work  restoring  it  to  circulation.  A  series  of  rich  robberies 
had  taken  place.  Farm  house  after  farm  house  had  been  relieved  of  its  hoard 
while  the  family  was  away.  Thousands  of  dollars  had  been  taken.  The  farmers, 
alarmed  at  the  raid  upon  their  savings,  had  turned  to  the  banks  at  Jefferson  City 
in  the  adjoining  county.  That  was  the  explanation  of  the  sudden  rush  to  deposit 
the  handsome  accumulations. 

Few  counties  in  Missouri  show  heavier  returns  of  personal  property  for 
taxation  than  Osage,  population  considered.  These  farmers  who  cultivate  the 
rich  creek  bottoms  have  money  loaned  in  surrounding  counties.  Their  places 
are  well  improved.  A  ride  through  the  valley  of  the  Maries  shows  fine  houses 
and  barns  and  well-kept  fields.  It  reveals  that  improvement  of  agricultural 
conditions  which  one  sees  in  parts  of  Pennsylvania.  Westphalia  is  a  revelation 
of  an  ideal  farming  community,  at  which  the  visitor  may  well  rub  his  eyes  and 
wonder  if  he  has  not  been  transported  to  some  favored  valley  of  the  "vater- 
land." 

The  Story  of  a  Hunt  for  Gold. 

A  gold  hunters'  expedition  left  Springfield  in  1855.  In  the  winter  and  spring 
months  marvelous  stories  of  discoveries  were  carried  from  settlement  to  settle- 
ment in  the  Ozarks.  The  new  eldorado  rivaled  California.  It  was  not  so  far 
away.  Somewhere  near  the  headwaters  of  the  Arkansas,  in  the  Rocky  Range, 
as  they  then  called  the  Rocky  Mountains,  was  the  location.  The  finder  was  a 
man  named  Poole  from  Newton  county,  Missouri.  Poole,  in  his  wanderings, 
had  seen  a  tribe  of  Indians  who  used  gold  instead  of  lead  for  bullets.  He  had 
even  visited  the  gulch  where  nuggets  were  scattered  like  pebbles.  Not  only 
had  Poole  seen,  but  he  had  handled.  He  was  sure  he  could  lead  a  party  to  the 
place. 

Adventurous  spirits  in  the  Ozarks  took  up  the  suggestion.  Companies  were 
formed  in  several  counties.  One  of  the  largest  made  rendezvous  in  Springfield. 
Among  those  who  joined  were  young  men  afterwards  to  become  prominent  in 
Southwest  Missouri  affairs — C.  B.  Owen,  Dr.  E.  T.  Robberson,  J.  M.  Forrester, 
James  Johnson,  Samuel  Leak,  Thomas  Chambers,  D.  C.  Smith,  Eli  Armstrong. 
Elisha  Painter,  R.  A.  M.  Rose.  Owen  was  afterward  General  Sigel's  guide  at 
the  battle  of  Wilson's  creek  and  an  officer  in  Fyan's  24th  Missouri. 

These  companies  of  Missouri  argonauts  elected  captains  and  other  officers. 
They  divided  into  messes  of  five  men  each.  They  equipped  with  ox  teams 
for  hauling  supplies,  loading  the  wagons  with  flour,  meal,  bacon,  sugar  and  coffee, 
with  a  ten-gallon  keg  of  Ozark  corn  whiskey  to  each  man.  The  wagons  were 
drawn  by  six  yokes  of  oxen.    Most  of  the  members  had  their  own  horses. 

By  the  arrangement  of  the  leaders  with  Poole,  who  was  now  called  "Colonel," 


534  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  companies  left  Missouri  by  the  most  direct  routes  from  their  starting  places 
to  meet  on  the  Verdigris  river,  a  short  distance  southwest  of  Fort  Scott. 
Colonel  Poole  found  himself  at  the  head  of  400  men.  with  800  oxen  and  nearly 
eighty  wagons.  Some  of  the  Missourians  had  never  seen  Poole.  They  had 
joined  on  the  stories.  Not  in  the  habit  of  taking  things  too  much  on  faith. 
they  pressed  the  leader  for  definite  information.  Poole  couldn't  give  it,  but 
he  made  a  speech.  Me  said  he  had  seen  the  gold  and  believed  he  could  lead 
them  to  it.  Some  of  the  Missourians  talked  doubtfully  and  resentfully.  Poole 
then  said  he  would  not  start  until  every  man  signed  a  promise  to  protect  him 
from  ill  treatment  whatever  the  result  of  the  search.  After  much  palaver  the 
written  pledge  was  given  and  Colonel  Poole  led  the  way  westward-  from  Cooley's 
Bluff  in  the  Cherokee  Nation.  The  Missourians  followed  the  California  Trail 
through  the  Indian  country  until  they  came  to  the  Santa  Fe  Trail.  Fourteen 
miles  from  Fort  Mann  Poole  left  the  Santa  Fe  Trail  and  took  a  pathless  route 
over  the  plains  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains.  To  H.  Clay  Neville,  the  historian 
of  the  Ozarks.  Captain  Owen,  in  1894,  told  the  adventures  and  what  finally  befell 
the  expedition : 

"We  saw  millions  of  buftalo  on  the  trip.  Tliey  were  so  gentle  that  it  was  no  trouble 
to  get  in  close  range  of  a  feeding  herd,  and  any  one  could  kill  the  younger  animals. 
When  a  calf  was  cut  off  from  the  herd  it  would  follow  the  horses  right  into  our  camp. 
This  method  of  capturing  the  young  was  quite  commonly  practiced,  and  we  were  seldom 
without  a  good  supply  of  the  tenderloins  of  the  buffalo  calf.  We  had  plenty  to  eat  at 
all  times,  and  only  suffered  for  water.  Now  and  then  nothing  but  the  worst  kind  of 
alkali  water  could  be  found,  and  this  would  only  increase  the  thirst  of  man  and  beast 
if  drank.  Each  man  had  a  ten-gallon  water  keg.  which  he  filled  at  every  pure  spring, 
but  this  supply  often  proved  insufficient,  and  the  cattle  suffered  greatly  sometimes.  We 
traveled  about  thirty  miles  a  day  when  no  serious  obstructions  were  encountered.  We  had 
to  make  our  own  roads  often  by  filling  up  gulches  and  bridging  treacherous  quicksand 
streams.  Poole  kept  the  train  on  the  'divides'  as  much  as  possible,  thus  avoiding  the 
roughest  country. 

"The  greatest  wonder  of  the  whole  trip  was  the  change  which  came  over  the  cattle 
as  soon  as  we  struck  the  plains.  The  wild  nature  of  the  original  bovine  seemed  to 
return  to  the  oldest  plow  steer  in  the  train  after  he  had  traveled  a  few  days  over  the 
pathless  wilderness.  He  became  a  new  animal,  and  would  every  day  astonish  his  driver 
and  the  entire  party.  Not  only  did  the  cattle  travel  better  after  they  had  eaten  the  wild 
grass  and  drank  the  brackish  water  of  the  .\rkansas  N'alley  for  a  few  days,  but  the 
old  work  steers  would  run  away  in  the  yoke  or  stampede  at  night  on  the  slighest  provoca- 
tion. The  first  serious  affair  we  had  with  the  cattle  was  caused  by  a  very  little  circum- 
stance. One  of  the  horses  had  a  sore  back,  and  t^e  animal  was  turned  loose  with  a  saddle 
on  to  follow  the  train.  The  saddle  got  turned  under  the  Ijorse's  belly,  and  this  scared  the 
pony.  He  started  to  run  along  by  the  train,  kicking  and  snorting,  while  the  saddle  dangled 
and  flapped  between  his  legs.  This  started  one  of  the  teams,  and  in  an  instant  the  whole 
train  had  caught  the  spirit  of  fright.  Every  steer  of  the  800  seemed  to  bellow  at  once,  and 
the  wildest  runaway  ever  seen  in  an  ox  train  began.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  stopping 
the  frantic  beasts.  They  rushed  madly  over  the  plain  in  all  directions,  snorting,  bellow- 
ing, and  making  the  earth  tremble  with  their  wild  plunges  and  the  heavy  wagons  pulled 
after  them.  Some  of  the  wagons  were  turned  over  and  wrecked,  many  of  the  cattle 
crippled  and  the  train  scattered  for  miles.  It  took  a  whole  day  to  get  the  train  straight- 
ened up  after  this  runaway. 

"But  the  worst  of  all  the  stampedes  occurred  one  night.  We  always  made  a  corral 
of  the  wagons  by  driving  them  around  in  a  circle  before  going  into  camp.  Inside  of 
this  the  cattle  were  placed  to  protect  them  from  the  Indians.     The  guards  were  stationed 


THE  OZARKS  535 

on  the  outside  of  the  wagons.  It  was  early  in  the  night,  before  we  had  gone  to  bed,  when 
an  ox,  in  rubbing  his  neck  against  a  wagon,  knocked  down  a  yoke.  The  steer  jumped  and 
snorted,  and  like  a  flash  of  powder  the  signal  was  communicated  to  the  whole  herd. 
In  two  seconds  every  ox  in  the  corral  was  on  his  feet,  and  the  stampede  began.  For  a 
few  minutes  the  cattle  ran  round  and  round  in  the  corral,  getting  more  terrified  and 
resistless  as  the  mighty  mass  of  hoofs  and  horns  thundered  and  rattled.  The  men  were 
helpless.  A  herd  of  wild  Iniffaloes  could  have  been  as  easily  tamed  as  those  frightened 
steers  checked  at  that  moment,  and  we  could  only  take  refuge  in  the  wagons  and  watch 
the  terrific  spectacle.  Soon  the  circling  herd  make  a  break  on  the  corral.  Two  or  three 
wagons  were  overturned  and  through  the  gap  the  cattle  plunged  madly.  Before  the  last  ox 
had  left  the  corral  the  ill-fated  wagons  were  a  mass  of  ruins,  fit  only  for  kindling  wood, 
and  several  steers  lay  in  the  passage,  disabled  or  dying.  The  men  mounted  their  horses 
and  followed  the  scattering  herd,  but  the  cattle  could  not  be  rounded  up  that  night.  Some 
of  the  steers  ran  thirty  miles,  and  it  took  three  days  to  get  the  train  in  motion  after  the 
stampede. 

"Indians  were  seen  almost  every  day,  but  they  gave  us  no  actual  trouble.  We  had 
several  false  alarms,  which  caused  great  sensations  at  the  time,  and  much  amusement 
in  camp  afterwards.  One  night,  when  D.  C.  Smith,  of  our  company,  was  officer  of  the 
puard.  a  fellow  on  duty  saw  a  buffalo  calf  approaching  the  camp,  and  thought  it  was  an 
Indian.  He  fired  and  retreated  into  the  corral.  Smith  called  to  his  men.  shouting  at  the 
top  of  his  voice:  'Fall  behind  the  water  kegs!'  He  thought  the  kegs  would  make  the 
■  safest  breastworks  that  could  be  hastily  formed  to  resist  the  attack  of  the  savages.  As 
the  Indians  did  not  make  their  appearance  a  reconnoiter  of  the  field  soon  discovered  the 
cause  of  the  alarhi.  It  was  also  ascertained  that  instead  of  'falling  behind  the  water  kegs' 
most  of  the  men  had  hidden  in  the  wagons,  and  were  making  breastworks  of  the  grub 
boxes,  when  the  scouts  reported  no  enemy  but  a  buffalo  calf  near  the  camp. 

"At  another  time,  when  most  of  the  men  were  out  hunting  a  mile  or  twp  from  the 
train,  they  saw  the  drivers  begin  to  corral  the  teams.  This  was  the  signal  for  danger, 
and  we  all  supposed  that  the  Indians  were  about  to  attack  the  train.  Then  every  man 
started  toward  the  wagons  at  his  best  speed  possible,  those  on  foot  trying  to  keep  up  with 
the  horsemen.  Some  of  the  mounted  men  ran  into  a  gulch,  and  were  badly  hurt.  When 
we  reached  the  train  the  drivers  had  discovered  that  the  Indians  were  only  hunting 
buflFalo,  and  not  seeking  our  scalps. 

"All  the  time  Poole  went  scouting  the  country  on  both  sides  of  the  train.  He  rode 
a  small  gray  horse,  and  left  the  wagons  every  morning  with  his  favorite  squad  of  guides 
and  prospectors.  The  man  seemed  in  dead  earnest,  but  often  greatly  perplexed.  As 
summer  wore  on  and  no  gold  was  found,  the  men  began  to  get  very  impatient.  But  few 
of  u?  had  any  idea  of  the  country  we  were  travelling  over,  and  the  distance  home  seemed 
now  very  great.  We  had  been  out  several  months,  and  the  treasure  sought  seemed  as  far 
away  as  ever.  Poole  grew  more  and  more  uneasy  and  confused  as  we  advanced  toward 
the  region  where  he  had  claimed  the  gold  would  be  found.  He  talked  less  and  less  about 
the  exact  location  of  the  mine  and  seemed  much  in  doubt  at  times  as  to  his  bearings.  We 
had  reached  the  foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  country  was  getting  very  rough.  It 
took  a  great  deal  of  work  often  to  get  the  train  over  a  gulch.  The  vision  of  the  rich 
treasure,  which  had  allured  us  over  the  alkali  plains,  began  to  vanish  as  we  saw  the  per- 
plexity of  our  leader.  At  last  the  dream  was  broken,  and  the  men  refused  to  go  farther 
in  pursuit  of  such  an  uncertain  prize.  Poole  made  excuses  for  his  failure,  and  still 
declared  that  the  gold  could  not  be  far  away,  and  wanted  a  little  more  time  to  hunt,  but 
the  men  would  not  advance  another  step  after  they  held  a  general  council,  and  discussed 
the  situation.  The  leader's  influence  over  his  followers  was  completely  gone  now,  and 
Poole  became  more  alarmed  for  his  own  safety,  as  he  saw  the  demoralized  condition  of 
the  camp. 

"When  the  vote  was  taken  nearly  every  man  favored  a  return  hofne,  but  before  the 
train  changed  its  course  toward  the  rising  sun  Poole  and  his  little  gray  pony  had  dis- 
appeared. We  never  heard  of  the  man  after  the  wagons  started  homeward.  The  fellow 
got  afraid  he  would  be  killed,  in  spite  of  the  pledge  we  had  all  signed.     There  was  much 


536  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

disagreement  among  the  men,  after  the  first  feeling  of  disappointment  passed  off,  as  to 
the  character  of  Poole.  Some  thought  he  was  honest  and  had  seen  at  least  what  appeared 
to  be  gold,  while  others  regarded  him  as  an  out-and-out  fraud.  I  never  could  see  what 
motive  the  man  had  if  he  was  an  imposter.  He  must  have  had  some  faith  in  the  move- 
ment or  the  expedition  would  never  have  been  organized.  Whatever  became  of  the  man 
I  never  knew.     He  never  came  back  to  Missouri  as  far  as  I  could  ascertain. 

"We  partially  reorganized  the  command  when  Poole  left,  and  began  to  retrace  our 
steps.  It  was  not  difficult  to  follow  backward  the  trail  of  the  train.  The  tread  of  the 
800  oxen  and  the  wheels  of  eighty  wagons  left  their  unmistakable  signs  on  the  open  plains. 
The  Fourth  of  July  soon  came  after  we  started  back.  Not  a  wheel  turned  on  that  day. 
We  were  too  patriotic  to  travel  on  the  anniversary  of  liberty,  homesick,  as  most  of  the  men 
had  become  by  this  time.  We  had  some  whisky  in  our  kegs  yet,  and  every  man  drank 
a  health  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes  and  his  native  state  that  morning.  Then  the  boys  began 
to  hunt  for  fun.  .^fter  some  old  Tennessee  pastimes  in  the  way  of  trials  of  strength  and 
activity,  a  difficulty  between  two  companies  arose.  It  was  an  old  grudge  that  had  been 
growing  ever  since  the  train  left  the  Verdigris  river.  This  we  thought  was  a  good  time 
to  have  the  feud  settled.  The  combatants  were  accordingly  disarmed  and  led  by  pairs 
into  a  ring,  where  they  fought  under  old  Tennessee  fist-and-skull  rules,  until  one  of  the 
men  announced  in  loud  and  unmistakable  tones  that  he  was  whipped.  By  the  time  one 
fight  was  over  another  couple  would  be  ready  for  the  ring,  and  in  this  way  we  spent  a 
good  part  of  the  day,  umpiring  these  rough-and-tumble  combats.  By  night  the  strife 
between  the  two  companies  was  exhausted,  and  the  plight  of  some  of  the  men  could  hardly 
be  imagined.  They  had  fought  in  the  corral,  rolling  over  and  over  on  the  ground  often, 
and  their  clothes  were  soiled  with  all  the  filth  about  the  camp.  Some  had  lost  their 
shirts  in  the  fight,  and  black  eyes  and  swollen  noses  and  lips  told  where  gouging  thumbs 
and  pounding  fists  had  done  their  bloody  work. 

"When  the  train  reached  the  Arkansas  river  the  companies  began  to  separate,  each 
one  taking  the  most  direct  course  home.  Our  men  traded  some  of  their  provisions  to  the 
Indians  for  dressed  deer  skins,  and  then  we  hurried  on  to  Springfield,  glad  to  get  back, 
but  not  a  little  ashamed  of  the  result  of  the  trip." 

Paxson  Keithley's  Mysterious  Hoard. 

Old  Parson  Keithley  was  one  of  the  strange  characters  of  the  Ozark  country. 
One  day  in  the  week  he  preached.  The  other  six  he  roamed  the  country  with 
his  gun  on  his  shoulder  and  his  dog  at  his  heels.  He  loved  solitude.  It  was 
his  custom  to  disappear.  For  days  his  family  would  hear  nothing  of  him.  Then 
he  would  return  as  suddenly  as  he  had  gone.  He  was  reticent.  Nothing  more 
than  disjointed  accounts  of  his  wanderings  ever  came  from  him.  Relatives 
learned  to  ask  no  questions.  When  the  old  man  buckled  on  his  belt  and  went 
over  the  ridge  he  might  be  back  for  supper  or  he  might  be  gone  weeks. 

When  the  California  gold  fever  spread  the  parson  was  well  advanced  in 
years.  One  day  he  walked  out  of  the  house.  Months  afterward  a  brief  letter 
came  from  him.  It  was  written  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  it  the  parson  said 
he  was  on  his  way  to  California.  Two  years  and  eight  months  passed.  One 
day  the  old  man  walked  into  the  house,  greeted  his  family  pleasantly  and 
resumed  his  old  way  of  living.  Little  by  little  the  family  learned  that  the  parson 
had  found  gold.  He  had  acquired  all  that  he  wanted  and  had  come  back 
by  Cape  Horn,  landed  at  New  Orleans  and  made  his  way  overland  to  the  Ozark 
country.  Nobody  ever  learned  how  much  the  parson  brought  back.  The  neigh- 
borhood story,  which  took  no  account  of  avoirdupois,  was  that  the  parson  had 
actually  lugged  $6,000  in  gold  into  the  Ozark  country.     What  he  did  with  the 


THE  OZARKS  537 

treasure  was  a  mystery.  He  made  no  exhibition  of  it,  and  he  did  not  keep  it 
in  the  house.  There  was  a  garden  and  an  apple  tree  some  distance  off.  At 
intervals  of  weeks  or  months  the  old  man  would  draw  from  his  pocket  a  $io 
gold  piece  and  hand  it  to  his  daughter,  saying,  "See  here  what  I've  found."  The 
gold  was  usually  produced  on  some  occasion  of  domestic  need.  Where  the  gold 
was  "found"  the  old  man  never  told.  The  "shiner"  came  to  light  just  after  the 
old  man  had  been  taking  a  walk.  Some  of  the  family  supposed  that  the  treasure 
was  buried  under  the  old  apple  tree  in  the  garden,  and  unearthed  a  piece  at  a 
time.  Others  speculated  that  the  hiding-place  was  in  a  cave  to  which  the  parson 
was  wont  to  retire  for  meditation.  So  much  did  he  frequent  the  place  that  it 
became  known,  and  is  still  known,  as  Keithley's  cave. 

The  strangest  part  of  the  parson's  career  came  toward  the  end.  Shortly 
after  the  close  of  the  war  he  told  his  friends  that  he  felt  he  had  not  much 
longer  to  live.  It  was  his  fpndest  wish  to  make  the  cave  his  tomb.  He  set 
about  the  preparations  for  that  purpose.  A  portion  of  the  cave  was  very  dry, 
and  that  was  chosen  by  the  parson  for  his  last  resting  place.  He  walled  off 
a  room  and  built  of  rock  an  entry  five  wide  feet  leading  to  it.  The  stones  for 
the  purpose  he  carried  from  some  distance  on  the  hillside,  dressing  them  so  that 
they  would  fit  well,  but  laying  them  without  mortar.  At  the  entrance  to  the 
passage  Keithley  built  a  double  stone  door,  inclined  at  an  angle.  The  door  was 
of  two  slabs,  eighteen  inches  wide  and  three  feet  long.  In  the  sides  he  made 
handles.  When  he  entered  his  tomb  the  parson  pulled  the  doors  over  and  their 
weight  held  them  snugly  in  position.  On  one  side  of  the  inclosed  room,  close  to 
the  wall,  he  laid  up  a  stone  coffin  just  large  enough  to  hold  him  comfortably. 
For  this  he  had  a  slab  which  he  could  work  into  position  so  as  to  cover  the  top 
after  he  had  lain  down  inside.  For  several  years  before  the  end  came  Keithley 
was  in  the  habit  of  retiring  to  the  cave,  closing  the  doors  of  the  tomb  and  pulling 
the  slab  upon  the  coffin.  There  he  would  lie  for  days  at  a  time  waiting  for 
death.  Then,  when  the  feeling  of  weakness  or  depression  passed  away,  the 
old  man  would  come  out  and  preach  and  hunt.  At  all  times  he  impressed  it 
upon  his  people  that  they  must  see  to  it  his  bones  rested  in  the  cave,  if  death 
came  suddenly  when  he  was  away  from  the  chosen  spot.  In  his  leisure  the 
parson  carved  on  the  wall  of  the  cave  a  short  sermon.  The  text  he  engraved 
was,  "Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock."  The  Ozark  country  has  many 
,  Keithleys,  some  of  them  direct  descendants  of  the  old  parson. 

The  floor  or  bottom  of  the  coffin  was  dry  clay,  and  stretched  at  full  length 
upon  it  the  parson  passed  many  nights  and  days.  The  darling  wish  of  Parson 
Keithley's  heart  was  not  fulfilled.  The  old  man  was  far  past  90  when  the  sud- 
den summons  came.  His  waiting  and  watching  in  the  tomb  had  been  in  vain. 
Death  found  him  in  a  lonely  spot  on  the  mountain,  several  miles  from  the  cave. 
Faintness  had  come  upon  him.  He  had  rested  his  gun  against  a  tree  and  had 
lain  down.  The  dog  had  dropped  beside  him.  Days  afterward  the  searchers 
who  had  failed  to  find  him  in  the  tomb  came  upon  the  body. 

The  Fniitville  Experiment. 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  institute  to  teach  the  possibilities  of  the  Ozarks  is 
Fruitvillc  Farms  of  Howell  county.  The  professor  was  Jay  Linn  Torrey.  One 
of  the  interesting  characters  in  the  present  generation  of  Missourians  was  Colonel 


538  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Torrey.  He  was  colonel  by  right  of  comniission.  He  first  suggested  to  President 
McKinley  the  organization  of  Rough  Riders  as  specially  adapted  to  the  cam- 
paign in  Cuba  and  was  given  the  command  of  the  Second  Regiment. 

Torrey  was  born  in  Pike  county,  Illinois,  and  lived  in  Pike  county,  Mis- 
souri. He  worked  his  way  at  Columbia  and  was  senior  captain  in  the  cadet 
organization  of  the  University  of  Missouri.  Then  he  practiced  law  in  St.  Louis 
for  twenty  years,  was  president  of  the  three  national  bankruptcy  conventions 
and  framed  the  present  bankrupt  law.  Going  to  Wyoming  in  the  days  of  the 
cattle  barons,  Torrey  conducted  a  ranch  and  sold  Herefords  by  the  train  load. 
After  such  \aried  experiences  came  his  fascination  with  the  Ozarks.  About 
ten  years  ago  Torrey  bought  11,000  acres  of  land  and  began  the  development 
of  Fruitville  Farms.  He  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  unparalleled  versatility  of 
the  soil  and  climate  by  raising  in  a  season  167  varieties  of  grains,  grasses  and 
vegetables,  many  of  these  products  taking  first  premiums  at  the  Missouri  state 
fair.  He  ascertained  by  study  and  experiment  that  air  drainage  on  certain 
slopes  of  the  Ozarks  is  one  of  the  peculiar  advantages  the  orchards  enjoy.  Long 
growing  seasons,  healthful  altitude  and  clear  cold  water  are  the  combination 
that  give  an  extra  profit  to  dairying  in  thu  Ozarks.  The  flora  of  Fruitville 
Farms  has  been  tested  for  honey  production  with  tlie  conclusion  that  the  long 
season  of  flowers  and  the  short  mild  winters  are  found  to  offer  special  encour- 
agement to  the  apiary.  Another  of  the  very  practical  experiments  on  Fruitville 
Farms  has  been  the  immunizing  of  hogs.  In  a  great  oak  forest  Colonel  Torrey 
defied  cholera  and  produced  pork  with  a  greater  margin  of  profit  than  is  obtained 
anywliere  outside  of  the  Ozarks.  With  cattle,  horses,  mules,  sheep  and  goats 
and  especially  with  poultry,  results  were  obtained  which  in  Colonel  Torrey's 
judgment  show  the  Ozarks  to  be  ideal  for  profitable  production. 

The  time  was  when  squatters'  rights  were  thought  to  suffice  for  title  in  the 
Ozarks.  Men  took  land,  reared  families  and  passed  away  without  going  through 
the  formality  to  record  an  entry,  although  Si 4  would  have  secured  the  farm  to 
the  children.  Heirs  came  to  the  county  seats  to  have  estates  administered  upon 
only  to  discover  that  Uncle  Sam  still  owned  the  land  upon  which  they  had  been 
"born  and  raised."  Nobody  thought  of  disturbing  a  squatter.  It  wouldn't  have 
been  safe.  But  when  lawyers  came  to  settle  estates  they  were  up  against  the 
absence  of  title.  In  another  peculiar  way  some  .of  the  early  settlers  held  their 
farms.  They  homesteaded  the  land,  but  before  the  time  came  to  patent  it  the 
right  was  relinquished  by  the  holder  and  another  member  of  the  family  made  a 
fresh  entry.  In  this  way  some  farms  have  remained  from  before  the  war  until 
now  in  the  possession  of  the  same  family  by  successive  homestead  entries  without 
final  patent.  The  advantage  of  this  kind  of  land  holding  is  that  taxation  is  es- 
caped. Rut  "the  bum,"  as  one  old  settler  called  the  boom,  came.  All  kinds  of 
lands  in  the  Ozarks  were  in  demand.  Complete  titles  had  market  value.  The 
squatter  hustled  to  make  sure  of  his  homestead  and  to  be  in  a  position  to  sell 
when  the  fruit  raiser,  the  dairvman,  the  chicken  farmer  and  the  miner  came. 

Habitat  of  the  Peach  and  the  Apple. 

Away  from  main  traveled  roads  and  in  the  remote  parts  of  the  Ozarks  the 
explorer  comes  not  infrequently  upon  some  long  abandoned  homestead.  The 
pioneer  settler,  restless  for  a  change  has  pulled  up  stakes  and  moved  on.     A 


I.\  SUUTHEAST  MISSOURI 


I'Al.lSADF.S  OF   Hli;   Kl\  KK 


THE  OZARKS  541 

heap  of  stones  marks  the  wreck  of  the  chimney,  and  that  is  all  remaining  of 
the  house.  The  once  cleared  ground  has  grown  over  with  black  oak  and  young 
pines.  Every  vestige  of  fence  has  disappeared.  Yet  in  the  midst  of  such  dis- 
couraging conditions  will  be  found  apple  and  peach  trees  thriving  and  loaded 
with  fruit.  There  are  peach  trees  in  the  Ozarks  which  have  been  bearing  longer 
than  the  oldest  settler  can  remember.  There  is  the  "horse"  appletree  said  to  have 
been  brought  to  the  Ozarks  by  Tennesseans  long  before  the  Civil  war. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  men  who  have  seen  most  of  the  Ozark  country  to 
be  warmest  in  their  expressions  of  confidence  in  its  future  as  a  fruit-raising 
section. 

"I  have  been  here  thirty  years,"  ex-Congressman  Tracey  once  said,  ''and  in 
that  time  I  have  seen  only  one  failure  of  the  apple  crop.  Our  orchards  are  in- 
creasing by  additions  of  thousands  of  acres  annually.  This  will  be  the  apple 
country  of  the  world.  There  is  as  much  certainty  about- the  apple  crop  of  the 
Ozark  country  as  there  is — well,  as  there  is  in  the  interest  of  a  well  secured  loan. 
It  is  the  same  way  with  the  small  fruits." 

The  fact  may  have  escaped  the  rest  of  the  busy  world'that  Missouri  is  making 
rapid  progress  in  fruit  production.  This  state  now  stands  nearly  at  the  top  of 
the  list.  When  Northwestern  Arkansas,  Eastern  Kansas  and  Southeastern  Ne- 
braska are  added  to  Missouri  the  limits  of  the  greatest  fruit-producing  section 
in  the  world  are  defined. 

Peaches  and  Peaches. 

"If  you  will  guarantee  me  7J/2C  a  bushel,  I'll  undertake  to  deliver  to  you 
1. 000  bushels  of  peaches.  I  know  I've  got  1,600  bushels  on  my  place."  This 
was  the  proposition  an  Ozark  farmer  made  to  the  manager  of  an  evaporator.  Of 
course,  these  were  not  the  great  rosy,  Stump-of-the-World,  or  the  far-famed 
Elbertas.  and  certainly  not  the  White  Heath  cling,  which,  seen  through  the  glass 
of  the  air-tight  jar,  make  a  man's  mouth  water.  They  were  the  seedlings.  Still 
they  were  peaches,  and  "jYiC  a  bushel  seemed  very  low  for  any  kind  of  a  peach. 
The  seedling  is  the  peach  tree  which  comes  up  in  that  encouraging  country 
wherever  a  peach  pit  is  dropped.  If  not  cut  for  a  switch  or  plowed  up  in  the 
course  of  cultivation  for  something  else,  the  seedling  flourishes.  All  it  asks 
is  to  be  let  alone.  Like  Topsy  the  thousands  of  seedling  peach  orchards  of 
South  Missouri  have  "just  growed."  The  fence  comer  is  a  favorite  spot  for 
the  seedling  peach.  Among  the  apple  trees,  around  the  back  doors  of  the  farm 
houses,  beside  the  hog  lots,  are  clumps  of  seedling  peach  trees. 

If  the  Ozark  farmer  had  gone  forth  with  his  jack-knife  and  a  bundle  of  buds 
some  spring  morning  the  southern  counties  of  Missouri  would  be  shipping  train 
loads  of  peaches  where  they  now  send  out  car  loads.  But  the  farmer  didn't  do 
it.  And  so,  on  countless  farms  there  are  from  half  a  dozen  to  half  a  thousand 
seedling  peach  trees.  In  good  peach  seasons  the  boughs  bend  toward  the  ground 
with  the  festoons  of  these  little  peaches  clustered  as  thick  as  they  can  stick. 
Farmers'  wives  and  daughters  pare  the  seedling  peaches  for  drj'ing.  Every  shed 
roof  is  preempted.  Some  of  these  seedlings  are  no  larger  than  a  hickory  nut. 
Others  reach  the  size  of  a  goose  egg.  Some  are  hard  and  about  a?  agreeable 
in  flavor  as  a  green  apple.  Others  are  soft,  juicy  and  sweet.  There  is  as  great 
variety  in  the  seedling  peach   as  in  the  native  population.     With  all   of  the 


542  CENTEXXTAI.  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

other  uses  which  may  be  fonml  for  the  eimrinous  seedHng  peach  crop  of  Howell, 
it  still  remains  a  fact  that  many  thousands  of  bushels  go  to  feed  the  hogs. 
Good  feed  they  make.  Hogs  [nit  on  fat  and  never  sicken  from  a  seedling  peach 
diet.  The  peach  crop  is  beyond  capacity  for  human  consum])lion,  even  at  a  nickel 
a  bushel. 

There  is  anotlier  \  iew  uf  the  peach  ))robleni  of  tlie  ( )zarks.  .Several  years 
ago,  in  the  pioneer  jieriocl  ot'  the  industry,  liowcll  county  peaches  were  carefully 
packed  and  inclosed  in  refrigerator  boxes  with  enougli  ice  to  insure  cold  storage 
for  a  long  journey.  When  these  peaches  were  taken  out  in  New  ^'ork  they  sold 
readily  at  ^4  a  l)usliel.  The  price  was  not  exceptional.  Similariv  prepared 
peaches  have  broitght  Sd  a  busliel.  Here,  then,  are  the  extremes  of  the  peach 
business  in  the  Ozark  country  from  5c  to  $4  a  bushel.  The  tree  which  ])roduced 
the  $4  peaches  started  on  equal  terms  with  that  which  gave  the  5c  surplus. 
Neither  had  the  aiKantage  in  original  seed  or  soil.  Pjut  in  one  case  a  pruning- 
knife  was  applied  and  a  bud  was  inserted  when  and  where  it  would  do  the  most 
good.  On  the  other  band,  tlie  original  .shoot  grew  into  a  tree.  The  same  sun- 
shine and  the  same  showers  brought  both  to  fruition.-  A  discriminating  market 
put  the  $4  approval  on  one  and  the  3c  condemnation  on  the  other. 

The  Apple-Drying  Season. 

In  the  early  days  of  autumn  the  (  )zark  country  is  one  big  evaporator.  The 
apple-drying  season  is  at  its  height.  F.very  farmer's  wife  has  a  basket  at  her 
feet  and  a  sharp  knife  in  her  hand.  From  morning  until  night  she  pares  and 
slices.  Thousands  of  bushels,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  btishels,  it  may  be  said, 
which  would  be  sent  to  market  if  the  transportation  facilities  would  warrant,  are 
saved  in  this  form.  The  horticulturists  call  it  "evaporating."  The  farmers  say 
"drying."  The  process  amounts  to  the  same  result.  Ry  various  methods,  natural 
or  artificial,  the  ap])le  is  reduced  to  one-tenth  its  w-eight  on  the  tree.  Ninety 
per  cent  is  evaporated.  Two  hundred  bushels  of  apples,  weighing  10,000  jxiunds, 
become  t,ooo  pounds  of  dried  fruit. 

The  primitive  way  is  to  take  the  (|uih  which  is  not  needed  on  the  beds  at  this 
time  of  year  and  lay  it  on  the  roof  of  a  .shed.  The  .sliced  apples  are  spread  out 
on  the  quilt.  If  a  rain  storm  comes  up,  the  four  corners  of  the  quilt  are  lifted 
and  the  apples  carried  indoors  until  the  clouds  roll  by.  Some  of  the  Ozark  people 
do  not  go  to  so  much  trouble,  luit  let  the  sun  and  rain  alternate  until  the  fruit 
is  cured.  The  forehanded  Ozark  farmer  constructs  of  thin  boards  shallow  trays 
which  \vill  hold  20  to  30  pounds  of  sliced  a])ples.  The  women  folks  are  able  to 
handle  these  trays  easily  and  carry  them  indoors  when  it  rains. 

Frequently,  in  the  corner  of  the  house  lot,  a  home  made  evaporator  may  be 
seen  smoking  away.  Sometimes  the  evaporator  is  constructed  of  boards,  but 
often  of  logs.  The  trays  are  jilaced  on  supports  in  the  u])per  part  of  the  little 
building  and  a  fire  is  started  below  either  in  a  stove  or  in  a  furnace  which  will 
throw  out  heat.  The  only  o])enings  in  these  little  houses  are  the  door  by  which 
the  trays  are  ]nit  in  and  the  llue  by  which  the  smoke  gets  out.  .\  stranger 
passing  would  guess  a  long  time  for  the  purpose  of  these  almost  airtight  structures 
unless  he  saw  the  evaporation  going  on.  These  home-made  evaporators  are  from 
three  to  five  feet  wide,  from  five  to  eight  feet  long  and  as  high  as  a  woman  can 


THE  OZARK S  543 

well   reach.     They   are   simply   rude   ovens,   calculated   to   hold   drying  but  not 
baking  heat. 

The  threshing  machine,  which  goes  from  farm  to  farm  in  the  grain  country, 
has  its  counterpart  in  the  evaporator  on  wheels  which  travels  from  orchard  to 
orchard  and  saves  the  crop  un  shares  or  for  a  stipulated  price  per  pound. 

Corporations  That  Eliminate  Water. 

At  the  more  important  fruit  centers  of  the  Uzarks,  e\aporators  whicii  do  the 
work  on  a  large  scale  have  been  built  by  companies.  Farmers'  wagons  stand 
before  the  door  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  discharging  the  surplus  of  the  small 
orchards  which  are  yielding  more  than  the  owners  can  care  for.  Fifteen  cents 
a  bushel  for  apples  and  five  cents  a  bushel  for  peaches  bring  to  the  evaporator 
about  as  much  as  can  be  handled.  These  are  the  small  seedling  peaches  and  the 
fall  and  defective  winter  apples  which  sell  at  such  figures.  When  good  fruit  is 
brought  in  the  evaporator  management  packs  and  ships  it. 

Machinery  does  the  work  in  the  evaporator.  It  can't  pick  up  the  apples,  but 
that  is  all  it  asks  of  human  agency.  As  soon  as  the  apple  is  impaled  on  the  fork 
the  machine  carries  it  round  and  round  at  varying  angles  under  the  knife  until 
in  a  few  seconds  it  is  beautifully  pared.  The  last  twist  of  the  machine  leaves  a 
round  hole  where  the  core  was.  \\'heels  and  belts  apply  the  power.  All  that 
the  attendant  does  is  to  pick  the  apple  from  the  basket  and  stick  it  on  the  fork. 
Two  girls  sit  in  front  of  the  box  into  which  the  pared  and  cored  apples  fall 
from  each  machine.  They  pick  up  the  apples  and  trim  away  any  speck  or  bit 
•of  skin  which  may  have  escaped  the  machine  knife.  As  fast  as  the  girls  fill  a 
Iray  it  is  pushed  into  an  almost  air-tight  chamber.  Sulphur  is  burning  below,  and 
the  fumes  rise'  through  the  slats  in  the  bottom  of  the  tray  and  reach  almost  the 
entire  surface  of  the  apple.  This  is  the  bleaching  process.  From  the  bleaching 
box  the  apples  come  out  a  beautiful  white.  An  inquisitive  man,  on  his  first  visit 
to  the  evaporator,  picked  up  a  newly  bleached  apple  and  ate  it.  He  said  it  had 
the  queerest  flavor  of  any  apple  he  had  ever  'tried.  The  taste  in  his  mouth 
reminded  him  of  the  time  his  mother  used  to  give  him  sulphur  and  molasses 
every  other  morning  in  springtime  "for  his  blood."  Bleached  apples  are  not 
intended  for  immediate  consumption.  A  few  hours  will  dissipate  the  fumes.  The 
smell  of  the  brimstone  is  noticeable  at  first,  but  it  soon  passes  away. 

The  automatic  slicer  is  as  ingenious  as  the  paring  and  coring  machine.  After 
being  bleached  the  apples  go  into  a  hop])er.  They  drop,  one  by  one,  upon  an 
endless  chain,  and  are  carried  through  a  machine  which  deposits  them  in  evenly 
cut  slices.  The  slices  are  spread  on  a  tray  which  is  pushed  on  the  slides  of  the 
drying  room.  There  it  remains  in  a  heat  of  from  130  to  140  degrees.  Five 
hours  complete  the  process  from  the  farmer's  wagon  to  the  finished  fruit  ready 
to  be  packed  in  20-pound  boxes.  Ihe  evaporated  fruit,  after  the  method  de- 
scribed, is  a  much  handsomer  product  than  that  which  comes  oflt  the  bed  cover 
and  the  back  shed  of  the  farm  house.    It  commands  considerably  more  per  pound. 

One  of  these  paring  and  coring  machines  will  do  eighty  bushels  of  apples  a 
day.  The  slicer  will  chew  up  600  bushels  a  day.  While  the  pressure  of  the  ripen- 
ing season  is  on  they  run  night  and  day.  That  is  to  say.  the  drying  room  will 
be  kept  going  continuously.    The  machinery  has  a  capacity  sufficient  to  turn  out  in 


544  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ten  hours  enough  pared,  cored  and  sliced  apples  to  supply  the  drying  room  in 
operation  twenty-four  hours. 

The  Rocks  and  the  Orchards. 

Throughout  the  Ozark  country,  valleys,  or  "hottoms,"  as  they  are  called,  are 
found  along  the  streams.  These  bottoms,  from  a  few  rods  to  a  mile  or  two 
wide,  have  deep  and  wonderfully  fertile  soil.  They  grow  from  fifty  to  seventy- 
five  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre.  No  fruit  man  of  experience  wastes  his  time  in 
setting  out  bottom  orchards,  for  there  is  simply  no  comparison  between  results 
in  the  valleys  and  on  the  rocky  hillsides  and  hilltops.  The  rougher  the  ground 
the  better  the  orchard  seems  to  be  the  rule.  On  a  slope,  where  the  little  round 
stones  cover  the  ground  from  three  to  six  inches  deep,  fruit  trees  do  gloriously. 
Unpromising  as  the  surface  looks,  there  is  soil  underneath  the  stones  which 
makes  an  apple  tree  laugh. 

Some  astonishing  theories  are  advanced  to  account  for  the  fruit  conditions  of 
the  Ozark  country.  Riding  along  a  road,  a  local  horticulturist  pointed  to  a  great 
heap  of  stones  which  an  industrious  farmer  had  picked  off  his  land.  "Within 
five  years,"  the  horticulturist  said,  "that  man  will  be  hauling  those  rocks  back  on 
his  land." 

The  head  of  one  of  the  commercial  fruit  companies  of  Howell,  who  came 
down  from  Illinois,  had  the  stones  picked  off  the  slopes  of  his  orchard  and  piled 
in  a  fine  wall  along  the  highway.  He  says  he  would  not  do  it  again.  It  is  con- 
tended b}'  some  of  the  fruit  growers  that  this  coating  of  small  stones  is  a  great 
advantage  to  the  land.  One  will  hold  that  it  keeps  the  moisture  in  the  soil.  An- 
other will  argue  that  when  the  rain  falls,  these  stones,  many  of  which  are  porous, 
absorb  water  like  so  many  sponges  and  then  give  oft'  moisture  when  the  weather 
turns  dry.  A  third  defender  of  the  rocky  soil  will  explain  plausibly  how  the 
heating  of  the  stones  by  day  and  the  cooling  of  them  by  night  greatly  increases 
the  condensation  and  precipitation.  There  may  be  something  in  this  last  claim ; 
the  dews  of  the  Ozark  country  are  equal  to  light  rains.  For  one  reason  or  an- 
other the  fruit  growers  would  not  have  the  stones  taken  away  if  they  could.  An 
ingenious  inventor  patented  one  of  the  oddest-looking  vehicles  ever  seen.  It 
was  designed  to  pick  up  stones  automatically  as  it  was  driven  over  the  field. 
The  first  impression  of  a  stranger  would  be  that  the  patent  was  a  great  thing  for 
this  country.  But  the  pick-me-up  was  scarcely  more  than  a  curiosity.  There 
was  no  demand  for  it  among  the  fruit  growers. 

Fruit  growing  has  received  a  tremendous  impetus  around  West  Plains,  and 
the  would-be  horticulturist  naturally  goes  there  to  see  the  big  orchards.  It  does 
not  appear,  however,  from  the  statements  of  the  unprejudiced,  that  Howell 
county  enjoys  marked  advantages  in  natural  fruit  conditions  over  other  parts 
of  the  Ozark  country.  There  are  ten  or  twelve  counties  in  South  Missouri  where 
fruit  enterprises  will  give  the  same  magnificent  results.  The  lower  slopes  prob- 
ably insure  more  regular  peach  crops.  But  wherever  there  is  a  slope  or  a  plateau 
a  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  most  of  the  Ozark  country  shows 
that  or  a  little  more  altitude,  apples  will  grow  to  beat  the  world.  The  success  of 
the  Olden  experiment  naturally  attracted  attention  to  that  immediate  portion  of 
the  Ozark  country.     That  explains  largely  why  Howell   county  is  so  much   in 


THE  OZARKS  545 

advance  of  counties  east,  west,  south  and  north  of  her  in  orchard  development. 
Fruit  is  the  barter.  Farmers  bring  in  fruit  for  sugar,  fruit  for  cofTee  and  fruit 
for  calico.     Fruit  is  on  exhibition  in  the  store  windows. 

Stones  and  Strawberries. 

A.  M.  Haswell  told  this  story  of  personal  experiences  in  the  rocky  Ozarks: 

"I  was  near  the  thriving  little  city  of  Anderson,  in  McDonald  county,  the  southwest 
corner  of  Missouri.  Across  the  road  from  the  farmhouse  where  I  was  entertained  there 
was  a  typical  Ozark  hill — stony,  steep  and  mostly  wooded.  But  on  the  east  this  hill  ran 
down  into  a  long,  stony  point  to  the  level  of  the  adjoining  valley,  and  on  this  tongue  of 
hill  was  growing  the  thriftiest  field  of  strawberry  plants  that  I  had  ever  seen,  and  I  am 
an  old  strawberry  raiser.  The  great,  sturdy  plants  stood  up  a  foot  high  and  the  rows 
had  formed  soUd  masses  of  vines  from  end  to  end.  But  it  was  not  alone  the  thrifty 
plants  that  attracted  my  attention ;  fine  strawberry  plants  are  no  rarity  in  the  Ozarks ; 
but  it  was  the  fact  that  between  the  thrifty  rows  there  was  not  one  single  grain  of  soil 
to  be  seen  I     Literally  true — not  an  atom  of  soil,  nothing  but  flint  rocks ! 

"I  climbed  the  fence  and  made  a  closer  examination.  Those  magnificent  strawberry 
plants  were  growing  in  as  well  macadamized  a  tract  as  I  ever  saw  in  a  roadway  in  my 
life  I  Just  then  the  owner  of  the  field  came  along  and,  with  a  smile,  said :  'I  see  you 
are  looking  at  my  strawberry  patch.     Fine,  ain't  they?' 

"I  assured  him  that  I  had  never  seen  finer  plants  and  added :  T  wish  you  would  tell 
me  how  you  ever  planted  them  among  these  rocks  and  how,  when  planted,  they  managed 
to  grow  into  such  plants  as  these?' 

"  'Well,'  he  answered,  'when  the  ground  is  newly  plowed  we  turn  up  a  good  deal  of 
soil,  but  it  washes  in  among  the  rocks  again  as  soon  as  it  rains.' 

"'But  why  don't  you  pick  up  the  rocks?'  I  asked. 

"  'Pick  'em  up  I  Why  man,  I'd  feel  like  taking  a  shotgun  to  the  man  that  would 
try  it!' 

"And  then  he  explained,  that  that  covering  of  flint  rock  was  the  best  possible  mulch  for 
his  plants.  That  six  inches  or  less  from  the  surface  all  rock  ceased,  and  that  once  set,  the 
plant  -roots  reached  down  into  a  permanent  reservoir  of  moisture,  which  no  drouth  could 
affect.  Moreover,  the  stony  covering  held  the  frost  in  the  ground  in  the  spring,  and  kept 
the  plants  from  starting  to  bloom  before  danger  from   frost  was  passed. 

"How  much  do  you  suppose  that  stony  point  of  hill  brought  its  owner  that  year? 
There  were  just  three-quarters  of  an  acre  of  it,  and  it  had  yielded  strawberries  which  sold 
on  board  the  cars  at  the  station  for  a  fraction  over  $500! 

"Speaking  of  stony  land  and  what  it  will  do  recalls  an  experience  I  had  a  few  years 
ago  in  Stone  county,  down  near  the  Arkansas  line.  I  had  stayed  over  night  with  a  farmer, 
and  as  I  was  about  to  drive  away  in  the  morning  he  said  to  me :  'Come  out  in  the  orchard 
and  get  some  peaches  to  eat  on  the  road.' 

"That  orchard  occupied  the  summit  of  one  of  the  'Bald  Knobs,'  such  as  arc  immor- 
talized by  the  name  'Bald  Knobbers.'  It  was  a  steep  hill,  probably  300  feet  above  the 
valley  at  its  foot,  and  it  was  by  nature  as  bald  as  Bill  Bryan  has  got  to  be  in  these  latter 
years.  Also  it  was  a  thoroughly  fitted  out  stone  quarry.  The  whole  rounded  surface  of 
the  hill  was  a  solid  gray  of  rock.  Look  across  it  and  you  could  not  believe  it  any  better 
than  a  solid  city  pavement.  But  the  rocks  were  loose,  and  scattered  among  them  were  some 
hundred  or  so  of  the  largest,  thriftiest  peach  trees  that  I  ever  saw,  and  every  tree  was 
loaded  to  the  limit! 

"In  answer  to  my  surprised  questioning,  the  farmer  told  nie  that  lie  had  set  those 
trees  out  in  1870 1  That  is,  they  were  over  35  years  old,  when  I  saw  them.  Remember, 
that  in  most  locations  fifteen  years  is  about  the  length  of  life  of  a  peach  tree.  Old  as 
they  were,  they  were  not  showing  any  signs  of  dying,  and  they  were  full.  That  farmer 
told  me  of  digging  the  holes  to  set  those  trees  with  pick  ax  and  crowbar,  but  he  also  told 
me,  as  did  the  man  at  .\ndtTson,  that  six  or  eight  inches  deep  you  would  run  into  a  fine 
Vol.  1—35 


546  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

reddish  clay,  without  so  much  as  a  gravel  stone  in  it.  That  was  what  gave  those  trees 
their  chance,  and,  if  their  owner  is  to  be  believed,  they  had  not  failed  of  a  crop  in 
twenty-five  years." 

The  Lesson  Taught  by  the  Wild  Products. 

From  the  wild  products  of  the  Ozark  country  John  H.  Curran  drew  the  im- 
pressive lesson  of  possibilities: 

"Ask  the  Ozark  farmer  boy  about  nuts  and  wild  fruits.  In  the  spring  he 
will  bring  you  the  tart  sheep  sorrel,  the  creamy  May  apple  and  the  wild  straw- 
berry hiding  in  the  grass.  As  summer  advances  he  will  show  you  blueberries, 
blackberries  and  dewberries  along  the  lanes,  and  mulberries  hanging  low,  with 
sweet  roots  and  Indian  tobacco  after  the  meal. 

"As  the  first  frost  falls  he  will  shake  the  persimmon  trees  and  catch  for  you 
mealy  dainties  or  lead  you  to  the  paw  paw  patch  where  hangs  nature's  charlotte 
russe.  Black  and  red  haws  with  flavors  all  their  own  hang  from  bending 
branches. 

"This  Ozark  lad  will  show  you  his  store  of  walnuts,  hickory  nuts,  hazelnuts 
and  pecans  and  perhaps  some  chestnuts  and  butterniUs,  all  speaking  eloquently 
of  the  soil,  the  rain,  the  sunshine  and  the  pure  air  of  his  country  home." 

In  the  soil  of  the  Ozark  country  Mr.  Curran  discovers  the  secret  of  the 
successful  horticulture : 

"From  the  limestone  of  Bonne  Terre  and  the  weathering  porphyrys  of  the  eastern 
part  to  the  great  galena  formation  of  the  Southwest  extends  a  field  of  intensely  interest- 
ing geological  study.  The  soil  content  shows  mineral  saturation  in  many  districts.  Much 
of  It  contains  iron  which  is  said  to  be  responsible  for  the  rich  color  of  the  fruit  and  for 
flavors  unexcelled  by  any  fruit  in  the  world. 

"Phosphate  is  richly  present  on  many  chert-covered  ridges  and  hillsides,  a  prime 
necessity  in  any  successful  orchard  region.  The  weathering  of  this  stone  gives  a  con- 
stant supply  of  this  important  plant  food. 

"Ninety  per  cent  of  the  uncultivated  lands  of  the  region  are  in  timber — white,  black, 
red,  burr  and  post-oak,  hickory,  gum,  walnut,  bullpine,  maple,  elm  and  an  unlimited 
variety  of  hardwoods,  cover  the  hillsides,  valleys  and  ridges,  an  ever-present  reminder  that 
the  Ozarks  lie  in  natural  tree  country.  Where  the  forests  are,  there  also  are  the  forest 
fruits,  and  where  wild  fruits  grow  naturally,  cultivated  varieties  thrive.  The  tree  food 
is  there  and  will  do  its  work  if  given  a  chance." 

The  Age  of  the  Ozarks. 

"I  believe,"  said  a  Connecticut  man  who  settled  in  the  Ozarks,  "the  geologists 
hold  that  these  mountains  are  among  the  earliest  created.  They  were  fonned  long 
before  some  ranges  which  are  a  great  deal  higher  and  more  imposing.  They 
came  into  existence  at  such  an  early  period  that  the  strata  do  not  include  the 
Devonian  age.  That  is  to  say,  fishes  had  not  come  into  being,  and  therefore  we 
do  not  find  fish  fossils  in  our  rocks.  Speaking  about  the  age  of  this  Ozark 
country,  do  any  of  you  know  who  was  the  first  Arkansas  traveler?" 

Of  course  everybody  gave  way  to  the  New  Haven  man's  superior  knowledge. 

"Noah,  of  cour.se,"  was  the  answer,  "I  read  in  the  Bible  only  the  other  day 
that  'Noah  opened  the  door  of  the  ark  and  saw  land !'  " 

With  variation  Governor  Brough  told  this  foregoing  story  of  his  state's 
antiquity  to  the  Democratic  convention  at  San  Francisco  in  July,  1920,  and  it 
was  received  with  hilarious  enthusiasm. 


Mayor  Bernard  Pratte  Mayor  Luther  M.  KeuiK-tt 

A  GROUP  OF  ST.  LOUIS  MAYORS  OF  THE  YEARS  BEFORE  THE  CIVIL  WAR 


CIIAITER  X\l 

LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS 

Elephas  Aiiicricanus  in  the  Ocarks — A  Whole  Pine  Tree  Top  for  a  Meal — The  Discovery 
at  Carl  Junction — Dr.  Hambach's  Conclusions — Zinc  in  Solution — Miners  and  Mineral- 
ogists Disagree — The  Missourium  Teristocolodon — Dr.  Koch,  Scientist — A  Trade  zL'ilh 
The  British  Museum — The  Market  for  Zuglodons — Star  Curiosity  of  IVyman's  Museum 
in  1843 — Mastodon  Beds  at  Kimmswick — An  Amased  Professor — Tom  Sauk  Falls^ 
Allen  Hinchey's  Indian  Legend — The  Footprints  Which  Laclede  Found — Lilliput  on 
the  Meramec — A  Scientific  Investigation — Gerard  Fowke  on  "The  Clayton  Ax" — Beck- 
u'ith's  Discoveries  in  Southeast  Missouri — Eugene  Field's  Folk  Lore  Study — Alex- 
ander, King  of  the  Missouri  Voodoos — Mary  Alicia  Owen — The  Initiation — Some 
Philosophic  Conclusions — The  Mamelles — A  Variety  of  Topographical  Eccentricities — 
Freak  Work  by  the  Water  Courses— Murder  Rocks — The  Granite  Potato  Patch — Shut 
In  and  Stone  Battery — The  Pinnacles — Knob  Noster — Cedar  Pyramid — Tower  Rock 
and  Tower  Hill — The  Pictured  Rocks — Treasure  Traditions— The  Springfield  Chart — 
A  Dying  Sailor's  Secret — The  Michigan  Man's  Unsatisfactory  Experience — Three 
Turkey  Tracks  and  Three  Arrows — Mystery  of  Garrison  Cave — A  Tradition  of  the 
Delaware  Indians — IVoody  Caz'e  in  Taney. 

I  have  just  paid  my  6rst  visit  to  the  mastodon  beds  of  Kimmswick  and  they  are  the  most  wonderful 
I  have  ever  seen.  Missouri  may  well  boast  *of  them  as  a  page  out  of  the  history  of  the  world  that  has  no 
duphcate.  It  is  a  treasure  most  rare.  Every  piece  of  this  great  collection  ought  to  be  carefully  preserved 
until  science  may  reach  the  point  where  it  can  put  this  page  in  the  right  place  in  the  history  of  the  earth 
and   leave   the   story  complete. — Professor   W.  H.   Holmes,   Curator,   Smithsonian   Institution. 

Elephas  Aniericanus  roamed  in  all  parts  of  the  Ozarks.  Skeletons  have 
been  unearthed  near  Kimmswick  on  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi  and  at  Carl 
Junction  within  three  miles  of  the  Kansas  border  and  at  several  places  between 
those  extreme  limits.  The  bones  taken  out  of  a  zinc  mine  at  Carl  Junction  in 
1892  were  shipped  to  Washington  University.  Dr.  Hambach,  the  paleontologist, 
said  they  indicated  an  animal  from  thirteen  to  eighteen  feet  in  height.  Elephas 
Aniericanus  was  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  long — could  not  walk  the  streets 
of  St.  Louis  without  burning  off  its  back  all  of  the  long  hair  by  contact  with 
tlie  trolley  wires.  One  of  the  tusks  was  nine  feet  long  and  nine  inches  in  diameter. 
This  animal  had  teeth  with  a  grinding  surface  nine  inches  long  and  four  inches 
wide.  Elephas  Aniericanus  of  the  great  tooth  and  greater  tusks  walked  on 
four  legs,  and  ponderous  underpinning  it  was.  The  ball  on  which  the  hind 
leg  moved  in  the  hip  socket  is  as  large  as  the  body  of  a  man.  The  length  of 
that  thigh  bone  can  onI\-  be  proven  by  proportions.  The  ball  and  part  of  the 
thigh  bone  have  been  found,  but  where  the  bone  tapers  midway  between  thigh 
and  knee  there  is  a  break.  Better  preserved  is  the  upper  bone  of  the  fore  leg. 
The  first  of  the  joints  of  the  backbone,  that  on  which  the  head  rolled,  has  been 

549 


550  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

found  and  so  has  the  last  of  the  vertcbme,  that  from  which  the  tail  extended. 
This  animal  had  a  foot  which  was  a  mass  of  bones,  like  the  hog's  foot.  Coarse 
hair,  as  long  as  the  goat's,  covered  it  from  proboscis  to  tail,  and  it  wandered 
among  glaciers  and  was  glad. 

A  while  ago  the  miners  near  Carl  Junction  found  half-digested  pine  cones 
and  needles  far  underground,  and  later  they  got  the  animal  that  fed  upon  such 
coarse  provender.  In  this  day  and  generation  there  are  no  pine  trees  within 
forty  or  fifty  miles  of  Carl  Junction.  The  mammoth  took  whole  pine  tree  tops 
for  a  living.  He  chewed  up  chunks  of  pine  wood  as  large  as  sections  of  tele- 
graph poles.  And  for  that  purpose  he  had  four  of  these  great  teeth  on  each 
side  of  his  mouth,  two  upper  and  two  lower. 

About  the  time  of  the  Civil  war  a  storekeeper  in  southwestern  Missouri 
turned  over  all  of  his  visible  assets  to  three  St.  Louis  wholesale  houses  for  his 
obligations.  These  assets  included  a  tract  of  land.  In  the  division  of  the  wreck 
the  land  fell  to  Fiske,  Knight  &  Co.,  and  in  the  division  of  the  profits  of  that 
firm  Mr.  Knight  came  into  possession  of  the  land.  The  acres  are  arable.  They 
would  class  as  pretty  fair  farming  land.  But  at  that  time  land  within  three 
miles  of  the  Kansas  border  was  not  in  demand,  and  Mr.  Knight  accepted  the 
tract  at  a  valuation  of  $2  or  $3  an  acre — all  it  was  worth  as  things  were  then. 
There  was  no  junction,  for  the  first  of  the  two  roads  hadn't  been  built.  Lead 
miners  didn't  know  zinc  ore  when  they  saw  it.  They  were  throwing  it  out  on 
their  dumps  by  the  thousands  of  tons.  They  called  it  "black  jack"  and  usually 
prefixed  a  little  profanity  to  indicate  its  utter  worthlessness  in  their  opinion. 

Mr.  Knight  allowed  his  land  to  remain  idle.  Carl  Junction  came  into  ex- 
istence. The  two  railroads  were  built.  Soon  the  tract  was  the  only  unoccupied 
land  in  the  vicinity.  Men  went  to  the  owner  and  asked  the  terms  on  which  he 
would  lease  and  let  them  inclose  for  farming  purposes.  Mr.  Knight  refused 
to  name  any  figures.  He  said  the  people  of  Carl  Junction  wouldn't  have  any 
place  to  pasture  their  cows  free  if  his  land  was  fenced,  and  so  he  left  it  open. 
The  line  of  the  zinc  mining  came  closer  and  closer  until  the  shafts  were  sunk 
close  up  to  the  Knight  line.  Mr.  Knight  found  himself  called  upon  to  refuse 
an  offer  of  $100,000  for  the  land,  which  represented  to  him  a  bad  debt  of  perhaps 
$2,000  and  the  taxes  paid  through  a  long  .series  of  years.  Then,  for  the  first 
time,  he  consented  to  the  development  work  which  might  show  what  lay  under 
this  long-preserved  virgin  prairie.  Holes  were  drilled  at  intervals  from  one  end 
to  another  of  the  long  strip.  The  drill  struck  ore  everywhere,  and  in  three  places 
it  developed  four  and  five-foot  veins  of  coal. 

Down  in  the  valley  of  Center  creek  is  a  depression.  The  earth  sinks  as  if 
the  top  of  a  small  cave  somewhere  underneath  has  fallen.  In  such  places  zinc 
miners  look  for  "a  chimney,"  as  they  call  it.  and  for  ore.  In  this  depression 
S.  A.  Stuckey,  the  manager  for  Mr.  Knight,  proceeded  to  sink  a  shaft.  He  went 
through  five  feet  of  rich  black  soil.  Then  came  clay,  a  stratum  eight  feet  thick. 
The  next  thing  was  gravel — water-worn  gravel  with  the  edges  rounded  and 
smoothed  as  if  the  mass  had  been  stirred  in  a  great  mortar  for  years.  Below 
the  gravel  the  diggers  encountered  a  black,  sticky,  muck-like  mass,  and  in  that 
they  found  the  burying  ground  of  the  Elephas  Americanus. 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  551 

A  Curious  Theory  about  Zinc. 

It  has  been  ages  since  the  Elephas  Americanus  roamed  the  slopes  of  the 
Ozarks  and  crunched  huge  branches  of  the  pine  trees  to  fill  his  enormous  paunch. 
"Ages"  is  indefinite  enough  to  be  safe.  It  is  long  enough  to  furnish  the  basis 
for  a  mineralogical  revelation.  Practical  zinc  men  have  developed  a  curious 
theory  about  that  curious  ore.  Most  of  the  scientists  rather  scoff  at  the  theory. 
Manager  Stuckey  and  some  others  of  the  more  intelligent  and  thoughtful  class  of 
practical  zinc  miners  contended  that  zinc  is  a  shifting  ore.  •  They  believe  it 
shifts  from  place  to  place ;  that  water  is  the  chief  agency  in  carrying  and  deposit- 
ing the  ore.  This  ore  is  not  a  carbonate ;  it  is  a  sulphide.  Sulphuric  acid  is 
a  principle  in  the  formation  of  it.  The  sulphuric  acid  breaks  down  the  crystals 
and  water  carries  the  zinc  in  solution  from  place  to  place,  depositing  it  and 
leaving  it  to  form  ore.  This  is  the  argument  of  the  practical  zinc  men.  Min- 
eralogists do  not  accept  any  such  idea  as  to  the  shifting  about  and  growth  of 
the  ore.  But  mundic  is  the  beginning  of  zinc  formation.  It  is  "the  shine"  which 
indicates  the  probable  presence  of  ore.  Some  of  the  mammoth  bones  uncovered 
in  Center  creek  valley  have  become  honeycombed  by  decay,  and  in  the  openings 
thus  left  mundic  has  made  its  appearance.  Since  the  owner  of  the  bones  went 
down  to  burial  in  some  cataclysm  the  underground  currents  of  water  have  been 
carrying  the  elements  of  zinc  in  solution  and  have  left  zinc  crystals  in  the  rotting 
bones.  In  this  zinc  belt  is  frequently  found  what  the  miners  call  "mineral  wool." 
It  is  ore  honeycombed.  The  miners  explain  the  appearance  by  saying  that  the 
acid  has  broken  down  the  zinc  crystals  and  water  has  carried  off  the  ore  in 
solution  to  be  deposited  in  some  new  place. 

The  Missourium  Teristocolodon. 

One  day  a  wandering  scientist  from  St.  Louis  was  journeying  through  the 
interior  of  the  state.  He  came  to  a  farmer  digging  a  well  in  Osage  county. 
True  to  his  geological  instincts,  he  began  overhauling  the  heap  of  dirt  beside 
the  well.  He  examined  the  diflferent  strata  with  professional  interest.  But 
when  he  suddenly  came  upon  some  half -decayed  bones  his  whole  paleontological 
nature  was  aroused.  Veiling  his  curiosity  with  the  calmness  which  is  part  of  the 
scientist's  outfit,  the  stranger  climbed  down  into  the  well  and  saw  a  sight  that 
fired  his  soul.  Bones  were  sticking  out  in  a  dozen  places.  The  scientist  and  the 
farmer  talked  over  the  discovery,  and  the  former  drove  a  bargain  with  the  latter. 
It  was  agreed  that  the  scientist  should  finish  the  well  and  in  return  for  the 
labor  should  have  any  bones  he  might  find.  The  bargain  was  carried  out.  The 
professor  dug  the  well  to  water  and  carried  away  the  bones  of  a  mastodon.  This 
was  in  1840.  The  scientist  was  Dr.  Koch.  M  his  leisure,  in  St.  Louis,  he  put 
together  the  fragments  until  there  stood  before  him  the  frame  of  a  mastodon. 
He  took  his  prize  to  pieces,  packed  the  bones  in  boxes  and  sailed  for  London. 
The  Britishers  were  charmed,  but  they  were  not  bidding  high  for  prehistoric 
skeletons.  The  tusks  of  all  well-regulated  mastodons  curve  upward.  That  is 
the  decision  of  paleontology.  Dr.  Koch  turned  the  tusks  of  his  mastodon  so 
that  they  cun^ed  outward.  He  insisted  that  his  mastodon  was  of  an  entirely 
new  species.  He  gave  it  the  name  of  Missourium  Teristocolodon,  or  the  sickle- 
toothed  mastodon.    Perhaps  the  sickle-tooth  caught  the  foreigners.    At  any  rate, 


552  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

after  much  dickering  they  entered  into  a  contract  by  which  they  agreed  to 
give  the  professor  $2,000  for  the  skeleton  and  an  annuity  of  $1,000.  They 
had  previously  looked  the  doctor  over  and  concluded  that  the  death  risk  was  a 
good  one  to  take.  Dr.  Koch,  however,  was  tough.  He  lived  until  1866  and 
drew  his  annuity  for  twenty-six  years.  The  British  Museum  paid  $28,000  for 
the  Missourium  Teristocolodon.  After  studying  the  skeleton  awhile  the  paleon- 
tologists came  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  something  wrong  with  the  sickle- 
tooth.  They  twisted  the  tusks  around  until  they  pointed  in  the  same  way  that 
other  mammoth  tusks  point,  and  they  crossed  off  the  books  the  new  species 
which  Dr.  Koch  claimed  to  have  discovered. 

And  Then  the  Zuglodon. 

With  the  good  British  gold  in  his  pocket  Dr.  Koch  came  back  to  St.  Louis 
and  became  a  hunter  of  prehistoric  bones.  He  traveled  up  and  down  and  across 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  investigating  every  discovery  of  bones.  For  years  he 
kept  up  the  ceaseless  search.  At  length  his  patience  was  rewarded.  In  a  corner 
of  Alabama  he  found  the  remains  of  a  monster  which  seemed  to  be  related  to 
the  whale  or  sea-cow.  The  doctor  gathered  up  all  of  the  bones  he  could  find 
and  took  them  to  Germany.  The  skeleton  was  set  up  at  Dresden,  and  the  profes- 
sors had  a  high  old  time  disputing  the  correctness  of  the  locations  which  Dr. 
Koch  had  given  the  bones.  "The  Zuglodon"  was  the  name  Dr.  Koch  gave  this 
new  monster.  After  the  bones  had  been  arranged  and  rearranged  until  the  pro- 
fessors were  satisfied  the  puzzle  had  been  worked  out,  a  bargain  was  struck 
for  the  transfer  of  the  skeleton  to  the  Vienna  Museum.  But  when  the  museum 
authorities  had  bought  the  zuglodon  they  were  in  the  fix  of  the  Vicar  of  Wake- 
held  with  his  family  picture — they  had  no  room  in  the  museum  large  enough  for 
the  skeleton.  The  zuglodon  measured  ninety-six  feet  in  length.  Another  sale 
was  made,  and  the  gigantic  frame  found  a  resting  place  in  the  Berlin  Museum. 

Dr.  Koch  came  back  to  the  L^nited  States,  leaving  his  family  on  the  other 
side  in  comfortable  circumstances  as  the  result  of  his  latest  deal  in  prehistoric 
bones.  It  wasn't  long  until  he  turned  up  a  second  zuglodon.  When  this  was 
disposed  of  the  doctor  started  out  again  and  brought  in  his  third  zuglodon. 

In  St.  Louis,  on  Market  street,  opposite  the  court  house,  about  the  time  of 
tlie  war  or  a  little  earlier,  was  a  collection  of  wonders  known  as  Wyman's 
museum.  Dr.  Koch's  third  zuglodon  was  the  star  curiosity  in  this  museum  for 
several  years.  The  museum  building-  ran  back  the  depth  of  the  lot,  but  the 
exhibition  hall  was  too  short  to  accommodate  the  full  length  of  the  zuglodon. 
The  vertebrae  were  not  complete.  Those  which  were  missing  Dr.  Koch  had  sup- 
plied with  imaginary  substitutes  made  from  plaster  of  paris.  The  head  of  the 
zuglodon  was  near  the  entrance.  The  body  extended  down  the  side  of  the  hall 
to  the  extreme  end  and  then  curled  around  and  left  about  fifteen  feet  of  tail 
on  the  other  side  of  the  hall.  The  zuglodon  remained  on  exhibition  in  the 
Market  street  museum  several  years.  Then  it  was  sold  to  a  Chicago  man,  and 
was  given  the  chief  place  in  the  museum  there.  The  head  of  the  zuglodon 
was  the  first  thing  the  visitor  saw  when  he  entered  the  Chicago  museum,  and 
when  he  had  followed  the  vertebne  in  their  winding  course  he  had  about  com- 
])Icted   the  circuit   of   tlic  various   rooms.     The   zuglodon  held   its   place  as   the 


MASTODON  SKKLKTONs  K.\(A\  ATKH  AT  KIMMSWICK 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  555 

biggest  thing  in  Chicago  until  the  great  fire  of  1871,  and  then  it  disappeared  in 
smoke. 

An  Official  Announcement. 

The  St.  Louis  New  Era  of  March  31,  1842.  announced  that  "Koch's  Mis- 
sourium  and  the  Mammoth  or  great  Mastodon"  were  on  exhibition.  Professor 
Koch  said  by  way  of  information : 

"These  astonishing  relics  of  the  ancient  world  bear  indisputable  testimony  of  the  great 
changes  that  have  taken  place  upon  the  earth  and  how  different  the  forms  of  creation 
from  the  present.  Also,  how  limited  our  knowledge  of  the  ancient  world.  These  remains 
were  discovered  some  miles  from  St.  Louis  in  Jefferson  county,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  each 
other.  They  are  indisputably  the  greatest  curiosity  of  the  present  time,  and  anj-  museum 
in  Europe  or  America  would  consider  it  an  honor  to  possess  them.  The  Missourium  is 
until  now,  a  perfectly  unknown  animal,  and  as  it  has  never  before  been  found,  leads  me 
to  the  conclusion,  that  it  only  inhabited  the  'Far  West,'  and  this  consideration  induces  me 
to  call  it  the  Missourium,  in  honor  of  the  state  where  it  has  been  found. 

"The  animal  has  been  much  larger  than  the  elephant.  Especially  remarkable  is  the 
construction  of  the  forehead,  which  shows  that  the  animal  was  of  the  genus  proboscis, 
but  of  an  utterly  different  construction  from  those  of  this  class  of  the  present  day.  The 
back  part  of  the  head  has  a  near  resemblance  to  the  mastodon.  The  tusks  protrude  from 
the  nose  or  rather  with  the  trunk  has  formed  the  nQse.  and  are  only  half  an  inch  apart, 
projecting  to  right  and  left  from  the  trunk,  which,  on  the  head,  lies  above  the  tusks.  The 
head  of  the  mastodon  is  undoubtedly  the  largest  of  this  gigantic  animal  that  has  ever  yet 
been  found.  The  tusks  that  are  now  in  the  head,  precisely  as  when  the  animal  was 
living,  measure  from  tip  to  tip  21  feet ;  from  the  tip  of  the  nose  to  where  the  spine  enters 
the  neck,  6  feet ;  from  the  zegomatical  arch  over  the  head  to  the  opposite  zegomatical 
arch,  4  feet;  from  the  tip  of  the  nose  to  the  root  of  the  tusk,  2  feet;  the  nose  projects 
over  the  lower  jaw  15  inches;  breadth  of  the  nose  at  its  extremity,  17  inches.  That  these 
animals  were  destroyed  by  the  hand  of  Providence,  through  a  great  and  wonderful  con- 
vulsion of  the  earth,  the  situation  in  which  they  were  found  bears  ample  and  indisputable 
testimony." 

The  Great  Mastodon  Graveyard. 

Near  Kimmswick,  in  Jefferson  county,  is  the  historic  mastodon  graveyard 
of  Missouri.  Professor  W.  H.  Holmes,  curator  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at 
Washington,  wrote  about  this  wonder: 

"I  have  just  paid  my  first  visit  to  the  mastodon  beds  of  Kimmswick,  and  they  are  the 
most  wonderful  I  have  ever  seen.  Missouri  may  well  boast  of  it  as  a  page  out  of  the 
history  of  the  world  that  has  no  duplicate.  It  is  a  treasure  most  rare.  Every  piece  of  this 
great  collection  ought  to  be  carefully  preserved  lintil  science  may  reach  the  point  where 
it  can  put  this  page  in  the  right  place  in  the  history  of  the  earth,  and  leave  the  story 
complete. 

"The  deposit  lies  at  the  foot  of  a  bluff,  varying  in  height  from  a  few  feet  to  fifty 
feet.  At  some  time  there  has  been  a  river  or  lake  at  the  base  of  the  bluff.  The  water 
has  left  a  deposit  common  to  all  bodies  of  water;  added  to  this  the  cliff,  which  is  of  friable 
material,  has  washed  away  on  the  ground  beneath. 

"Where  those  two  deposits  meet  a  great  number  of  mastodons,  probably  hundreds, 
have  found  their  death.  There  are  evidences  that  there  have  been,  besides  mastodons, 
such  species  of  animals  as  bison,  buffalo  and  probably  wolf,  etc. 

"As  to  the  age  of  the  deposit,  there  is  no  saying  in  a  definite  way.  The  time  at  which 
scientists  begin  to  reckon  is  the  primary  age,  previous  to  which  there  are  millions  of  years 
of   which  no  record   is  clearly  made.     Following  the  primary  age  there   is   the   secondary 


556  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

age,  and  after  that  the  tertiary  age.  Following  that  we  have  the  glacial  age.  The  records 
which  scientists  have  found  of  this  latter  age  incline  one  to  the  belief  that  the  Kimms- 
wick  deposits  belong  to  that  age.  One  cannot  be  sure,  however,  that  different  ages  are 
not  represented. 

"This  much  is  sure,  that  as  time  passes  these  prehistoric  relics  will  become  of  more 
interest  to  the  scientific  world.  Some  day  we  shall  evolve  a  brain  that  can  read  these 
scattered  fragments  of  the  book  and  put  them  together  in  their  correct  order.  Then  we 
sliall  have  the  whole  story  of  the  earth  complete. 

"More  than  a  thousand  prehistoric  bones,  including  30  great  tusks  from  14  to  18  inclics 
in  diameter  and  from  18  to  20  feet  long,  and  350  teeth,  60  jaws  of  the  mastodon  with 
teeth  in  them,  remains  of  the  skeleton  of  a  man,  the  musk  ox,  the  reindeer,  threetoed  horse 
and  many  other  bones  not  identified,  have  been  found  there.  Some  of  these  fossils  were 
found  as  much  as  sixteen  feet  under  ground.  These  fossils  were  found  in  a  space  260 
by  800  feet.  In  the  same  vicinity  Indian  mounds  exist  and  parts  of  earth  pots  used  by 
the  Indians  for  making  salt  have  also  been  brought  to  light." 

The  Legend  of  Mina  Sauk. 

Xot  far  from  the  Arcadia  Valley,  as  the  crow  flies,  is  "the  Tom  Suck  country." 
The  name  is  an  Anglo-Saxon  corruption  of  Ton  Sauk  who  was  an  Indian  chief. 
The  Tom  Suck  river  rises  in  a  great  spring  on  the  Big  Tom  Suck  mountain.  In 
its  course  are  the  falls  of  Mina  Sauk  who  was  the  daughter  of  the  chief.  Allen 
Hinchey  has  told  the  legend  which  ascribes  the  origin  of  the  spring  high  up  on 
the  mountain  to  a  bolt  of  lightning.  This  was  sent  by  the  Storm  King.  The 
chief  of  a  hostile  tribe  had  made  love  to  Mina  Sauk.  He  was  captured  and 
killed. 

".\ccording  to  the  legend,  the  young  captive  was  thrown  from  ledge  to  ledge,  being 
caught  on  the  points  of  up-lifted  spears.  His  grief-stricken  bride,  calling  down  a  curse  on 
her  tribe,  leaped  from  the  highest  ledge  and  was  dashed  to  death  beside  the  body  of  her 
slain  lover.  The  Great  Spirit  invoked  the  Storm  King,  causing  a  cyclone  to  utterly 
destroy  the  people  of  Ton  Sauk.  A  bolt  of  lightning  striking  the  mountain  top  caused  a 
stream  of  water  to  flow  over  the  ledges  into  the  gorge  below,  to  wipe  away  the  blood  of 
the  young  lover.  On  the  banks  of  the  stream  sprang  up  flowers  of  crimson  hue,  which 
grow  there  today,  by  the  everflowing  water  and  which  are  known  as  Indian  pinks. 

"Down  in  the  valley  of  the  Tom  Suck,  where  the  stream  winds  its  turbulent  way 
through  granite  boulders,  is  a  country  hard  of  access.  Ingress  is  possible  at  one  point, 
through  a  rent  in  the  granite  bluflf  so  narrow  that  careful  driving  is  necessary  to  guide  a 
vehicle  through  the  portal.  It  is  known  to  the  people  of  the  Tom  Suck  as  the  Devil's 
Toll  Gate,  and  this  opening  is  accounted  for  by  a  Piankisha  legend  as  follows :  Long  years 
ago,  before  the  coming  of  the  Piankishas,  a  maiden  of  a  tribe  living  in  the  Valley  of 
Flowers  became  lost  in  the  Tom  Suck  wilds.  A  monster  of  gigantic  size  and  ferocious 
-aspect  accosted  her,  and  as  escape  was  cut  off  by  the  granite  wall  her  capture  seemed 
certain  until  the  Great  Spirit,  with  a  bolt  of  lightning  rent  the  granite  wall,  aflfording  her 
opportunity  to  escape." 

The  Prehistoric  Footprints. 

The  impressions  of  a  foot  on  the  limestone  at  the  river's  edge  interested 
greatly  visitors  to  St.  Louis  in  the  early  days.  They  seemed  to  have  been  inade 
by  a  giant  walking  from  the  water  toward  the  plateau.  Edmund  Flagg,  the 
newspaper  man,  made  a  critical  examination  of  the  footprints  and  offered  a 
theory  about  them : 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  557 

"The  impressions  are,  to  all  appearances,  those  of  a  man  standing  in  an  erect  posture, 
with  the  left  foot  a  little  advanced  and  the  heels  drawn  in.  By  a  close  inspection  it  will 
be  perceived  that  these  are  not  the  impressions  of  feet  accustomed  to  the  European  shoe ; 
the  toes  being  much  spread,  and  the  foot  flattened  in  the  manner  that  is  observed  in  per- 
sons unaccustomed  to  the  close  shoe.  The  probabilitj',  therefore,  of  their  having  been 
imparted  by  some  individual  of  a  race  of  men  who  were  strangers  to  the  art  of  tanning 
skins  and  at  a  period  much  anterior  to  that  to  which  any  traditions  of  the  present  race 
of  Indian  reaches,  derives  additional  weight  from  this  peculiar  shape  of  the  feet.  In 
other  respects  the  impressions  are  strikingly  natural,  exhibiting  the  muscular  marks  of 
the  foot  with  great  preciseness  and  faithfulness  to  nature.  The  rock  containing  these 
interesting  impressions  is  a  compact  limestone  of  a  grayish,  blue  color.  This  rock  is  ex- 
tensively used  as  a  building  material  in  St.  Louis.  Foundations  of  dwellings  and  the 
military  works  erected  by  the  French  and  Spaniards  si.Kty  years  ago  are  still  as  solid  and 
unbroken   as   when  first  laid." 

Major  Long  and  his  party  of  scientists,  on  the  government  expedition  of 
1819-20,  devoted  attention  to  the  footprints.  As  early  as  that  time  the  slab  had 
been  quarried  out  and  was  considered  a  scientific  treasure : 

"This  stone  was  taken  from  the  slope  of  the  immediate  bank  of  the  Mississippi  below 
the  range  of  the  periodical  floods.  To  us  there  seems  nothing  inexplicable  or  difficult  to 
understand  in  its  appearance.  Nothing  is  more  probable  than  that  impressions  of  human 
feet  made  upon  that  thin  stratum  of  mud,  which  was  deposited  upon  the  shelviiigs  of  the 
rocks,  and  left  naked  by  the  retiring  of  the  waters,  may,  by  the  induration  of  the  mud, 
have  been  preserved,  and  at  length  have  acquired  the  appearance  of  an  impression  made 
immediately  upon  the  limestone.  This  supposition  will  be  somewhat  confirmed,  if  we 
examine  the  mud  and  slime  deposited  by  the  water  of  the  Mississippi,  which  will  be  found 
to  consist  of  such  an  intimate  mixture  of  clay  and  lime,  as  under  favorable  circumstances 
would  very  readily  become  indurated.  We  are  not  confident  that  the  impressions  above 
mentioned  have  originated  in  the  manner  here  supposed,  but  we  cannot  by  any  means 
adopt  the  opinions  of  some,  who  have  considered  them  contemporaneous  to  those  casts 
of  submarine  animals,  which  occupy  so  great  a  part  of  the  body  of  the  limestone.  We 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that,  whatever  those  impressions  may  be,  if  they  were  produced 
as  they  appear  to  have  been,  by  the  agency  of  human  feet,  they  belong  to  a  period  far 
more  recent  than  that  of  the  deposition  of  the  limestone  on  whose  surface  they  are 
found." 

In  addition  to  impressions  of  the  human  foot,  there  were  upon  the  stone 
irregular  tracings  as  if  made  by  some  person  holding  a  stick.  The  local  theory 
was  that  these  marks  were  made  by  a  human  being  walking  on  limestone  when 
it  was  in  a  plastic  state.  The  stone  passed  into  the  possession  of  George  Rapp. 
founder  of  the  society  of  Harmonites.  Rapp  was  from  Wurtemberg.  His  sect 
believed  in  communism.  The  members  practiced  primitive  Christianity  as  Rapp 
conceived  it  to  have  been.  Harmony,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Harmony,  Indiana, 
had  been  established.  Rapp  moved  about  making  converts.  The  "prehistoric 
footprints"  at  St.  Louis  appealed  to  his  imagination.  Years  after  Missouriaiis 
had  forgotten  about  the  limestone  slab  it  was  doing  duty  at  New  Harmony  in 
Posey  county.  Rapp  was  telling  his  disciples  that  the  angel  Gabriel  visited  him 
one  night,  blessed  the  location  of  the  colony  and  said  it  would  always  be  favored 
with  peace  and  plenty.  As  a  token  he  left  his  footprints  on  the  rock  and  there 
thcv  were. 


558  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Lilliput  of  the  Meramec. 

About  1820  St.  Louis  newspapers  told  of  the  discovery  of  many  graves  on 
the  bank  of  the  Meramec  river  about  fifteen  miles  from  the  mouth.  The  graves 
were  said  to  contain  skeletons  of  a  diminutive  race.  So  much  had  the  story 
impressed  the  neighborhood,  that  a  town  which  had  been  laid  out  bore  the  name 
of  Lilliptit.  In  one  of  the  graves  a  skull  without  teeth  had  been  found.  This 
had  been  made  the  basis  for  another  local  theory  that  these  prehistoric  residents 
of  the  Meramec  had  jaws  like  a  turtle.  Government  scientists  with  Long's 
expedition  were  so  much  impressed  with  the  reports  that  they  took  a  boat,  floated 
down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Meramec  and  rowed  up  stream  to  Lilliput.  They  found 
that  the  graves  were  walled  in  neatly,  and  covered  with  flat  stones.  They  opened 
several  and  saw  that  the  bones  were  of  ordinary  size,  seemingly  having  been  buried 
after  the  flesh  had  been  separated  from  them,  according  to  the  custom  of  certain 
Indian  tribes.  The  skull  with  the  turtle-like  jaw  was  that  of  an  old  man  who 
had  lost  his  teeth.  The  scientists  satisfied  themselves  that  there  was  nothing 
extraordinary  in  the  contents  of  the  graves.  As  the  narrative  ran,  they  "sold 
their  skiff,  shouldered  their  guns,  bones  and  spade,  and  bent  their  weary  steps 
toward  St.  Louis,  distant  sixteen  miles,  where  they  arrived  at  11  p.  m.,  having 
had  ample  time,  by  the  way,  to  indulge  in  sundry  reflections  on  that  quality  of  the 
mind,  either  imbibed  in  the  nursery  or  generated  by  evil  communications,  which 
incites,  to  the  love  of  the  marvelous,  and.  by  hyperbole,  casts  the  veil  of  falsehood 
over  the  charming  features  of  simple  nature." 

The  Discovery  of  Coal. 

Not  all  of  the  scientific  investigations  at  .St.  Louis  turned  out  as  discourag- 
ingly  as  the  expedition  to  Lilliput.  John  Bradbury  was  well  satisfied  with  a  trip 
inspired  by  the  report  of  coal  discoveries:  "In  the  year  1810  the  grass  on  the 
prairie  of  the  American  bottom  in  the  Illinois  territory  took  fire  and  kindled  the 
dry  stump  of  a  tree,  about  five  miles  east  of  St.  Louis.  This  stump  set  fire  to  a 
fine  bed  of  coal  on  which  it  stood,  and  the  coal  continued  to  bum  for  several 
months,  until  the  bottom  fell  in  and  extinguished  it.  This  bed  breaks  out  at 
the  bottom  of  the  bluffs  of  the  Mississippi,  and  is  about  five  feet  in  thickness. 
I  visited  the  place,  and  by  examining  the  indications  found  the  same  vein  at  the 
surface  several  miles  distant." 

Brackenridge  also  rejx)rted  upon  this  chance  discovery  of  coal :  "On  the 
east  side  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  blufl^s  of  the  American  bottom,  a  tree  taking 
fire  some  years  ago.  communicated  it  b\  one  of  its  roots  to  the  coal,  which  con- 
tinued to  burn  until  the  fire  was  at  length  smothered  by  the  falling  in  of  a  large 
mass  of  the  incumbent  earth.  The  appearance  of  fire  is  still  visible  for  several 
rods  around,  .\bout  two  miles  further  up  the  bluffs  a  fine  coal  bank  has  been 
opened ;  the  \ein  as  thick  as  any  of  those  near  Pittsburg." 

John  Bradbury  explored  the  caverns  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis  and  told  of 
the  encouragement  they  offered  to  a  new  industry :  "The  abundance  of  nitre 
generated  in  the  caves  of  this  country  is  a  circumstance  which  ought  not  to  pass 
unnoticed.  These  caves  are  always  in  the  limestone  rocks ;  and  in  those  which 
produce  the  nitre  the  bottom  is  covered  with  earth  which  is  strongly  impreg- 
nated with  it  and  visible  in  needle-like  crystals.    In  order  to  obtain  the  nitre,  the 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  559 

earth  is  collected  and  lixiviated ;  the  water  after  being  saturated  is  boiled  down  and 
suffered  to  stand  until  the  crystals  are  formed.  In  this  manner  it  is  no  uncommon 
thing  for  three  men  to  make  one  hundred  pounds  of  saltpeter  in  one  day.  In  the 
spring  of  1810  James  McDonald  and  his  two  sons  went  to  some  caves  on  the 
Gasconade  river  to  make  saltpeter,  and  in  a  few  weeks  returned  with  three  thou- 
sand pounds  weight  to  St.  Louis." 

John  Bradbury's  Investigations. 

An  object  of  attention  by  the  early  scientists  of  St.  Louis  was  Sulphur 
Springs.  This  was  in  the  valley  of  the  River  des  Peres,  not  far  from  what 
became  Cheltenham.  When  John  Bradbury,  the  English  naturalist,  decided  to 
make  his  home  in  St.  Louis,  he  built  his  house  near  this  spring.  The  members 
of  Long's  expedition  found  Bradbury  living  there  in  1819.  They  included  men- 
tion of  the  water  in  their  report  to  the  government.  At  that  time  horses  and 
cattle  at  pasture  went  a  long  distance  to  drink  the  sulphur  water  in  preference 
to  any  other.  When  thirty  years  later  the  Missouri  Pacific  began  building  west- 
ward there  was  a  station  at  Sulphur  Springs.  A  w'ooden  hotel  was  built  and  a 
resort  was  maintained.  The  spring  boiled  up  in  the  channel  of  the  River  des 
Peres.  When  that  stream  became  an  open  sewer,  as  the  city  extended  west- 
ward, the  spring  was  polluted,  and  the  use  of  its  water  was  abandoned.  John 
Bradbury  made  expeditions  with  the  fur  traders  and  trappers.  He  brought  back 
to  St.  Louis  marvelous  stories  about  animals  along  the  Missouri. 

"I  will  here  state  a  few  of  what  I  certainly  believe  to  be  facts ;  some  I  know  to  b- 
so,  and  of  others  I  have  seen  strong  presumptive  proofs.  The  opinion  of  the  huntr; 
respecting  the  beaver  go  much  beyond  the  statements  of  any  author  whom  I  have  reaf'. 
They  state  that  an  old  beaver  which  has  escaped  from  a  trap  can  scarcely  ever  afterwards 
be  caught,  as  traveling  in  situations  where  traps  are  usually  placed,  he  carries  a  stick  in 
his  mouth  with  which  he  probes  the  sides  of  the  river,  that  the  stick  may  be  caught  in 
the  trap  and  thus  save  himself.  They  say  also  of  this  animal  that  the  young  are  educated 
by  the  old  ones.  It  is  well  known  that  in  constructing  their  dams  the  first  step  the  beaver 
takes  is  to  cut  down  a  tree  that  shall  fall  across  the  stream  intended  to  be  dammed.  T'-e 
hunters  in  the  early  part  of  our  voyage  informed  me  that  they  had  often  found  trees  near 
the  edge  of  a  creek  in  part  cut  through  and  abandoned;  and  always  observed  that  those 
trees  would  not  have  fallen  across  the  creek.  By  comparing  the  marks  left  on  these  trees 
with  others,  they  found  them  much  smaller.  They  not  only  concluded  they  were  made  by 
young  beavers,  but  that  the  old  ones,  perceiving  their  error,  had  caused  them  to  desist. 
They  promised  to  show  me  proofs  of  this,  and  during  our  voyage  I  saw  several,  and  in 
no  instance  would  the  trees  thus  abandoned  have  fallen  across  the  creek. 

"I  myself  witnessed  an  instance  of  a  doe,  when  pursued,  although  not  many  seconds 
out  of  sight,  so  effectually  hide  her  fawn  that  we  could  not  find  it,  although  assisted  by 
a  dog.  I  mentioned  this  fact  to  the  hunters  who  assured  me  that  no  dog.  or  perhaps  any 
beast  of  prey,  can  follow  a  fawn  by  the  scent.  They  showed  me  in  a  full  grown  deer  a 
gland  and  a  tuft  of  red  hair  situated  a  little  above  the  hind  part  of  the  forefoot,  which 
had  a  very  strong  smell  of  musk.  This  tuft  they  call  the  scent,  and  believe  that  the  route 
of  the  animal  is  betrayed  by  the  effluvia  proceeding  from  it.  This  tuft  is  mercifully  with- 
held until  the  animal  has  acquired  strength.     What  a  benevolent  arrangement !" 

Of  the  trappers  with  whom  he  traveled,  Bradbury  said:  "They  can  imitate 
the  cry  or  note  of  any  animal  found  in  the  American  wilds  so  exactly  as  to  deceive 
the  animals  themselves." 


.j60  centennial  history  of  iMISSOURI 

The  Clayton  Ax. 

In  the  collection  of  the  Missouri  Historical  Society,  is  a  grooved  stone  ax, 
presented  by  V\  .  K.  Kavanaugh.  Of  this  ax,  Gerard  Fowke,  archeologist  widely 
known,  said : 

"If  the  statement  regarding  its  discovery  be  correct,  it  is  the  oldest  specimen  of 
human  handiwork  that  has  been  found  in  the  state.  In  making  the  cut  near  Clayton  for 
the  Belt  line,  particular  attention  was  paid  to  the  character  of  the  earth  to  be  removed. 
The  specifications  called  for  different  prices  per  cubic  yard  according  to  the  material 
excavated.  For  this  reason  the  contractors  were  careful  to  note  and  measure  all  the 
variations  of  rock  and  clay.  The  native  clay  in  this  region,  which  remains  after  the 
weathering  away  of  the  limestone,  is  much  older  than  the  glacial  or  later  deposits.  It  was 
dry  land  before  the  ice-sheet  appeared.  Above  this  clay  lies  the  loess,  a  yellow  earth 
which  was  deposited  by  the  floods  immediately  following  the  receding  of  the  glacier.  It  is 
positively  stated  by  the  finder,  that  the  'Clayton  ax'  was  lying  on  this  original  clay  and 
partially  imbedded  in  it;  and  that  the  loess  lay  immediately  upon  it.  The  impression  of  the 
implement  was  distinct  in  both  the  materials.  If  this  is  actually  the  case,  it  can  be  ex- 
plained only  upon  the  fact  that  the  person,  Indian  or  whatever  he  is  to  be  called,  who 
owned  this  ax  was  living  in  the  region  before  the  close  of  the  glacial  period.  Moreover, 
at  that  time  he  had  learned  how  to  fashion  stone  implements  in  a  manner  suitable  to  his 
needs,  for  this  ax  is  fully  equal  in  symmetry  and  finish  to  those  which  are  found  on  the 
surface  and  to  be  attributed  to  the  race  which  last  preceded  the  white  man  in  the  territory. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  the  matrix  in  which  the  ax  was  found,  was  not  preserved.  If  it  had 
been  taken  out  with  the  clay  adhering  to  one  side,  and  the  loess  to  the  other  side,  there 
could  have  been  no  question  as  to  its  antiquity.  As  the  matter  stands,  however,  the  most 
that  can  be  said  is  that  the  chance  for  inaccurate  observation  in  such  a  case  is  too  great 
for  a  statement  of  this  kind  to  be  accepted  unless  abundantly  and  absolutely  verified  by 
persons  who  are  so  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  various  geological  formations  as  to  avoid 
the  possibility  of  error." 

Beckwith's  collection  of  Missouri  antiquities  indicates  a  large  population  in 
Southeast  Missouri  before  the  white  man  came.  These  aboriginal  inhabitants 
not  only  made  pottery  for  utility,  but  they  decorated  and  embellished.  They  had 
pots  and  kettles  with  handles  to  be  lifted  and  with  ears  to  be  hung  over  fires. 
They  put  handles  on  bowls  and  shaped  them  to  represent  fishes  and  squirrels. 
Some  of  the  pots  were  of  several  gallons  capacity.  There  were  water  bottles 
of  plain  shape  like  gourds.  There  were  other  bottles  shaped  like  men  and  women. 
A  favorite  design  for  a  water  bottle  was  a  deformed  woman  with  her  legs  bent 
under  the  body,  her  arms  resting  on  her  knees.  Mr.  Beckwith  found  one  water 
receptacle  shaped  like  a  man  with  his  arms  hanging  down  and  his  hands  across 
his  stomach.  This  vessel  was  painted  a  deep  yellow  with  white  stripes  curving 
about  the  body.  A  breechclout  in  red  completed  the  art  work.  Another  of  the 
images  found  in  Southeast  Missouri  was  formed  like  a  woman  with  skirts  and 
liaving  what  appeared  to  be  a  pappoose  on  her  back. 

Missouri  Folklore. 

The  study  of  folklore  was  one  of  the  few  things  that  Eugene  Field  did  not 
satirize.  The  poet  was  a  folklorist  in  good  and  regular  standing.  He  became 
one  of  the  investigators  about  1890.  His  fellow  students  said  that  his  verses 
gained  in  beauty  and  expression  from  that  time.  Field  delved  into  the  folklore 
of  childhood  and  brought  out  the  wealth  of  it.  In  that  field  he  was  considered 
easily  the  master. 


MUSEUM  OF  MASTODON   RELK  S   EXIAVATKI)  NEAK  ST.  LOUIS 


Courtesy  Mlasouri  IlistuiitjHl  SuluIj 

THE  BIG  MOUND   AT  BROADWAY   AND  MOUND  STREETS,  ST.   LOUIs 
Fidin  a  daguerreotype  taken  in   1S.5(I. 


Vol.  1—36 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  563 

The  colored  population  of  Missouri  is  comparatively  small.  It  is  scattered. 
It  has  schools  and  churches  and  as  a  whole  is  much  further  advanced  in  intel- 
ligence and  morals  than  the  large  negro  element  of  southern  states.  Yet  Mary 
Alicia  Owen  of  St.  Joseph  gathered  information  about  voodooism  in  Missouri, 
showing  this  state  to  be  a  surprisingly  rich  field  for  that  branch  of  folklore 
study.  Gaining  the  confidence  of  the  priests  and  priestesses  of  voodooism,  this 
lady  received  from  their  own  lips  the  story  of  voodooism,  its  rites  and  practices. 
Much  of  her  information  was  given  to  her  personally  by  the  King  of  the  Voodoos 
in  the  Missouri  \'alley,  a  negro  named  Alexander,  who  died  some  years  ago. 

To  become  a  voodoo  it  is  necessary  to  take  four  degrees,  according  to  Alex- 
ander. The  instruction  in  the  use  of  persons  and  remedies,  in  the  significance 
of  dreams,  the  names  of  things  which  go  to  make  up  the  charms  into  which  the 
"power"  is  most  easily  attracted — all  of  this  is  merely  preparatory. 

"Any  fool."  Alexander  said  to  Miss  Owen,  "can  know  the  way  to  mix  sul- 
phur, salt,  alum,  may  apple,  clover,  feathers,  needles,  blood,  or  rags  the  color 
of  blood,  and  he  may  say  the  four  times  four  times  four,  but  he  can't  throw  his 
own  spirit  made  up  from  Old  Grandfather  into  them." 

To  make  a  voodoo  priestess  of  a  woman  who  had  gone  through  the  prelimi- 
naries, Alexander  commanded  her  to  hide  herself  and  fast  for  many  days  at 
the  same  time  keeping  her  thoughts,  not  on  her  deprivation,  but  on  the  great 
glories  that  would  be  hers  when  she  attained  high  rank.  He  conmianded  her  at 
other  times  to  go  cheerfully  among  people  as  if  she  fasted  not.  He  commanded 
her  again  to  eat  all  she  wanted  of  pleasant  food  and  then  to  swallow  an}'thing 
loathsome  to  the  eyes  and  palate.  He  required  her  to  go  sleepless,  to  go  cold 
and  weary,  to  burn  and  cut  and  bruise  and  lash  herself  and  think  not  at  all  that 
she  suffered.  She  was  made  to  drink  awful  mixtures  and  to  swallow  tobacco 
smoke.  Then  she  must  walk  in  cemeteries,  in  dense  woods,  beside  bean  hills, 
through  deserted  streets,  at  night  when  the  moon  was  on  the  wane  and  ghosts 
were  strongest  and  most  threatening.  All  of  these  are  bits  of  courage  by  which 
the  voodoo  initiate  is  tried.  Next  come  the  dances  until  feet  are  bleeding  and 
mind  is  frenzied.  These  are  the  dances  of  the  Snake,  of  the  Moon,  and  the 
Fire. 

Having  gone  faithfully  through  all  of  this  preparation  of  self-conquering, 
which  takes  months  and  sometimes  years,  the  candidate  receives  the  final  instruc- 
tion.   And  it  is — • 

"Never  obey  any  one.  Never  know  any  will  but  your  own,  except  when  you 
are  helping  another  voodoo  against  a  common  enemy.  Make  every  one  give  in  to 
you.  Never  change  your  purpose  once  it  is  fixed.  If  you  do,  you  will  form  a 
habit  of  scattering  power  and  will  bring  against  yourself  Old  Grandfather  Rat- 
tlesnake, who  never  changes,  never  forgets." 

So  the  initiation  into  voodooism  seems  to  be  along  the  lines  of  theosophy  and 
faith  cure  in  savage  forms. 

■  Miss  Owen  says  the  great  gods  of  .\merican  voodooism  are  old  Grandfather 
Rattlesnake,  who,  in  this  country,  corresponds  to  the  green  serpent  in  Africa, 
Old  Sun,  Old  Boy,  Old  Boy's  wife,  who  has  no  name,  but  is  sometimes  referred 
to  as  the  Old  Mistress,  and  the  Moon.  Below  these  come  hosts  of  "hauts," 
"boogers,"  "rubber  devils,"  "free  jacks"  and  the  sorcerers.  Old  Woodpecker,  Old 
Rabbit,  Old  Blue  Jay,  Old  Wolf,  Old  Perarer  Chicken,  Old  King  Catfish. 


564  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

King  Alexander's  Story  of  Voodooism. 

King  Alexander  gave  Miss  Owen  the  story  of  the  founder  of  voodooism  as 
the  American  voodoos  beUeve  it. 

In  the  old,  old  times  Old  Sun  took  a  notion  to  make  some  live  things.  He 
.squatted  down  on  the  bank  of  a  river  and  began  to  make  all  sorts  of  birds  and 
animals  and  folks  from  clay.  He  stopped  a  moment  and  tore  a  fragment  from 
his  body  and  flung  it  into  the  weeds.  It  came  forth  hissing,  a  great  rattlesnake, 
and  watched  Old  Sun  work.  When  Old  Sun's  work  was  done — that  is  all  ex- 
cept making  people,  for  the  first  attempt  in  that  direction  was  a  failure — he 
breathed  life  into  the  creatures  without  going  to  the  trouble  of  "stepping  in  cir- 
cles or  saying  words."  When  each  began  to  move  in  its  own  way  and  to  cry 
out  in  its  own  peculiar  voice,  the  delighted  creator  leaned  over  his  work,  breath- 
ing flames  of  joy.  All  caught  fire.  At  this  juncture  the  watching  snake  bored 
a  hole  in  the  moist  earth  and  saved  himself.  Old  Sun  put  out  the  fire,  and  Grand- 
father Rattlesnake  came  out  to  condole  with  him,  but  Turtle,  who  had  been  the 
despised  one,  was  there  ahead,  with  his  hair  singed  off,  his  eyelids  shriveled  and 
his  eyes  weakened  by  heat  and  smoke. 

"Hello,  my  child,  do  you  still  live?"  cried  Old  Sun. 

The  Turtle  replied : 

"Oh,  yes  !  my  fine  daddy!  oh,  yes  !  oh,  yes  ! 
But  my  back  is  dried  hard  as  a  gourd  in  the  fall, 
And  my  inwards  is  all  swivelled  up  like  the  grass, 
Can't  you  spit  on  my  back,  my  daddy  so  fine; 
Can't  you  spit  on  my  back  and  cool  me  oflf?" 


Old  Sun  said: 


"Oh,  yes,  my  child,  I  can  cool  you  off; 
Oh,  yes,  my  child,  I  can  cool  you  off : 
But  if  I  spit  on  your  back  to  cool  you  off 
You  will  live  so  long  you  won't  know  your  name." 

But  Turtle  insisted : 

"Oh,  I  won't  mind  that,  my  old  daddy,  so  fine. 
Oh,  I  won't  mind  that,  my  old  daddy,  so  fine. 
If  you  can  make  out,  oh,  why  shouldn't  I? 
If  you  can  make  out,  oh,  why  shouldn't  I? 
So,  just  spit  on  my  back  and  cool  me  off." 

Old  Sun  spat  on  Turtle's  back  and  cooled  him  off.  The  sacred  spittle  gave 
poor  homely  Turtle  a  great  increase  of  vitality,  a  gift  Old  Sun  never  thought  of 
bestowing  in  the  first  place  because  Turtle  was  his  first  experiment  at  forming 
man.  When  the  clay  image  was  made  alive  and  wabbled  about,  the  large-bodied, 
small-limbed,  hairy,  awkward  creature  on  two  legs.  Old  Sun  was  so  mad  he  hit 
him  a  slap,  knocked  him  down  on  all  fours  and  said:  "There,  you,  crawl!  you 
ain't  fitten  to  walk." 

After  the  bestowal  of  long  life  on  the  Turtle  he  found  favor  in  the  sight  of 
Old  Sun,  who  asked  him  if  he  wanted  anything  more.  He  said  he  would  like  a 
fine  plumy  tail,  and  Old  Sun  was  about  to  give  it  when  Grandfather  Rattlesnake 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  565 

chipped  in  and  said  that  such  an  appendage  would  be  a  great  mistake,  because 
the  plumy  tail  would  get  draggled.  Turtle  was  sent  off  without  the  plumy  tail. 
Old  Sun  resented  Grandfather's  interference  and  tried  to  kill  him,  but  couldn't, 
because  he  was  part  of  himself.  He  drove  him  back  into  the  hole,  from  which 
Rattlesnake  peered  out  and  watched  the  j)rogress  of  creation.  As  soon  as  Old 
Sun  had  made  everything  over  again  he  climbed  back  into  the  sky  to  prevent 
a  second  conflagration.  Everything  created  had  a  mate,  except  Grandfather  Rat- 
tlesnake. The  latter  married  an  Ash  Tree,  but  there  were  no  descendants.  Grand- 
father crawled  into  a  cave  and  "worked  his  mind  a  long  time."  When  he 
came  out  he  had  perfected  voodooism  and  was  able  to  make  himself  a  wife  out 
of  a  dead  limb.  Then  he  had  plenty  of  children.  He  was  satisfied  until  he  dis- 
covered that  jealous  Ash  Tree  poisoned  some  of  his  children  and  the  other  crea- 
tures wouldn't  allow  their  children  to  associate  with  his.  He  worked  his  mind 
again.  When  he  found  himself  full  of  strength  and  "poison"  he  organized  a 
voodoo  circle,  taught  the  mysteries  and  the  dances  to  all  of  his  enemies  and 
then  "thought  death"  to  them.  After  that  he  organized  another  circle  which 
handed  down  the  power.  When  old  Grandfather  Rattlesnake  found  he  must  go 
away  he  made  a  promise  to  his  followers  to  "fling  himself  outen  his  hide,"  which 
is  something  all  high  voodoos  can  do,  and  to  come  back  at  intervals.  This  promise. 
Alexander  told  Miss  Owen,  had  always  been  kept.  And  such  is  the  origin  of 
voodooism  according  to  Missouri   folklore. 

The  Philosophy  of  Voodooism. 

Aliss  Owen  found  a  philosophy  in  voodooism,  something  more  than  the  ex- 
ternal forms.  She  says  it  is  hypnotism,  it  is  telepathy,  it  is  clairvoyance — in  a 
word,  it  is  will.  Its  motto  is  "control  yourself  perfectly,  and  you  can  control 
the  world — organic  and  inorganic." 

Old  Alexander,  the  Missouri  voodoo  adept,  put  it  in  this  way:  "Make  up 
your  will  strong  against  yourself  and  you  will  soon  have  it  strong  enough  to 
put  down  everything  and  everybody  else." 

He  claimed  that  the  conjurer  needed  no  tricks,  balls  or  luck  stones  for  him- 
self. He  ought  to  be  able  to  look  a  man  dead,  or  make  him  see  things  that 
were  not  before  him,  or  do  what  his  heart  despised.  "I'm  the  snake  man," 
Alexander  would  boast,  "and  my  enemies  are  flapping,  squeaking  birds." 

The  voodoos  are  great  travelers.  They  have  their  organization,  called  the 
circle.  The  purpose  of  it  is  to  disseminate  knowledge  and  to  try  strength.  Voodoo 
men  and  women  wander  from  town  to  town  from  New  York  to  Texas,  and  cir- 
culate among  themselves  a  vast  amount  of  information  about  their  clients,  white 
as  well  as  colored.  Miss  Owen  frankly  admits  it  is  astonishing  to  her  how  the 
voodoo  news  travels  so  rapidly.  She  tells  of  one  instance  where  the  informa- 
tion of  the  death  of  a  voodoo  on  Long  Island  was  known  in  Missouri  as  soon 
as  it  occurred,  although  the  papers  did  not  announce  it  for  two  days  afterwards. 
She  tells  of  voodoos  receiving  vivid  impressions  of  coming  events,  although  this 
is  never  quite  reliable  for  more  than  one  impression.  She  is  sure  that  telepathy 
is  an  agent  of  voodooism  and  that  clairvoyance  is  another.  But  hypnotism  is 
the  great  reliance.  There  was  a  voodoo  circle  in  Missouri  which  met  in  an  out 
of  the  way  church,  the  use  of  which  was  kindly  given  by  the  sexton.     A  part  of 


566  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  voodoo  circle  programme  is  "willing."  One  of  the  voodoos  stood  at  the 
front  of  the  church  and  the  others  grouped  at  the  back.  The  one  in  front  "willed" 
the  others  one  by  one  to  come  to  him,  and  they  did  it.  Suddenly  a  strange  negro 
arose  in  a  comer  of  the  church  and  willed  the  whole  crowd  to  come  to  him.  Then 
he  put  them  asleep  and  went  through  their  pockets.  The  next  year  the  same 
thing  took  place  with  the  same  circle.  Miss  Owen  suggested  to  the  voodoo  who 
told  the  story  to  her  that  this  might  have  been  a  spirit  possessing  imusual  power 
of  control.  The  voodoo  didn't  think  so,  because  they  wouldn't  have  gone  to  sleep 
so  readily  in  the  presence  of  a  ghost.  He  thought  the  unknown  must  be  a 
traveling  voodoo  king.  The  most  disgusted  member  of  the  voodooed  circle  was 
Alexander,  king  of  the  Missouri  voodoos.  Alexander  couldn't  get  over  the 
fact  that  he  had  been  "done  up."  His  theory  for  the  wholesale  hypnotizing  and 
robbery  was  that  "some  low-down  Arkansas  nigger  had  sneaked  into  the  church 
and  had  prevailed  by  surprising  the  folks  and  scattering  their  will." 

The  Majnelles. 

A  landmark  which  received  much  attention  from  early  travelers  and  scientific 
explorers  was  known  as  the  Mamelles.  It  is  north  of  the  Missouri  river  and 
about  three  miles  from  St.  Charles.  Brackenridge,  the  pioneer  newspaper  cor- 
respondent of  Missouri  visited  the  place  and  wrote  a  letter  on  what  he  saw.  The 
Mamelles  are  two  large  circular  mounds  which  project  some  distance  eastward 
from  the  range  of  hills  and  overlook  a  great  expanse  of  prairie : 

"To  those  who  have  never  seen  any  of  these  prairies,  it  is  very  difficult  to  convey 
any  just  idea  of  them.  Perhaps  the  comparison  to  the  green  sea  is  the  best.  Ascending 
the  mounds  I  was  elevated  about  one  hundred  feet  above  the  plain ;  I  had  a  view  of  an 
immense  plain  below,  and  a  distant  prospect  of  hills.  Every  sense  was  delighted  and 
every  faculty  awakened.  After  gazing  for  an  hour  I  still  e.xper'enced  an  unsatiated 
delight,  in  contemplating  the  rich  and  magnificent  scene.  To  the  right  the  Missouri  is 
concealed  by  a  wood  of  no  great  width,  extending  to  the  Mississippi  the  distance  of  ten 
miles.  Before  me  I  could  mark  the  course  of  the  latter  river,  its  banks  without  even  a 
fringe  of  wood;  on  the  other  side  the  hills  of  Illinois,  faced  with  limestone  in  bold 
masses  of  various  hues  and  the  summits  crowned  with  trees;  pursuing  these  hills  to  the 
north,  we  see,  at  the  distance  of  twenty  miles,  where  the  Illinois  separates  them  in  his 
course  to  the  Mississippi.  To  the  left  we  behold  the  ocean  of  prairie  with  islets  at  inter- 
vals, the  wliole  extent  perfectly  level,  covered  with  long  waving  grass,  and  at  every  mo- 
ment changing  color,  from  the  shadows  cast  by  the  passing  clouds.  In  some  places  there 
stands  a  solitary  tree  of  cottonwood  or  walnut,  of  enormous  size,  but  frorn  the  distance 
diminished  to  a  shrub.  A  hundred  thousand  acres  of  the  finest  land  are  under  the  eye 
at  once,  and  yet  on  all  this  space  there  is  but  one  little  cultivated  spot  to  be  seen.  The 
eyes  at  last  .satiated  with  this  beautiful  scene,  the  mind  in  turn  expatiates  on  the  improve- 
ments of  which  it  is  susceptible,  and  creative  fancj'  adorns  it  with  happy  dwellings  and 
richly  cultivated  fields.  The  situation  in  the  vicinity  of  these  great  rivers,  the  fertility 
of  the  soil,  a  garden  spot,  must  one  day  yield  nourishment  to  a  multitude  of  beings. 
The  bluffs  are  abundantly  supplied  with  the  purest  water;  those  rivulets  and  rills  which 
at  present,  unable  to  reach  the  father  of  waters,  lose  themselves  in  lakes  and  marshes, 
will  be  guided  by  the  hand  of  man  into  channels  fitted  for  their  reception,  and  for  his 
pleasure   and    felicity.' 

The  Pictured  Rocks. 

In  a  historj'  of  Boone  county  printed  in  1881  are  described  "the  pictured  rocks," 
as  they  have  been  known  since  the  time  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition.    The 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  567 

pictures  are  on  a  high  cliff  four  miles  from  Rocheport.  The  cliff  is  about  lOO 
feet  in  height,  the  top  overhanging  some  ten  feet,  in  such  manner  as  to  protect 
the  pictures. 

"All  along  the  face  of  the  cliff  under  the  overhanging  ledge  are  the  remarkable 
representations.  At  the  height  of  nearly  fifty  feet  above  the  spring  is  the  largest  visible 
group.  This  comprises,  among  other  pictures  and  hieroglyphs,  two  rudely  executed  draw- 
ings of  human  figures,  perhaps  twenty  inches  in  height,  with  arms  extended;  one  small 
human  figure  with  a  staff  in  its  hand ;  numerous  circles  with  dots  and  crosses  in  the 
centre;  spots  within  semi-circles,  half  resembling  the  human  eye.  Other  figures,  at 
different  places  on  the  rocks,  are  those  of  a  wild  turkey;  of  a  man  wearing  a  jockey 
cap,  from  which  a  plume  or  feather  depends;  of  numerous  circles;  fantastic  figures,  some 
of  an  arabesque  character,  others  plain:  of  a  square  or  cube;  of  a  Masonic  compass  and 
square.  About  five  feet  below  most  of  the  figures  runs  a  narrow  ledge  on  which  the 
artist  or  artists  must  have  stood  when  the  pictures  were  made.  The  ledge  is  reached 
from  points  east  and  west  but  it  requires  a  person  of  some  nerve  to  climb  to  it.  Some 
of  the  figures,  however,  are  fifteen  feet  above  the  ledge,  and  could  not  have  been  made 
without  the  aid  of  a  ladder  of  some  sort.  The  drawings  seem  to  have  been  made  of  a 
paint  composed  of  ground  'keel'  mixed  with  water  or  grease,  and  applied  with  the  fingers 
or  a  rude  brush.  Not  all  of  the  pictures  can  now  be  seen,  as  a  great  portion  of  the 
cliff  is  covered  with  ivy.  Who  the  artists  were  that  sketched  these  pictures,  and  what 
if  anything,  they  represent  cannot  now  be  conjectured.  They  have  existed  since  the 
first  white  man  told  of  this  county.  The  first  printed  mention  of  them  is  made  by  Lewis 
and  Clark  who  saw  them  in  1804.  Doubtless  they  are  the  work  of  the  mound  builders 
or  of  some  other  race  akin  to  them." 

Tower  Rock  and  Tower  Hill. 

A  few  more  than  one  hundred  miles  below  St.  Louis  nature  has  wrought 
wonderful  effects  in  great  masses  of  rock.  Travelers  have  pronounced  these 
formations  even  more  impressive  than  the  cliffs  along  the  Hudson.  On  the  Illi- 
nois side  are  palisades  curved  and  carved  by  the  waters  of  the  period  when  the 
Mississippi  was  forcing  its  way  southward  from  the  glaciers.  One  section  of  the 
rocky  bluffs  was  given  the  name  of  "The  Devil's  Backbone"  away  back  in  the  early 
days  of  river  navigation.  This  section  is  divided  into  vertebrae  by  little  gap-like 
openings.  In  one  place  the  opening  in  the  bluff  bears  the  non-picturesque  name  of 
"The  Devil's  Bake-oven,"  resembling,  as  seen  from  a  passing  steamboat,  an  old 
Dutch  oven  of  prodigious  size.  On  the  Missouri  side  of  the  river  the  mountainous 
formations  are  detached  in  such  manner  as  to  suggest  the  names  of  '"Tower 
Rock"  and  "Tower  Hill."  Tower  Rock  stands  out  in  the  river  far  enough  from 
either  shore  to  justify  the  United  States  government  in  calling  it  an  island  and 
claiming  jurisdiction.  This  saved  Tower  Rock  from  destruction  a  few  years  ago. 
Quarrymen  were  about  to  blast  down  this  landmark  and  use  it  for  riprap  work  on 
the  river  stretches  below  when  a  nearby  resident,  J.  W.  Chapin,  appealed  to  Wash- 
ington. The  war  department  sent  engineers  who  circiunnavigated  the  rock,  pro- 
nounced it  an  island  and  as  such  the  property  of  the  United  States.  Mrs.  Chapin. 
an  artist,  had  painted  a  picture  of  Tower  Rock.  Praiseworthy  sentiment  prompted 
her  husband  to  make  his  appeal  to  Washington.  Tower  Rock  rises  more  than  one 
hundred  feet  above  the  water,  is  nearly  round,  with  sides  so  precipitous  that  it  has 
been  scaled  but  few  times.  Tower  Hill,  on  the  Missouri  side  below  Tower  Rock, 
is  said  to  have  been  even  more  impressive  than  Tower  Rock,  but  the  quarrymen 


568  CENTENNIAl.  HISTORY  OF  MISSOLUl 

have  ni;ide  inroads  upon  it.    Robertus  Love,  traveler  and  poet,  visited  these  land- 
marks .some  years  ago  and  wrote  of  them: 

"Rivermen  tell  mc-  llicrt-  is  no  place  along  the  entire  lower  Mississippi,  from  St. 
Louis  to  New  Orleans,  where  such  rock  formations  occur  on  both  sides  of  the  river. 
They  say  these  palisades  and  the  towers  on  the  Missouri  side  have  been  beloved  by  every 
generation  of  rivermen.  Mark  Twain  beheld  and  gloried  in  them  many  times  as  he  piloted 
steamboats  up  and  down.  Thousands  of  river  voyagers  have  been  thrilled  by  them.  I 
know  of  no  place  more  beautiful  than  the  Tower  Rock  vicinity,  unless  it  be  the  half- 
moon  curve  of  the  beach  at  Avalon  bay,  Santa  Catalina  Island,  ofT  the  coast  of  Southern 
California.  That  place  has  its  'Sugarloaf  which  suggests  Tower  Rock  standing  out  in 
the  water." 

Missouri's  Topographical  Freaks. 

Nature  has  scattered  freak  work  generously  in  Missouri.  Time  and  the  ele- 
ments have  wrought  marvels  above  and  below  the  ground.  Riding  out  of  Spring- 
field to  the  southward  the  traveler  looks  from  the  car  window  upon  what  at  first 
sight  appears  to  be  the  fossilized  form  of  a  prehistoric  monster.  Body,  legs  and 
head  are  there  in  massive  proportions.  The  animal,  as  it  appears  to  be,  stands 
tirmly  on  its  feet.  But  nearer  inspection  reveals  that  the  mammoth  is  a  product 
of  the  wearing  work  of  water  course  upon  an  enormous  mass  of  lime  rock. 

Along  White  river,  about  twenty  miles  below  the  town  of  Forsyth,  is  a  collec- 
tion of  strange  effects.  The  water  has  moulded  and  left  standing  erect  pillars  of 
rock  thirty  and  forty  and  fifty  feet  high. 

On  Pine  luountain,  near  the  Missouri-Arkansas  border,  are  scattered  the 
"Murder  Rocks,"  as  they  are  known  far  and  wide.  Fragments  of  iron  ore  have 
rusted  and  blotched  the  gray  limestone  like  splashes  of  blood.  It  was  among  the 
Murder  Rocks  that  Alf.  Bolen,  a  bushwiiacker  of  the  border  during  the  Civil  war. 
killed  forty  men  and  made  the  name  seem  historically  appropriate. 

In  Iron  county  is  a  collection  of  immense  red  granite  boulders  worn  smooth 
by  the  glacial  action.  One  of  these  boulders  is  twenty-two  feet  wide  and  thirty- 
five  feet  long.  It  looks  like  an  immense  potato.  The  group  of  boulders  is  known 
as  "The  granite  potato  patch." 

The  Cascades,  the  Shut  In  and  the  Stony  Battery  are  landmarks  in  Iron 
county. 

In  St.  Charles  county  is  Cedar  Pyramid,  a  mass  of  rock  over  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  high.  For  a  long  tiine  there  was  a  single  cedar  tree  growing  on  the  top 
of  the  pyramid. 

The  Pinnacles  in  Saline  county  are  lofty  bluflfs  fronting  on  the  Missouri 
river.  They  rise  from  the  bottom  lands  near  Miami  and  suddenly  sink  into  a 
wonderfully  fertile  prairie.  On  one  of  the  highest  points  of  the  Pinnacles  can 
be  traced  the  grass  covered  mounds  of  an  old  fortification.  The  Petite  Saw 
Plains,  Saline  county's  other  topographical  marvel,  fomi  a  very  level  tableland. 

Knob  Nostcr  obtains  its  name  from  a  mound  which  stands  isolated  on  the 
prairie. 

Pinnacle  Rock  stands  one  hundred  feet  high  in  a  valley  of  South  Bear  creek, 
.Montgomery  county.  By  a  narrow  path  along  one  side  the  moss-covered  summit 
is  reached. 


DEVIL'S    TOl.LOATK,    NKAH    ARCADIA 


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OPKNIN(;  AN  INDIAN  MOIND  IN  THK  VKINITV  OV  ST.  LOUIS 


LANDMARKS  AND  LEGENDS  571 

Lost  Treasiure  Traditions. 

As  late  as  1895  men  were  still  looking  for  lost  treasure  in  Southwest  Mis- 
souri. One  of  them  who  came  to  Springfield  had  exphcit  directions  given  to  him, 
he  said,  by  an  old  sailor  whom  he  befriended  in  Michigan.  This  sailor  in  return 
for  the  friendship  shown  him  by  the  ^Michigan  man  turned  over  two  maps  with 
drawings  and  explanations.  One  map  it  was  claimed  represented  the  outside  and 
the  other  the  inside  of  the  mine.    With  the  map  went  these  directions : 

"Go  to  the  southwest  corner  of  the  public  square  of  Springfield,  Mo.,  and  then  fol- 
low the  directions  of  the  outside  map  three  miles.  There  you  will  find  some  broken  coun- 
try. Hunt  for  a  limestone  rock  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  marked  w^ith  three  turkey 
tracks  and  an  arrow.  Follow  the  direction  indicated  by  the  arrow  200  paces  to  a  native 
oak,  which  you  will  find  marked  as  the  map  shows.  From  the  tree  measure  carefully  150 
paces  as  the  map  directs,  and  you  will  find  another  stone,  on  the  side  of  a  small  ravine, 
marked  with  three  arrows,  pointing  different  ways.  Follow  the  arrow  pointing  southeast 
250  paces  and  look  for  what  seems  to  be  the  entrance  to  a  natural  cave  in  the  bluff.  The 
opening  is  small,  and  would  hardly  be  noticed  by  one  passing  through  the  ravine.  When 
you  have  found  the  cave  follow  the  directions  of  the  inside  map  and  hunt  for  the  silver. 
There   is   enough   ore   in   that  cave  to  make  twenty  men  rich." 

The  Michigan  man  who  came  to  Springfield  bringing  the  maps  had  this 
experience  as  he  told  a  correspondent  of  the  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat  in  1895: 

"I  followed  the  directions  given  by  the  Spaniard  in  explaining  the  maps,  and  went 
from  the  southwest  corner  of  the  public  square  into  the  country.  I  hunted  for  the  rock 
with  the  three  turkey  tracks,  but  could  not  find  it.  Then  I  began  to  inquire  of  the  farm- 
ers in  that  settlement  and  found  such  a  stone  bearing  similar  carvings  had  been  quarried 
and  used  in  walling  a  well  in  the  neighborhood.  The  turkey  tracks  had  been  noticed  by 
several  workmen  when  the  stone  was  taken  up.  From  the  spot  where  the  rock  was  moved 
I  followed  the  map  and  found  the  stump  of  the  tree.  The  oak  had  been  cut  down  several 
years  before,  and  the  stump  was  much  decayed.  Two  of  the  landmarks  named  in  the  story 
and  indicated  on  the  map  had  now  been  found,  and  I  confidently  hunted  for  the  last  rock 
with  the  three  arrows.  This  I  failed  to  discover,  nor  could  I  ever  find  any  trace  of  a 
cave,  though  the  nature  of  the  country  fitted  very  accurately  the  description  of  the  region 
given  in  the  story  of  the  mine.  I  have  spent  much  time  and  money  in  trying  to  locate 
this  lost  silver  mine,  and  still  have  faith  in  the  statement  which  the  dying  sailor  told  me 
in  Michigan." 

In  Taney  county  a  similar  tradition  located  silver  in  the  Woody  Cave.  Con- 
siderable exploration  was  done  there.  An  Indian  was  said  to  have  written  a 
letter  telling  that  when  his  tribe  lived  in  that  vicinity  they  found  silver  in  vast 
quantities  near  the  White  river.  For  many  years  the  settlers  in  the  vicinity  of 
White  river,  which  crosses  the  Missouri-Arkansas  border  seven  times,  believed 
firmly  in  the  existence  of  silver  mines.  There  were  rough  maps  of  the  country 
along  the  White  indicating  the  locality  where  the  ore  would  be  found.  Men 
came  from  long  distances  and  spent  weeks  prospecting  in  various  directions  from 
Forsyth.  They  had  descriptions  of  ravines  and  caves  to  help  them.  The  treasure 
was  never  found. 


CHAITEK  X\"II 
MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD 

Roark  Peak — The  Devil's  Den — Fate  of  the  Guerrilla — The  Sentence  of  the  Home  Guards 
^Nature's  Ammonia  Completes  the  Work — Henry  T.  Blo~jc's  Exploration — Tradition 
of  Spanish  Treasure — A  Visit  with  Truman  S.  Powell — The  Shepherd  of  the  Hills — 
Descent  into  the  Amphitheater — Great  White  Throne — Through  Registry  Room  to  the 
Gulf  of  Doom — Lost  River  Which  Makes  Onyx — Fat  Man's  Misery — Rest  Room — , 
Mystic  Lake  and  Mystic  River — Blondy's  Throne — Mother  Hubbard — The  Dungeons — 
Sentinel  Rock  and  Shower  Bath  Room — Thirty  Miles  of  Passages — Tales  of  Marvel 
Cave — Wonders  of  Hahatonka — Bishop  Mclntyre's  Lecture — A  Pretty  Stretch  of  Boone's 
Lick  Road — The  Caves  and  Bottomless  Pit  of  Warren — Grandeur  of  the  Canyon  at 
Greer — Old  Monegaw's  Self  Chosen  Sepulchre — Devil's  Lake — Fishing  Spring — The 
Lost  Rivers — Senator  Vest's  Experience — Cave  Decorations  by  the  Indians — Persim- 
mon Gap — Mark  Tivain's  Cave — Dr.  McDowell's  Grewsome  Experiment — Tragedy  of 
Labaddie's  Cave — Perry  County's  Subterranean  World — Missouri's  Long  and  Varied 
List  of  Underground  Wonders — Morgan  County's  Variety — Looking  for  the  Prehis- 
toric Man. 

Hut  nature,  as  if  unable  to  place  all  of  the  attractions  designed  for  this  imperial  domain  on  the 
surface,  has  invaded  the  dark  recesses  of  her  mountains  and  given  to  Missouri  caves  of  immense  and 
wondrous  magnitude  and  beauty.  Say  to  an  American  tourist  that  Switzerland  had  discovered  a  cave 
finished  in  glittering  onyx,  and  millions  of  American  money  would  be  spent  in  visiting  it,  and  \'olumes 
would  be  written  upon  its  fascinating  beauty,  yet  in  Missouri  such  caves,  rivaling  in  magnificence  and 
brilliancy  the  royal  splendors  of  Solomon's  Temple,  designed  and  finished  under  the  Supreme  Architect  to 
evidence  the  unlimited  resources  and  wondrous  skill  of  nature's  God,  are  numerous  and  in  the  profusion 
of  our  dazzling  wonders  attract  but  little  attention. — From  an  old  Bulletin  of  the  Missouri  Board  of 
AgriaiUure. 

Hunters  and  early  settlers  visited  Roark  Peak  before  the  Civil  \\a.T.  They 
crawled  down  the  crater-like  depression  where  had  once  risen  the  summit  of 
Roark.  They  leaned  over  the  edges  of  the  long  narrow  gap  in  the  rock  bottom  of 
the  crater.  They  looked  down  into  a  hole  which  seemed  at  first  to  have  neither 
sides  nor  bottom ;  it  was  without  form  and  void.  Strange  noises  came  to  the 
strained  ears.  Imagination  helped  eyes  to  see  gleams  of  light  and  shadowy  forms. 
"The  Devil's  Den,"  these  early  visitors  called  it.  A  closer  acquaintance  with  his 
Satanic  majesty  was  not  sought  by  them. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  a  guerrilla  leader  came  back  to  his  home  on  White 
river.  He  had  bushwhacked.  He  had  been  a  spy  against  his  more  loyal  neighbors. 
Assassinations  and  house  burnings  and  horse  stealings  and  all  the  various  crimes 
of  that  period  were  laid  to  his  log  cabin  door.  For  self-protection  the  people  of 
Stone  county  had  formed  themselves  into  a  regiment  of  home  guards.  The  guer- 
rilla's return  was  soon  known.  One  night  a  company  of  the  guards  called  at 
his  house.  When  the  guards  rode  away  he  was  with  them.  Without  talk  or 
laughter  the  escort  and  the  guerrilla  walked  their  horses  along  the  river  until  they 

573 


574  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

came  to  the  Old  Wilderness  road.  They  turned  northward  and  fox  trotted  along 
the  flinty  trail  which  follows  the  ridge,  one  of  the  widest  of  the  Ozark  vertebrae. 
Four  miles  from  the  river  the  party  turned  sharply  to  the  east.  The  road  was  left 
for  what  was  scarcely  more  than  a  bridle  path.  It  curved  to  keep  on  the  spur  of 
the  ridge  and  wriggled  to  dodge  the  trees.  Straight  up  Roark  Peak  the  captors 
and  prisoner  rode  and  halted  on  the  rim  of  the  crater.  All  dismounted.  With  his 
hands  firmly  tied  and  his  legs  hobbled  so  that  he  could  not  use  them  for  defense, 
the  guerrilla  was  made  ready  for  a  doom  that  was  the  refinement  of  the  horrible. 
He  knew  "The  Devil's  Den."  He  had  been  familiar  for  years  with  the  associa- 
tions and  superstitions  of  the  place.  The  time  was  early  morning.  When  the  sun 
comes  up  over  the  bald  knobs  to  the  east  it  makes  this  Ozark  country  look  like  a 
favored  region  of  the  gods.  The  home  guards  stood  in  a  fringe  on  the  rim  of  the 
crater,  looking  down  at  the  narrow  black  gap  in  the  bottom  200  feet  below.  By 
the  api)ointed  executioners  the  guerrilla  was  half  carried,  half  dragged  along  the 
steep  side  of  the  great  bowl.  In  the  center  of  the  gap  dividing  it  into  two  parts 
there  is  wedged  a  great  keystone.  The  doomed  man  was  seated  upon  this  stone. 
In  front  of  him  and  behind  him  the  cave  yawned.  There  could  be  no  pity  for 
such  as  he  had  been.  The  memory  of  four  years  of  terror  and  of  murdered 
friends  rose  up  to  drown  all  pleadings.  A  signal  was  given  by  the  captain  of  the 
company.  A  strong  hand  was  laid  on  the  guerrilla's  shoulder.  In  a  second  the 
keystone  was  unoccupied.  The  sound  of  something  striking  the  flint  heap  far 
below  barely  reached  the  gap.  Those  guards  who  stood  above,  on  the  edge  of  the 
crater,  heard  nothing  but  the  morning  breeze  among  the  pine  needles.  The  little 
squad  climbed  up  out  of  the  crater  and  the  command  moved  out  to  the  Old 
Wilderness  road.  The  night's  work  was  done.  Stone  county  people  slept  easier 
after  that. 

Cremation  by  Ammonia. 

Nearly  twenty  years  after  the  guerrilla  went  to  his  doom  a  woman  came  to 
Roark  Peak  on  a  mission.  The  cave  had  been  opened.  Access  to  the  interior  was 
for  the  first  time  in  that  generation  possible.  News  of  this  had  spread  along  the 
Old  Wilderness  road  and  had  reached  White  river.  The  woman  was  the  sister 
of  the  man.  She  came  to  tell  the  cave  explorers  the  story  of  her  brother,  and  to 
ask  for  the  bones  that  she  might  take  them  away  and  bury  them.  The  perpen- 
dicular plunge  from  the  keystone  was  measured.  The  place  on  the  side  of  the 
cave  where  life  must  have  been  dashed  out  was  found.  There  was  not  so  much 
as  a  button.  But  as  they  tramped  and  prodded  around  the  spot  the  explorers' 
feet  sank  in  a  deep  black  substance  which  looked  like  rich  garden  mold,  but  gave 
out  no  odor.  This  substance  was  the  guano  of  countless  bats.  When  analyzed  it 
showed  the  presence  of  13  per  cent  of  ammonia.  The  powerful  agent  had  eaten 
up  all  traces  of  the  bloody  work  of  the  Stone  county  home  guards. 

After  the  guerrilla  died  this  was  more  than  ever  "The  Devil's  Den."  Natives 
were  satisfied  with  semi-occasional  peeking.  Some  told  weird  stories  of  things 
seen  and  heard  around  the  gap  in  the  crater  bottom.  The  more  sensible  shook 
their  heads  and  said  to  all  inquiring  strangers  that  the  den  was  "a  good  place  to 
keep  away  from."  These  pioneer  settlers  of  Stone  and  Taney  and  Ozark  were 
East  Tennesseans,  originally.  They  came  here  before  the  war.  They  brought 
their  East  Tennessee  customs  with  them.    They  settled  upon  the  creeks  and  the 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  575 

knobs.  They  were  the  bravest  of  men  and  would  fight  at  the  drop  of  the  hat.  But 
they  had  their  superstitions  and  fears.  Xo  highlander  was  ever  more  sensitive 
upon  the  subject  of  the  uncanny  than  these  Ozark  descendants  of  East  Tennes- 
seeans.  And  so  the  Devil's  Den  went  unexplored  because  these  men  who  feared 
neither  each  other  nor  "varmints"  were  content  to  live  and  die  with  the  under- 
ground mystery  unsolved  by  them. 

Early  Explorations. 

In  1869  Henry  T.  Blow,  of  St.  Louis,  and  a  party  prospected  through  this 
region  for  mineral.  They  heard  of  the  Den  and  came  to  see  it.  A  saw  mill  not 
far  distant  tempted  them  with  the  means  of  outfitting  for  a  descent.  They  put 
timbers  across  the  gap,  and  lowered  themselves  with  ropes.  The  better  part  of 
a  day  was  spent  in  clambering  around  the  great  amphitheater,  and  a  single  one  of 
the  connecting  rooms  was  visited.  But  with  scarcely  more  than  a  glance  at  the 
wonders  the  lead-ore  prospectors  chmbed  out  of  the  cavern  and  went  on. 

From  that  visit  the  Den  remained  closed  for  thirteen  years  longer.  In  1882 
a  party  of  Grand  Army  men  at  Lamar,  in  Barton  county,  organized  for  an  outing. 
An  uneasy  spirit  named  Beaver  came  drifting  through  the  country  and  told  the 
storj-  of  the  Devil's  Den.  But  he  coupled  with  his  version  of  the  mystery  a  tale 
of  hidden  Spanish  treasure,  of  secret  charts  and  of  traditions  dating  back  beyond 
the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitants.  Inspired  by  desire  for  adventure  rather 
than  by  much  credence  in  Beaver's  narrative,  the  campers  headed  for  Stone  county, 
over  a  hundred  miles  southeast  from  Lamar.  Thereby  came  about  the  discovery 
of  the  astonishing  features  of  Marble  Cave,  as  it  was  called  for  some  years,  but 
better  known  now  as  Marvel  Cave.  W'hh  the  arrival  of  the  Lamar  party  the 
exploration  began. 

The  moving  spirit  in  the  Lamar  party  was  Truman  S.  Powell,  an  officer  in  an 
Illinois  regiment  during  the  <\ar.  Powell  had  moved  to  Missouri  years  before, 
and  was  publishing  the  Barton  County  Record.  That  camping  trip  changed  the 
whole  plan  of  his  life.  The  fascination  of  cave-exploring  fastened  itself  upon 
him.  After  his  first  ramblings  through  the  cave,  the  editor  moved  his  paper  to 
Galena,  the  county  seat  of  Stone,  and  changed  its  name  to  the  Oracle.  He  home- 
steaded  a  quarter  section  of  land,  the  best  and  nearest  he  could  find  to  the  mouth 
of  the  cave.  He  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  to  cave  study.  Tradition  has  it  that 
Harold  Bell  \\'right  had  Truman  S.  Powell  in  mind  when  he  described  "The 
Shepherd  of  the  Hills."  Ten  j^ears  after  Mr.  Powell  began  his  explorations, 
Marvel  Cave  was  visited  with  him  as  the  guide.  Upon  the  personal  experiences  of 
that  visit  is  based  the  account  here  given. 

The  Great  Amphitheater. 

Leading  down  the  side  of  the  crater  to  the  gap  where  the  guerrilla  sat  on  the 
keystone  is  a  flight  of  steps.  A  ladder  completes  the  descent  of  the  crater  to  the 
long,  narrow  gap  or  cleft  which  is,  up  to  this  time,  the  only  known  entrance  to  the 
cave.  The  top  of  a  second  and  much  longer  ladder  comes  up  through  the  cleft. 
This  ladder  is  almost  perpendicular.  Standing  upon  the  topmost  rung  one  looks 
around  upon  nature  in  her  most  charming  garb.  Grass  grows  upon  the  sides  of 
the  crater.    Large  trees  are  about  its  rim.    The  mountain  rose  clambers  over  the 


576  tK.\Ti:.\Xl.\l.  IIISTDRY  Ol"  MISSOURI 

keystone  where  the  guerrilla  sal.  and  is  one  great  cluster  of  bloom  in  the  first  days 
of  real  summer  on  the  Ozarks.  The  sun  tillers  through  the  heavy  foliage.  The 
sweet  mountain  air,  for  this  is  1,375  f^^t  above  the  sea,  is  full  of  ozone  and  glori- 
ous to  the  lowest  depth  of  the  lungs.  Ha !  down  a  round.  Charming  nature  is 
disappearing.  Down  another  round.  Space,  dark,  gloomy  space,  in  front.  \'o 
limit  on  which  to  steady  the  vision  and  the  nerves  in  that  direction.  To  the  right, 
quick.  More  space,  and  nothing  but  darkness  beyond  it.  A  look  to  the  left.  And 
one  backward  over  the  shoulder.  It  is  all  the  same — space  which  can't  be  meas- 
ured and  which  disappears  in  unstable  gloom  in  all  directions.  The  grip  tightens 
on  the  rung.  If  that  ladder  should  sway  a  brain  would  reel  just  a  little  bit.  But 
the  ladder  doesn't  so  much  as  quiver.  It  is  not  according  to  rule  to  look  down- 
ward in  climbing.  But  the  temptation  is  too  great.  Just  one  quick  glance.  It  is 
regretted.  The  tlaring  lamp  wick  re-enforced  by  a  quart  of  kerosene  is  about  as 
insignificant  as  a  match.  The  man  who  went  down  first  looks  like  a  pygmy.  It's 
a  long  way  to  the  bottom.  Look  upward.  There  is  promise  in  the  rift  of  sunshine 
which  comes  through  the  gap  and  falls  athwart  the  ladder.  That  is  something  to 
measure  by.  Further  and  further  behind  the  ray  is  left,  and  sixty  feet  below  the 
feet  rest  on  the  lop  of  the  great  cone  of  debris  in  the  very  center  of  the  vast 
amphitheater.  The  guide  looks  up  at  the  ladder  illuminated  by  the  sunbeam  and 
shows  himself  a  mind  reader  by  remarking  in  a  casual  tone: 

"We  call  that  'the  Christian's  Hope.' " 

The  foot  of  the  big  ladder  is  a  place  to  stop  and  get  bearings.  When  the  top 
of  Roark  Peak  fell  down  through  the  hole  in  the  roof  it  landed  in  the  center  of 
a  great  amphitheater  and  remained  there.  Had  some  prehistoric  man  been  stand- 
ing on  the  highest  point  of  Roark  when  the  great  event  occurred  he  would  have 
thought  the  bottom  was  falling  out  of  creation.  And  when  the  mass  slopped 
falling  the  prehistoric  man  would  have  found  himself  still  standing  on  the  highest 
point  of  the  peak,  but  about  three  hundred  feet  lower  than  the  altitude  from  which 
he  had  started.  Instead  of  looking  down  great  slopes  and  along  the  ridges  of  the 
Ozarks  he  would  have  been  looking  up  through  a  narrow  gap  in  a  great  roof  of 
marble.  One  minute  he  might  have  stamped  his  foot  and  exclaimed:  "I  am 
monarch  of  all  I  survey,"  and  the  next  his  thoughts  would  have  been  "how  in 
thunder  am  I  going  to  get  out  of  this  hole?"  It  is  sixty  feet  from  the  top  of  this 
interior  cone  to  the  marble  roof.  But  so  rapidly  does  the  cone  slope  away  that  a 
few  feet  distant  to  a  point  directly  under  where  the  guerrilla  fell,  the  drop  from 
the  keystone  to  the  side  of  the  cone  is  over  100  feet. 

Space,  space  is  the  first  impression  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder.  Gradually  the 
vision  conforms  to  the  gloom.  The  shadows  roll  back  slowly.  Directly  above  is 
the  red  marble  roof,  with  the  gleaming  gap  which  leads  to  heavenly  outdoors. 
The  vision  sweeps  along  the  roof  to  darker  portions  and  catches  the  first  glimpse 
of  the  marvels.  Great  stalactites  len  and  twelve  feet  long  fairly  stud  the  roof  and 
point  downward  with  the  suggestiveness  of  the  sword  of  Damocles.  The  first 
survey  of  the  cone  from  the  top  gives  no  idea  of  its  size.  A  zigzag  pathway  down 
the  s.outhern  slope  is  traversed  over  the  broken  rock  half  imbedded  in  the  guano. 
From  the  bottom  of  the  slope  a  backward  look,  shows  a  hill  of  225  feet  to  where 
the  ladder  stands  in  its  halo.  And  there,  at  the  foot  of  the  cone,  the  first  ade- 
quate idea  of  the  immensity  of  the  amphitheater  impresses  itself.     If  the  central 


v:.^^ 


A  FREAK  OF  THE  OZARKS 


AN  OZARK  CAVE  ENTRANCE 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  579 

cone  or  dump  of  debris  was  out  of  the  way  the  Capitol  at  \\'ashiiigton  might  be 
put  down  into  the  amphitheater.  The  roofs  of  the  Senate  and  House  wings  would 
not  touch  the  marble  top  of  the  cave.  The  dome  of  the  Capitol  would  not  disturb 
a  stalactite,  and  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  could  poke  her  Indian  headgear  through 
the  rift  in  the  crater  and  see  daylight.  There  is  nothing  in  Mammoth  or  Luray, 
or  any  other  American  cavern,  which  reaches  the  dimensions  of  the  amphitheater 
of  Marvel  Cave.  Seen  the  second  time  it  seems  greater  than  upon  the  first 
descent. 

The  Great  White  Throne. 

"Well,  there's  the  Great  White  Throne!"  exclaimed  the  adventurous  Powell 
as  he  halted  with  the  original  exploring  party  at  the  dump  on  the  first  entry  in 
1882.  "The  Great  White  Throne,"  it  is  today  and  always  will  be.  The  name 
which  first  came  to  the  explorer's  lips  was  singularly  appropriate,  and  it  sticks. 
Built  out  on  one  side  of  the  amphitheater,  but  far  enough  from  the  wall  to  leave 
a  wonderful  passage,  the  throne  rises  sixty-five  feet  from  the  base.  It  is  round 
and  built  up  by  successive  layers  of  rock,  each  set  in  a  little  from  the  one  below, 
so  as  to  give  a  symmetrical,  tapering  appearance.  The  color  is  pure  white — 
dazzling  in  the  flame  of  the  torches. 

They  got  "a  native"'  down  into  the  cave  on  one  occasion.  He  was  a  man  who 
wasn't  afraid  of  his  weight  in  wild  cats,  but  he  had  the  awe  of  the  Devil's  Den, 
entertained  by  all  of  the  old  inhabitants.  As  he  stood  in  front  of  the  throne  the 
poor  man  was  seized  with  a  trembling  fit.  In  broken  voice  he  cried  that  if  the 
Lord  would  let  him  out  that  time  he  would  never  do  so  again.  They  put  a  rope 
around  him  to  steady  him,  and  hustled  him  up  the  ladder  as  fast  as  they  knew 
how.  The  way  to  the  top  of  the  throne  is  around  to  the  rear  and  up  the  back  by 
a  scramble.  The  top  is  spacious  enough  to  hold  half  a  dozen  persons.  It  affords 
a  view  of  the  whole  amphitheater  save  where  the  shadows  unsubdued  by  the 
largest  torches  still  linger.  Back  of  the  throne  rises  a  bewildering  collection  of 
the  most  fantastic  imagery.  There  are  stalactites  and  stalagmites.  The  forma- 
tions from  the  top  and  the  bottom  meet  and  crowd  each  other.  Elephant  heads 
as  true  as  Jumbo's  look  out  from  such  a  menagerie  of  freaks  in  water-formed 
rocks  as  the  wildest  dreamer  never  saw  in  fancy.  There  are  moldings  and  carv- 
ings, devices  of  animals  and  of  plants  which  nature  never  produced  in  living 
forms.  Men  who  have  seen  this  collection  of  bric-a-brac  year  after  year  still  stop 
to  study  it  bit  by  bit  and  to  find  new  wonders  in  it. 

The  Great  White  Throne  has  an  interior.  Leaving  with  reluctance  the  bric-a- 
brac  which  rises  above  and  to  the  rear  of  the  throne,  the  visitor  slides  and  bumps 
down  to  the  path,  and  finds  his  way  around  to  the  foot  of  the  throne  and  up 
further  side  to  an  entrance.  Here  the  water  has  worked  a  peculiar  wonder  of 
its  own.  The  roof  of  this  interior  of  the  throne  is  hung  as  closely  as  they  can  be 
placed  with  what  looks  for  all  the  world  like  innumerable  flicks  of  bacon  in  cold 
Storage.    In  the  sides  of  the  pieces  can  be  traced  the  streaks  of  fat  and  lean. 

The  Place  to  Register. 

Out  from  the  edges  of  the  vast  amphitheater  lead  half  a  dozen  routes  to  as 
manv  strange  features  of  the  cave.    In  no  two  of  the  routes  is  there  any  sameness 


580  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  travel  or  scenes.  The  most  natural  trip  to  make  first  is  by  a  curving  passage 
which  begins  almost  behind  the  Great  White  Throne.  It  is  a  narrow  alley,  so 
narrow  that  two  people  of  average  size  would  find  it  hard  to  pass  each  other. 
The  floor  is  of  clay ;  the  sides  and  arched  roof  of  rock.  If  the  passage  had  been 
hewn  out  by  human  hands  it  could  not  have  been  done  more  perfectly.  The  height 
at  the  opening  permits  one  to  stand  almost  erect.  Gradually  it  is  found  necessary 
to  stoop  more  and  more.  The  passage  curves  and  descends.  Stone  steps  take 
the  place  of  the  clay  bottom.  A  warm  current,  lo  degrees  higher  than  the  tem- 
perature of  the  amphitheater,  strikes  the  face.  At  the  end  of  250  feet  the  pas- 
sage comes  to  an  abrupt  comer  and  there  is  the  Registr)'  Room.  A  great  hall  opens 
out,  and  the  torch  must  be  swung  high  overhead  and  all  around  to  get  an  appre- 
ciative idea  of  the  dimensions.  On  one  side  is  a  high  wall  covered  with  a  coating 
of  soft  but  very  tenacious  red  clay.  In  this  clay  names  and  dates  and  sentiments 
can  be  traced  with  the  finger.  And  here  the  restless  American  tourist  is  turned 
loose  to  get  his  fill  of  making  his  mark.  When  the  cave  was  explored  for  the 
first  time  with  any  thoroughness  in  1882,  upon  the  wall  of  the  Registry  Room  was 
found  the  record  that  the  lilow  party,  from  St.  Louis,  had  jjcnetrated  to  this  depth 
in  1869.     But  the  party  went  no  further. 

The  Registry  Room  is  50  feet  high,  as  square  and  perfect  as  if  carved  with 
purpose.  The  roof  is  as  smooth  as  if  plastered.  At  the  further  end  of  the  Registry 
Room  a  chasm  yawns.  It  is  130  feet  down  this  precipice  to  the  bottom.  The 
roof  is  50  feet  above.  This  gives  180  feet  from  bottom  to  top.  It  is  the  Gulf 
of  Doom.  .And  a  gulf  of  doom  it  would  be  to  any  one  who.  intent  on  viewing 
the  Registry  Room,  should  step  backward  into  the  chasm.  The  first  time  any  one 
ever  went  beyond  the  Registry  Room  it  was  descent  by  rope  130  feet  to  the  bottom 
of  the  Gulf  of  Doom.  And  the  return  was  made  the  sanje  way.  But  soon  a  pas- 
sage was  found — a  continuation  of  the  route  by  which  the  Registry  Room  is 
reached  from  the  amphitheater.  Keeping  on  down  the  steep  passage  without  turn- 
ing into  the  Registry  Room,  the  visitor  reaches  a  succession  of  ledges  and  ladders. 
The  ladders  were  built  where  they  are.  No  piece  of  wood  longer  than  10  feet 
could  be  dragged  down,  so  short  are  the  turns  and  curves.  The  timbers  were 
spliced  and  the  rounds  were  put  in  after  the  material  reached  its  destination. 
Several  of  these  ladders,  with  more  or  less  difficult  crawls  between  them,  lead  to 
Lost  River  Canyon.  The  opening  is  into  the  side  of  the  canyon,  which  extends  in 
both  directions.  The  turn  to  the  right  into  the  canyon  takes  one  to  the  waterfall. 
A  short  crawl  ends  in  the  Sullivan  Room.  Everybody  straightens  up  and  walks 
into  a  narrow  hall,  which  curves  first  one  way  and  then  the  other  until  it  forms 
a  perfect  S.  When  this  freak  was  first  found  there  was  a  man  named  Harvey 
Sullivan  in  the  exploring  party.  Some  one  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
room  was  shaped  like  an  S  lying  on  its  side.  And  another  exclaimed,  "We'll  just 
call  this  the  Sullivan  Room."  So  it  remains.  The  carved  hall  is  20  feet  long  and 
8  feet  high.  L^pon  the  roof  nature  has  left  a  curious  molding  divided  into  figures 
unknown  to  geography,  with  little  knobs  as  large  as  an  acorn  stuck  along  the 
dividing  ridges  of  the  panels.  Lost  River  flows  through  the  Sullivan  Room  and 
leaves  on  its  way  little  pools  that  look  like  plate-glass.  Just  beyond  the  room  the 
river  spreads  and  ripples  over  a  lot  of  rocks  which  appear  as  soft  and  smooth 
as  so  many  feather  pillows.     There  Lost  River  plunges  downward  45  feet  into  a 


MlSSOURrS  UNDERWORLD  581 

mass  of  spray,  into  the  bottom  of  tlie  Gulf  of  Doom.  In  Lost  River  the  alchemy 
of  nature  is  always  at  work.  Of  all  the  streams  yet  found  in  the  cave  this  is  the 
only  one  which  coats  everything  it  touches.  A  stick  left  in  the  water  three  months 
will  be  found  covered  with  a  transparent  glass-like  substance.  The  manufacture 
of  onyx  is  in  progress  all  of  the  time,  though,  of  course,  it  will  be  ages  before 
the  water  formation  of  today  becomes  the  onyx  of  use. 

The  Gulf  of  Doom. 

The  top  of  the  waterfall  having  been  seen,  the  next  thing  is  to  reach  the 
bottom  of  the  fall  and  the  floor  of  the  Gulf  of  Doom.  Backward  through  the 
Sullivan  Room  and  into  the  hard  crawling  among  the  rocks  the  way  is.  At  one 
place  a  rock  splits  the  passage  in  two.  The  only  course  is  to  wriggle  under  or 
over.  "Fat  Man's  Misery"  the  guide  calls  it.  Just  beyond  Fat  Man's  Misery  is  the 
Hornet's  Xest,  a  mass  of  water-formed  rock  with  cells  and  color,  so  like  the 
dangerous  bunch  hanging  from  the  apjjle  tree  bough  that  one  almost  hears  the 
angry  buzz.  And  a  little  way  from  the  Hornet's  Nest  there  project  down  from 
the  low  rooi  of  the  passage  two  great  knobs  of  rock.  The  man  who  misses  the 
first  is  sure  to  measure  the  hardness  of  his  head  with  the  second.  Originally 
there  was  a  coating  of  clay  on  the  knobs.  One  day  a  visitor  struck  a  knob  so  hard 
the  red  clay  broke  and  fell.     He  shouted  to  the  guide : 

"I  have  caved  in  my  whole  head.  Take  me  out  of  here  as  quick  as  you  can  or 
1  shall  be  dead  before  you  get  to  the  ladder.     Oh !  oh !  oh !" 

'T  knew."  said  young  Powell,  "that  if  the  man's  skull  was  crushed  in  he 
wouldn't  be  talking,  and  I  tried  to  relieve  his  mind.  He  wouldn't  have  it.  He 
insisted  that  he  had  broken  his  head  and  that  the  pieces  had  fallen  all  around 
him.  I  went  back,  and  after  awhile  I  convinced  him  that  the  pieces  were  the  red 
clay  covering  of  the  knob  and  not  his  head.  But  he  had  had  a  pretty  hard 
bump." 

And  while  he  told  his  story  the  guide  led  the  way  down  a  couple  of  short 
ladders,  along  a  passage  and  into  the  bottom  of  the  Gulf  of  Doom,  with  its  i8o 
feet  from  floor  to  roof.  Lost  River  fell  on  what  seemed  like  a  heap  of  feather 
beds,  but  the  spray  and  mist  and  the  roar  told  that  the  piled-up  mass  with  its  soft 
look  and  smooth  curves  was  ony.K,  formed  by  the  long  and  continuous  dashing  of 
the  water. 

The  Gulf  of  Doom.  900  feet  below  the  top  of  the  mountain  peak  and  in  the 
very  heart  of  it,  has  its  relations  with  the  outer  world.  In  times  of  excessive  rains 
and  freshets  the  Gulf  of  Doom  fills  with  water  to  a  depth  of  100  feet,  and  as  the 
rivers  outside  go  down  the  water  in  the  gulf  falls. 

Mysterious  Cave  Noises. 

From  the  foot  of  the  waterfall  begins  a  crawl  to  further  wonders.  The 
explorer  is  now  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  below  the  rim  of  the  crater  and  daylight. 
He  has  come  a  long  way  roundabout  in  the  descent.  He  has  climbed  down  nine 
ladders  from  10  to  60  feet  long.  He  has  half  slipped,  half  stepped  along  steep 
grades.  He  has  walked  through  tortuous  passages,  sometimes  erect  and  sometimes 
bent  until  his  body  was  almost  at  right  angles  with  his  legs.  He  has  crawled  on  his 
hands  and  knees.    He  has  passed  through  tight  places  where  he  had  to  lengthen 


582  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

out  his  legs  ami  drag  himself  by  his  hands.  I'.ut  having  come  thus  far  he  should 
not  turn  back.  A  dasii  through  the  waterfall  means  only  a  little  additional  damp- 
ness. A  more  serious-minded  way  is  to  edge  along  the  wall  and  get  around  the 
falling  water.  The  torch  shows  a  slanting  wall  in  front.  The  guide  calls  it  a 
"day  slide."  The  clay  makes  it  possible  to  dig  the  toes  in  and  gain  footings.  Up 
the  clay  slide  at  its  steep  angle  goes  the  way,  and  the  only  way  to  Blondy's  throne. 
This  ascent  of  65  feet  looks  all  but  impossible,  until  the  guide  shows  that  it  can 
be  done.  When  the  top  of  the  clay  slide  is  readied  there  appears  what  could  not 
be  seen  before,  a  wide,  low  opening.  It  is  only  2  feet  high.  The  bottom  is  of 
damp  red  clay ;  the  roof  of  smooth  rock.  This  is  the  passage  to  the  throne  room. 
It  is  hands  and  knees  for  it  now.  But  familiarity  has  already  bred  contempt  for 
the  moist  clay.  The  crawl  begins.  In  places  the  day  either  rises  a  little  or  the  roof 
lowers.  Whichever  it  matters  not.  The  only  thing  to  do  is  to  drop  flat  and  wriggle 
along,  until  there  is  a  little  more  space,  and  then  one  realizes  how  much  easier  it 
is  to  crawl  than  tt)  wriggle.  Three  shallow  pools  of  water  are  encountered  on  the 
way.  Two  of  them  can  be  skirted  with  care.  Through  one  it  is  necessary  to 
splash.  From  the  head  of  the  clay  slide  there  is  600  feet  of  this  kind  ojf  traveling. 
Just  half  way  on  the  route  is  the  rest  room.  Well  named  it  is.  There  is  space 
to  rise  and  to  stand  erect  and  to  stretch  the  arms.  There  are  ledges  to  sit  upon. 
And  while  all  rest  and  nobody  speaks,  suddenly  a  murmur  seems  to  come  through 
the  opening  opposite.  It  is  the  sound  of  talking,  surely.  As  the  hearing  is 
strained,  the  voice  grows  more  distinct,  but  not  a  word  can  be  distinguished. 
One  day  as  Powell  sat  in  the  rest  room  with  a  visitor,  the  latter  bent  his  head  and 
exclaimed : 

"Listen !    Listen !    There !    She  laughs  !" 

Imagination  is  reluctant  to  give  up  the  theory  of  voices  for  the  reality  of  echoes 
from  falling  water.  One  day  Will  Powell  took  an  old  fellow  into  this  crawl  pas- 
sage to  dig  out  some  cay  and  make  the  way  a  trifle  easier.  Young  Powell  him- 
self was  at  work  in  the  passage  leading  to  the  foot  of  the  waterfall,  replacing  one 
of  the  ladders.  He  had  occasion  to  go  up  toward  the  amphitheater  for  material. 
He  was  not  gone  thirty  minutes,  but  on  his  way  back  he  met  his  workman 
crawling  out. 

"That  clay  is  awful  tough ;  I  thought  I'd  come  out  and  rest  my  back  awhile," 
the  old  man  explained.  But  he  showed  a  disinclination  to  go  to  work  again. 
Powell  went  with  him.     The  old  man  hesitated  a  little  and  then  asked: 

"Say,  do  you  hear  that  kind  of  grumbling  noise  in  there?" 

After  he  had  been  convinced  that  what  he  heard  was  really  the  water  he  took 
up  his  tools.  Not  many  men  can  be  induced  to  work  in  the  cave.  They  raise  the 
pick  and  involuntarily  hold  it  susjjended,  as  if  they  were  fearful  it  might  strike 
through  a  coffin  lid  and  release  some  uneasy  spirit. 

Some  of  the  Cave  Mysteries. 

Three  hundred  feet  of  crawling  and  wriggling  beyond  the  rest  room  ends  with 
a  sudden  up-raise  of  clay.  It  seems  as  if  the  end  has  come.  But  the  roof  rises 
just  as  abruptly  as  the  clay  does.  The  passage  simply  jogs  upward  and  then 
downward  and  the  throne  room  is  there.  In  reality  there  are  three  rooms,  if  the 
two  half  partitions  or  narrowing  portions  be  taken  into  account.    But  the  Powells 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  583 

treat  the  three  as  one  grand  hall  300  feet  long.  The  first  thing  the  visitor  dis- 
covers is  a  little  lake  30  feet  long  and  20  feet  wide.  The  water  is  as  transparent  as 
glass.  The  torch  shows  the  bottom,  and  the  depth  appears  to  be  about  15  inches, 
whereas  it  is  many  feet.  Mystic  Lake  it  is  called.  A  large  rapid  stream  flows  into 
the  lake  from  the  south.  There  is  no  visible  outlet.  Yet  the  lake  does  not  rise  nor 
fall.  Somewhere  out  of  sight  there  must  be  an  exit  for  the  water,  but  no  trace  of 
it  has  ever  been  found.  An  arch  overhangs  the  lake.  It  is  about  8  feet  high  in 
the  center  and  the  sides  pass  down  with  perfect  turns  to  the  floor  of  the  room. 
Beneath  the  arch  hangs  a  bewildering  array  of  stalactites.  These  pendants  are  of 
great  variety  in  sizes.  Some  are  dark  "and  some  are  white.  The  Mystic  River,  as 
it  comes  down  to  the  lake,  makes  a  tremendous  noise  over  a  succession  of  low 
falls  and  rapids.  And  this  is  the  noise  which,  sifted  through  long  and  crooked 
passages,  is  easily  mistaken  for  voices. 

The  onward  way  is  up  over  the  arch.  Then  it  bears  off  a  little  to  the  right 
and  brings  one  to  the  foot  of  Blondy's  throne.  The  Great  White  Throne  of  the 
amphitheater  was  a  marvel.  But  here  is  a  throne  ten  times  the  size  of  that  at  the 
base  and  twice  as  high.  For  120  feet  the  throne  tapers  up  with  story  upon  story 
of  red  and  yellow  and  water-colored  onyx.  Across  the  base  the  width  is  150 
feet.  With  the  aid  of  a  long  rope  fastened  to  a  stalactite  it  is  possible  to  scramble 
up  the  side  of  the  throne  and  enter  the  interior  75  feet  above  the  base.  In  this 
is  found  a  room  20  feet  across  and  from  twelve  to  twenty  feet  high.  The  floor  is  as 
white  as  snow.  In  the  center  is  a  tank  of  about  the  dimensions  of  a  wagon  box — 
eight  feet  long  and  three  feet  wide.  The  water  in  the  tank  seems  to  be  quite 
shallow.  An  early  explorer  named  Porter  put  his  foot  in  to  see  what  the  depth 
really  was.  When  he  came  to  the  surface  the  guide  pulled  out  Mr.  Porter  by  the 
ears.  This  interior  room  of  Blondy's  throne  is  hung  with  stalactites.  In  all  of 
the  ramifications  of  the  cave  there  has  not  yet  been  found  stalactite  formation 
to  compare  with  that  in  Blondy's  throne  room.  Hundreds  can  be  counted  in  the 
throne  interior.  They  range  in  diameter  from  pipe  stems  to  stove  pipes,  and  in 
.length  from  a  few  inches  to  twenty  feet.  Correspondingly  in  size  and  number  the 
stalagmites  come  up  from  the  floor  to  meet  them.  To  the  right  hand  of  the 
entrance  of  the  throne  interior  are  the  musical  rocks.  Two  complete  octaves  can 
be  rung  from  them  by  taps  with  a  piece  of  iron.  Some  of  these  rocks  give  out 
sound  as  loud  and  clear  as  a  large  bell.  Others  are  as  fine  as  a  piano  note.  Still 
others  are  as  transparent  as  thick  glass.     The  light  illuminates  them. 

It  is  possible  to  reach  the  summit  of  Blondy's  throne.  That  summit  is  crowned 
by  a  collection  of  spires.  One  great  central  spire  is  four  feet  through  and  extends 
far  upward  into  darkness.  Around  it  are  ten  or  twelve  smaller  spires.  Standing 
on  the  summit  of  the  throne  and  throwing  the  light  around,  the  explorer  finds  that 
the  walls  are  covered  with  stalactites.  Even  at  that  elevation  the  roof  is  so  far 
above  that  it  is  not  visible. 

The  upper  part  of  the  throne  from  the  interior  room  to  the  summit  has  been 
likened  to  a  cupola.  The  similarity  is  striking.  Crossing  the  throne  interior 
to  the  side  opposite  from  the  entrance,  one  stands  peering  out  into  the  great 
beyond.  There  is  space  and  darkness  above,  below  and  all  around.  To  this  day  it 
remains  the  great  beyond.  Leaning  out  from  the  interior  of  the  throne  the  Powells 
have  thrown  flash  lights  and  burned  fire-balls  without  being  able  to  know  much 


584  CEXTEXNIAI.  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

more  of  the  great  beyond  than  that  it  is  a  vast  chamber.  Height  and  breadth  are 
unknown.  There  is  bottom,  however,  at  the  foot  of  a  precipice  of  lOO  feet.  No 
human  foot  has  yet  trod  tiic  floor.  The  guides  know  that  water  flows  through 
the  great  beyond.  They  can  hear  it.  Whence  it  comes  or  where  it  goes,  or  how 
much  there  is  of  it  they  do  not  know.  The  great  beyond  is  one  of  the  several 
places  where  exploration  lias  hahed. 

The  Dead  Animal  Chamber. 

\ariety  is  the  characteristic  of  .Marvel  Cave.  No  two  parts  or  features  are 
similar.  Past  the  spring,  direct  from  the  amphitheater  and  straight  as  if  an 
engineer  had  bossed  the  workings,  goes  a  tunnel.  The  floor  is  of  hard  red  clay; 
the  walls  and  arched  roof  of  rock.  Unlike  some  other  portions  of  the  cave  this 
passage  is  very  dry.  A  stooping  walk  gives  place  to  the  hands-and-knees  posture 
and  then  the  prone  position  must  be  taken.  The  tunnel  becomes  a  crevice  which 
suddenly  widens  out  into  a  large,  low,  vaulted  room.  This  is  the  dead  animal 
chamber.  A  chamber  of  horrors  it  might  be  called.  The  distance  is  125  feet 
from  the  amphitheater  to  the  chamber.  On  the  last  part  of  the  way  it  is  impos- 
sible to  crawl  or  to  turn.  Mr.  Powell,  a  thin,  wiry  man  of  great  nerve  and 
strength,  was  the  first  to  make  his  way  to  the  chamber.  He  came  wriggling  his 
way  back  to  the  amphitheater  and  told  his  associates  that  he  had  seen  500  dead 
animals. 

"Five,  five,  five,"  exclaimed  the  skeptical  Dr.  Jones  in  derision,  and  then  he 
made  ready  for  the  trip.  But  when  he  got  back  the  first  words  that  came  from 
his  lips  were,  "Not  five  hundred,  but  five  thousand." 

The  floor  of  the  vaulted  chamber  was  not  only  covered,  it  was  heaped  with 
mummified  remains  af  animals.  Curled  or  stretched  out,  according  to  the  natural 
way  of  going  asleep,  they  lay  by  hundreds  and  thousands.  UiKin  many  the  fur 
was  so  well  preserved  that  they  had  the  appearance,  in  the  dim  light,  of  sleeping. 
There  were  the  remains  of  panthers,  of  wildcats,  of  'coons,  of  opossums,  of  wood- 
chucks,  and  underneath  were  skeletons  of  animals  long  ago  extinct.  A  little  stir- 
ring of  the  remains  raised  a  cloud  of  dust  which  was  sufl'ocating.  Subsequent 
examination  of  the  dead  animal  chamber  showed  that  the  remains  which  lay 
in  sight  constituted  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  number  which  had  crawled  in  to 
die.  Buried  in  layers  of  clay  deposits,  carried  into  the  chamber  at  some  remote 
period  by  floods,  were  countless  other  skeletons  and  mummies,  chiefly  of  the  feline 
tribe.  Evidently  this  had  been  for  centuries  the  place  to  die  chosen  by  these  kinds 
of  animals.  Some  hundred  have  been  carried  or  sent  away.  Government 
naturalists  from  Washington  completed  the  shipment  of  a  ton  of  the  clay  and  its 
contents ;  together  with  a  large  box  of  the  best  preserved  specimens  to  Washington. 
But  no  impression  has  been  made  upon  the  great  chamber's  grewsome  contents. 
The  scientists  are  greatly  interested.  The  dying  animals  never  came  down  through 
the  crater  and  the  gap  in  the  roof  of  the  amphitheater.  They  knew  of  some  other 
entrance  to  Marvel  Cave.  That  is  more  than  the  Powells,  with  all  their  search- 
ing, have  been  able  to  find.  Why  did  the  dying  animals  come  centuries  after  cen- 
turies to  the  cool  dry  place,  a  natural  tomb  with  wonderful  preserving  conditions? 
There  is  a  revelation  of  instinct  in  the  dead  animal  chamber. 

Mr.  Powell  said  that  animals  have  crawled  into  the  chamber  and  died  since 


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MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  ■  587 

he  has  been  living  here.  The  carcasses  are  preserved,  but  in  the  process  of  mum- 
mifying they  give  off  a  strong  smell,  not  offensive,  however,  like  carrion.  To  make 
room  for  their  last  resting  places  these  late  comers  have  crowded  back  the  remains 
of  those  gone  before  until  they  have  choked  up  the  crevice  to  the  amphitheater. 

Following  the  wall  of  the  amphitheater  around  to  the  right  from  the  dead  • 
animal  tunnel,  the  visitor  must  look  well  to  his  steps.  Down  close  to  the  wall  is 
a  well-like  opening.  To  the  bottom  is  thirty-five  feet  and  it  opens  into  the  Powell 
and  Hughes  rooms,  thirty  feet  long,  six  or  seven  wide  and  fifteen  high.  These 
rooms  are  only  interesting  for  the  large  deposits  of  bat  guano  they  contain.  When 
the  cave  was  first  explored  in  1882  the  idea  was  to  take  out  this  guano  and  sell 
it.  A  whim  and  a  tramway  were  constructed,  but  the  distance  of  thirty  miles 
over  the  mountains  to  the  railroad  wiped  out  the  profits  and  the  industry 
collapsed. 

Bevond  the  entrance  to  the  Powell  and  Hughes  rooms  the  amphitheater  has  a 
great  wing  which  is  almost  a  part  of  itself.  But  the  wing  has  been  given  the  dis- 
tinctive name  of  the  Mother  Hubbard  room.  When  Mr.  Powell  first  walked  to 
the  further  end  of  the  wing  chamber  and  came  front  to  front  with  a  prodigious 
stone  image  he  exclaimed  to  those  following:  "Hello!  Here's  Mother  Hubbard." 
The  figure  is  as  shapeless  as  a  Mother  Hubbard  dress  and  that  suggested  the 
name.  But  when  Mr.  Powell  looked  behind  the  figure  and  saw  a  large  crevice  he 
added  from  another  chamber  of  his  memory.  "And  here's  Mother  Hubbard's 
cupboard,  sure  enough."  When  the  Powell  boys  read  Haggard,  they  adopted 
"She"  as  the  better  title  fur  the  figure,  but  "Mother  Hubbard"  and  "the  cup- 
board" still  stick. 

The  Battery  and  the  Dungeons. 

.\  crawl  of  fortv  feet  from  the  extreme  end  of  the  .Mother  Hubbard  room 
gives  entrance  to  The  Battery.  It  is  through  heterogeneous  rock,  and  a  rather 
ugly  scramble.  The  Battery  is  sixty  or  seventy  feet  long  and  high.  The  appear- 
ance is  novel  even  after  the  other  features  of  Marvel  Cave  have  been  examined. 
A  little  stream  crosses  the  room  from  right  to  left.  A  large  gallerj'  is  well  filled 
with  water  formations  composed  about  one-half  of  guano.  .A  queer  combination 
it  is.  The  Batterv  gets  its  name  from  the  fact  that  it  is  the  chamber  most  fre- 
quented by  bats.  At  times  the  bats  cover  the  walls  entirely  and  give  the  room  the 
appearance  of  being  draped  in  velvet.  Out  of  the  Battery  is  a  passage  to  the 
Spanish  room,  so  called  because  of  marks  on  the  walls  which  somebody  once 
thought  were  made  by  the  Spanish  explorers.  That  story  Mr.  Powell  discredited. 
Beyond  the  Spanish  room  a  passage  so  choked  with  broken  rock  as  to  be  impass- 
able extends  nobody  knows  where.  In  this  part  of  the  cave  is  found  a  very  hard 
and  tough  clay  which,  when  scraped  by  a  knife,  takes  on  a  rich  polish. 

Still  further  around  the  Amphitheater,  just  down  the  dump  to  the  left  of  the 
big  ladder,  is  a  high  crevice  in  vvhich  a  man  can  stand  erect  and  edge  along  side- 
ways. The  course  is  downward  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees.  The  crevice 
comes  to  an  end  on  the  brink  of  a  precipice.  An  Indian  ladder — that  is  a  pole 
with  rounds  thrust  through  it — furnishes  means  of^descent  thirty-five  feet  to  the 
bottom  of  the  precipice.  Here  is  the  Dungeon,  twenty-five  feet  across  and  very 
high.    \\'ith  the  ladder  broken  or  lifted  out  there  is  no  escape.     Mr.  Powell  said 


588  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI  . 

he  had  found  unmistakable  evidence  of  some  one  having  been  confined  in  this  hor- 
rible trap.  From  the  bottom  of  the  Dungeon  is  an  opening  to  a  second  and  smal- 
ler room,  and  from  that  room  a  desperate  effort  has  been  made  to  tunnel  through 
the  hard  clay  upward  in  the  direction  of  the  Amphitheater.  This  unfinished  tun- 
•nel  extends  twenty  feet  and  ends  abruptly.  In  the  main  Dungeon  all  the  loose 
stones  have  been  collected  and  heaped  up  twelve  feet  high  against  the  side  nearest 
to  the  outlet  fissure.  But,  standing  on  that  heap,  the  prisoner  would  still  be  many 
feet  below  the  fissure.  The  walls  are  too  steep  to  permit  of  climbing  out.  In  one 
place  there  is  apparently  a  drilled  hole  in  the  wall  for  a  staple.  And  when  Mr. 
Powell  first  discovered  the  hole  there  seemed  to  be  traces  of  rust  around  it.  No 
skeleton  was  found  in  either  of  the  Dungeons. 

Freaks  of  Temperature. 

.\we  is  not  altogether  responsible  for  the  shivering  sensation  which  comes 
with  the  first  steps  downward  into  Marvel  Cave.  From  the  summer  temperature 
of  seventy  on  the  mountain  the  transition  is  suddenly  to  forty-two  at  the  foot  of 
the  Great  White  Throne.  Only  in  the  amphitheater  and  certain  side  passages  is 
the  temperature  so  low.  The  Powells  learned  to  account  for  this  by  the  presence 
of  the  bat  guano.  This  deposit  is  not  found  in  the  Registry  Room  nor  in  the  lower 
portions  of  the  cave.  There  the  uniform  temperature  is  fifty-six.  But  where  the 
guano  is  abundant  the  temperature  is  ten  or  twelve  degrees  colder.  The  explana- 
tion is  found  in  the  presence  of  thirteen  per  cent  of  ammonia  in  the  guano.  In 
other  words  nature,  with  the  assistance  of  the  bats,  has  produced  chemical  cold 
storage  on  a  grand  scale. 

Almost  opposite  the  big  ladder  and  to  the  right  of  the  Great  White  Throne 
some  little  distance  stands  a  tall  shapely  rock,  extending  from  the  bottom  to  the 
roof  of  the  amphitheater  and  back  almost  against  the  wall.  It  is  "The  Sentinel 
of  the  Spring."  To  the  right  of  the  sentinel  is  a  passage  and  opening  off  that 
passage  is  a  spring.  The  water  comes  trickling  from  above,  and  by  constant  drop- 
ping keeps  a  large  basin  full.  This  water  is  colder,  a  little  colder  than  the  at- 
mosphere. Tasted  where  it  drips  it  is  pleasant.  Above  ground  it  is  almost  too 
cold  for  comfort.  Unlike  the  water  of  the  Lost  River  the  spring  creates  no  forma- 
tions. No  glassy  coating  follows  a  bath  of  whatever  length  in  the  basin.  Just 
above  the  spring  is  another  apartment  reached  by  a  short  climb.  It  is  the  shower 
bath  room.  Walls  and  top  are  covered  with  moisture.  The  moisture  seems  to 
come  from  nowhere  in  particular,  but  it  gathers  as  a  jug  sweats  in  hot  weather 
and  trickles  down  to  form  the  supply  of  the  spring.  The  theory  of  the  collection 
of  this  water  is  one  of  the  many  freaks  of  Marvel  Cave.  It  is  that  the  difference 
in  temperature  between  various  parts  of  the  cave  and  the  collision  of  currents 
causes  the  water  to  condense  from  the  warmer  air  and  to  collect  in  this  shower 
bath  chamber.  Distillation,  in  other  words,  performed  by  nature  on  the  spot, 
creates  this  supply  of  water  for  the  bath  room  and  the  spring.  Scientists  to 
whom  the  conditions  have  been  described  have  admitted  the  correctness  of  the 
theor)'.  For  the  creation  of  the  water  supply  no  other  explanation  can  be  found. 
This  purest  and  queerest  of  water  is  given  credit  for  the  cure  of  cases  of  diabetes. 
Just  over  the  spring  and  on  the  side  toward  the  amphitheater  is  the  window 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  589 

shutter.    The  shutter  slats  are  gigantic,  but  they  are  wonderfully  perfect  and  lie 
in  correct  parallels. 

Thirty  Miles  of  Passages. 

One  of  the  tirst  questions  asked  about  a  cave  is,  "How  far  can  you  go?"  Xo 
satisfactory-  answer  can  be  made  to  that  question  about  Marvel  Cave.  There  are, 
w^ith  Sentinel  Rock  as  a  starting  point,  several  routes  which  have  been  followed 
long  distances  without  end.  If  the  amphitheater,  into  which  visitors  first  enter, 
is  taken  as  the  starting  point,  it  is  possible  to  go  in  several  other  passages  which 
have  mysteries  yet  to  be  cleared  up.  The  Powells  have  followed  these  different 
routes  one  after  the  other  until  they  have  come  to  rivers  too  deep  to  be  forded  or 
to  precipices  too  great  for  ordinary  means  of  scaling.  In  several  directions  jour- 
neys of  at  least  five  miles  have  been  made.  Xo  less  than  thirty  miles  of  chambers 
and  passages  has  been  explored.  And  how  much  more  remains  to  be  traversed  it 
is  not  possible  to  estimate. 

It  is  possible  to  leave  the  grand  amphitheater  at  every  point  of  the  compass. 
Back  of  the  ladder,  directly  opposite  from  the  tunnel  leading  to  the  dead  animal 
chamber,  is  a  series  of  eight  or  ten  rooms,  but  the  rock  is  rotten,  and  there  is 
constant  danger  of  something  dropping.  The  Powells  have  never  gone  far  in 
that  direction,  and  they  never  take  visitors  in.  This  course  is  almost  due  north. 
To  the  northwest  is  a  string  of  nine  rooms  with  connecting  crawls,  but  they  con- 
tain no  extraordinary  features. 

Almost  where  the  amphitheater  leaves  off  and  the  ilother  Hubbard  wing  be- 
gins, a  short  passage  leads  into  a  room  shaped  so  much  like  an  alligator  that  it 
has  been  given  that  name.  The  alligator  room  is  interesting  chiefly  for  the  fact 
that  from  it  Wind  Passage  extends.  The  alligator  room  is  ten  feet  wide  and 
thirty  feet  long.  Wind  Passage  is  so  crooked  that  nothing  longer  than  a  four- 
foot  stick  can  be  dragged  through  it.  It  is  so  low  that  wriggling  is  the  only  style 
of  locomotion.  And  this  piece  of  crawling  is  between  eight  hundred  and  one 
thousand  feet  over,  rocks  and  under  rocks.  The  clay  bottom,  which  is  usual  in 
Marvel  Cave  passages,  is  not  found  in  this.  Through  Wind  Passage  comes  a  cur- 
rent of  air  strong  enough  to  extinguish  any  ordinary  torch.  Hence  the  name. 
Day  and  night,  in  all  seasons,  that  draft  blows  through.  Wind  Passage  comes  to 
an  abrupt  termination  at  a  precipice.  The  depth  is  about  forty  feet,  and  when  the 
explorer  has  lowered  himself  by  rope  he  stands  in  a  large  round  chamber  200  feet 
across  and  very  high.  The  guano  and  clay  on  the  floor  are  dry,  and  a  little  kick- 
ing raises  a  great  dust.  This  chamber  has  never  been  named.  A  passage  not  so 
contracted  and  tortuous  leads  out  of  the  chamber.  A  crawl  of  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  ends  in  a  second  room,  which  possesses  the  suggestive  name  of  The 
Epsom  Salts  room.  This  room  is  600  feet  long  and  200  feet  high.  In  the  center 
is  a  balloon-shaped  sink  fourteen  feet  in  diameter  and  twenty  feet  deep.  Epsom 
salts  like  frost  work  appears  upon  the  walls.  After  Epsom  Salts  room  is  a  series 
of  eight  large  rooms,  with  short  passages  between.  At  the  end  of  the  last  there 
is  a  fissure  two  feet  wide  in  some  places,  in  others  narrowing  to  one  foot.  There 
are  ledges  on  the  sides.  It  is  possible  to  shuffle  along  this  fissure  with  a  foot  on 
either  side.  The  fissure  is  sixty  to  seventy  feet  deep,  and  at  the  bottom  is  a 
stream  of  water.    Probably  there  are  rooms  along  the  fissure,  but  the  few  times 


590  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

this  most  dangerous  route  has  been  traversed  the  Powells  have  been  too  intent 
on  their  footing  to  speculate  on  side  issues.  This  fissure  route  is  about  a  mile 
long.  After  traveling  that  distance  the  explorer  bears  off  to  the  left  and  goes 
through  a  corridor  that  much  resembles  the  one  leading  to  the  Dead  Animal 
room.  It  is  very  low  in  places  and  extremely  dry.  Then  comes  a  series  of  fifteen 
or  sixteen  rooms,  and  at  last  the  straight  high  banks  of  a  stream  from  twelve  to 
fou'rteen  feet  wide  and  ten  feet  deep.  The  current  is  swift.  No  Name  river  this 
is  called  and  it  bars  the  progress  of  exploration  in  that  direction  until  material 
can  be  dragged  through  for  a  bridge  or  a  boat. 

Three  Rivers  with  Varying  Courses. 

The  course  of  the  No  Name  stream  is  westward.  Mystic  river's  course  is 
south.  Lost  river  flows  in  still  another  direction.  The  streams  flowing  so 
vigorously  through  different  portions  of  the  cave  account  in  part  for  the  strong 
and  diverse  currents  of  air.  The  fact  that  they  rise  and  fall  with  the  rivers 
outside  and  feel  the  effects  of  rain  and  freshets  seems  to  show  that  they  have 
outside  connections  not  a  great  way  distant. 

Lost  River  Canyon  is  where  level  heads  are  turned  and  confusion  reigns. 
\\'here  the  ladders  and  passage  coining  down  from  Registry  room  bring  one  to  the 
canyon  stands  a  great  rock,  shaped  like  a  thick  slab.  It  is  perpendicular  as  if  set 
there  by  the  square  and  compass  and  anointed  by  the  oil  and  wine.  This  is  Sen- 
tinel Rock.  It  plays  an  important  part  in  the  geography  of  the  cave.  If  the  ex- 
plorer notes  the  rock  as  he  returns  from  Rlondy's  throne  and  the  waterfall,  he 
looks  backward  over  his  left  shoulder  and  sees  the  passage  to  the  ladders  and  the 
way  out.  But  if  Sentinel  Rock  is  passed  the  traveler  is  lost.  Lost  River  Canyon 
has  countless  side  passages  and  crevices.  Six  boys  and  six  girls  went  down  to  the 
waterfall  on  one  occasion  and  .started  back.  They  did  not  come  out.  As  the  time 
went  by  without  sign  of  them,  Mr.  Powell  descended.  When  he  reached  the  lad- 
der he  could  see  the  party  crawling  round  and  round  through  Lost  River  Canyon 
and  its  branches  looking  in  vain  for  the  way.  Some  of  them  had  been  there 
before,  but  they  did  not  remember  Sentinel  Rock.  They  had  become  bewildered. 
Their  lights  had  burned  until  only  a  bit  of  candle  remained.  At  the  first  glimpse 
one  of  the  party  cried  out,  "Is  that  Editor  Powell?"  In  a  few  moments  a  hysteri- 
cal girl  had  the  editor  by  the  arm  crying,  "Papa,  I'm  going  to  get  hold  of  you." 
She  never  released  her  grip  until  she  saw  blessed  daylight  coming  through  the 
gap  in  the  crater. 

Air.  Powell  considers  that  one  of  his  greatest  feats  was  finding  his  way  out 
from  the  foot  of  the  waterfall  without  light.  It  was  a  feat  wholly  unintentional. 
Dr.  Jones,  an  early  and  frequent  explorer  of  the  cave,  came  out  one  day  insisting 
that  he  had  found  an  entirely  new  route  from  the  waterfall  to  Blondy's  throne. 
He  claimed  that  he  had  discovered  a  hole  just  back  of  the  fall,  and  that  it  was 
much  easier  going.  Powell  didn't  believe  him,  but  he  had  had  so  many  discoveries 
upset  previous  knowledge  that  after  listening  to  the  Doctor  carefully  he  went  down 
to  see  for  himself.  He  carried  with  him  a  candle  and  a  box  of  patent  matches. 
Never  noticing  that  the  matches  were  only  good  when  scratched  on  the  box  lid, 
he  threw  away  the  box.  Reaching  the  foot  of  the  waterfall  Mr.  Powell  saw 
through  the  mist  a  dark  spot  which  he  had  not  observed  before.    Concluding  that 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  591 

that  was  the  hole  Dr.  Jones  had  mentioned,  Powell  dashed  through  the  water 
towards  it.  He  struck  solid  wall  instead  of  space  and  reeled  backward.  The  water 
put  out  the  light.  When  he  recovered  from  the  shock  he  tried  to  strike  a  match, 
and  then  another  and  another.  After  repeated  failure  he  realized  the  situation. 
Turning  with  his  back  squarely  to  the  wall  he  started  through  the  fall  and  for  the 
passage.  Feeling  his  way  almost  inch  by  inch,  and  stopping  every  few  feet  to 
think  out  the  turns  and  chutes,  he  came  at  last  to  the  Sentinel  Rock.  It  took  two 
hours  to  make  the  trip  out  but  it  was  accomplished. 

The  Original  Arkansas  Traveler. 

After  a  day  of  hard  climbing  and  crawling  ]Mr.  Powell  sat  on  the  gallery  of  the 
Glade  Echo  homestead  and  talked  most  interestingly  of  Marvel  Cave's  history. 

"I  have  been  told  a  great  many  things  about  the  cave  by  the  people  round  about  here 
and  I  have  given  a  good  deal  of  time  to  investigating  them.  Many  of  the  stories,  I  am 
satisfied,  are  purely  imaginary.  Some  have  foundation.  The  oldest  reference  to  the  cave 
in  print  was,  I  think,  a  short  newspaper  description.  This  was  probably  published  a 
great  many  years  ago  and  revived  from  time  to  time  and  started  on  its  rounds.  I  found 
it  printed  in  an  appendix  to  a  history  of  Missouri  published  long  ago.  The  curious  thing 
about  the  account  is  that  it  doesn't  locate  the  cave  further  than  to  say  it  is  in  the  Ozarks. 
From  the  description,  it  seems  that  the  writer  was  lowered  into  the  Amphitheater  and 
crawled  perhaps  as  far  as  the  Registry.  He  speaks  of  there  being  another  throne  about 
the  middle  of  the  .Amphitheater.  This  prompts  me  to  believe  that  since  his  visit  con- 
siderable debris  has  fallen  in  through  the  slit  in  the  bottom  of  the  crater  and  covered  up 
one  of  the  thrones.  I  have  a  theory  that  this  description  of  Marvel  Cave  was  written 
fifty  years  ago,  and  that  the  man  who  visited  the  cave  and  wrote  it  was  Col.  Falconer. 
Falconer  was  the  original  of  'The  Arkansas  Traveler.'  He  is  the  character  about  whom 
so  many  stories  are  told.  He  had  a  place  in  Dade  County,  but  he  was  seldom  at  home. 
Dressed  in  good  clothes,  riding  a  fine  horse,  he  traveled  all  over  this  part  of  Missouri 
and  Arkansas.  Wherever  he  went  he  carried  his  fiddle.  And  he  fiddled  his  way  to  the 
hearts  of  the  pioneers  while  he  explored  their  country.  Falconer  passed  up  and  down 
the  Old  Wilderness  road,  then  a  mere  trail,  in  his  travels.  He  could  hardly  have  failed 
to  hear,  from  the  hunters,  of  Marvel  Cave,  and  it  was  just  like  him  to  visit  the  place 
and  go  down  into  it.  He  wrote  what  he  saw,  but  never  thought  of  telling  the  way  to 
it  or  of  locating  it  more  definitely  than   in  the  Ozarks." 

Traditions  of  Spanish  Treasure. 

When  Mr.  Powell  began  to  explore  the  cave  he  heard  many  stories  about  it 
having  been  visited  by  the  Spaniards  at  an  early  day.  Some  people  believed  that 
treasure  had  been  hidden  here : 

"I  have  never  been  able  to  find  any  confirmation  of  these  lost-wealth  stories.  We 
found  upon  our  earliest  visits  the  remnants  of  some  old  ladders,  such  as  the  Spaniards 
used.  They  are  simply  long  poles  with  notches  alternating  on  each  side  for  footholds. 
The  same  kind  of  ladders  are  to  be  seen  now  in  Mexican  mines.  Two  of  those  poles, 
or  sections  of  them,  are  now  in  the  cave.  You  saw  them  in  one  corner  of  the  Mother 
Hubbard  room.  The  Spaniards  roamed  through  this  region  looking  for  silver  at  an 
early  day.  It  is  altogether  probable  that  they  made  ladders  and  descended  into  the  cave, 
but  I  have  never  found  any  evidence  that  they  mined  there,  or  that  they  concealed  any 
treasure.  At  one  time  I  thought  that  I  had  found  some  inscriptions  on  the  wall  down 
near  the  Sullivan  room  and  also  on  the  wall  in  the  Water  Works  room,  but  afterwards 
I  became  satisfied  that  they  were  due  to  natural  causes. 

"Next  to  these   Spanish  ladders   I  have  mentioned,  the  oldest   relics   I  ever   found   in 


592  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  cave  were  two  whisky  bottles.  They  were  discovered  on  my  first  visit  in  i88j.  Just 
such  bottles,  shaped  like  a  canteen,  were  in  use  by  the  army  many  years  ago.  One  of 
the  bottles  had  blown  in  the  glass  a  flag  and  a  cannon  and  the  date  1835.  These  were  evi- 
dences that  some  one  had  been  in  the  cave  long  before,  perhaps  at  the  time  a  body  of 
regular  soldiers  passed  through  long  before  the  Civil  war.  The  first  descent  into  the 
cave  of  which  I  have  found  any  definite  account  was  made  by  Henry  T.  Blow  and  a 
prospecting  party  in  search  of  mineral  in  1869.  The  prospectors  went  down  into  the 
cave  and  left  a  record  of  their  visit  on  the  wall  of  the  Registry  room.  We  found  it 
there.  From  1869  I  don't  think  the  interior  of  the  cave  was  visited  until  our  party  came 
in  1882.  There  was  no  means  of  descent.  We  spent  some  time  preparing  a  way  to  get 
down.  A  large  tree  was  suspended  from  the  slit  in  the  floor  of  the  crater.  Holes  were 
bored  and  rounds  driven  through,  making  what  is  known  as  an  Indian  ladder.  With 
that  we  made  our  descent." 

Discomfiture  of  Dr.  Beaver. 

One  of  the  most  persistent  upholders  of  the  theory  of  hidden  treasures  in 
Marvel  Cave  was  a  inan  who  called  himself  "Dr.  Beaver."  The  Doctor  was  on 
hand  at  the  time  of  the  explorations  of  1882. 

"Beaver  claimed  to  be  able  to  read  Spanish.  He  also  pretended  to  have  a  lot  of  in- 
formation, charts,  and  so  on,  about  the  location  of  the  treasure.  He  even  insisted  that 
he  had  been  in  the  cave  years  before,  but  I  am  satisfied  that  he  had  never  gone  down 
until  our  visit.  At  first  we  paid  some  attention  to  Beaver,  but  gradually  we  all  became 
confident  there  was  nothing  in  him.  Dr.  Jones  and  I  concluded  to  make  a  test  of  him. 
We  found  some  pieces  of  slate  and  notched  and  scratched  them  so  as  to  make  them  look 
as  if  they  were  intended  to  convey  some  secret  information.  Then  we  daubed  clay  on 
them  and  partially  washed  it  off.  We  took  bits  of  rope  and  rubbed  clay  into  them  and 
dried  them  to  make  them  look  old.  We  put  these  things  on  a  ledge  up  back  of  the  Great 
White  Throne.  The  next  day  when  we  went  down  to  continue  the  exploration  we  took 
Beaver  along  with  us  and  gradually  worked  around  to  the  ledge.  V\'e  fixed  it  so  that  Beaver 
was  in  advance  and  so  that  he  was  the  first  to  see  the  slates  and  rope.  The  discovery 
tickled  him  immensely.  He  carried  the  slates  away  and  made  a  study  of  them  with  the 
aid  of  his  alleged  charts.  After  awhile  he  came  back  with  a  complete  translation  and  a 
bigger  story  than  ever  about  the  buried  treasure.  We  let  Beaver  run  on  for  some  time 
about  the   importance  of  the  discovery.     Finally   Dr.  Jones   remarked : 

"  'Well,  there's  more  in  'em  than   I   thought  there  was  when  I  made  'em." 
"When    he    saw   how   he   had   been   duped.    Beaver   was   so   mad   he   wanted   to   fight. 
He  insisted  that  he  would  whip  the  Doctor,  but  of  course  we  wouldn't  let  him.     He  lost 
all  interest  in  the  cave  exploration  after  that,  and  disappeared." 

Cave  Stories. 

One  cave  story  of  which  Mr.  Powell  found  partial  confirmation  was  told  to 
him  by  an  old  hunter.  "In  1883,"  said  Mr.  Powell,  "this  old  hunter  heard  that  I 
had  been  exploring  the  cave.  He  had  never  been  down,  but  he  had  hunted  and 
trapped  all  through  this  region,  and  knew  of  the  cave.  He  caine  all  the  way  from 
his  home  over  near  Ozark  to  tell  me  the  story.  Thirty-seven  years  before,  the 
hunter's  narration  ran,  he  and  an  Indian  followed  a  bear  to  the  crater  above  the 
cave.  The  bear  crawled  under  a  large  rock  which  partially  overhung  the  opening 
into  the  cave.  The  hunter  and  the  Indian  sent  the  dog  in  under  the  rock  to  dis- 
lodge the  bear.  It  was  a  failure.  Then  the  Indian  drew  his  knife  and  crawled 
under  the  rock.  He  stabbed  the  bear.  The  bear  jumped  forward.  Indian,  bear 
and  dog  went  through  the  hole  and  disappeared.  The  hunter  listened  long,  but 
could  hear  no  sound.     He  went  home.     After  thirty-seven  years  the  curiosity 


Tol.  1—38 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  595 

to  know  the  ,-equel  to  that  story  prompted  him  to  journey  thirty  miles  across  the 
mountain  and  see  whether  any  trace  of  Indian,  bear  or  dog  had  been  found.'' 
Mr.  Powell  and  the  hunter  went  to  the  spot  where  the  fatal  encounter  had  taken 
place.  Mr.  Powell  noted  the  probable  direction  of  the  fall.  He  descended  into 
the  cave,  and,  after  a  little  search,  found  the  skeleton  of  the  bear.  Of  the  Indian 
and  dog  there  was  no  trace. 

Another  old  resident  of  the  region  entertained  Mr.  Powell  w'ith  the  story  of 
two  dogs  that  had  been  lowered  into  the  cave  and  turned  loose.  These  dogs,  the 
tradition  ran,  had  after  some  days  found  their  way  out  of  the  cave  and  returned 
to  their  master.  The  Powells  tried  this  exjjeriment  until  they  felt  sure  there  was 
nothing  in  it.  They  thought  that  it  might  lead  to  the  discovery  of  an  outlet  on  the 
level.  But  the  cav§  has  a  strange  effect  on  dogs.  Instead  of  seeking  an  exit  the 
unfortunate  animals  go  wild  with  fear.  They  lose  all  of  their  ordinary  sagacity. 
So  far  from  making  any  effort  to  thread  the  passages  they  crouch  down  in  the 
Amphitheater  with  their  eyes  on  the  opening  far  above  them  and  howl  and  whine 
most  piteously  by  the  hour. 

Another  long  ago  tradition  of  the  neighborhood  was  that  the  cave  was  used 
before  the  war  as  a  hiding  place  for  runaway  negroes.  A  story  is  told  of  a  hunter 
seeing  a  negro  come  out  of  what  was  supposed  to  be  an  outlet  of  Man-el  Cave. 
This  alleged  outlet  is  in  the  glades  of  Indian  creek,  not  many  miles  from  Mar\'el 
Cave.  It  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Nigger  Hole  to  this  day.  But  if  there  is  a 
connection  between  the  big  cave  and  the  hole  it  has  not  yet  been  traced.  The 
theodolite  has  been  used.  It  was  shown  that  the  Marvel  Cave  extends  a  long  way 
in  the  direction  of  Indian  creek.  The  theory  is  that  somewhere  along  the  creek 
is  the  entrance  by  which  the  thousands  of  animals,  prehistoric  and  more  recent, 
found  their  way  into  the  great  chamber  to  die.  It  is  instinct  with  the  feline  tribe 
to  seek  a  hidden  spot  when  the  pangs  of  dissolution  come  on.  It  is  also  instinct 
which  takes  them  into  just  such  catacombs  as  the  Dead  Animal  Chamber.  Rarely, 
however,  do  they  find  a  place  where  the  mummifying  conditions — the  evenness  of 
temperature  and  the  dryness — are  so  perfect.  Runaway  slaves,  numbers  of  them, 
made  use  of  the  smaller  caves  of  this  region  for  hiding  and  resting  places  on  their 
way  from  Arkansas  to  Kansas.  This  is  well  authenticated,  but  there  is  nothing 
to  show  thev  descended  into  the  great  Marvel  Cave. 

Traces  of  mineral,  zinc  and  lead  are  "found  in  the  cave,  but  nothing  that  is 
workable.  There  is  tripoli  also.  And  it  is  one  of  the  standing  jokes  of  the  guides 
to  prompt  visitors  to  test  their  lifting  powers  on  the  rocks  scattered  about.  When 
the  \isitors  have  strained  their  backs,  the  guide  picks  up  a  chunk  of  tripoli  about 
ten  times  the  size  of  the  largest  rock  that  has  been  lifted  and  handles  it  as  if  it 
was  a  base  ball.    After  the  mystery  is  explained,  there  is  a  laugh  all  round. 

Cave  Sensations. 

The  sensations  in  the  great  caverns  are  verj'  peculiar.  They  are  altogether 
different  from  those  experienced  in  mines.  No  man  has  ever  been  able  to  sleep 
in  the  Marvel  Cave.  Mr.  Powell  tried  to  perform  the  feat,  but  with  all  of  his 
love  for  the  cave  and  with  all  his  steadiness  of  nerve,  he  has  failed  to  make  a 
comfortable  night  of  it.  The  Powells  have  frequently  passed  nights  underground, 
but  thev  were  engaged  in  exploration.     The  first  impression  upon  lying  down  to 


596  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

sleep  in  the  cave  is  of  intense  stillness.  Then  noises  are  heard  and  they  grow 
more  and  more  distinct.  The  strain  on  the  nerves  finally  becomes  such  that  sleep- 
ing is  entirely  out  of  the  question. 

"I  went  down  into  the  cave  one  night  intending  to  sleep  there,"  Mr.  Powell 
said,,  "just  for  the  novelty  of  the  thing.  It  never  occurred  to  me  that  I  couldn't 
do  it.  I  picked  out  a  comfortable  dry  place  in  the  Mother  Hubbard  room  and 
lay  down.  It  was  very  still  at  first.  Then  I  began  to  hear  the  dripping  of  water. 
It  was  a  long  way  off,  but  it  sounded  very  sharp  and  grew  louder.  The  next 
noise  that  took  my  attention  was  made  by  the  bats.  I  could  hear  them  flying 
about  in  the  darkness  over  me.  Their  wings  seemed  to  squeak.  Next  an  owl 
flew  through  the  amphitheater  and  gave  a  yell  just  as  he  passed  Echo  Point.  The 
echo  swelled  the  sound  tenfold,  and  the  yells  seemed  to  come  from  as  many 
directions.  I  jumped  to  my  feet  in  spite  oi  myself.  Of  course  I  recognized  in 
a  moment  what  it  was  and  lay  down  again.  Then  I  could  hear  the  water  rolling 
in  rooms  I  knew  were  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away.  The  sound  seemed  to  grow 
louder  and  to  come  nearer.  I  heard  the  splashing  of  the  waterfall  still  farther 
away.  One  thing  succeeded  another.  It  was  useless  to  keep  up  the  experiment. 
I  came  out  of  the  cave  and  went  to  bed.  Working  in  the  cave  at  night  is  all  right. 
You  do  not  observe  any  difference  from  working  down  there  in  the  day  time, 
but  sleeping  is  an  impossibility." 

The  Amateur  Scientists. 

Of  all  the  visitors  the  one  who  least  impressed  Mr.  Powell  was  the  genus 
scientificus. 

"The  most  of  these  scientists,"  said  Mr.  Powell,  "are  very  thick-headed.  They 
don't  know  enough  to  amount  to  shucks."  One  day  Mr.  Powell  was  going  by  the 
cave,  when  he  found  an  old  man  with  four  boys  there.  The  old  man  said  the 
party  had  "come  all  the  way  from  Kansas  to  fee  the  cave  in  the  interest  of 
science."  While  Mr.  Powell  was  debating  in  his  mind  whether  to  follow  the 
trail  of  a  wounded  deer  or  sacrifice  himself  to  science  two  drovers  came  along. 
They,  too,  wanted  to  see  the  cave.  The  party  was  made  up.  The  old  man 
watched  the  preparations  for  the  descent  and  took  a  good  view  of  the  long  ladder. 
Just  as  the  word  was  given  and  the  party  started  the  old  man  suddenly  weakened 
and  said : 

"Well,  boys,  I've  brought  you  this  far.  Tlierc  might  something  happen.  I 
won't  go  down." 

Mr.  Powell  urged.  The  old  man  became  more  and  more  positive.  The 
drovers  saw  the  old  man's  fears  rising,  and  they  joined  with  Powell  in  insisting 
that  having  come  as  guardian  of  the  boys  he  must  go  with  them  or  be  remiss 
in  his  dutv  toward  them.  At  length  Air.  Powell  announced  his  decision,  that 
the  old  man  must  descend  or  the  boys  shouldn't :  he  wouldn't  be  responsible  for 
their  safety  unless  the  old  man  went  down.  The  scientist  hung  to  the  ladder, 
talked  of  his  rheumatics,  and  finally  descended.  When  he  found  himself  on  a 
firm  footing  his  self-confidence  returned  in  part,  and  he  began  to  talk. 

"Boys,"  he  said  to  his  charges,  with  much  show  of  cheerfulness,  "I  promised 
to  explain  things  as  I  went  along.  Now.  this  here  cave  has  been  a  volcany  once. 
All  this  rock  you  see  gone  out  of  here  was  biled  out  by  fire.    Them  things  you 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  597 

see  down  yonder  is  stagalniites.  Them's  nothing  but  melted  rocks.  They  jest 
biled  up  and  friz  like  you  see  'em  now.  If  we'd  been  on  top  of  this  hill  when 
this  was  blowin'  out,  we'd  better  kept  away.    It'd  been  mighty  hot." 

Mr.  Powell  asked  the  scientist  from  Kansas  what  he  thought  had  become  of 
that  which  "blew  out." 

The  old  man  studied  a  little  and  replied :  "T  reckon  it  must  ha'  run  off  down 
hill  into  the  hollers.     I  didn't  see  nothing  of  it  on  top." 

"How  long  ago  do  you  think  it  happened?"  asked  Mr.  I'owell. 

"Oh,  it  might  have  been  lOO  years,"  was  the  scientific  reply. 

The  bats  in  the  cave  come  to  be  on  familiar  terms  with  those  whom  they  see 
daily.  They  will  sometimes  gather  close  around  Mr.  Powell  and  allow  him  to 
handle  them,  while  a  stranger  can  not  get  near  without  alarming  them.  On  this 
occasion  Mr.  Powell  put  up  his  hand  in  passing  near  a  wall  and  took  down  several 
bats,  replacing  them  after  a  few  moments. 

"Right  there,  boys,"  broke  in  the  old  man,  "ye  learn  the  law  of  kindness. 
They  know  him,  and  he  can  handle  them.  If  you'd  take  hold  of  'em  they'd  wipe 
your  lives  out  and  eat  your  eyes  out." 

And  then  the  scientist,  who  had  never  lost  sight  of  the  hole  in  the  roof,  in- 
sisted on  going  out,  and  made  one  of  the  boys  go  to  the  top  of  the  ladder  with 
him. 

Rider  Haggard  Vindicated. 

"I  have  read  "She"  and  'King  Solomon's  Mines,'  and  those  books  which  deal 
with  wonderful  caves,"  said  Will  Powell.  "I  never  go  up  Lost  River  Canyon 
that  I  don't  think  of  them.  Haggard  describes  one  long  gallery  which  is  almost 
identical  with  part  of  this  canyon.  I'll  be  darned  if  there  i.sn't  one  place  where 
the  rocks  are  laid  up  in  blocks  sixteen  feet  long  and  three  or  four  feet  thick  just  as 
Haggard  tells  it." 

"Haggard,"  said  the  father  of  the  young  guide,  taking  up  the  conversation, 
"describes  in  his  books  many  cave  ef^:'ects  which  we  find  to  be  strictly  true  in  our 
experience  here.  For  instance,  there  is  the  crystallization  which  is  forever  going 
on  under  the  fall.  Haggard  treats  a  like  eflfect  as  a  means  of  preserving  human 
bodies.  I  don't  know  that  this  Lost  River  water  will  do  that,  but  it  will  put  a 
coating  of  crystal  on  a  stick  in  three  months." 

Lost  River  Canyon  is  considered  the  most  dangerous  part  of  the  cave  because 
of  its  network  of  passages  and  the  sameness  of  the  region.  Beyond  Springstead 
Throne  the  canyon  runs  into  a  series  of  circular  rooms,  from  five  to  ten  feet  high, 
looking  just  Hke  so  many  circus  tents.  The  voice  room  is  one  of  these.  It  is 
reached  by  a  crevice  from  Lost  River  Canyon  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from 
Sentinel  Rock.  At  all  times  it  is  possible  to  hear  in  this  room  a  rumbling  which 
resembles  the  human  voice.      ^ 

Near  to  the  lower  passage  leading  to  the  foot  of  the  waterfall  is  the  Neighbor- 
hood-Room. It  covers  an  acre  of  ground.  Lost  River  is  crossed  nine  times  in 
the  exploration  of  the  room.  The  name  grew  out  of  a  curious  circumstance. 
One  rainy  day  Mr.  Powell  and  a  companion  in  search  of  new  cave  territon,-  went 
into  this  room.  Mr.  Powell  left  a  candle  near  the  entrance,  and  he  and  his  com- 
panion started  forward  to  examine  the  room.    Suddenly  his  companion  remarked: 


598  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  Ol-   MISSOURI 

"J.ODks  like  this  was  a  settled  neighborhood.  We  just  left  a  light  behind  us,  and 
here  is  another."  It  was  the  light  they  had  left,  and  as  often  as  they  started 
forward  they  brought  up  in  a  short  time  with  their  own  light  in  front  of  them. 
Great  as  it  is  in  width  and  breadth,  the  Neighborhood  Room  is  only  ten  or  twelve 
feet  high.  It  was  reached  by  a  descent  thnnigh  a  fissure  and  a  crawl  of  thirty 
or  forty  feet.     Of  the  geology,  Mr.  Powell  told  some  interesting  conclusions. 

The  Geology  of  It. 

"Marvel  Cave  is  not  like  Mammoth  Cave.  It  is  more  after  the  order  of  Luray,  in 
Virginia.  It  consists  of  many  large  rooms  with  small  comiectinns.  Mammoth  is  a  suc- 
cession of  large  rooms.  But  there  is  no  room  in  Mammoth  half  as  high  from  floor  to 
roof  as  the  amphitheater  of  Marvel  Cave.  Right  in  front  of  the  Great  White  Throne,  the 
distance  from  floor  to  roof  is  250  feet.  The  roof  is  a  great  sheet  of  marhle.  The  depth 
of  the  cave  is  another  extraordinary  feature  of  it.  I  maintain  that  there  are  three  dis- 
tinct formations  in  view.  In  the  Registry  Room  ofte  can  see  the  roots  of  the  rocks  of  one 
formation.  The  Upper  Silurian  system  ends  there.  Iii  the  lowest  parts  of  the  cave  are 
to  be  seen  the  Archaic  rocks.  We  actually  run  through  the  Lower  Silurian  complete. 
When  Ladd,  the  geologist,  was  down  here  he  thought  tlie  lower  rocks  might  be  metamor- 
phosed. He  wasn't  quite  willing  to  admit  they  were  .Archaic.  I  conjecture  that  they  are 
Archaic  because  of  the  mica  we  find  in  them.  A  great  deal  occurred  during  the  up- 
heaval, and  much  of  it  can  he  seen  in  Marvel  Cave.  Capt.  Anthony  Arnold,  of  Spring- 
field, spent  a  week  here  on  two  different  occasions.  His  opinion  is  that  the  strata  seen 
in  the  cave  embrace  three  periods — the  Sub-Carboniferous,  the  Upper  Silurian  and  the 
Lower  Silurian.  I  have  had  a  good  deal  of  experience  with  the  geologists.  Starting  out 
from  Galena  to  come  over  here  they  begin  by  contradicting  me  and  saying  that  my 
theories  are  undoubtedly  wrong,  but  after  arriving  and  seeing  they  usually  give  up  their 
preconceived  ideas  about  the  cave.  It  is  a  revelation  to  them  in  many  ways.  The  onyx 
we  find  is  a  mere  formation  in  the  water  in  darkness.  Ages  of  hardening  are  necessary 
to  make  it  the  article  of  commerce.  In  the  top  of  the  waterfall  onyx  is  seen  in  the  first 
stages  of  formation.  As  to  the  spring  and  the  theory  that  the  water  forms  from  con- 
densation owing  to  the  counter  currents  of  air  of  different  temperature,  I  have  sought 
the  opinion  of  scientists.  I  wrote  to  Prof.  Eaton,  of  William  Jewell  College,  among  others, 
giving  him  a  detailed  description  of  the  conditions.  He  corresponded  with  the  profes- 
sors of  the  State  University  at  Columbia,  and  they  agreed  that  condensation  was  the 
principle  which  produced  the  steady  dripping  in  the  Shower-bath  Room  and  the  collec- 
tion of  water  in  the  spring.  I  don't  know  that  there  is  anywhere  underground  a  freak  of 
nature  just  like  this  spring,  at  least  of  such  magnitude.  There  is  never  any  lack  of  pure 
air  in  the  cave.  Currents  enter  from  dilTerent  directions  and  are  very  perceptible.  The 
10°  difference  in  temperature  in  different  parts  of  the  cave  mystifies  visitors.  Chambers 
on  the  same  level  have  this  difference.  The  explanation  is  found  in  the  bat  guanoi  I  am 
satisfied.  The  temperature  in  the  chambers  where  guano  is  found  is  10°  lower  than  in 
those  where  no  guano  is  found.  The  guano  contains  13  per  cent  of  ammonia,  and  that 
produces  the  cold.  Some  scientists  shake  their  heads  at  this,  but  they  can  find  no  other 
explanation." 

Warren  County's  Cave. 

The  main  street  along  which  the  pretty  town  of  Warrenton  stretches  for  a 
mile  and  a  half  is  known  to  this  day  as  the  Boone's  Lick  road.  It  was  laid  out 
and  traveled  in  the  pioneer's  lifetime.  Boone  chose  his  last  home  well.  Warren 
combines  some  of  the  most  fertile  slopes  and  valleys  of  Missouri,  with  some  of 
the  boldest  and  roughest  gorges  and  bluffs.  The  combination  is  an  unusual  one. 
Here  was  a  natural  gaiTie  preserve.  The  county  has  a  number  of  large  caves. 
Three  miles  from  Ilolstein  is  one  of  the  most  notable.     John  Wyatt  was  out 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  599 

huntincr  bear  and  lie  followed  one  to  the  top  of  a  high  hill.  Bruin  dropped  out 
of  sight  by  a  hole  in  the  ground  just  about  large  enough  to  let  him  through.  This 
was  the  discovery.  This  cave  has  been  explored  many  times,  but  still  contains 
an  unsolved  problem.  One  can  travel  for  long  distances  underground.  There 
are  chambers  thirty  or  forty  feet  across.  Skeletons  show  that  great  numbers  of 
wild  animjfts  hibernated  in  these  chambers.  One  passage  leads  to  a  chamber 
from  which  the  stoutest  hearted  shrink.  It  is  bottomless.  Large  stones  dropped 
over  tile  edge  give  back  no  sound.  The  strongest  torches  thrown  into  the  abyss  go 
sailing  down,  the  light  growing  fainter  and  fainter  until  it  fades  entirely  away. 
The  longest  line  let  down  fails  to  measure  the  depth.  Not  far  distant  from  this 
cave  is  a  high,  rocky  hill  on  the  fann  of  Rudolph  Kierker,  where  strange  phenom- 
ena are  observed.  Every  year,  during  the  month  of  May,  peculiar  rumbling 
noises  can  be  heard,  seeming  to  come  from  the  interior  of  this  hill.  At  the  same, 
time  one  standing  on  the  hill  can  feel  beneath  him  a  jarring  motion.  The  oldest 
inhabitant  does  not  remember  the  time  when  the  haunted  hill  did  not  behave  in 
this  inexjjlicable  manner  during  the  month  of  May.  In  the  vicinity  of  the  cave 
and  the  animated  hill  have  been  found  an  extraordinary  number  of  petrifactions. 
John  Northcutt's  farm,  near  Charette  creek,  has  a  pond  60  feet  across,  the  bottom 
of  which  no  sinker  has  ever  been  able  to  reach.  W'hat  the  connections  are 
between  all  of  these  myster'ies  of  nature,  the  wise  men  of  the  Central  Wesleyan 
college  have  never  been  able  to  explain. 

Greer  Spring  Canyon. 

Greer  spring  is  seven  miles  north  of  .\lton,  the  capital  of  Oregon  county. 
With  its  surroundings  it  might  well  become  a  state  park,  reserved  for  the  delight 
of  future  generations  of  Missourians.  A  great  volume  of  crystal  clear  water 
comes  roaring  from  the  base  of  two  hills.  It  flows  rapidly  over  a  mossy  bed 
between  the  hills  for  a  distance  of  about  a  mile  and  joins  Elevenpoints  River. 
All  who  have  seen  Greer  spring  have  been  of  one  mind  in  giving  it  a  conspicuous 
place  among  the  wonders  of  the  Ozarks.  After  she  had  visited  this  wonder 
Luella  Agnes  Owen,  the  author,  wrote :  "Taking  a  last  look  at  Greer  spring 
with  its  cave  river,  grey  walls,  gay  with  foliage,  and  all  the  harmony,  of  color 
and  form  combined  in  the  narrow  canyon  that  w^as  once  the  main  body  of  a 
great  cave,  I  recalled  views  on  the  Hudson  river,  and  in  the  mountains  of  Mary- 
land, \'irginia  and  Pennsylvania,  and  others  out  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  in 
Colorado  and  the  Wasatch  in  Utah,  but  amid  all  their  wonderful  grandeur  and 
famous  beauty,  could  remember  no  spot  superior  to  this  masterpiece  of  the 
Ozarks." 

Old  Monegaw's  Mausoleum. 

Without  war  but  very  reluctantly  the  Osages  gave  up  their  Missouri  homes. 
There  is  no  part  of  the  Ozark  country  more  picturesque  than  that  through  which 
the  Osage  makes  its  course  of  innumerable  windings.  In  St.  Clair  county  great 
cliflfs  frown  upon  the  beautiful  river  from  the  mouth  of  the  Little  Monegaw  to 
that  of  the  Big  Monegaw.  These  cliffs  are  hundreds  of  feet  high  and  several 
miles  in  length.  They  abound  in  caves.  In  places  the  summits  of  the  cliffs 
overhang.     The  entrances  of  the  caves  are  in  some  cases  reached  by  difficult 


600  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

climbing.  Here  the  Osages  had  natural  fortresses.  Monegaw  was  their  chief. 
In  a  nation  of  red  athletes  of  more  than  usual  size,  he  is  said  to  have  been  distin- 
guished for  his  physical  appearance.  He  was  an  Indian  of  great  strength.  He 
saw  the  white  settlers  coming  in  great  numbers,  and  decided  that  migration  to 
the  promised  reservation  in  the  Indian  territory  was  best  for  his  people.  But 
he  couldn't  persuade  himself  to  go  with  them.  Calling  the  head  men  of  the 
nation  to  a  council  in  one  of  the  largest  of  the  caves,  the  chief  said  to  them: 
"Go!  But  Monegaw  is  your  chief  no  longer.  My  hunting  ground  has  been 
taken  from  me.  My  home  on  the  Osage  and  the  Sac  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the 
jvhite  men.  •  'J"hat  which  has  been  my  home  shall  be  my  burial  place.  I  will 
leave  here  only  to  go  to  the  happy  hunting  ground  beyond  the  skies." 

Monegaw  remained  in  the  cave.  His  people  left  him.  After  a  time  he  was 
missed.  White  men  found  his  body  and  gave  it  burial  with  the  weapons  and  war 
bonnet  beside  him.  The  old  chief  had  starved  himself  to  death.  In  several  of 
these  caves  are  still  to  be  seen  the  evidences  of  the  Indian  occupancy.  On  the 
side  of  one  cave  are  carved  the  figures  of  three  braves  with  their  war  trappings. 
Seemingly  the  braves  are  walking  single  file  on  the  warpath.  Turtles  have  been 
carved  as  if  swimming  in  the  river.  Indians  engaged  in  a  variety  of  activities 
arc  carved  on  the  walls.  Some  are  leading  ponies.  Others  are  swimming.  Still 
others  with  bows  and  arrows  are  apparently  out  on  hunting  expeditions.  One 
of  the  life-like  representations  is  that  of  an  Indian  sleeping  in  a  blanket.  The 
cave  to  which  the  name  of  Monegaw  is  especially  given  has  been  explored  nearly 
a  mile.     It  has  a  ceiling  in  places  forty  feet  high  adorned  with  crystal  formations. 

Cave  Waters. 

Fishing  Spring  is  in  Crawford  County,  near  Steelville.  It  comes  from  a 
large  cave  on  the  Meramec  River.  The  water  boils  up  in  a  basin  fifteen  or  twenty 
feet  across.  It  rises  through  three  holes  in  the  rock  bottom  in  a  modified  geyser 
form.  The  spring,  for  a  great  many  years,  abounded  in  fish  of  the  perch  species. 
The  method  of  fishing  was  to  drop  the  line  with  heavy  sinkers  through  one  of 
the  holes  in  the  bottom  of  the  spring.  These  openings  are  only  three  or  four 
inches  across.  It  was  ^lecessary  to  weight  the  line  sufficiently  to  sink  the  hook 
eight  or  nine  feet  into  a  subterranean  lake.  At  times  not  a  single  fish  would  bite. 
At  other  times  fish  were  caught  by  the  hundreds.  These  perch  weighed  about 
half  a  pound  each.  It  is  tradition  that  tons  of  them  have  been  caught  and  carried 
away.  The  theory  is  that  a  very  large  underground  lake  is  beneath  the  adjacent 
bluff. 

In  Webster  county  the  Ozarks  reach  extraordinary  altitude.  In  a  depres- 
sion on  top  of  one  of  the  highest  ridges  is  a  body  of  water  known  as  the  Devil's 
Lake.  The  water  is  located  in  what  was  called  the  Devil's  Den.  The  den  is 
oblong,  the  sides  enclose  nearly  an  acre.  The  den  has  steep  sides,  but  can  be 
entered  by  a  narrow  passage  in  the  rock.  At  one  end  of  the  den  is  the  so-called 
lake.  Strange  stories  are  told  about  the  movement  of  the  water  level.  Rains  or 
water  levels  in  the  vicinity  seem  to  have  no  efifect  upon  the  lake  and  yet  there 
is  a  difference  in  the  level  of  thirty  feet  between  what  are  "low  water"  and  "high 
water"  by  those  familiar  with  the  place.  The  lake  is  about  three  hundred  feet  in 
diameter.     Apparently  it  has  some  distant  underground  connection.     The  water 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  603 

will  rise  to  within  titty  feet  of  the  top  and  then  sink  to  a  depth  of  eighty  feet. 
These  changes  take  place,  according  to  those  who  have  lived  in  the  neighborhood, 
with  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Upper  Missouri  in  Montana.  Many  years  ago  there 
was  an  oak  tree  leaning  over  the  lake.  It  was  cut  at  a  time  when  the  water  was 
low  and  fell  nearly  one  hundred  feet  before  it  struck  water.  It  passed  below  the 
surface  and  never  came  up.  Several  engineers  state  that  the  level  of  this  lake 
is  higher  than  most  parts  of  the  Ozarks  and  that  the  underground  supply  of  water 
must  come  from  great  distance.  One  of  the  stories  told  of  the  Devil's  Lake  is 
that  two  or  three  cedar  logs  appeared  upon  the  surface.  They  were  larger  than 
any  cedar  trees  which  grow  within  a  hundred  miles. 

Senator  \'est  had  an  experience  with  the  mysteries  of  the  Ozarks.  He  had 
heard  of  the  Robideau  River.  "Old  man  Haskell"  was  a  well-known  Ozark 
guide  in  his  day.  The  senator  engaged  Haskell.  They  took  the  Robideau  about 
twenty  miles  above  Waynesville,  the  county  seat  of  Pulaski.  After  several 
days  of  interesting  experiences  the  senator  asked  Haskell  if  they  could  not  make 
the  run  down  to  the  Gasconade.  "I  reckon  we  kin.  sure  enough,  by  sundown," 
the  guide  said.  The  senator  and  the  guide,  after  two  hours'  floating  and  pulling 
found  themselves  in  a  strong  eddy  which  nearly  upset  the  little  boat  and  which 
finally  landed  them  on  a  bar.  There  was  the  end  of  the  river.  The  senator 
appealed  to  Haskell.  "\\'hat  have  you  got  to  say  about  this  ?  You  are  the  guide. 
You  said  you  knew  all  about  this  country  and  especially  this  river.  Now  where 
has  it  gone?"  Haskell  got  out  on  the  bar,  put  his  hand  over  his  eyes  and  looked 
up  the  stream  and  then  looked  down  where  the  stream  should  have  gone  but 
where  there  was  only  dry  ground.  There  was  a  road  within  a  short  distance 
and  when  Haskell  saw  a  farmer  coming  up  he  shouted :  "O  mister,  did  yer  see 
a  river  running  anywhar  down  that  way?  I'll  be  danged  if  we  hain't  lost  one." 
The  farmer  looked  pleased  as  he  took  in  the  situation  and  answered,  "About  five 
miles  down  the  road.  Reckon  you'uns  want  a  lift.  I'll  take  ye  an'  yer  traps  fur 
?3.     Better  look  out :  you'uns  may  get  sucked  under  whar  ye  air  now." 

■'\\'hat  do  you  mean?"'  shouted  Senator  Vest. 

The  farmer  replied,  "That  river  don't  go  no  further  on  top  until  you  get 
below  here  five  miles.  It  jist  slips  inter  the  gravel  whar  you  are  and  don't  show 
up  till  ye  git  ter  Waynesville." 

The  senator,  the  guide  and  the  farmer  lifted  the  boat  into  the  wagon  and  rode 
to  the  vicinity  of  Waynesville,  where  the  Robideau  makes  its  appearance,  coming 
to  the  surface  in  the  form  of  a  splendid  spring. 

Lost  rivers  in  Missouri  are  innumerable.  In  fact,  the  stream  which  does  not 
lose  itself  several  times  before  it  concludes  to  run  along  on  top  of  ground  in  an 
orderly  fashion  is  an  exception.  A  ride  of  half  a  day  along  some  of  the  Ozark 
valleys  will  furnish  repeated  illustrations  of  the  peculiar  character  of  the  chan- 
nels. A  creek  running  half  way  to  the  wagon  hubs  will  be  in  sight  for  a  mile  or 
two.  Then  will  come  a  crossing  where  the  channel  is  a  bed  of  gravel,  dry  and 
dusty,  without  water  in  sight  above  or  below.  A  mile  farther  on  the  creek  is 
pursuing  its  joyous,  rippling  way.  Stretches  of  dry  bed  and  of  dancing  water 
alternate.  The  water  sinks  noiselessly  and  entirely  into  a  bed  of  sand  at  one 
place  and  appears  without  any  fuss  oozing  up  from  another  bed  farther  down. 

There  are   few  of  the  caves  of  considerable   size   which   do  not   have   their 


604  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  Ul"  .MISSOURI 

"lost  rivers."  Through  them  flow  streams  of  considerable  volume.  The  lost 
river  comes  out  of  one  side,  crosses  the  cave  and  disappears  in  the  other  side. 
Often  there  is  not  a  sound,  not  as  much  as  a  ripple.  Of  all  the  strange  tiirills 
which  come  in  an  e.xploration  of  these  underground  passages  there  is  nothing 
quite  so  weird  as  when  the  torch  casts  its  light  upon  one  of  these  silent  rivers 
flowing  by  with  nothing  to  show  whence  it  came  or  whither  it  goeth. 

The  Hannibal  Mystery. 

"Mark  Twain's  Cave"  is  in  the  Missouri  cliffs  overlooking  the  Mississippi 
about  a  mile  southeast  of  Hannibal.  Since  "Sam"  Clemens  crawled  into  the 
crevice  high  up  the  bluff  and  had  the  adventures  to  be  utilized  later  in  his  books, 
the  cave  has  been  modernized.  A  beautiful  river  road  passes  thC  park  which 
•  surrounds  the  entrance  now  used.  The  hole  through  which  Mark  Twain  crawled 
is  boarded  up.  It  was  above  the  present  entrance.  The  visitor  now  walks  into 
a  broad  level  corridor.  The  guide  leads  the  way,  pointing  out  such  localities  as 
"Straddle  Alley,"  "Fat  Man's  Misery"  and  "Bat  Alley."  There  is  enough  hard 
going,  as  the  cave  is  explored,  to  satisfy  the  adventurous.  There  are  passages 
leading  downward  to  levels  below  the  Mississippi  river. 

Dr.  Joseph  N.  McDowell,  a  famous  btit  eccentric  surgeon,  founder  of  McDow- 
ell's College  at  St.  Louis,  gave  the  Hannibal  cave  a  mystery  some  years  before 
the  Civil  war.  He  had  very  strange  ideas  about  the  disposition  of  the  dead. 
When  Dr.  McDowell  thought  he  was  going  to  die,  he  called  to  his  bedside  Dr. 
Charles  W.  Stevens  and  Dr.  Drake  McDowell,  his  son.  He  exacted  -from  them 
a  solemn  promise  that  they  would  place  his  body  in  a  copper  receptacle  and 
fill  the  space  with  alcohol.  The  receptacle  they  were  to  suspend  in  Mammoth 
Cave.  Kentucky.  Permission  to  do  this  the  doctor  claimed  he  had  already  ob- 
tained. This  eccentric  demand  was  not  a  great  surprise  to  Dr.  Stevens.  Com- 
ing to  McDowell's  College  to  study  medicine,  Stevens  had  learned  quickly  some- 
thing of  his  preceptor's  strange  fancies.  A  child  of  Dr.  McDowell  died  a  few 
days  after  Stevens  entered  the  college.  The  cofifin  was  lined  with  metal.  The 
body  was  placed  in  the  cofifin.  All  space  remaining  was  filled  with  alcohol  and 
the  cofifin  was  scaled  tightly.  A  year  or  so  later  the  body  of  the  child  was  removed 
from  the  cofifin  and  placed  in  a  large  copj)er  case.  This  was  Dr.  McDowell's 
method  of  treating  the  bodies  of  his  children.  No  religious  service  of  any  kind 
was  performed.  The  copper  cases  were  carried  at  night  attended  by  a  procession 
formed  by  the  medical  students  and  friends  of  the  family.  Each  person  carried 
a  torch.  The  place  of  disposition  was  a  vault  in  the  rear  of  the  residence.  The 
thought  of  a  natural  cave  as  a  final  resting  place  was  a  favorite  one.  Dr.  McDow- 
ell bought  the  cave  near  Hannibal.  He  had  a  wall  built  across  the  opening  and 
placed  in  it  an  iron  door.  The  vase  or  case  containing  one  of  the  children  was 
taken  from  -St.  Louis  to  this  cave  and  suspended  from  the  roof.  Only  ordinary 
local  interest  had  been  felt  in  the  cave  up  to  that  time.  But  when  Dr.  McDowell 
barred  entrance  everybody  wanted  to  know  what  was  inside.  Boys  found  crev- 
ices and  crawled  in.  They  gave  such  accounts  of  their  discovery  that  an  investi- 
gation seemed  to  be  justified.  Men  broke  down  the  iron  door.  The  curious 
public  visited  the  place.  In  the  effort  to  find  a  plausible  explanation  for  this 
use  of  the  cave  the  theory  was  advanced  that  the  surgeon  wanted  to  see  if  the 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  605 

cave  would  bring  about  petrification.  Whatever  had  been  his  purpose,  Dr.  Mc- 
Dowell removed  the  body  of  the  child.  He  bought  a  mound  across  the  river  in 
the  American  Bottom,  not  far  from  Cahokia,  in  view  with  a  spyglass  from  the 
cupola  of  the  college.  There  he  constructed  a  vault  in  which  he  placed  the 
body  of  his  wife.  Years  afterwards  Dr.  McDowell  and  his  wife  were  buried  in 
Bellefontaine. 

Caves  in  Endless  Variety. 

Labaddie's  Cave  in  Franklin  county  obtained  its  name  from  a  hunting  tragedy. 
A  man  named  Labaddie  with  his  boy  about  twelve  years  old  followed  a  bear 
which  had  been  woiuided  to  the  mouth  of  the  cave.  Labaddie  crawled  in,  think- 
ing that  the  wound  was  mortal.  The  boy  waited  some  hours.  The  father  did 
not  come  back  and  the  boy  returned  to  St.  Louis.  A  rescuing  party  went  out  to 
the  cave,  which  is  near  Labaddie  station,  on  the  Rock  Island  road.  The  search 
was  fruitless.  Many  years  afterwards  the  cave  was  examined  and  the  skeletons 
of  the  hunter  and  the  bear  were  found  side  by  side.  Fisher's  Cave,  in  Franklin 
county,  is  near  the  station  of  Stanton  on  the  Frisco.  It  is  a  spacious  opening 
in  the  bluffs  on  the  Meramec.  A  long  passage  leads  to  a  chamber  one  hundred 
feet  in  diameter  with  stalactites  and  stalagmites  of  beautiful  dark  colors.  In 
another  room  one  of  the  stalactites  has  grown  until  it  has  just  met  a  stalagmite,  the 
two  forming  a  great  column  seeming  to  support  the  roof.  A  mile  from  the 
entrance  is  the  "dripping  spring"  where  the  water  continually  falls  from  the  roof 
into  a  large  pool.  Below  Fisher's  Cave  is  Saltpeter  Cave,  where  gunpowder  was 
made  in  the  early  days.  Garrett  Cave  is  near  Sullivan.  Persimmon  Gap  is  a 
hole  ten  or  fifteen  feet  wide  passing  through  a  spur  of  the  Ozarks  about  three 
miles  south  of  Stanton.  This  hole  or  tongue  is  one  of  the  strange  freaks  in 
Franklin  county.  It  is  located  west  of  Detmold.  At  the  bottom  of  a  depression 
is  an  opening  in  the  rock  fourteen  inches  wide  and  four  feet  long.  Descending 
through  this  hole  the  explorer  finds  the  well  widening  to  ten  or  twelve  feet 
square.  About  eighty  feet  down  the  water  of  a  large  underground  lake  is 
reached. 

Perry  county  has  so  many  caves  that  it  was  described  by  an  early  traveler  a? 
having  "a  little  subterranean  world,  full  of  rippling  rills,  vaulted  streets,  palatial 
caverns  and  grottoes,  filled  with  monuments  of  stalagmites,  and  festooned  with 
stalactites."  One  Perry  county  cave  has  been  penetrated  four  miles.  Stone 
county  abounds  in  caves,  more  thnn  twenty-five  having  been  explored.  Mason's 
Cave,  in  Greene  county,  was  first  known  as  the  Cave  of  Adullam.  Knox  Cave, 
in  Greene  county,  was  discovered  in  1866  by  J.  G.  Knox  and  given  his  name. 
Alum  Cave,  in  Washington  county,  was  given  its  name  at  the  time  alum  was 
mined  there. 

In  Shannon  county  is  Sinking  Creek.  It  passes  for  a  distance  of  one  mile 
through  a  hill  six  hundred  feet  high.  Boats  can  navigate  through  the  hill. 
Oregon  county  has  a  depression  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  below  the  surrounding 
country.  It  is  called  Grand  Gulf.  The  cascade  on  the  border  of  the  Arcadia 
Valley  drops  from  the  top  of  Cascade  Mountain  a  distance  of  two  hundred  feet 
into  a  gorge.  Ste.  Genevieve  ct>uiity  has  a  cave  in  which  there  are,  apparently 
drawn  on  the  limestone,  pictures  of  birds.     Simm's   Hole  is  near  the  town  of 


606  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  Ol'"  .MISSOURI 

Ste.  Genevieve.    In  it  is  the  mouth  of  Dead  Men's  Cave,  eight  feet  high.     There 
arc  passages  in  the  cave  several  miles  long. 

Two  natural  bridges,  many  caves  and  springs  of  wonderful  clearness  are 
among  the  natural  features  of  Greene  county.  One  of  the  caves,  the  Lincoln, 
seven  miles  northwest  of  Springfield  can  be  explored  to  a  depth  of  over  half  a 
mile.     Through  it  llows  a  river  ten  feet  tleep  of  perfect  clearness. 

Morgan  County's  Variety. 

Morgan  county  has  a  variety  of  caves.  One  of  these,  known  as  Cave  Mills 
on  the  Gravois,  is  in  the  form  of  a  complete  tunnel,  about  1,500  feet  long  through 
a  hill.  Walls,  roof  and  floor  are  of  rock.  If  railroad  engineers  had  planned  a 
tunnel  they  could  hardly  ha\e  improved  on  this  work  of  nature.  At  each  end 
i>  a  large  opening.     The  roof  is  about  thirty  feet  above  the  floor. 

The  entrance  to  Wolf  cave  is  downward  from  the  surface.  A  tree  slid 
into  the  mouth  of  the  cave  making  descent  easy.  Up  and  down  this  tree  trunk 
wolves  in  packs  made  their  way  in  the  early  days. 

Price's  cave  has  an  entrance  so  large  that  a  man  on  horseback  can  ride  into  it. 
The  cave  extends  back  more  than  a  mile  with  many  rooms,  some  fifty  feet  from 
floor  to  roof. 

The  Purvis  cave  is  even  more  extensive,  it  being  traversed  more  than  two 
miles  in  depth.  The  pioneer  explorers  of  this  cave  found  indications  that  it 
had  been  frequented  by  the  Osage  Indians.  Considerable  lead  was  taken  out  of 
this  cave. 

Strange  vocal  effects,  due  to  echoes,  are  heard  in  a  Morgan  county  cave  at 
the  mouth  of  Big  Gravois.  The  opening  is  fifty  feet  wide.  The  cave  runs  back 
300  feet.  Persons  talking  in  the  cave  can  be  heard  on  the  hill  above,  through  an 
opening. 

A  miner  digging  a  shaft  several  miles  south  of  Versailles  suddenly  found  the 
bottom  dropping  into  a  large  cave  to  which  the  name  of  Jacob'p  cave  was  given. 

A  Community  of  Caves. 

Ha-Ha-Tonka  natural  jiark,  on  the  Big  Niangua  river,  in  Camden  county,  is 
a  community  of  caves.  There  are  Island  cave,  just  why  so  named  cannot  be  ex- 
plained ;  Counterfeiters'  cave,  with  its  tradition  of  having  been  the  hiding  place 
of  a  band  who  manufactured  banknotes  in  the  financial  wildcat  days;  Bear  cave, 
in  which  the  last  bear  of  the  vicinity  is  said  to  have  been  killed;  Robbers'  cave, 
which  suggests  its  own  christening;  River  cave,  with  its  lost  river  flowing  through; 
Cullins'  cave,  named  for  an  early  explorer;  Onyx  cave,  abounding  in  the  beautiful 
dripping  decorative  art  of  the  Ozarks;  Bunch  cave,  fJritifith  cave.  Bridal  cave. 
Jn  Bridal  cave,  which  is  entered  by  a  very  small  opening,  a  romantic  couple  were 
married  once  u))on  a  time.  The  ceremony  tor)k  place  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  wildernesses  of  stalactites  and  stalagmites.  These  formations  are  of 
gigantic  dimensions,  the  stalagmites  rising  from  the  floor  of  the  cave  until  they 
seem  to  tower  like  church  steeples  above  the  visitor.  The  narrow  passages  lead 
from  one  vast  cavern  to  another.  In  not  few  places  are  massive  stone  columns 
reaching  from  floor  to  roof  as  if  supporting  the  great  domes.  Some  who  have 
made  the  trip  of  miles  from  the  railroad  to  view  the  wonders  of  Bridal  cave 


MISSOURI'S  UNDERWORLD  607 

think  it  surpasses  Kentucky's  Mammoth  cave.  In  River  cave,  the  stream  flowing 
through  abounds  in  blind  fish.  The  sights  of  Hahatonka  include  Big  Spring 
gushing  eighty  feet  wide  and  five  feet  deep  from  the  side  of  Sunset  Hill,  down 
through  Trout  Glen,  abounding  in  fish,  past  Balanced  Rock  and  spreading  into  a 
lake  covering  sixty  acres  of  land,  at  last  finding  its  way  into  the  Niangua  river. 
Beyond  Sunset  Hill,  to  the  east  is  Natural  Bridge  i8o  feet  high  supporting  a 
roadway  above  while  beneath  is  the  passage  to  the  Coliseum,  a  natural  amphi- 
theater in  which  some  day  10,000  people  may  assemble  to  marvel  over  Haha- 
tonka. The  Devil's  Fireplace  has  room  for  a  whole  pine  tree,  with  a  chimney  to 
match,  and  the  Red  Sinks  drink  in  the  hardest  floods  without  an  apparent  outlet. 

Walter  Williams  on  Missouri's  Wonders. 

Walter  Williams  found  at  Hahatonka  "more  natural  curiosities  than  in  any 
other  similar  share  of  the  earth's  surface."    His  visit  prompted  him  to  say  of  it : 

"At  Hahatonka  the  big  cave  was  seen  by  night.  The  entrance  is  made  by  boat  under 
an  overhanging  weight  of  rock,  which  looks  always  ready  to  topple  over.  It  suggested 
the  River  Styx,  with  Charon,  the  boatman.  Once  inside  the  cave  and  there  were  rooms 
of  various  sizes,  shapes  and  oddities,  a  massive  pillar,  river  disappearing,  echoing  cor- 
ridors and  other  wonders.  Bridal  Cave,  some  distance  away,  is  pronounced  by  cave  ex- 
perts to  be  the  most  wonderful  in  the  world.  If  Hahatonka  were  on  a  railroad  it  would 
have  thousands  of  visitors  where  it  now  has  one.  Here  i.s  a  cave  more  wonderful  than 
Mammoth  Cave,  a  spring  surpassing  in  size  any  in  the  state,  a  natural  bridge  superior  to 
the  famous  Virginia  Natural  Bridge.  The  ignorance  of  Missourians  regarding  the  natural 
wonders  of  their  own  state  is  shown  when  reference  is  made  to  Hahatonka  and  other 
places  of  less  attractiveness.  The  existence  of  these  is  scarcely  known,  and  yet  Mis- 
sourians will  wander  off  to  the  distant  sections  of  the  country  to  see  caves,  waterfalls, 
lakes  and  mountains  far  inferior  in  beauty.  The  Garden  of  the  Gods  is  far-famed.  It 
is  surpassed  by  the  Hahatonka  regions.  The  Cave  of  the  Winds  is  not  the  same  high  class 
as  the  Bridal  Cave.  Some  patriotic  Missourian  should  get  up  an  expedition  to  explore 
Missouri.  It  would  be  a  fine  contribution  to  knowledge  and  understanding  of  the  state 
and  its  greatness.  Within  the  borders  of  the  dozen  counties  lying  in  the  south  central 
portion  of  the  state  between  the  Missouri  Pacific,  the  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas  rail- 
way and  the  St.  Louis  and  San  Francisco  railroad  may  be  found  territory  that  would 
require   months   to   investigate   and   explore." 

There  is  wide  difference  in  human  intere?.t  about  caves.  Walter  Williams 
told  of  traveling  through  Missouri  with  a  college  professor  whose  lack  of  enthu- 
siasm for  underground  exploration  was  summed  tip  in,  "All  caves  look  alike. 
They  are  damp,  inuggy.  smell  of  malaria.  Bats  live  in  them,  and  they  taste  of 
the  flood.     To  see  one  cave  is  to  see  them  all." 

On  the  other  hand,  Henry  Robbins,  the  editor,  said  of  the  late  Bishop  Mcln- 
tyre,  the  educated  and  eloquent  bricklayer:  "His  lecture  on  'Wyandotte  Cave' 
has  probably  never  been  surpassed  in  spoken  English  as  a  sustained  elTort. 
Ingersoll,  who  surpassed  him  in  delivery,  gave  brief  descriptions  of  superior 
polish,  but  Mclntyre's  lecture  of  two  hours  in  length  was  entirely  descriptive. 
The  only  criticism  was  that  its  very  brilliancy  palled.  Like  Bulwer-Lytton,  he 
kept  continually  on  the  mountain-top  without  the  relief  of  valleys.  When  the 
bishop  was  in  St.  Louis  the  writer  told  him  of  a  traveling  man  who  had  been 
so  charmed  with  the  Mclntyrc  description  of  Wyandotte  Cave  that  he  had,  at 


608  CEXTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

considerable  expense,  made  a  special  visit  to  the  cave  itself.    His  conclusion  was : 
'That  man  Mclntyre  is  the  biggest  liar  in  America.' " 

Looking  for  the  Cave  Man  in  Missouri. 

Evidences  of  the  prehistoric  or  cave  man  are  to  be  found  in  Missouri,  the 
archeologists  believe.  The  search  is  still  going  on.  During  1919  Gerard  Fowke, 
working  under  the  direction  of  the  bureau  of  ethnology  at  Washington,  pursued 
the  quest  along  the  Big  Piney.  He  gave  special  attention  to  caves  so  far  removed 
from  general  settlement  as  to  have  remained  undisturbed  by  white  people.  In 
one  cave  he  found  a  vast  accumulation  of  ashes,  estimated  at  a  thousand  wagon 
loads.  The  conditions  showed  occupation  of  the  cave  for  ten  centuries,  perhaps. 
In  the  valleys  were  the  traces  of  many  villages.  But  nowhere  were  the  human 
relics  such  as  to  reveal  the  prehistoric  man.  They  indicated  a  low  degree  of 
culture,  the  commonest  kinds  of  utensils  and  shell  beads.  The  skeletons  were 
those  of  Indians  with  flattened  skulls  and  high  cheek  bones.  The  burial  places 
in  essential  features  were  the  same  as  constructed  by  later  generations  of  Indians. 
Some  indications  of  cannibalism  were  found.  But  the  conclusions  of  the  season's 
investigation  were  that  these  people  who  built  the  fires  in  the  caves  for  winter 
quarters  and  lived  in  villages  in  summer  were  nomadic  tribes,  similar  to  those 
who  were  found  in  Missouri  when  the  white  jjeople  came,  and  not  prehistoric 
cave  men.  Taking  all  that  can  he  called  caves,  the  scientists  estimate  there  are 
100,000  of  them  in  Southern  Missouri. 


M.  M.  Marmadiike,  1844 


John  C.  Edwards,  1844-1848 


Austin  King,  1848-1852 


Sterling  Price,  1853-1857 


Trusten  Polk,  1857  Robert  M.  Stewart,  1857-1861 

GOVEENORS  OP  MISSOURI 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS 

The  Days  of  Political  Songs — A  Cartoon  at  Rochcport — Isaac  Martin's  Winning  Speech — 
Hoisj  Providence  Elected  a  Congressman — Bingham's  County  Election — An  Incident  at 
Old  Chariton — The  Man  Who  Broke  a  Tie — When  Abraham  Lincoln  Shocked  Missouri 
Whigs — The  Actor  in  Politics — The  Jackson  Resolutions — Benton's  Defiance — John 
Scott's  Letter — Benton's  Campaign  in  1S4Q — The  Climax  at  Fayette — When  Norton 
Averted  Bloodshed — Missourians  in  Kansas — Price  and  the  Governorship — Good  Stories 
from  Walter  Williams — How  Rollins  Got  the  Best  of  Henderson — Senator  Schurs  and 
Eugene  Field — The  Know  Nothing  Days — St.  Louis  Riots — Boernstcin  and  the  Forty- 
eighters — A  Reporter's  Impressions  of  Polk,  Rollins  and  Stewart — Missouri's  Longest 
Campaign — Claiborne  F.  Jackson's  Opportunity — A  Newspaper  Ultimatum — William 
Hyde's  Graphic  Narrative — One  of  Fayette's  Greatest  Days — John  B.  Clark,  the  Politi- 
cal Adinser — Sample  Orr.  the  Unknown — A  Moonlight  Conference — Douglas  or  Breck- 
inridge'/'— Jackson  Declares  His  Position — A  Campaign  of  Oratory — Blair's  First 
Speech  After  the  War — A  Thrilling  Scene  at  the  Pike  County  Forum — Blair  at  Mexico 
— The  Republican  Split  of  1870 — Birth  of  the  Possum  Policy — Holding  the  Wire- 
Freedom  of  Suffrage — Judson  on  the  Liberal  Movement — New  Parties  in  Missouri— 
Greenbackers  and  Wheelers — Campaign  Stories — Hoiv  Telegrams  Saved  an  Election — ■ 
Vest  on  Party  Loyalty — Champ  Clark  on  Politics  and  Oratory — The  Barber  Shop 
Barometer. 

You   jolly  brave    boys   of   Missouri. 
And  all  ye  old  Jackson  men.  too, 
Come  out  from  among  the  foul  party. 
And  vote  for  old  Tippecanoe, 

And   vote    for  old  Tippecanoe. 

— From  a  Missouri  Campaign  Song  of  1840. 

Singing  was  a  feature  of  early  political  campaigns  in  Missouri,  and  some  of 
the  songs  were  of  local  composition.  \\'hen  Jackson  was  elected,  Ewing  Van 
Bibber  was  the  author  of  this : 

"Should  auld  acquaintance  be  forgot 
And  never  brought  to  mind. 
Since  Jackson  is  our  president 
And  Adams  left  behind?" 

Feeling  ran  so  high  in  Missouri  over  the  result  of  the  election  that  the  song 
gave  great  offense.  Alexander  Graham,  son  of  Dr.  Robert  Graham,  threatened 
to  whip  Van  Bibber  for  his  musical  levity. 

Judge  David  P.  Dyer,  when  he  was  United  States  district  attorney,  about  1875, 
used  with  telling  emphasis  against  a  slippery  witness  a  stanza  from  an  old  Mis- 

611 


612  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

souri  campaign  song  of  the  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  year  of  1840.  The  song  was 
used  by  the  democrats  and  was  directed  against  Henry  Clay.  Judge  Dyer  did 
not  quote  the  first  line  but  he  applied  the  three  lines  following  with  telling  effect 
against  the  witness  who  had  made  a  very  unfavora!)le  impression  as  to  sin- 
cerity : 

"Tliere's  Henry  Clay,  a  man  of  doubt. 
Who  wires  in  and  wires  out; 
.^nd  you  cannot  tell  when  he's  on  the  track, 
Whether  he's  going  on  or  coming  back." 

The  Whig-  Insult  to  Benton. 

A  cartoon  of  the  campaign  of  1844  provoked  almost  a  riot.  It  was  used  by 
the  whigs  and  wherever  displayed  provoked  the  democrats  to  expressions  of 
unbounded  indignation.  Upon  a  portrait  of  Thomas  H.  Benton  painted  on  a 
banner  and  carried  at  the  head  of  the  whig  procession  there  appeared  the  corner 
of  a  ten  dollar  bill  sticking  out  of  the  large  cravat  which  the  senator  invariably 
wore.  The  banknote  recalled  to  all  who  saw  it  something  that  had  taken  place 
when  Benton  was  a  student  at  Chapel  Hill  college  in  North  Carolina. 

This  whig  insult  to  Benton  was  carried  to  the  convention  held  at  Rocheport, 
one  of  the  most  notable  political  gatherings  held  in  Missouri  before  the  Civil 
war.  Three  stands  were  erected  for  the  campaign  orators.  The  meeting  lasted 
three  days  and  three  nights.  Rocheport  could  not  begin  to  take  care  of  the 
throngs.  Several  steamboats  came  up  from  St.  Louis.  One  of  the  orators  was  a 
relative  of  Daniel  Webster.  The  attendance  was  estimated  at  from  6,000  to 
10,000.  The  hills  back  of  Rocheport  were  covered  with  the  camjWng  parties. 
But,  notwitiistanding  the  enthusiasm  of  the  whigs,  the  democrats  carried  Mis- 
souri, electing  Thomas  Reynolds  governor  over  John  B.  Clark. 

Some  Pioneer  Campaigners. 

James  \\'inston,  a  lawyer  who  practiced  in  the  western  part  of  the  state,  won 
fame  as  the  author  of  "a  turkey  was  a  very  inconvenient  bird,  being  too  much  for 
one  man  and  not  enough  for  two!"  He  was  a  candidate  for  governor  in  the 
forties  and  made  a  canvass  of  the  state.  Like  some  other  men  of  unusual  ability. 
Winston  was  careless  of  his  personal  appearance.  When  he  came  to  St.  Louis 
in  the  course  of  the  campaign,  the  Winston  men  were  so  ashamed  of  their  can- 
didate that  they  outfitted  him  from  head  to  foot, — a  high  hat,  swallow-tailed 
coat,  and  broadcloth  trousers.  Winston  accepted  the  garb  and  went  out  into  the 
state,  traveling  most  of  the  time  on  foot.  He  wore  those  clothes  until  they  were 
as  shabby  as  the  suit  in  which  he  had  visited  St.  Louis,  apparently  oblivious  of 
their  condition. 

Election  days,  unless  the  contest  was  too  exciting,  were  enlivened  by  practi- 
cal jokes.  Solomon  Tollerday  kept  a  place  of  refreshment  in  Mercer  county  in 
the  forties.  He  also  dealt  in  a  few  staples,  such  as  salt.  One  election  day,  several 
of  the  customers  became  so  drunk  they  lay  down  on  the  floor  and  fell  soundly 
asleep.  A  citizen  who  had  been  celebrating,  but  not  to  such  an  extent  as  to  want 
to  sleep  it  off.  came  into  the  place  and  looking  at  the  men  on  the  floor,  said  in  a 
tone  of  remonstrance.  "Tollerday,  your  bacon  will  spile  without  any  salt  on  it. 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  613 

if  you  leave  it  lying  around  such  a  hot  day.  I'll  salt  it  down  for  you."  He 
dragged  one  of  the  drunks  to  the  wall  and  proceeded  to  pour  a  liberal  supply  of 
salt  over  him.  Then  he  piled  another  drunk  on  top  of  the  first  and  poured  more 
salt  from  the  sack.  He  kept  on  until  he  had  all  of  them  in  a  heap  and  well 
covered  with  salt.  As  he  went  out  he  remarked  to  ToIIerday,  "I  reckon  that  thar 
bacon  will  keep  now." 

In  Ray  county,  one  of  the  first  representatives  elected  to  the  legislature  was 
Isaac  Martin.  He  defeated  Dr.  VV.  P.  Thompson,  a  Virginian  and  a  highly 
educated  man.  Thompson  made  a  campaign  but  Martin  who  was  illiterate  con- 
fined himself  to  this  manner  of  speech :  "Gentlemen  and  Fellow  Citizens, — I 
was  born  in  Kentucky,  I  never  went  to  school  but  three  days  in  my  life;  the  third 
day  I  whipped  the  teacher  and  left.  What  little  I  got  was  in  the  field,  and  it's 
right  here."  With  that  he  pointed  to  his  head  and  quit.  It  is  told  of  Martin 
that  in  his  campaign  he  met  an  old  veteran  named  Wallace,  who  had  been  in  the 
Revolutionary  war.  Wallace  had  failed  to  get  a  pension  and  was  very  poor,  Mar- 
tin said :  "Old  man,  I  appreciate  your  services  in  the  cause  of  independence ;  rest 
assured  I'll  see  that  you  get  the  pension  you  so  justly  deserve    .    .    ."    And  he  did. 

When  Providence  Intervened. 

One  of  the  extraordinary  campaigns  in  Missouri  gave  a  single  county  two 
of  the  state's  five  members  of  Congress.  At  that  time,  1844,  Missouri  had  no 
congressional  districts,  but  voters  of  the  entire  state  cast  their  ballots  for  five 
men  and  the  five  highest  were  given  the  certificates.  The  democratic  party  was 
divided  into  "Hards"  and  "Softs,"  according  to  their  position  on  the  financial 
issue.  There  were  a  dozen  candidates,  two  of  whom,  John  S.  Phelps,  of  the 
"Hards"  and  Leonard  H.  Sims,  of  the  "Softs,"  were  residents  of  Greene  county. 
A  few  days  before  election,  D.  C.  M.  Jackson,  one  of  the  "Hard"  candidates 
died.  John  G.  Jameson  was  nominated  in  Jackson's  place  but  the  change  did  not 
reach  all  parts  of  the  state.  Some  of  the  "hard"  votes  were  thrown  away  on 
the  dead  man,  enough  to  let  Sims  in  with  the  help  of  some  whig  votes.  Sims 
went  to  Congress  and  distinguished  himself  in  this  speech  on  the  Oregon  ques- 
tion, the  issue  being  with  England  on  the  boundary. 

"Why!  Mr.  Speaker,  the  ox-drivers  of  Missouri,  armed  only  with  their  cattle 
•whips,  can  thrash  all  of  the  British  troops  in  that  quarter,  and  make  the  British 
lion  scamper  ofT  with  his  tail  between  his  legs,  and  take  refuge  in  the  far-ofif 
forests  of  the  north  and  mingle  his  doleful  whine  with  'the  wolf's  long  howl  from 
Onalaska's  shore.' " 

John  S.  Phelps  began  his  Congressional  career  of  nine  consecutive  terms  as 
the  colleague  with  Sims.  The  other  three  Congressmen  elected  in  that  campaign 
were  James  B.  Bowlin,  James  H.  Rolfe  and  Sterling  Price. 

Before  the  Old  Settlers'  Association  of  Audrain  county,  W.  D.  H.  Hunter 
recalled  the  campaign  of  Abe  Tinsley  and  Dr.  Hardin  for  representative.  The 
canvass  was  a  warm  one.  They  happened  to  stop  at  the  same  house  in  the 
country  one  night,  and  as  was  natural  they  both  desired  to  ingratiate  themselves 
into  the  good  opinion  of  the  lady  of  the  house.  Early  in  the  morning  before  it 
was  yet  light,  Abe  slipped  out  into  the  yard  to  hold  the  calf,  while  the  lady  of 
the  house  milked  the  cow.    The  doctor,  thinking  Abe  was  asleep  in  the  next  room. 


614  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

stole  from  his  bed  with  a  view  of  getting  a  march  on  the  sleeper  and  in  the  dark- 
ness hurried  to  the  chip  pile  to  gather  kindling  to  make  a  fire  for  the  lady  to  get 
breakfast.  In  his  haste  and  in  the  darkness  he  stumbled  over  Abe  with  the  calf' 
between  his  knees  and  thus  the  trick  of  each  was  discovered. 

Bingham's  County  Election. 

Thomas  Shackelford,  in  an  address  before  the  Missouri  Historical  Society 
in  1901,  told  the  story  of  Bingham's  historical  painting,  the  County  Election: 

"The  Sappingtoii  family  were  democrats,  and  the  sharp  contest  between  Darwin  Sap- 
pington  a^dcmocrat  and  George  C.  Bingham  as  whig,  ended  by  the  election  of  Bingham 
by  one  vote.  Sappington  contested  and  he  was  given  the  place  by  the  dominant  party. 
Bingham  was  an  artist,  and  immortalized  this  election  by  a  painting  called  the  'County 
Election,'  Elections  were  then  held  viva  voce,  and  any  man  from  any  other  township  in 
the  county  could  vote,  but  he  had  to  swear  that  he  had  not  and  would  not  vote  in  any  other 
precinct  during  the  present  election.  The  man  administering  this  oath  in  the  picture  is  the 
likeness  of  Col.  M.  M.  Marniaduke,  brother-in-law  of  Darwin  Sappington  who  stands  to 
the  left  and  has  his  hat  off  bowing  to  the  voter  who  is  casting  his  vote  for  him.  The 
man  with  the  stoop  shoulders  is  O.  B.  Pearson,  trying  to  get  the  voter  to  vote  for  his  friend 
Sappington.  The  man  with  his  head  tied  up  was  a  well-known  character  of  whom 
alcohol  had  got  the  better.  The  others  are  well-known  characters  of  that  day.  Voung 
America  is  playing  'mumble  the  peg.'  In  these  early  contests  men  of  different  parties 
went  around  and  alternately  addressed  the  crowd. 

"A  ludicrous  event  happened  in  one  of  these  contests.  Thomas  Reynolds,  afterwards 
governor,  had  addressed  the  people  at  Old  Chariton.  His  competitor  had  taken  a  little 
too  much  stimulant,  and,  when  he  attempted  to  mount  the  goods  box  from  which  Rey- 
nolds spoke,  failed  to  get  up.  But  he  was  equal  to  tl^p  occasion ;  he  turned  around  and 
said,  'I  disdain  to  stand  above  my  constituents,'  and  so  made  a  telling  speech  from  the 
ground. 

"During  the  time  when  we  voted  viva  voce,  an  amusing  occurrence  happened  in  a 
contest,  in  Howard  county,  for  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace.  The  whig,  John  Harvey, 
at  the  close  of  the  polls  had  voted  for  his  opponent  and  made  a  tie.  His  opponent,  Snyder, 
went  up  to  vote  and  discovered  that  if  be  voted  for  his  opponent  it  would  elect  him.  He 
stood  for  several  moments  contemplating  the  situation,  then  his  covetousness  got  the 
better  of  his  judgment,  and  he  slowly  said,  'I  believe  I  will  give  Snyder  a  pop,'  and  thus 
he  elected  himself.     It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  was  the  last  time  he  was  ever  elected." 

Lincoln  and  the  St.  Louis  Whigs.  , 

In  1840  the  St.  Louis  whigs  had  an  experience  with  Abraham  Lincoln  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  afterwards  held,  'iliere  was 
assembled  a  mass  meeting  of  the  party  at  Belleville  in  April  of  that  year.  The 
arrangements  were  in  the  hands  of  Colonel  Edward  Baker.  The  attendance 
was  described  as  "immense."  Lincoln  came  down  from  Springfield  by  in\'ita- 
tion  to  be  one  of  the  speakers. 

The  Presidential  campaign  was  opening  with  coonskins,  log  cabins  and  hard 
cider  as  the  party  emblems  of  the  supporters  of  "Old  Tippecanoe."  fJncoln 
was  introduced  as  the  first  orator.  He  began  his  speech  with  frequent  references 
to  "coonskins,"  "log  cabins"  and  "hard  cider."  He  was  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  the  homeliness  of  the  campaign.  By  way  of  showing  how  much  he  felt  at 
home  in  such  a  campaign,  he  described  himself  as  having  been  "raised  over  thar 
on  Irish  potatoes  and  buttermilk  and  mauling  rails,"  The  crowd  laughed  and 
cheered  uproariously. 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  615 

Speakers  had  been  invited  to  represent  the  whigs  of  St.  Louis.  They  were 
John  F.  Darby  and  Wilson  Primm.  John  F.  Darby  was  the  mayor  of  St.  Louis. 
Primm  was  considered  one  of  the  most  polished  speakers  of  the  city.  The  two 
visitors  from  the  city  agreed  that  Lincoln  was  carrying  the  funniaking  too  far. 
They  consulted  and  decided  that  a  different  turn  must  be  given  to  the  spirit  of 
the  day.  Mayor  Darby  went  to  Colonel  Baker  and  said:  "We  are  making  this 
thing  ridiculous  enough,  anyhow,  with  our  'coonskins'  and  "hard  cider'  emblems  and 
representations;  but  when  Lincoln  goes  to  weaving  in  his  buttermilk,  Irish  pota- 
toes and  rail  mauling,  it  would  seem  as  if  we  are  verging  too  much  onto  the 
ridiculous." 

The  protest  was  effective,  it  appears,  for  Mr.  Darby,  in  his  account  of  what 
followed,  wrote :  "We  succeeded  in  getting  Lincoln  down  from  the  stand,  and 
got  up  another  speaker  who  seemed  to  have  more  judgment  in  managing  the 
canvass." 

"The  enthusiasm  was  great,"  Mr.  Darby  added. 

The  Actor  in  Missouri  Politics. 

Thomas  R.  Ansell  had  been  on  the  stage  with  Keene  and  other  distinguished 
actors  before  he  settled  in  Callaway  county  and  entered  on  the  practice  of  law. 
He  carried  the  dramatic  instinct  into  his  new  profession.  In  a  case  he  was  argu- 
ing that  the  declaration  of  a  person  that  he  was  going  to  do  a  certain  thing  was 
no  evidence  that  he  had  actually  done  it.  He  suddenly  shouted,  '"Gentlemen  of 
the  jury,  I  am  going  to  jump  out  of  that  window.  I  tell  you  I  am  going  to  jump 
out  of  that  window."  He  started  across  the  room  toward  a  window  which  was 
fifteen  feet  away.  Mr.  Hayden,  who  was  on  the  other  side  in  the  case,  went 
after  him  and  stopped  him,  saying,  "Judge  Ansell  don't  jump  out  of  that  window, 
— it  will  hurt  you."  When  the  excitement  died  down,  Ansell  turned  to  the  jury 
and  said,  "Gentlemen,  I  told  you  I  would  jump  out  of  that  window,  but  did  I 
do  it?"  "No,"  said  Haj-den,  interrupting  to  turn  the  point  of  the  arginnent,  "he 
did  not  but  it  was  because  I  prevented  him."  The  court  fined  Hayden  five  dol- 
lars for  contempt.  Ansell's  fondness  for  quotations  from  Shakespeare  got  him 
into  trouble  at  the  climax  of  a  fine  speech  in  the  campaign  of  1844.  The  Calla- 
way orator  was  addressing  a  great  mass  meeting  in  Fayette.  He  was  recount- 
ing the  great  things  done  by  the  Jackson  administration,  for  Jackson's  name  was 
still  one  to  conjure  with  in  Missouri.  He  recounted  one  act  after  another,  in 
each  instance  ending  with,  "Who  did  that?"     Finally  he  came  to  the  end  of  his 

enumeration  and  said,  "Gentlemen.  I  will  tell  you.    It  was  the  great  General ." 

Before  Ansell  could  complete  the  sentence  some  one  in  the  crowd  shouted  "Mac- 
beth!"   There  was  a  roar  of  laughter.    Ansell  sat  down. 

The  Jackson  Resolutions. 

In  January,  1849,  Senator  Claiborne  F.  Jackson  reported  to  the  state  senate 
the  resolutions  which  caused  the  Benton  split  and  which  became  historic  as  "the 
Jackson  resolutions."  These  resolutions  denied  any  right  "on  the  part  of  Con- 
gress to  legislate  on  the  subject  so  as  to  affect  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
states,  in  the  District  of  Columbia  or  in  the  territories."  They  asserted  "the 
right  to  prohibit  slavery  in  any  territory  belongs  exclusively  to  the  people  thereof 


616  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  can  only  be  exercised  by  them  in  forming  their  constitution  for  a  state 
government  or  in  their  sovereign  capacity  as  an  independent  state." 

These  Jackson  resolutions  declared  "that  in  the  event  of  the  passage  of  any 
act  of  Congress  conflicting  with  the  principles  herein  expressed,  Missouri  will 
be  found  in  hearty  cooperation  with  the  slaveholding  states  in  such  measures  as 
may  be  found  necessary  for  our  mutual  protection  against  the  encroachments 
of  northern  fanaticism." 

The  resolutions  "instructed"  senators  in  Congress  and  "requested"  representa- 
tives "to  act  in  conformity  to  the  foregoing." 

Senator  Atchison  presented  the  Jackson  resolutions  in  the  United  States 
Senate  and  they  were  read  on  the  3rd  of  January,  1850.  Senator  Benton  repu- 
diated the  instructions  in  a  vigorous  speech.  Among  other  things  he  said,  "This 
is  the  proper  time  for  me  to  say  what  I  believe  to  be  the  fact,  that  these  resolu- 
tions do  not  express  the  sentiments  of  the  people  of  Missouri.  They  are  a  law- 
abiding  and  Union-loving  people,  and  have  no  idea  of  entering  into  combina- 
tions to  resist  or  to  intimidate  the  legislation  of  Congress.  The  general  assem- 
bly has  mistaken  the  sentiment  of  the  state  in  adopting  these  resolutions,  and 
many  members  who  voted  for  them,  and  the  governor  who  signed  them,  have 
since  disavowed  and  repudiated  them." 

Senator  Atchison  immediately  replied  to  Senator  Benton,  but  in  very  few 
words:  "I  have  but  one  word  to  say,  and  that  is  merely  to  express  an  opinion 
that  the  people  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  when  the  time  arrives,  will  prove  to 
all  mankind  that  every  sentiment  contained  in  these  resolutions,  from  first  to 
last,  will  be  sustained  by  them." 

Scott  on  the  Right  to  Instruct. 

The  binding  force  of  instructions  by  the  legislature  on  the  United  States 
senators  was  a  live  issue  in  Missouri  politics  for  many  years.  Benton's  position 
in  appealing  from  such  instructions  in  1849  prompted  John  Scott  to  write  a 
letter  to  a  committee  which  had  invited  him  to  address  a  meeting  at  Perryville : 

"Having  long  since,  and  frequently,  declined  being  a  candidate  for  public  life  or  office, 
I  feel  at  liberty  the  more  freely  to  say  what  I  think  and  know  in  relation  to  the  course  and 
principles  of  the  senator  on  whose  conduct  you  are  about  to  pass.  He  was  not  admitted 
to  a  seat  in  the  Senate  in  1820.  though  then  from  Missouri,  but  he  was  as  loud  and  clamor- 
ous then  against  the  same  principles  for  which  he  now  contends  as  any  southern  man  at 
Washington,  and  he  was  one  of  the  very  first,  in  connection  with  Duff  Green,  to  put  afloat 
an  impression  upon  the  people  of  Missouri  of  the  falsehood  and  the  enormity  of  my 
offense  in  having  refused,  as  they  stated,  and  failed  to  obey  the  instructions  of  the  legis- 
lature in  regard  to  casting  the  vote  of  Missouri  in  the  Presidential  election,  when  in  truth 
and  in  fact  no  instructions  were  given  me,  as  the  journal  of  1824-5  will,  on  examination, 
show. 

"I  merely  mention  these  facts  to  show  the  consistency  when  office  is  wanted.  If  there 
was  any  defect  in  the  framers  of  the  constitution,  and  perhaps  the  Missouri  compromise, 
it  was  in  not  making  the  compromise  and  principles  of  that  instrument  and  law  prospective 
in  regard  to   future  acquisitions  of  territory.  (Signed)  John   Scott." 

Benton  at  Cape  Girardeau  and  Jackson. 

"The  most  exciting  and  in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable  campaign  ever 
made  in  Missouri,"  Judge  Fagg  said,  "was  Benton's  canvass  against  the  Jackson 
resolutions  in  1849." 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  617 

"Jackson,  the  county  seat  of  Cape  Girardeau,  was  the  stronghold  of  the  anti-Benton 
forces  of  the  southeast.  O'Bannon,  the  register,  and  Frank  J.  A.  Allen,  the  receiver,  at 
the  land  office  located  at  that  place,  both  owed  their  places  mainly  to  the  influence  of 
Benton,  and  who  previously  had  been  his  stanch  friends,  were  now  known  to  belong  to 
the  conspirators,  and  were  most  bitter  and  vindictive  in  their  denunciations  of  him.  Benton 
made  one  or  two  speeches  before  reaching  that  place,  at  one  of  which  O'Bannon  was 
present,  and  had  presented  a  paper  to  him,  whilst  he  was  speaking,  containing  some  ques- 
tions which  he  wanted  the  colonel  to  answer.  Benton  understood  beforehand  that  this 
proceeding  was  a  part  of  the  programme  of  his  enemies  which  was  to  be  followed  all 
over  the  state  simply  for  the  purpose  of  interrupting  and  annoying  him.  He  claimed  that 
his  thirty  years  in  the  Senate  was  a  complete  answer  to  all  questions  that  could  be  asked 
as  to  his  position  upon  every  public  issue  that  had  arisen  during  that  time,  and  he  regarded 
every  such  interrogatory  presented  to  him  as  a  deliberate  attempt  to  insult  him.  Turning 
upon  O'Bannon-  with  the  air  of  a  man  deeply  insulted,  he  said  to  him  in  imperious  tones : 
'Stand  and  hold  it,  sir.'  Riveted  to  the  spot  by  Benton's  manner  and  language,  O'Bannon 
stood  with  his  hat  in  one  hand  and  his  paper  in  the  other  until  the  speech  was  finished 
and  the  crowd  dispersed. 

"Receiver  Allen,  hearing  of  the  treatment  which  the  register  had  received  and  the 
terrible  denunciations  that  had  been  uttered  against  all  the  subservient  followers  and  tools 
of  the  old  senator,  who  now  opposed  him,  armed  himself  and  publicly  threatened  that  if 
Benton  should  undertake  to  abuse  him  when  he  came  to  Jackson,  he  would  shoot  him  on 
the  spot.  The  day  for  his  appearance  at  that  place  came  at  last,  and  with  it  a  large 
crowd  of  people,  most  of  whom  were  prompted  by  mere  curiosity  to  see  the  great  Benton 
and  to  *enjoy  the  fun  which  was  generally  anticipated.  "Solitary  and  alone'  he  walked 
into  the  court  house  and  mounted  the  stand.  Conspicuous  in  the  crowd  was  the  receiver 
whom  everybody  supposed  was  heavily  armed  and  ready  to  shoot  when  the  first  abusive 
epithet  should  be  hurled  against  him.  Quite  prominent  also  was  the  burly  form  of  Wil- 
liam P.  Darnes,  of  Commerce,  but  formerly  of  St.  Louis.  He  had  at  one  time  figured 
as  a  politician  of  some  notoriety  and  in  a  difficulty  with  Andrew  J.  Davis,  editor  of  the 
Missouri  Argus,  had  beaten  him  to  death  with  an  iron  cane.  Benton's  arraignment  of 
Allen  was  most  violent  and  abusive.  He  described  in  forcible  terms  his  former  subservi- 
ency to  him  and  denounced  with  great  bitterness  his  recent  treachery  and  desertion.  He 
gave  in  detail  the  circumstances  and  incidents  connected  with  his  last  visit  to  that  town, 
and  the  elaborate  preparations  that  had  been  made  to  entertain  and  feast  him  at  Allen's 
house.  'Allen,'  he  said,  'was  so  glad  to  see  him  that  he  got  drunk  and  spewed  upon  his 
carpet  like  a  sick  dog.' 

"To  the  amazement  of  the  crowd.  Allen  stood  and  took  it  without  the  least  show  ol 
resentment.  Darnes  evidently  thought  it  was  time  for  some  demonstration  of  hostility 
to  be  made  and  for  that  purpose  said  in  a  loud  voice,  'Colonel  Benton,  your  course  in  the 
Senate  has  been  opposed  to  the  true  interest  of  your  constituents.  They  believe  you  are  a 
free  soiler.'  For  the  purpose  of  forcing  the  fighting.  Darnes  added,  'I  believe  you  to  be 
a  blanked  abolitionist.'  The  charge  was  denied  in  a  civil  way,  and  to  get  rid  of  a 
controversy  with  Darnes,  Benton  called  out  in  a  loud  voice,  'Where's  O'Bannon?'  The 
old  register,  to  avoid  observation  and  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  the  shot  and  shell  that 
were  flying  in  every  direction  when  the  engagement  between  the  speaker  on  one  side  and 
Allen  and  Darnes  on  the  other  was  raging,  had  dodged  behind  one  of  the  pillars  in  the 
center  of  the  room  and  supposed  that  he  would  escape  Benton's  notice.  His  position  only 
made  him  the  more  ridiculous,  and  laughter  and  jeers  greeted  him  from  every  side.  Ben- 
ton commenced  on  him  by  giving  an  account  of  his  first  acquaintance  with  him,  his  great 
persistency  in  hunting  office,  and  how  at  last  he  had  taken  up  this  man  'almost  houseless 
and  homeless  and  with  scarcely  a  shirt  to  his  back,  and  now  he  had  turned  against  him 
and  was  doing  everything  in  his  power  to  defeat  his  return  to  the  Senate.'  He  said.  'This 
man  O'Bannon  had  the  audacity  to  come  up  to  the  stand  with  a  paper  in  his  hand  and 
say  that  he  had  some  questions  to  answer,  and  I  told  him  to  stand  and  hold  them !  And 
he  did  hold  them  three  hours  and  twenty  minutes  by  my  watch.  For  that  service  I  owe 
him  a  dollar.'     Taking  from  his  pocket  a  ticket  issued  by  some  butcher  in   St.  Louis,  and 


618  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

which  passed  as  currency  in  the  city,  he  held  it  out  towards  Dames  and  said,  'Take  it, 
sir,  and  pay  him.'  Darnes  declined  to  take  it,  saying,  'Colonel  Benton,  I  think  you  had 
better  pay  him  yourself,  and  if  you  do  it  will  be  the  first  honest  debt  you  ever  did  pay.'/ 
The  object  was  accomplished  at  last.  With  a  fit  of  passion  that  convulsed  his  entire  frame, 
and  shaking  his  fist  at  Dames,  Benton  said,  'You  are  a  liar,  sir,  a  cheat  and  a  fraud,  not 
worthy,  of  the  notice  of  any  respectable  man  in  the  state.  The  good  woman  whom  you 
call  mother  was  the  victim  of  an  imposition  and  a  fraud  that  robbed  her  of  her  own  off- 
spring and  put  in  its  place  one  of  the  vilest  and  most  detested  specimens  of  humanity  that 
can  be  found  upon  the  globe.  This  woman  had  a  beautiful  and  promising  infant  boy. 
One  evening  she  took  him  with  her  to  a  com  shucking  in  the  neighborhood,  where  there 
was  a  large  crowd  of  women  with  their  children  in  attendance.  Her  babe  went  to  sleep 
and  she  laid  it  gently  and  carefully  away  in  what  she  supposed  was  a  safe  nook;  but 
whilst  it  slept,  and  as  the  frolic  went  on,  some  old  hag  came  along  and  took  her  beautiful 
boy  and  deposited  this  brat  in  the  place  of  it.'  The  story,  manufactured  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment,  had  the  desired  effect.  The  meeting  at  one  time  looked  as  if  it  might  have 
a  tragic  ending.     But  Benton's  tact  and  ingenuity  turned  it  into  a  roaring  farce." 

The  Heckling  Progranune  of  '49. 

Judge  Fagg  explained  that  in  this  campaign  of  1849,  no  one  met  Benton  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  a  joint  discussion.  The  opposition  had  adopted  a  pro- 
gramme which  was  followed  at  meeting  after  meeting.  Some  one  was  selected 
to  act  at  each  of  Benton's  appointments.  To  this  man  was  given  a  list  oj  ques- 
tions to  be  asked  during  Benton's  speech.  These  questions  were  framed  for  the 
express  purpose  of  provoking  Benton. 

"He  had  an  imperious  temper  as  well  as  manner,  and  he  possessed  no  power  of  dis- 
criminating between  friends  and  foes.  Every  man  who  stepped  forward  to  ask  him  a 
question  he  considered  an  enemy,  prompted  by  his  chief  opponents  to  offer  him  a  direct 
insult.  It  got  to  be  a  common  trick  for  the  conspirators  and  their  accomplices  to  get 
into  a  controversy  with  some  conspicuous  friend  of  Benton  about  putting  questions  to  the 
senator  whilst  he  was  speaking.  His  friends  contended  that  it  was  only  his  enemies  that 
he  insulted  when  he  was  thus  interrogated  and  they  were  occasionally  induced  to  try  the 
experiment  themselves.  It  didn't  take  them  long  to  find  out  their  mistake,  and  to  learn 
that  his  denunciations  were  as  bitter  against  the  one  as  the  other. 

"The  day  Benton  spoke  at  Bowling  Green  his  enemies  were  present  in  force  and  as 
usual  a  man  was  selected  to  present  the  questions  to  him  and  demand  an  answer.  When 
such  men  as  A.  H.  Buckner,  Simeon  P.  Robinson,  Peter  Carr  and  S.  F.  Murray  placed 
these  questions  in  the  hands  of  'Dandy  Bob'  Allison,  and  told  him  to  present  them  to 
Colonel  Benton  just  as  he  was  about  to  commence  his  speech,  it  is  certain  no  mistake  was 
made  in  the  selection.  Bob's  attitude  was  striking  as  he  stood  before  the  senator,  with 
his  plug  hat  and  cane  in  one  hand  and  the  piece  of  paper  in  the  other.  He  said,  'Colonel 
Benton,  I  want  you  to  answer  these  questions!'  Looking  him  over  carefully  with  his  eye 
glass,  Benton  said  in  a  loud  voice,  'Read  'em  out,  sir.  Read  'em  out.  We  have  no  secrets 
here.'  Bob  turned  and  fled  out  of  the  room  as  fast  as  his  feet  would  carry  him.  There 
was  no  further  interruption  and  the  anti-Bentons  took  the  terrible  drubbing  that  Benton 
gave  them. 

"When  he  reached  Palmyra,  and  just  as  he  was  about  to  speak,  a  rather  good-looking 
and  well-dressed  farmer  stood  up  in  the  audience  and  said,  'Colonel  Benton,  I  would  like 
to  ask  you  some  questions.'  Scanning  him  carefully  with  his  eye  glass,  Benton  said  to 
him,  'Who  are  you,  sir?  I  don't  know  you,  sir.'  The  farmer  replied,  'My  name  is  Hen- 
dron,  sir,  I  remember  to  have  met  you  in  Hannibal  on  one  occasion.  You  know  me  now. 
Colonel  Benton.'  Still  holding  his  eye  glass  on  him,  Benton  said  in  his  own  peculiar 
manner,  'Yes,  sir,  I  know  you  now,  and  we'll  let  the  acquaintance  drop  here,  sir.' 


Mayor  Washington  King 


Mayor  Nathan  Cole 


Mayor  Henry  Overstolz 


Mayor  John  M.  Krum  Mayor  John  D.  Daggett 

A  GROUP  OF  ST.  LOUIS  MAYORS 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  621 

The  Climax  Reached  at  Fayette. 

"The  town  of  Fayette,  the  county  seat  of  Howard  county,  and  the  home  of  the  chief 
conspirators  against  him  was  a  place  that  he  kept  constantly  in  view ;  and  at  that  point 
he  intended  to  close  up  his  extraordinary  canvass  by  a  speech  that  Claib.  Jackson  and  Dr. 
Lowry,  with  their'  band  of  followers,  would  not  soon  forget.  There  was  an  immense 
crowd  from  that  and  the  adjoining  counties.  Benton  had  reached  Boonville  and  intended 
to  ride  over  just  in  time  to  make  his  speech  and  then  return  to  spend  the  night  in  Boon- 
ville. Many  of  the  citizens  believed  tliat  it  would  be  impossiljle  to  prevent  a  scene  of 
violence  if  Benton  should  attack  Jackson,  Lowry  and  others  with  the  same  bitterness  there 
that  he  had  at  other  points  in  tlie  state.  The  threat  is  said  to  have  been  made  openly  that 
if  he  should  attempt  anything  of  the  sort,  he  would  be  killed  on  the  spot.  I  am  indebted 
to  the  late  Major  James  S.  Rollins,  who  was  present  and  witnessed  all  of  the  transactions 
of  the  day  for  an  account  of  Benton's  visit.  Judge  Abiel  Leonard,  whose  home  was  in 
Fayette,  was  so  much  alarmed  at  the  outlook,  that  some  days  in  advance  he  wrote  Major 
Rollins  to  gather  up  a  few  of  his  most  trusty  and  reliable  friends  in  Boone  county  and 
have  them  all  at  Fayette  properly  armed  and  equipped.  Judge  Leonard  was  a  man  of 
genuine  courage  and  not  easily  alarmed  or  deceived  by  appearances.  He  was  really  con- 
cerned for  the  safety  of  Benton  and  anxious  to  preserve  the  good  name  of  his  county 
and  town.  The  streets  were  thronged  with  crowds  of  men  eager  to  get  sight  of  the  man 
about  whom  so  much  had  been  said  and  written  and  one  who  was  so  universally  hated 
and  abused  in  that  vicinity.  A  few  of  the  knowing  ones  said,  with  an  air  of  confidence, 
'He'll  never  show  his  face  in  this  town ;  he's  too  smart  for  that.'  About  two  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  a  cloud  of  dust  was  seen  rising  up  along  the  Boonville  road,  and  soon  it  was 
apparent  that  a  carriage  with  the  top  thrown  back  and  one  large  gentleman  occupying  a 
seat  in  it  was  rapidly  approaching.  The  cry  was  raised  and  rapidly  carried  to  every  part 
of  the  town,  'Benton's  coming.'  Driving  into  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  the  public 
square,  he  halted.  Sitting  with  his  hat  on  one  side  of  his  head,  as  his  custom  was,  cleanly 
shaved  and  dressed  with  as  much  care  as  if  he  was  about  to  enter  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  he  sat  and  surveyed  the  mass  of  people  who  were  crowding  around  the  car- 
riage and  craning  their  necks  to  get  a  good  view  of  his  features.  Finally,  he  said,  in  his 
peculiar  manner,  'Citizens,  I  am  your  old  senator.  I  am  here  to  address  you.  I  want  a 
suitable  place  in  which  to  speak.  Where  is  your  slierifF?'  Some  one  ran  for  the  sheriff. 
Very  soon  the  sheriff  made  his  appearance  and  approaching  the  carriage,  hat  in  hand,  he 
spoke  to  Colonel  Benton  and  asked  what  he  wanted.  He  had  in  times  past  been  an  old 
political  friend  of  the  senator  but  without  any  sign  of  recognition,  Benton  said  he  was 
there  for  the  purpose  of  speaking  to  the  people  of  Howard  county.  As  the  sheriff  was  the 
custodian  of  the  public  buildings  he  applied  to  him  for  a  suitable  room  in  which  to  speak. 

"The  slieriff  replied  that  'the  court  house  was  at  his  service:  that  a  crowd  had  occu- 
pied it  in  the  forenoon  listening  to  a  speech  made  by  Judge  James  H.  Birch,  but  he  would 
have   it   swept   and   cleaned   out.'     Benton,   with   a   look   of   profound   disgust,   said,    'i   will 

not  breathe  the  same  atmophere  that  that  scoundrel,  Jim  Birch,  has  been  breathing  so 

recently.'  Some  one  suggested  the  fair  grounds  but  Benton  positively  declined  to  speak 
in  the  open  air.  Then  it  was  announced  he  could  have  the  chapel  of  the  school  building 
on  the  hill,  and  that  the  speech  would  be  made  there.  Judge  Leonard,  Major  Rollins  and 
their  special  friends  had  been  first  notified  of  the  place  of  speaking  and  had  secured  seats. 
The  crowd  rushed  along  the  streets  and  across  lots.  Long  before  the  speaker  arrived, 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  room  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity.  Benton's  carriage 
driver  was  a  white  man ;  they  walked  into  the  house  together  and  up  the  aisle,  arm  in 
arm  to  the  platform  upon  which  they  both  took  chairs.  Their  entrance  was  the  signal 
for  a  most  extraordinary  demonstration  on  the  part  of  Benton's  enemies,  assisted  by  all 
of  the  rowdies  and  ruffians  present.  Some  were  shrilly  whistling  with  their  fingers  in 
their  mouths,  some  were  braying  like  asses  and  barking  like  dogs. 

Benton's  Most  Bitter  Speech. 

"Benton  sat  as  motionless  as  a  statue,  occasionally  scanning  the  audience  with  his 
glasses  and   singling  out   some   fellows   more  noisy  than   the   rest.     In  looking  around  he 


622  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

discovered  that  there  were  two  ladies  seated  in  the  corner  near  the  platform,  and  he  at 
once  arose  and  recognized  their  presence  by  a  most  profound  bow.  Up  to  that  time  there 
had  been  no  recognition  of  the  audience  whatever.  This  wild  demonstration  continued 
without  abatement  for  the  space  of  twenty  minutes  and  then  suddenly  stopped.  Rising 
with  all  the  austerity  and  dignity  of  manner  peculiar  to  him,  Benton  said,  'He  was  not 
there  for  the  purpose  of  speaking  to  braying  asses  and  barking  dogs.  He  had  no  message 
for  the  ignorant  and  worthless  rabble  who  could  crowd  their  court  house  for  the  purpose 
of  listening  to  and  applauding  such  a  vagabond  as  Jim  Birch,  in  his  abuse  of  himself, 
and  then  come  to  a  meeting  of  his  simply  for  the  purpose  of  interrupting  and  insulting 
him.' 

"It  was  the  most  personal,  bitter  speech  of  his  life.  For  something  like  twenty  years 
tlje  town  of  Fayette  had  been  recognized  as  the  point  from  which  all  the  edicts  of  the 
ruling  power  in  the  democratic  party  had  been  issued.  The  man  who  dared  to  run 
counter  to  these  edicts  soon  found  himself  ostracised  and  kicked  out  of  the  party  organiza- 
tion. No  one  knew  it  any  better  than  Colonel  Benton.  He  had  at  one  time  held  the  su- 
preme power  in  the  regency  located  here  and  his  hard  blows  and  kicks  on  this  occasion 
demonstrated  that  it  was  gone  from  him  forever.  He  walked  out  of  the  house  with  his 
coachman,  not  stopping  to  recognize  any  friend  or  acquaintance,  got  into  his  carriage  and 
drove  back  to  Boonville." 

William  F.  Switzler  was  present  at  this  speech  of  Benton's  in  the  chapel  of 
Central  college.     He  recalled  that  Benton's  first  words  were : 

"Citizens  and  friends,  and  by  the  word  'friends'  I  mean  those  who  are  present 
to  hear  the  truth,  who  have  intellect  enough  to  understand  it,  and  courage  enough 
to  believe  it — and  none  others  P' 

"These  last  words,"  Colonel  Switzler  said,  "rang  with  a  thunder  peal." 

How  Norton  Averted  Bloodshed. 

In  the  Platte  country,  Benton's  campaign  of  1849  narrowly  escaped  a  tragedy. 
Judge  Elijah  H.  Norton  was  even  then  a  leader  in  local  politics.  Although  pro- 
nounced in  his  opposition  to  Benton,  Norton,  by  his  quick  interference  when 
pistols  had  been  drawn,  and  by  his  appeal  to  his  own  friends  for  fair  play 
toward  Benton,  averted  bloodshed.  Robert  P.  C.  Wilson  described  the  scene, 
one  of  the  most  sensational  in  the  history  of  Missouri  campaigns.  His  account 
of  what  occurred  was  that  of  an  eye  witness : 

"My  earliest  recollection  of  politics  is  connected  with  the  great  split  in  the  demo- 
cratic party  in  Missouri  growing  out  of  the  passage  of  what  were  called  the  Jackson 
resolutions,  instructing  Senator  Benton  to  conform  to  the  wishes  of  the  legislature  in  a 
certain  matter,  or  to  resign.  For  thirty  years  Colonel  Benton  had  represented  Missouri 
in  the  Senate  with  great  ability.  He  was  the  compeer  of  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun  and 
others  of  nearly  equal  reputation,  and  it  was  thought  by  many  that  he  should  be  placed 
tipon  the  same  plane  with  those  mentioned  in  the  golden  days  of  the  United  States  Senate. 
Colonel  Benton,  however,  was  both  by  nature  and  training,  despotic,  arrogant  and  over- 
bearing. He  would  tolerate  no  differences  in  political  opinion  in  the  state.  His  word 
must  be  the  party  rule  of  action,  as  inexorable  as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians. 
His  intercourse  with  the  politicians  of  his  party  was  that  of  a  lord  to  his  vassals. 

Benton's  ^otto. 

"His  motto  was,  'an  ounce  of  fear  is  worth  a  pound  of  love,'  and  so  when  any  demo- 
crat diflfered  with  him,  instead  of  trying  to  convince  and  conciliate,  he  used  toward  the 
recalcitrant  methods  suggested  by  his  motto.  Things  went  on  in  this  fashion  for  nearly 
thirty   years,    and    until    a    new    generation    pushed    aside    the   old   and    took   their   places. 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  623 

Ambitious,  strong,  virile,  fearless  young  men  like  Judge  Norton  refused  to  submit  to 
Colonel  Benton's  political  knout  and,  in  1849,  fiercely  turned  upon  the  old  lion.  A  battle 
royal  was  at  once  inaugurated  all  over  the  state.  The  young  lawyer  led  the  anti-Benton 
forces  in  his  part  of  the  state,  and  Colonel  Benton  denounced  it  as  a  hotbed  of  sedition 
and  treason.  He  and  his  friends  moved  upon  the  country  in  the  summer  of  that  year. 
Great  preparations  were  made  by  his  friends  for  the  speech  he  was  to  make,  and  as  Platte 
was  known  to  be  under  Norton  bitterly  anti-Benton,  there  was  intense  excitement,  not  un- 
mixed with  fear  on  the  part  of  thoughtful  men  that  there  might  be  a  tragedy  enacted  dur- 
ing the  meeting.  When  the  day  arrived  for  the  speaking  it  was  discovered  that  the  court 
house  was  too  small  to  accommodate  the  immense  crowd  which  had  gathered  to  hear  the 
great  senator,  and  a  grove  adjoining  the  town  of  Platte  City  was  selected,  and  a  stand 
erected.  It  seemed  that  the  partisans  of  Colonel  Benton  throughout  Missouri  had  been 
busy  in  compiling  the  private  history  of  eaclr  member  of  the  legislature  who  had  voted 
against  him  in  past  sessions.  At  length  the  expectant  hour  arrived ;  a  vast  audience  of  all 
parties  was  there  to  hear  'Old  Bullion,'  as  he  was  familiarly  called.  Every  one  was  tense 
with  apprehension,  for  it  was  well  known  that  both  the  democratic  factions  were  pre- 
pared for  trouble.  Prominent  Benton  men  from  Platte  and  adjoining  counties,  well 
armed,  swarmed  like  hornets  about  the  stand.  Included  with  others,  I  recognized  Captain 
John  W.  Reed  from  Jackson  county,  who  had  but  recently  returned  from  the  Mexican  war 
with  blushing  honors  wrought  of  the  white  heat  of  combat  thick  upon  him.  There  was 
Colonel  H.  L.  Rout,  of  Clay  county,  as  fearless  a  fighter  as  ever  faced  a  foe,  and  Colonel 
Estill,  of  Union  Mills,  an  ardent  and  fearless -friend  of  the  senator,  who  sought  rather 
than  shunned  difficulties.  The  Benton  partisans  and  the  'antis'  were  hostile  from  the 
outset,  each  faction  remaining  together  as  if  prearranged,  the  Benton  men  in  serried 
rank  around  and  upon  the  stand,  and  the  'antis'  massed  behind  them.  Judge  Norton  had 
taken  his  stand  in  front  of  the  speaker,  and  Hall  L.  Wilkinson,  Platte's  representative  in 
the  legislature,  was  bj-  his  side.  In  the  meantime,  like  a  boy  at  a  circus,  bent  on  seeing 
everything,  and  not  knowing  of  the  danger,  I  had  wormed  myself  into  the  crowd,  and  took 
my  stand  near  Judge  Norton.  The  scenes  and  the  events  of  that  day  made  upon  my 
plastic  mind  an  impression  so  deep  that  it  has  never  been  effaced.  It  was  June,  1849. 
The  day  was  indeed  as  'rare  as  a  day  in  June.'  Nature  had  laid  its  royal  carpet  of  blue- 
grass,  and  the  Druidical  oaks,  among  which  we  gathered,  waved  their  gorgeous  banners 
of  green  in   impartial  shade  over  both   friend  and  foe. 

"Colonel  Benton,  You  Are  a  Liar." 

"The  time  having  arrived  to  begin  his  address.  Colonel  Benton  arose  and  with  the 
lofty  mien  of  a  Roman  senator,  advanced  to  the  front  of  the  stand.  An  intense  stillness 
pervaded  the  vast  assembly.  Colonel  Benton  paused  for  a  few  moments  and  swept  the 
vast  audience  with  flashing  eyes,  as  if  taking  note  of  the  character  of  the  people  in  array 
about  him.  As  he  stood,  every  eye  was  riveted  upon  him  as  if  spellbound.  He  was 
scrupulously  draped  in  senatorial  garb;  brief  vest,  dress  coat,  white  shirt,  high  collar  and 
stock  under  his  chin.  He  was  large,  plethoric  and  imposing  in  person,  giving  the  impres- 
sion of  great  physical  as   well  as   intellectual  power. 

"He  began  his  speech  by  reminding  the  people  that  he  had  aided  them  materially  in 
many  ways,  notably  in  adding  to  the  state  the  Platte  country.  Soon,  however,  he  began 
his  'appeal  to  the  people,'  as  he  called  it,  against  the  resolutions  of  the  legislature  directed 
against  him  and  designed  to  drive  him  from  the  Senate.  In  impassioned  tones  he  de- 
nounced those  who  voted  for  them  as  traitors,  and  began  to  excoriate  Wilkinson  without 
mercy.  In  the  meantime  the  latter  had  climbed  upon  a  stump,  and  in  a  few  moments  in 
answer  to  some  bitter  denunciation  of  Colonel  Benton,  shouted  back  at  the  top  of  his 
voice,  'Colonel  Benton,  you  are  a  liar!'  Presumably  the  senator's  friends  thought  Wilkin- 
son had  then  given  the  signal  for  an  attack  upon  and  the  killing  of  Benton;  his  friends 
immediately  drew  him  (Benton)  back,  and  with  drawn  pistols  surrounded  him.  Judge 
Norton  promptly  seized  the  pistol  arm  of  Wilkinson,  pulled  him  from  the  stump,  raised 
his   voice   in   fierce   protest   against   the   conduct   of    Wilkinson,   at    Benton's    own    meeting, 


624  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

begged  his  friends  to  put  up  their  arms,  and  in  a  brief  time  quelled  the  incipient  riot, 
which  had  he  not  done,  would  have  in  all  probability  led  to  a  tragedy  which  would  have 
had  the  most  baleful  result  on  the  fame  of  our  country  and  state.  Recovering  himself 
from  the  hands  of  his  friends,  Colonel  Benton,  like  an  enraged  lion,  again  rushed  to  the 
front  and  completed  his  fiery  speech." 

When  Missourians  Voted  in  Kansas. 

In  the  spring  of  1855,  notices  were  posted  in  Liberty  and  other  centers  of 
population  in  western  Missouri,  of  which  this  is  a  sample : 

"Friends  of  the  South  !  The  first  election  of  members  of  the  territorial  legislature  of 
Kansas  comes  off  Friday  next,  the  30th  inst.  Friends  of  the  South,  the  crisis  has  ar- 
rived, and  now  is  the  time  for  you  to  determine  whether  or  not  that  rich  and  fertile 
territory  shall  be  governed  by  the  miserable  hirelings  sent  thither  from  the  dens  of 
abolitionism  in  the  East  to  rob  you  of  your  rights  and  your  property.  We  must  act! 
We  must  act!  A  meeting  will  be  held  at  Liberty  on  the  29th  inst.,  to.  take  such  measures 
as  may  be  considered  proper  under  tlie  circumstances.  Let  every  friend  of  the  South  and 
her   institutions  attend." 

The  Missourians  who  went  to  Kansas  in  territorial  days  to  take  part  in  elec- 
tions did  so  under  such  names  as  "Social  Band,"  "Friends'  Society,"  "Blue 
Lodge,"  "The  Sons  of  the  South."  They  had  oaths,  grips  and  pass  words.  They 
went  through  certain  forms.  Before  ofifering  his  vote  a  Missourian  would  stake 
off  a  plat  a  few  feet  square  and  say,  "I  claim  this  as  my  residence." 

Senator  Atchison  was  quoted  as  saying  in  a  speech  at  Weston :  "When  you 
reside  in  one  day's  journey  of  the  territory  (Kansas),  and  when  your  peace,  your 
quiet,  and  your  property  depend  upon  your  action,  you  can,  without  an  exertion, 
send  500  of  your  young  men  who  will  vote  in  favor  of  your  institutions.  Should 
each  county  in  the  state  do  its  duty,  the  question  will  be  decided  quietly  and 
peaceably  at  the  ballot  box." 

Lafayette  county  spoke  out  plainly  on  the  Kansas  issue.  Fosters  were  put  up 
in  Lexington,  headed  "War  in  Kansas"  and  reading: 

"Now  men  of  Lafayette,  what  will  you  do?  Will  you  stand  still  and  see  the  enemy 
approach,  step  by  step,  until  he  stands  on  your  door-sill  and  finds  you  unarmed,  or  will 
you  go  out  to  meet  him  and  drive  him  from  your  soil?  We  have  stood  still  long  enough. 
The  time  has  come  when  you  must  do  something  to  protect  your  firesides.  We  must  have 
men  to  go  out  to  the  territory  at  once,  or  all  will  be  lost  The  intention  of  the  abolitionists 
is  to  drive  us  from  the  territory  and  carry  the  next  election  and  get  possession  of  the  gov- 
ernment reins.  This  we  must  not  submit  to.  If  we  do,  Kansas  is  lost  to  the  South  for- 
ever, and  our  slaves  in  upper  Missouri  will  be  useless  to  us,  and  our  homes  must  be  given 
up  to  the  abolition  enemy.  Come,  then,  to  the  rescue!  Up  men  of  Lafayette!  Meet  at 
Lexington  on  Wednesday,  at  12  o'clock,  August  20th.  Bring  your  horses  with  you,  your 
guns  and  clothing — all  ready  to  go  on  to  Kansas.  We  want  two  to  three  hundred  men 
from  this  county.  Jackson,  Johnson,  Platte,  Clay,  Ray,  Saline,  Carroll  and  other  coun- 
ties are  now  acting  in  this  matter.  AH  of  them  will  send  up  a  company  of  men  and  there 
will  be  concert  of  action.  New  Santa  Fe  in  Jackson  county  will  be  the  place  of  rendezvous 
for  the  whole  crowd,  and  our  motto  this  time  will  be  'no  quarter.'  " 

The  proclamation  was  signed  by  twelve  representative  citizens  of  Lafayette 
county. 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  ^  625 

Brothers  on  Opposing  Tickets. 

Two  brothers  on  opposing  tickets  gave  the  state  campaign  of  1856  additional 
interest.  Robert  C.  Ewing  was  the  candidate  for  governor  on  the  ticket  nominated 
at  St.  Louis  by  those  who  had  been  affiliated  with  the  whig  and  native  American 
parties.  On  the  Anti-Benton  democratic  ticket  which  was  headed  by  Trusten 
Polk,  Ephraim  B.  Ewing  was  the  candidate  for  attorney  general.  He  made  a 
vigorous  canvass  against  his  brother  and  was  elected.  Benton  headed  a  third 
ticket  for  governor  but  the  contest  was  between  the  tickets  headed  by  Robert  C. 
Ewing  and  Trusten  Polk,  the  latter  winning  by  a  narrow  margin.  The  appear- 
ance of  the  two  brothers  on  opposing  tickets  was  a  condition  without  precedent  in 
Missouri  campaigns.  While  the  brothers  did  not  niince  matters  in  their  attacks 
upon  each  other's  parties,  they  did  not  break  fraternal  rekitions.  They  were  sons 
of  Rev.  Finis  Ewing,  famous  in  the  religious  life  of  Missouri  in  the  thirties,  the 
most  distinguished  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  preachers  of  that  period. 

How  Sterling  Price  Became  Governor. 

In  his  Memoir,  preserved  in  manuscript  by  the  Missouri  Historical  Society, 
Thomas  C.  Reynolds  traced  the  course  of  political  events  from  1832  to  1857. 
Reynolds  was  bitterly  hostile  to  Price  at  the  time  he  wrote,  which  was  at  the 
close  of  the  war. 

"After  the  Mexican  war.  General  Price's  prominent  reappearance  '-n  politics  was  his 
nomination  for  the  governorship  in  the  spring  of  1852.  The  history  of  Viis  nomination  was 
given  me  by  Hon.  John  M.  Krum  at  St.  Louis  in  February,  1861.  The  Benton  and  anti- 
Benton  democrats  had  agreed  upon  a  fusion  in  that  convention  of  1852,  on  the  basis  that 
the  former  being  a  majority  of  the  party,  the  candidate  for  governor  should  be  a  Benton 
man;  that  for  lieutenant  governor,  an  anti-Benton,  and  so  on  alternately  to  the  end  of  the 
ticket.  But  the  fused  convention  as  a  whole  was  to  select  the  candidates,  and  not  each 
wing  of  the  party  select  its  share  of  the  ticket.  The  anti-Benton  minority  at  once  took 
measures  to  secure  the  fruits  of  th;s  advantage.  General  Thomas  L.  Price  was  the  choice 
of  the  great  body  of  the  Benton  men,  but  especially  distasteful  to  the  anti-Benton  men. 
Accordingly  in  a  caucus  of  some  leaders  of  the  latter.  Judge  Krum  was  selected  to  have  an 
interview  with  General  Sterling  Price,  a  Benton  delegate  to  the  convention,  and  conspicu- 
ous for  the  ardent  support  he  had  given  Colonel  Benton  not  only  before  but  since  the 
division  in  184Q  in  the  Missouri  democracy  on  the  subject  of  that  senator.  Judge  Krum's 
report  of  the  interview,  concerning  the  policy  which  General  Sterling  Price,  if  elected 
governor,  would  pursue  in  regard  to  both  the  men  and  the  measures  of  the  anti-Benton 
democracy,  being  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  caucus,  it  was  resolved  to  support  him  in  the 
convention.  The  solid  vote  of  the  anti-Benton  minority,  added  to  a  small  portion  of  the 
Benton  majority,  secured  him  the  nomination  over  General  Thomas  L.  Price.  Dr.  Brown, 
a   zealous   anti-Benton   man,   was   nominated   for   lieutenant  governor. 

Fusion  Success. 

"Colonel  Benton  promptly  denounced  the  ticket  as  a  fraud,  a  bargain  and  sale,  and 
'spit  upon  the  platform' — all  publicly  in  his  speeches.  But  the  fusion  was  maintained. 
General  Price  acted  with  consummate  discretion,  keeping  very  quiet  and  making  no  gen- 
eral canvass.  The  entire  fusion  ticket  was  elected.  Thenceforward,  as  governor  in 
•853-7.  Price  vigorously  opposed  Colonel  Benton  and  sustained  the  anti-Benton  democracy. 
The  election  of  1856  completely  demolished  the  Benton  party  in  Missouri.  Of  its  remnants 
some  returned  to  the  reunited  national  democracy ;  the  others  joined  the  newly  established 
republican  party. 

"In    January,    1857.    'be    Missouri    legislature    met    with    an    overwhelming   democratic 

Vol.  1—40 


626  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

majority  in  each  branch.  Two  senators  were  to  be  elected,  one  for  the  short  term  end- 
ing March  3,  1861,  and  the  other  for  six  years  commencing  March  4.  1857.  For  the  short 
term,  General  Price,  whose  gubernatorial  term  had  just  expired,  Hon.  James  L.  Green, 
elected  member  of  Congress,  and  Hon.  Willard  P.  Hall  were  candidates  for  the  nomina- 
tion before  the  democratic  caucus.  The  two  latter  had  been  anti-Bcnton  democrats  since 
the  division  in  the  party  in  1849,  Mr-  Hall,  however,  being  considered  the  least  decided  of 
the  two  in  his  states'  rights  principles.  In  the  caucus  Mr.  Hall  received  the  largest  vote, 
but  not  a  majority;  Mr.  Green  came  next,  and  Governor  Price  last,  with  a  vote  so  small 
as  to  render  his  chance  hopeless.  He  promptly  withdrew  and  his  late  supporters  joined 
those  of  Air.  Green,  who  received  the  nomination  over  Mr.  Hall  and  was  elected  by  the 
legislature.  For  the  long  term  Governor  Trusten  Polk  was  elected  senator  over  Mr. 
Phelps,  the  latter  being  urged,  as  was  Governor  Price,  for  the  -admittedly  immense  service 
in  abandoning  Colonel   Benton   some  months   after   Governor   Price." 

Among  the  traditions  preserved  by  Sarcoxie  is  the  story  of  the  immense  meeting 
which  Benton  addressed  when  he  was  running  for  governor.  In  connection  with 
the  meeting  it  is  remembered  that  the  senator  "drank  a  great  deal  of  buttermilk." 

How  Rollins  Beat  Henderson  on  Pronunciation. 

Good  stories  which  illustrate  aptly  the  entertaining  character  of  Missouri 
campaigns  have  been  resitrrected  by  \\^alter  Williams,  Dean  of  the  College  of 
Journalism  of  the  University  of  Missouri.  One  of  them  relates  to  the  hotly 
contested  race  for  Congress  by  James  S.  Rollins  and  John  B.  Henderson  in  i860. 
Henderson's  mispronunciation  of  a  German  name  and  Rollins'  quick  turn  of  a 
critical  situation  decided  the  election.  This  is  the  story  as  Dean  Williams  has 
printed  it : 

"Each  candidate  charged  the  other  with  being  unsound  on  the  slavery  question,  with 
having  freesoil  if  not  abolition  sympathies  and  therefore  unworthy  of  support.  The 
district  in  which  the  campaign  was  conducted  was  largely  pro-slavery,  except  in  two 
counties — St.  Charles  and  Warren,  where  there  was  a  larger  German,  or  freesoil,  element, 
republican  in  sentiment,  whose  support  was  essential  to  the  success  of  one  or  the  other 
of  the  candidates.  Therefore,  the  eflfort  of  both  candidates  seemed  to  be  to  conciliate 
and  receive  this  independent  or  freesoil  vote,  residing  mainly  in  Warren  and  St.  Charles 
counties.  The  effort  was  extremely  dangerous,  however,  as  both  of  them  well  knew,  for 
either  of  them  to  go  too  far  in  the  work  of  conciliation,  lest  they  might  be  seriously 
prejudiced  in  the  minds  of  the  voters  in  other  parts  of  the  district. 

"Maj.  Rollins  and  Gen.  Henderson  had  appointments  to  speak  in  the  village  of  Marthas- 
ville.  Henderson  was  too  ill  to  be  present.  Maj.  Rollins  spoke  with  his  accustomed  elo- 
quence. Among  the  audience  was  Frederick  Muench,  the  leader  of  the  German  free- 
soilers.  At  the  close  of  Maj.  Rollins'  address  Mr.  Muench  dined  with  Maj.  Rollins  and 
the  two  discussed  the  political  situation.  Mr.  Muench  frankly  complimented  Maj.  Rol- 
lins oil  his  speech,  telling  him  he  thought  the  Germans  could  safely  trust  him  as  their 
Congressman.  This  was  the  first  meeting  between  the  two  and  e.xactly  what  passed  is  not 
known.  Both  are  now  dead.  A  few  days  after  the  meeting  Mr.  Muench,  without  Rollins 
knowing  anything  of  his  intentions  to  do  so,  wrote  a  letter  to  a  German  freesoil  paper  at 
Hannibal,  in  which  he  expressed  a  preference  for  Rollins  over  Henderson,  saying  he 
believed  the  Germans  might  safely  support  him  and  that  he  had  met  him  and  found  him 
a  very  interesting  and  persuasive  gentleman. 

"The  letter  to  the  Hannibal  paper  was  translated  into  English,  and  for  Henderson's 
benefit  republished  in  a  St.  Louis  paper  which  advocated  his  election,  and  on  the  morning 
of  their  joint  discussion  at  Sturgeon  reached  there  a  short  time  before  the  hour  of  speak- 
ing. Rollins  did  not  know  it  had  appeared  in  print,  but  Henderson  got  hold  of  a  paper 
containing  it,  and  in  his  opening  address  made  a  terrific  onslaught  on  Rollins  for  having 


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MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  629 

bargained  with  the  German  freesoilers  of  Warren  and  St.  Charles  counties  to  vote  for 
him  on  the  ground  of  the  frcesoil  principles.  Rollins  promptly  jumped  to  his  feet  and 
defiantly  denied  it.  Henderson  responded;  'I  will  prove  it  on  him;  I  charge  that  one 
Mr.  Minch,  a  German,  has  written  a  letter  urging  the  Germans  to  vote  for  him.  and  after 
he  had  an  interview  with  Minch.'  Rollins  denied  he  knew  any  such  man  as  Minch. 
Thereupon  Henderson  read  the  letter,  somewhat  to  Rollins'  embarrassment.  Portions  of 
the  crowd  hurrahed  for  Henderson,  but  Rollins  rose  with  much  equanimity,  real  or  as- 
sumed, and  said  defiantly,  'Read  the  name  of  the  author.'  Henderson  did  it,  'Frederick 
Minch.'  'Spell  it,'  said  Rollins,  and  Henderson  spelled  it,  'M-u-e-n-c-h.'  Rollins :  'The 
name  is  Muench ;  not  Minch;  you  can't  play  such  tricks  on  me  with  impunity;  you  have 
changed  his  name !' 

".About  this  time  Henderson's  hour  expired,  when  Rollins  took  the  stand  and  said: 
'Fellow-citizens :  You  see  the  advantage  Henderson  is  taking  of  you  and  of  me ;  I  denied 
I  had  ever  heard  of  such  a  man  as  Minch,  and  he  changed  his  name  to  Minch  to  entrap 
me  into  .that  denial.  It  was  Muench,  not  Minch ;  I  know  him.  He  is  a  gentleman  and  a 
patriot  and  a  man  of  sense,  which  I   fear  Henderson   is  not.' 

"All  the  whigs  were  satisfied  and  shouted  for  Rollins,  and  Mr.  James  Palmer,  since 
deceased,  one  of  the  largest  men  in  the  county,  and  an  ardent  Henry  Clay  whig,  mounted 
the  stand  and  shouted :  'Rollins  is  vindicated  triumphantly.  Henderson  changed  the  name 
of  the  writer  of  the  letter,  and  thus  attempted  to  mislead  our  gallant  leader,  Rollins.  No 
man  who  will  do  such  a  thing  is  entitled  to  the  votes  of  whigs  or  democrats,  and  I  now 
move  that  we  all  vote  for  Rollins.'  And  he  put  the  vote  and  there  arose  in  response  a 
thundering  aye,  and  Palmer,  without  putting  the  other  side,  declared  it  carried  unanimously. 
Maj.  Rollins  was  elected  by  254  majority,  and  Gen.  Henderson  afterward  became  United 
States  senator   from  Missouri." 

Eugene  Field's  Introduction  of  Carl  Schurz. 

The  second  of  Dean  Williams'  stories  is  of  the  embarrassment  of  Carl  Schurz 
in  one  of  his  Missouri  campaigns.  Schurz  was  accompanied  by  Eugene  Field  as 
the  correspondent  of  a  St.  Louis  newspaper:  "One  night  they  came  to  a  small 
town  where  Mr.  Schurz  was  to  speak.  The  hall  was  packed  with  an  expectant 
crowd,  but  the  presiding  ofificer  who  was  to  have  introduced  Mr.  Schurz  did  not 
appear.  Finally  Mr.  Schurz  suggested  quietly  to  Field  that  he  should  fill  in  the 
part  and  introduce  him  to  the  audience.  Mr.  Field  acquiesced  readily  enough. 
Advancing  to  the  front  of  the  platform,  his  hand  pressed  to  his  throat,  he  said, 
with  a  splendid  German  dialect:  'Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  haf  contracted  such 
a  ver>-  severe  cold  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  speak  tonight,  but  I  haf  to 
introduce  the  great  journalist,  Eugene  Field,  to  take  my  place.  I  am  sure  that 
you  will  be  bleased  and  benefited  by  the  change.' 

"^Ir.  Schurz  nearly  had  a  stroke  of  apoplexy  and  it  took  him  some  time  to 
explain  the  situation." 

Kise  and  Decline  of  the  Know-Nothings. 

Know-Xothings  were  numerous  in  Missouri  about  1854-6.  They  had  many 
lodges,  ^^"herever  men  most  congregated,  bits  of  white  paper  cut  in  triangular 
form  were  scattered  frequently.  They  bore  not  a  word  in  print,  not  a  mark  of 
any  kind.  The  Missourian  leaving  home  for  business  in  the  morning  saw  these 
pieces  of  paper  Ij'ing  about,  seemingly  without  purpose.  If  he  was  a  Know- 
Nothing  he  knew  at  once  that  a  meeting  of  the  order  was  called  for  that  evening. 
Recognizing  a  fellow  member  of  the  order  and  wishing  to  learn  what  was  going 
on.  he  asked : 


630  CEXTEXNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Have  you  seen  Sam  today?" 

That  paved  the  way  to  the  most  confidential  communications  among  mem- 
bers of  the  order.  If  the  inquirer  was  a  new  member  and  not  certain  about  the 
status  of  the  one  addressed,  he  asked  in  a  casual  tone,  "What  time?" 

If  the  other  looked  at  the  sun  or  consulted  his  watch  and  made  the  answer, 
which  the  question  seemed  to  invite,  the  interview  ended.  But  the  answer  might 
be,  "Time  to  work." 

Then  the  first  Missourian  dropping  his  voice  so  that  he  might  not  be  over- 
heard, asked,  "Are  you?" 

"We  are,"  was  the  proper  and  assuring  reply.  After  that  the  conversation 
proceeded  on  safe  ground. 

Sometimes  the  triangular  pieces  of  paper  were  not  white,  but  red.  Thai 
meant  danger.  It  prompted,  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  not  been  informed, 
more  than  ordinary  curiosity  about  "Sam."  When  Missourians  went  to  lodge  on 
red  notices  they  carried  stout  canes  or  some  other  form  of  weapon  for  emergency. 
One  instruction  given  to  new  members  directed  them,  when  asked  by  outsiders 
about  the  principles  and  purposes  of  the  order,  to  say,  "I  know  nothing."  From 
that  came  the  name  commonly  applied  to  the  movement  and  to  the  membership. 

The  know-nothings  were  native  Americans.  Their  political  watchword  was : 
"Put  none  but  Americans  on  guard."  The  American  party  became  strong  enough 
in  St.  Louis  to  carry,  two  or  three  times,  the  municipal  elections.  The  turbulent 
among  them  started  anti-foreign  and  anti-Catholic  riots.  For  several  years  the 
lodges  and  the  party  organization  devoted  most  attention  to  local  politics. 

The  movement  gained  strength  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States.  Several  state 
elections  were  carried  by  the  native  Americans.  In  1855  a  national  organization 
was  effected.  In  1856  eight  of  the  thirty-two  states  had  native  American  govern- 
ments. But  when  the  know-nothings  attempted  to  make  a  nomination  for  Presi- 
dent, a  division  among  them  on  the  slavery  quc-^tion  occurred.  The  southern 
know-nothings  nominated  Fillmore.  Many  of  the  northern  know-nothings  seceded 
and  indorsed  Fremont.    After  that  national  campaign,  know-nothingism  dwindled. 

In  1855,  the  order  attained  its  greatest  strength  in  Missouri.  Thousands 
joined,  taking  the  first  degree  of  "Sam."  The  candidate  was  first  sworn  to 
secrecy  and  then  examined.  To  be  eligible  he  must  show  that  he  was  21  years 
old;  that  he  was  born  in  the  United  States;  that  he  beheved  in  God;  that  neither 
of  his  parents  was  Roman  Catholic ;  that  he  was  reared  a  Protestant ;  that  neither 
his  wife  nor  he  was  a  Roman  Catholic.  Having  shown  that  he  was  eligible, 
the  candidate  was  taken  into  another  room  and  sworn  into  the  order.  He  placed 
his  right  hand  on  the  Bible  and  raised  his  left.  He  swore  he  would  vote  only  for 
Protestants,  native  Americans  and  those  who  stood  on  the  platform  of  America 
ruled  by  Americans.  Then  the  password,  the  sign  of  recognition  and  the  grip 
were  given.  General  Grant,  then  a  farmer  in  St.  Louis  county,  joined  but  attended 
only  one  or  two  meetings. 

There  was  a  second  degree,  into  which  the  candidate  was  initiated  when  he 
had  proven  that  he  was  loyal  and  deeply  interested.  This  was  conferred  with 
much  ceremony.  At  the  conclusion  the  presiding  officer  declared  solemnly: 
"Brother,  vou  are  a  member  in  full  fellowship  of  the  supreme  order  of  the  Star- 
Spangled  Banner." 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  631 

A  third  degree  was  added  after  the  success  in  the  state  elections  of  1854. 
It  was  called  the  order  of  the  American  Union.  It  pledged  the  membership 
to  stand  against  any  division  of  the  states.  It  aimed  to  suppress  the  agitation  of 
the  slavery  question  by  either  the  North  or  the  South.  In  si.x  months  1,500,000 
candidates  had  taken  the  third  degree.  The  organization  disintegrated  more 
rapidly  than  it  had  grown. 

Election  Riots. 

At  the  Fifth  Ward  polls  in  St.  Louis,  August,  1854,  an  Irishman  stabbed  a 
boy  and  ran  into  the  Mechanics'  boarding  house.  A  know-nothing  mob  fol- 
lowed, smashed  the  windows  and  broke  the  furniture.  Shots  were  fired.  Other 
boarding  houses  in  the  neighborhood  were  attacked.  The  mob,  increased  to  a 
thousand  or  more,  marched  to  Cherry  street  and  continued  the  wrecking  of  board- 
ing houses.  It  headed  for  the  levee  and  met  a  body  of  Irishmen.  In  the  fight  two 
men  were  killed.  The  mob  stormed  and  stoned  buildings  known  as  "Battle  Row," 
on  the  levee.  Doors  were  broken  in  and  furniture  destroyed.  Thence  the  mob 
proceeded  uptown,  wrecking  Irish  boarding  houses  on  Morgan.  Cherry  and 
Green  streets.  At  Drayman's  hall,  on  Eighth  street  and  Franklin  avenue,  the 
mob  divided  into  squads  and  gutted  several  saloons,  continuing  this  until  the 
militia  arrived. 

Rioting  was  resumed  the  next  day.  The  Continentals,  while  marching  along 
Green  street  on  gfuard  duty,  were  fired  on.  Two  of  the  militia.  Spore  and  Holli- 
day,  were  wounded.  Near  Seventh  and  Biddle  streets  E.  R.  Violet,  a  well  known 
and  popular  citizen,  attempted  to  disarm  a  man  who  was  flourishing  a  pistol,  and 
was  killed.  At  Broadway  and  Ashley  there  was  a  battle  in  which  a  saloon  keeper 
named  Snyder  was  killed.  Three  men  were  wounded.  The  rioting  went  on  in 
various  parts  of  the  city  until  late  that  night.  The  third  day  citizens  responded 
to  a  mass  meeting  called  by  the  mayor.  From  the  merchants'  exchange  they 
adjourned  to  the  court  house.  A  law  and  order  movement  was  organized  by 
popular  expression  and  Norman  J.  Eaton  was  made  the  head  of  it.  Before  the 
day  passed  an  armed  force  of  seven  hundred  citizens  had  been  formed  under  com- 
mand of  Major  Meriwether  Lewis  Clark.  The  force  was  divided  into  thirty- 
three  companies,  each  under  a  captain.  It  was  composed  of  the  best  elements  in 
the  community.  The  companies  went  on  patrol  duty,  covering  the  whole  city. 
The  regular  police  were  withdrawn  from  the  streets.    Rioting  ceased. 

In  1855,  Henry  Boernstein  was  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  "acht-und- 
vierzigers"  in  St.  Louis.  That  was  the  name  bestowed  locally  on  the  forty- 
eighters — the  participants  in  the  revolution  of  '48.  Boernstein  came  to  St.  Louis 
with  a  great  variety  of  experiences.  And  he  proceeded  to  enlarge  upon  them 
rapidly  by  his  career  in  this  country.  He  had  received  a  university  education  in 
Germany,  had  served  five  years  in  the  Austrian  army,  had  written  plays  which 
were  produced  in  European  capitals,  had  managed  grand  opera  in  Paris,  had 
been  a  newspaper  correspondent.  When  the  uprising  occurred  in  Gemiany, 
Boernstein  joined  the  revolutionists.  He  was  forced  to  flee  to  America  and  after 
a  short  time  became  editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Anzeiger.  Almost  immediately  In 
introduced  sensational  methods.     Again  and  asrain  mobs  formed  to  "clean  out" 


632  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  Anzeiger.      Boernstein  was  daring.      He  carried  on  a  theater,  a  hotel  and 
brewery.    He  wrote  a  book  which  he  called  "The  Mysteries  of  St.  Louis." 

In  the  organization  of  the  German  militia  during  the  winter  of  1860-1,  months 
before  President  Lincoln  was  inaugurated,  Boernstein  was  so  aggressive  that 
he  was  made  colonel  of  one  of  the  regiments.  He  marched  with  Lyon  to  the 
capture  of  Camp  Jackson.  Soon  tiring  of  war.  Boernstein  obtained  a  consulship 
and  went  to  Europe.  He  remained  abroad  and  for  many  years  was  European 
correspondent  for  American  papers. 

Polk,  Rollins  and  Stewart. 

William  Hyde  wrote,  thirty-five  years  afterwards,  the  impressions  Trusten 
Polk.  Robert  M.  Stewart  and  James  S.  Rollins  made  upon  him  as  a  newspaper 
reporter  in  the  state  campaigns  of  1856  and  1857: 

"Governor  Polk  was  a  college-bred  man,  having  been  graduated  at  Yale.  He  was 
24  years  old  when  he  reached  Missouri  from  his  native  State  of  Delaware,  and  was  at  that 
time  a  smart  young  lawyer.  As  a  speaker  he  was  polished  and  often  eloquent,  and  at  the 
bar  he  was  a  successful  practitioner ;  but  as  a  senator  the  pages  of  history  shed  no  great 
luster  on  his  name. 

"James  S.  Rollins,  of  Boone,  was  an  old-time  whig  in  the  days  of  that  party,  had  been 
its  candidate  for  governor  at  the  time  .Austin  King  was  elected  in  1848,  and  before  that 
a  delegate  to  the  convention  which  nominated  Henry  Clay  for  President.  He  was  the 
whig  candidate  for  United  States  senator  in  '48-49,  and  was  a  member  of  the  legislature 
at  the  preceding  session,  and  was  well-equipped  in  every  respect  for  a  great  campaign 
on  the  stump.  Perhaps  no  more  effective  public  speaker  has  ever  raised  his  voice  in 
Missouri  than  Rollins.  Of  magnificent  intellectual  attainments,  splendid  physique,  superb 
address,  imperturbable  good  nature,  fluent  in  speech  and  graceful  in  gesture,  he  was  a 
born  orator.  Polish  and  suavity  seemed  to  be  inhaled  from  the  air  he  breathed.  He  was, 
in  fact,  too  polite  for  impressing  strangers  altogether  with  ideas  of  his  sincerity,  for, 
whilst  he  was  always  plausible,  he  frequently  left  just  the  least  particle  of  a  notion  that 
he  was  somewhat  superficial.  With  Henry  Clay  as  his  political  ideal  he  was  early  imbued 
with  Clay's  sentiments  on  the  subject  of  emancipation  and  colonization,  and  these  remained 
with  him,  but  he  seemed  always  apprehensive  that  those  around  him  would  not  distinguish 
between  this  attitude  and  that  of  abolitionism.  He  was  not  as  hold  a  man  as  Blair,  whom 
he' greatly  admired,  but  his  surroundings  were  different:  as  what  might  do  for  Blair  in 
the  freer  atmosphere  of  St.  Louis  would  have  been  hazardous  to  the  ambition  of  one 
living  in  the  country,  where  any  phase  of  anti-slavery  feeling  was  associated  in  some 
degree  with  negro  equality  and  the  underground  railroad.  Thus  Rollins  felt  himself 
handicapped,  as  it  were,  and  often  forced  to  do  skillful  piloting.  Moreover,  he  was 
wrapped  up  in  the  welfare  of  Boone  county  and  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of  the 
State  University  at  Columbia,  to  which  he  devoted  all  his  energies. 

"Stewart  was  a  native  of  Cortland  county,  N.  Y.,  and  was  a  stanch  northern  demo- 
crat, without  any  qualms  on  the  sentimental  side  of  the  slavery  question.  He  thought  the 
Southern  people  had  a  right  to  take  their  slaves  into  Kansas  (whilst  it  was  a  territory  at 
any  rate),  upheld  the  Crittenden  compromise  measures,  supported  the  Cincinnati  (Buch- 
anan) platform,  and  ridiculed  nullification,  secession,  disunion  and  all  radical  southern 
fire-eating  propositions,  or  suggestions  of  that  sort.  He  dwelt  largely  on  the  material 
interests  of  the  state,  and  particularly  railway  development.  This  was  looked  for,  as  he 
had  been  an  attorney  of  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  railroad,  and  had  had  occasion  to 
study  the  question  more  thoroughly  than  any  politician   in  the  state. 

"There  can  be  no  question  as  to  Stewart's  having  been  a  brainy  man.  When  his  intel- 
lect was  not  clouded  by  artificial  excitement,  he  was  a  close  reasoner  and  a  good  debater. 
E.xcept  in  his  cause,  he  was,  however,  no  match  on  the  hustings  for  an  adroit,  captivating 
speaker  like  Rollins.     .Mtogether,  the  people  being  pretty  nearly  tired  out  by  the  haranguing 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  633 

of  the  previous  year,  the  campaign  was  a  rather  dull  one.  It  was  supposed  Stewart  would 
be  elected  by  a  tremendous  majority.  There  was  an  unusual  delay  in  bringing  in  the 
returns,  which  from  day  to  day  see-sawed  between  Stewart  and  Rollins,  as  they  appeared 
in  the  newspapers ;  but  at  last,  with  many  heated  charges  on  both  sides  of  'manipulating' 
or  'cooking'  the  result  in  the  back  counties,  the  secretary  of  state  summed  up  an  official 
majority  of  less  than  300  votes  for  Stewart." 

The  Longest  Missouri  Campaign. 

Missouri's  longest  political  campaign  was  in  i8(x).  It  began  formally  on 
the  8th  of  January,  "Jackson  Day,"  the  anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  New  Or- 
leans, when  Claibonie  F.  Jackson  made  a  speech  in  Washington  hall,  St.  Louis, 
announcing  his  candidacy  for  governor.  Up  to  that  time  Jackson  had  not  been 
very  successful  in  his  political  ambitions.  He  had  served  in  the  legislature.  He 
had  been  beaten  for  Congress  in  the  Howard  district  when  he  ran  against 
Thomas  P.  Akers,  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  of  J.  G.  Collier,  but  he  had  been  a 
delegate  at  several  state  conventions.  He  was  chairman  of  the  democratic 
state  committee  when  he  announced  himself  as  a  candidate  for  governor.  Few 
public  men  in  Missouri  had  more  influential  family  connections  than  Claib 
Jackson. 

The  campaign  of  i860  was  Jackson's  opportunity.  As  has  occurred  often  in 
Missouri  politics,  previous  disappointments  seemed  to  pave  the  way  to  success 
in  this  case.  The  National  Democratic  convention  was  to  be  held  in  Charleston 
on  the  23d  of  April.  The  state  committee  of  Missouri  decided  that  it  would 
be  economical  and  good  politics  to  nominate  the  state  ticket  and  the  delegates  to 
the  national  convention  at  the  same  time.  The  state  convention  was  accordingly 
called  to  meet  in  Jefferson  City  on  the  9th  of  April.  The  double  purpose  brought 
together  a  very  strong  representation  of  the  leading  democrats.  Among  them 
were  Sterling  Price.  Judge  Ryland,  Gen.  Abram  Hunter,  R.  E.  Acock,  James 
M.  Hughes.  J.  C.  Carter,  Hancock  Jackson.  John  Dougherty,  James  Young, 
John  H.  ^liller,  Warwick  Hough.  William  .\.  Grayson,  John  B.  Henderson.  Nat 
C.  Claiborne,  J.  X.  Burnes,  James  Craig  and  William  Douglas. 

The  secretaries  of  the  convention  included  James  H.  R.  Cundiff  of  the  St. 
Joseph  (lazette  and  James  L.  Fawcett  of  the  St.  Louis  Herald.  Only  three 
ballots  were  required  for  governor.  Claiborne  F.  Jackson  was  nominated.  The 
delegates  voted  as  their  counties  had  cast  democratic  ballots  for  Buchanan  in 
1856.  The  first  ballot  resulted  about  as  follows:  Jackson,  17.000;  ^^'aldo  P. 
Johnson,  13,000:  Kennett,  7,000;  Atchison,  2.500;  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon,  5.000. 
Sturgeon  represented  the  Federal  office  holders.  He  was  the  candidate  of  a 
group  of  young  politicians  who  one  year  later  took  the  lead  in  the  secession 
movement  of  Missouri.  One  of  the  group  was  Thomas  L.  Snead.  afterwards 
Claib.  Jackson's  secretary  and  the  author  of  "The  Fight  for  Missouri."'  Another 
was  Colton  Green,  a  member  of  the  wholesale  grocery  firm  of  Hoyt  and  Green. 
A  third  was  Basil  Duke  and  the  fourth  was  Eugene  Longuemare.  Snead  was 
editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Bulletin,  which  was  controlled  by  the  Longuemare  fainily. 

\\'ith  Claiborne  F.  Jackson  were  nominated :  For  lieutenant  governor,  Thomas 
Caute  Reynolds  of  St.  Louis :  and  for  secretary  of  state.  B.  F.  Massey.  Jackson 
entered  almost  immediately  upon  his  campaign  for  governor,  going  first  into  the 
Ozarks. 


634  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

After  the  split  of  the  democrats  at  Charleston  the  issue  of  supreme  interest 
in  Missouri  was  the  course  to  be  taken  by  Jackson  and  the  other  state  nominees. 
Douglas  democrats  demanded  that  Jackson  come  out  for  their  candidate.  The 
St.  Louis  Republican  was  especially  insistent  upon  this.  The  Federal  office- 
holders and  those  democrats  who  sympathized  most  strongly  with  the  South  urged 
that  the  state  ticket  support  Breckinridge. 

William  Hyde's  Graphic  Narrative. 

•  William  Hyde,  afterwards  for  many  years  editor  of  the  Republican,  was  in 
i860  the  trusted  staff  correspondent  of  that  paper.  He  was  given  an  extraor- 
dinary commission  by  Nathaniel  Paschall,  editor  of  the  Republican.  He  was  sent 
out  to  meet  Jackson  and  to  bring  about  a  decision  of  the  state  nominees  to  sup- 
port Douglas.  In  1892,  from  the  suggestion  and  encouragement  of  Joseph  B. 
McCullagh,  editor  of  the  Globe-Democrat,  William  Hyde  wrote  this  narrative 
of  what  he  saw  and  heard  and  of  the  part  he  took  in  the  campaign: 

"Claib.  Jackson  finally  emerged  from  tlie  liickory-nut  country,  but  was  loth  to  come 
out  of  his  own  shell.  A  man  named  Sample  Orr,  of  whom  nobody  had  ever  heard  before, 
had,  immediately  after  the  Baltimore  split,  saddled  a  horse  somewhere  down  in  the 
Southwest,  put  some  light  clothes  into  a  pair  of  saddle-hags,  announced  himself  a  con- 
stitutional-union candidate  for  governor,  and  started  out  on  the  flank  of  the  democratic 
candidate.  Of  course,  everybody  laughed  at  his  temerity,  and  when  they  saw  him  they 
laughed  all  the  more.  Nobody  knew  of  any  backers  he  had — of  any  antecedents,  any 
record.  He  was  nobody's  nominee;  just  plain  Sample  Orr,  farmer.  Very  plain  he  was. 
He  was  a  freckled  strawberry  blonde,  and  there  never  was  anything  redder  than  his  hair. 
A  man  medium  in  height,  slight  build,  weight  about  145 ;  keen  blue  eyes,  white  eye-lashes, 
nervous,  short  step,  sloping  shoulders,  long  neck — another  Ichabod  Crane.  Where  he 
concealed  his  voice  was  a  wonder,  for  he  could  be  heard  a  good  distance,  and  his  speech 
was  charming.  Mischief  lurked  in  those  keen,  blue  eyes,  and  when  with  the  muscles  of  the 
left  one  he  pinched  the  white  lashes  almost  together,  the  trick  was  very  taking  with  a 
crowd.  He  wanted  to  get  Jackson  into  a  joint  debate,  but  Claib  treated  the  proposition  as 
ridiculous.  Still  the  little  man  kept  on  his  track,  detaining  the  crowd  when  the  major  had 
closed,  and,  it  must  be  said,  dividing  the  honors  with  the  tall  and  dignified  democratic 
nominee. 

"It  was  about  the  1st  of  July  when  the  candidate  for  lieutenant  governor  started  out. 
He  was  to  overtake  Jackson  in  Moniteau  or  in  Cooper  county,  and  in  response  to  Paschall's 
repeated  demands  that  the  regular  state  nominees  should  support  the  regular  national 
nominees,  a  promise  had  been  made  by  Reynolds,  who  was  spokesman  for  the  major  as 
well  as  himself,  that  as  soon  as  they  had  an  opportunity  to  consult  together  there  would 
be  no  further  hesitating.  Reynolds  had  expressed  a  willingness,  indeed  a  desire,  to  have 
a  correspondent  accompany  him,  and  to  the  undersigned  that  task  was  allotted.  'Watch 
those  gentlemen,'  said  Mr.  Paschal!;  'do  not  let  them  get  away  from  us.  If  they  don't 
come  out  publicly  for  Douglas  within  three  days  after  they  meet — say  at  Boonville — tele- 
graph immediately,  and  come  home.'  To  Mr.  Reynolds  he  said,  in  substance :  'Jackson's 
course  has  been  unendurable.  He  should  instantly,  upon  hearing  of  Douglas'  nomination, 
have  proclaimed  his  adhesion  to  the  usages  of  his  party  and  announced  his  purpose  to'  do 
everything  in  his  power  to  carry  the  Douglas  ticket.  He  hates  Douglas,  I  know.  His  per- 
sonal likings  in  this  matter,  whether  they  relate  to  Douglas  or  to  Douglas'  friends,  is  a 
thing  of  indifference.  He  must  support  the  regular  nominee,  or,  if  he  does  not,  the  exam- 
ple of  his  failure  shall  not  be  lost  in  the  case  of  his  own  appeals  for  support  on  the  ground 
of  the  regularity  of  his  nomination.'  The  plain  meaning  of  this  was  that  the  regular 
democracy  was   not   to   be  without   a   state   ticket. 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  635 

"The  meeting  between  Jackson  and  Reynolds  was  expected  to  be  at  California,  in 
Moniteau,  where  they  were  both  billed  to  speak.  Reynolds  was  on  hand  and  so  was 
Sample  Orr,  but  Jackson  sent  word  that  he  would  lay  up  at  a  point  a  few  miles  north  of 
Tipton,  and  wait  for  Reynolds,  thence  proceeding  to  Boonville.  The  writer,  anxious  for 
an  interview  with  the  head  of  the  ticket,  did  not  wait  for  the  finish  of  the  California 
meeting,  but,  procuring  a  conveyance  and  driver,  pressed  on.  He  was  met  with  cordiality 
by  Jackson,  and  invited  to  share  his' room  for  the  night.  Jackson  had  many  questions  to 
ask  about  the  condition  of  political  sentiment  in  St.  Louis,  the  attitude  of  different  per- 
sons in  the  all-absorbing  differences  in  the  democratic  party,  etc.,  but  could  not  be  pumped 
as  to  the  stand  he  would  take.  He  was  just  out  of  the  woods  and  hills,  he  said,  hadn't 
seen  a  newspaper,  except  some  old  copies  of  the  Weekly  Republican,  and  would  have  to 
read  up  before  he  could  form  an  opinion  of  his  own.  'And  now,'  he  said,  'as  I'm  tired, 
I'll  take  this  bed  and  you  that.' 

A  Midnight  Conference. 

"It  was  in  'the  dead  waste  and  middle  of  the  night'  when  a  rap  at  our  door,  which  was 
on  the  ground  floor  of  a  two-story  commodious  country  residence,  aroused  the  major. 
The  moon  and  stars  were  shining,  and  it  was  a  lovely  summer  "night.  A  'solitary  horse- 
man' had  arrived,  having  traveled  from  the  railroad  at  Tipton,  and  he  was  bearer  of  an 
important  message  from  a  number  of  the  major's  friends  at  St.  Louis.  The  messenger 
was  James  Loughborough.  What  he  brought,  as  it  afterward  transpired,  was  a  document 
signed  by  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon,  Thomas  L.  Snead,  Daniel  H.  Donovan,  Colton  Qreen  and 
others.  This  document  was  a  peremptory  demand  upon  Jackson  forthwith  to  announce 
his  support  of  the  democratic  ticket  bearing  the  names  of  Breckinridge  and  Lane.  In 
the  event  of  refusal  or  omission  to  do  this  the  party  in  the  state  favoring  Breckinridge 
would,  they  said,  immediately  proceed  to  put  another  democratic  state  ticket  in  the  field, 
as  they  were  about  to  do  in  the  case  of  electors. 

"The  conference  between  Jackson  and  Loughborough  in  the  moonlight  outside  the 
house  was  long,  and  evidently  exciting,  to  judge  by  the  expletives  now  and  then  used  by 
the  former.  There  was  no  doubt  about  it,  Jackson  was  very  angry,  and  it  was  impossible 
to  tell  at  which  party  he  was  the  more  indignant — -the  Douglas  or  the  Breckinridge  men. 
A  plague  on  both  their  houses  was  the  burden  of  his  emphatic  anathemas;  and  when  he 
came  in,  toward  morning,  he  paced  the  floor  uneasily,  muttering'  strange  oaths. 

"On  the  next  day  Reynolds  joined  the  major,  and  together  they  traveled  to  Boonville, 
the  chronicler  taking  a  separate  vehicle.  It  was  not  difficult  to  perceive  the  perturbed  con- 
dition of  Jackson's  mind,  but  it  was  evident  that  Reynolds  had  determined  what  was  the 
best  course.  Jackson  expected  John  B.  Clark  to  meet  him  at  Boonville,  and  was  manifestly 
worried  that  he  hadn't  come.  He  would  not  say  what  he  proposed  to  do  until  he  had  con- 
sulted with  Clark,  and  so  the  writer  was  asked  to  telegraph  to  St.  Louis  his  desire  that 
another  day  be  allowed  in  order  to  communicate  with  Clark  at  Fayette.  Whether  Jackson 
expected  Clark  to  withdraw  his  support  from  Douglas,  in  the  expectation  that  Phelps  and 
others  would  follow  suit,  and  by  a  revolution  turn  the  state  over  to  Breckinridge,  or  what 
was  Jackson's  real  reason  in  postponing  his  committal  on  the  Presidency  until  he  could  see 
the  first-named  Congressman,  will  never  be  known.  The  secret,  whatever  it  was,  was  well 
kept.  At  any  rate  Clark  had  no  change  to  make  as  to  his  own  course,  and  his  advice  to 
Jackson  was  the  same  as  that  he  had  given  to  all  democrats. 

A  Great  Day  at  Fayette. 

"There  was  an  immense  array  at  Fayette  to  hear  the  speaking.  It  seemed  as  though 
the  whole  of  Howard  county,  Claib's  old  home,  had  turned  out.  A  county  seat  on  a  Satur- 
day, if  the  weather  is  fine  and  the  roads  are  good,  presents  a  lively  scene,  even  without  an 
unusual  incentive;  but  on  this  occasion  old  Howard  came  forth  in  force,  and  with  its  best 
clothes  on.  While  the  women  folks  were  flocking  the  stores  to  do  their  trading  the  men 
were  gathering  in  knots  about  the  court  house  square,  discussing  politics  or  neighborhood 
gossip — generally  politics.  Fayette,  was  the  very  inner  sanctuary  of  political  doctrine. 
What  Boston  is  to  New  England  culture,  what  Charleston  was  to  southern  civilization,  was 


636  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Fayette  to  the  pliilosopliy  of  Missouri  politics  in  the  early  days.  Boonville  was  a  rival, 
but  paled  its  ineffectual  fires  before  the  more  brilliant  though  no  more  intelligent  circle  of 
Howard's  haughty  host.  And  a  bright  galaxy  of  professionals  the  two  presented.  The 
names  of  Peyton  R.  Hayden,  Washington  .Adams.  John  G.  Miller,  George  G.  Vest,  James 
Winston,  John  C.  Richardson,  Benjamin  N.  Tompkins,  .\biel  Leonard,  W.  K.  Wall,  John  A. 
McClung,  John  D.  Leland.  John  W.  Henry,  John  J.  Lindley,  Dr.  John  J.  Lowry,  William  A. 
Hall,  Owen  Rawlins,  Col.  Jo  Daviess,  Dr.  J.  P.  Vaughan,  Clark  H.  Green,  A.  J.  Herndon, 
Robert  T.  Prewitt,  Thomas  Sliackelford,  Col.  T.  E.  Williams,  Jolin  P.  Sebree,  with  a 
number  of  others,  are  enrolled  on  that  scroll  of  honor,  and  conspicuous  among  them  was 
Gen.  John  B.  Clark. 

"Clark  was  a  man  of  large  physical  proportions  and  great  strength  of  character.  He 
made  no  boast  of  learning,  and,  indeed,  seemed  to  have  cultivated  or  affected  a  contempt 
for  grammatical  forms,  or  any  of  the  'Macaulay's  flowers  of  speech.'  Singleness  of  verbs 
with  plurality  of  nouns  appeared  as  natural  to  him  as  his  eccentric  pronunciation.  'Toe' 
for  'to,'  'whar'  and  'tliar'  tumbled  off  his  tongue  utterly  careless  of  euphony  or  exactitude. 
But  though  uncouth  in  language  there  was  a  charm  in  his  rough  politeness  that  was  almost 
winning.  The  people  liked  him,  for  though  a  Congressman  and  a  person  whom  all  classes 
consulted,  he  put  on  no  airs  of  superiority,  but  was  a  plain,  blunt  man,  who  loved  his 
friends,  was  obliging,  considerate  and  kind. 

How  the  News  Was  Sent. 

"Jackson  and  Reynolds  arrived  at  Fayette  before  noon,  and  at  the  hotel  were  met  by 
General  Clark,  introduced  to  the  bevy  of  politicians  who  were  lolling  about  the  porch,  and 
soon  shown  to  a  private  room  for  the  momentous  consultation.  The  newspaper  man,  with 
an  eye  to  business,  and  knowing  positively  that  before  the  sun  went  down  the  people  would 
be  advised  to  vote  for  Douglas,  or  that  the  democratic  candidates  would  undertake  to  go 
through  the  canvass  without  committing  themselves  on  the  Presidential  question,  began  to 
look  around  to  see  how  the  news  was  to  be  sent  home.  The  nearest  telegraph  office  was 
at  Boonville,  fourteen  miles  distant,  and  the  office  closed  at  dark.  It  had  been  agreed  to 
permit  Sample  Orr  to  open  the  speaking,  so  that  it  was  desirable  to  get  the  information 
before  the  meeting  began,  and  Mr.  Reynolds  consented  to  pass  the  word  out  of  the  council 
room  immediately  on  the  conclusion  being  reached.  This  was  a  few  minutes  before  two 
o'clock,  and  at  five  the  Republican's  bulletin  board  at  St.  Louis  announced  that  Jackson  and 
Reynolds,  in  their  speeches  at  Fayette,  had  come  out  for  Douglas  and  Johnson.  A  trusty 
boy  bore  the  message  on  horseback  to  Boonville,  whence  it  was  'rushed'  to  the  other  end 
of  the  line.  The  authority  of  the  news  was  at  once  questioned  by  the  Breckinridge  men 
and  ridiculed  till  Monday,  when  it  was  found  by  the  doubters  to  be,  alas !  too  true. 

"It  was  funny  to  hear  Orr  nag  "the  wily  fox  Jackson'  on  his  reticence  relative  to  the 
national  candidates.  'He  "dassent"  come  out  for  either  Breckinridge  or  Douglas,'  said 
Orr.  'Ask  him,  you  democrats,  which  one  he  is  for  and  he  will  tell  you  he  is  concerning 
himself  with  a  state  and  not  a  national  canvass.  Is  he?  Then  is  he  for  state  aid  to  the 
railroads  or  against  it?  Is  he  in  favor  of  finishing  the  roads  to  which  the  state  has  loaned 
her  credit  or  with  leaving  each  of  them  with  a  turn-table  for  a  terminus?'  But  what  was 
his  consternation  w-hen,  it  being  Jackson's  turn  to  speak,  that  gentleman,  after  talking 
about  an  hour,  declared  he  was  not  surprised  that  Mr.  Orr  did  not  know  what  by  that 
time  was  common  property  as  far  east  as  St.  Louis — that  democracy's  state  nominees  stood 
by  democracy's  national  nominees,  namely,  Douglas  and  Johnson.  Here  the  crowd  broke 
out  in  the  wildest  enthusiasm,  and  cheer  upon  cheer  went  up  to  the  very  echo.  Reynolds 
followed,  emphasizing  in  liquid  and  well-rounded  periods  the  determination  that,  he  said, 
had  been  reached  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  after  Major  Jackson  had,  from  the  lips 
of  their  distinguished  representative.  General  Clark,  obtained  an  authentic  report  of  the 
proceedings  at  Baltimore. 

"And  so  that  business  was  over.  It  remained  to  be  seen  what  effect  the  course  chosen 
by  the  candidates  for  governor  and  lieutenant  governor  would  have  upon  the  supporters  of 
Breckinridge,  whose  headquarters  were  in  St.  Louis  about  the  Federal  offices,  and  whose 
organ  was  the  Bulletin,  conducted  by  Snead,  Longuemare  and  Colton  Green. 


o  S.  C 

"  s  s 
Q~.   > 


3  S.  = 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  639 

"The  field  was  now  full:  Claib  Jackson,  Douglas  democrat;  Hancock  Jackson, 
Breckinridge  democrat;  Gardenhire,  republican,  and  Sample  Orr,  Bell  and  Everett.  A 
tremendous  effort  was  made  to  pull  Hancock  Jackson  off  the  track,  without  avail.  Claib 
was  frightened  almost  out  of  his  wits.  At  last  Senator  Green  came  to  his  rescue.  In  a 
speech  at  Chillicothe,  and  a  powerful  one  it  was,  he  advised  the  democracy  whilst  sup- 
porting Breckinridge  not  to  endanger  the  state  ticket,  but  to  vote  for  the  regular  nominees. 
He  vouched  for  their  absolute  soundness,  and  claimed  that  everything  would  be  attained 
in  their  election  that  could  be  wished  from  the  success  of  Hancock  Jackson.  In  two  or 
three  other  places  he  uttered  the  same  counsel. 

Sample  Orr's  Ovation  at  Columbia. 

"Reynolds,  whose  words  were  chronicled  for  the  press  by  the  writer  signed,  spoke  in 
Columbia,  Huntsville,  St.  Joseph,  Plattsburg  and  several  points  on  the  Hannibal  and  St. 
Joseph  railroad,  dividing  time,  except  at  St.  Joe,  with  Sample  Orr.  At  Columbia,  Orr's 
reception  was  something  in  the  nature  of  an  ovation.  He  was  the  lion  of  the  town.  Rol- 
lins, Guitar  and  Switzler,  who  were  the  sun.  moon  and  planetary  system  of  that  great  seat 
of  dense  old  line  whig  intelligence,  took  him  up  in  their  arms,  as  it  were.  The  meeting, 
instead  of  a  debate  between  Orr  and  Reynolds  only,  became  a  general  engagement.  Guitar 
spoke  in  sticks  of  silver  nitrate,  the  very  lunar  caustic  of  invective,  against  Jackson  and 
the  scheme  of  secession,  of  which  he  charged  him  with  being  a  knight  in  thin  disguise. 
Reynolds'  silken  sentences,  glistening  with  their  fine  embroidery,  Orr  imitated  with  a 
school-girl's  lisp,  and  against  them  he  brought  up  his  batteries  of  anecdote  and  ridicule. 
Reynolds  was  scholarly,  logical,  persuasive — Orr  was  simply  ad  hnmincm,  ad  cafilandum. 
Large  was  his  bounty  of  backwoods  stories,  and  in  their  application  he  was  always  happy. 

"And  so  the  canvass  went.  Gardenhire,  who  had  been  an  emancipation  member  of 
the  legislature  of  the  Blair  school,  and  who  lived  in  Gasconade,  where  there  was  a  large 
settlement  of  German  wine-growers,  was  scarcely  heard  of.  A  big  fight  was  on  in  St. 
Louis,  and  there  the  republican  speaking  talent  was  mostly  concentrated. 

"In  the  legislative  contests  throughout  the  state  no  uniformity  was  observed  by  the 
followers  of  either  Douglas,  Breckinridge,  Bell  or  Lincoln.  In  some  counties  the  Bell  men 
conceded  the  legislative  ticket  to  the  Breckinridge  faction  in  exchange  for  sheriff  or 
collector.  In  some  the  Douglas  and  Breckinridge  men  combined  for  members  of  the 
state  senate  or  house.  It  turned  out  that  the  supporters  of  Breckinridge,  though  greatly 
in  the  minority  in  the  state  at  large,  secured  a  strong  showing  in  the  general  assembly, 
though  not  a  majority  of  that  body.  For  governor,  Gardenhire  had  6,137;  Hancock  Jack- 
son, 11,416;  Orr,  66,583;  C.  F.  Jackson,  74,446 — Jackson  over  Orr,  7,863.  Green,  combined 
with  the  less  radical  of  the  supporters  of  Breckinridge,  had  saved  Claiborne  F.  at  last, 
for  they  could  easily  have  defeated  him,  as  shown  by  the  presidential  election,  in  which  the 
candidates  stood:  Lincoln,  17,028;  Breckinridge,  31,317;  Bell,  58,372;  Douglas,  58,801 — 
Douglas  over  Bell,  429;  Breckinridge  over  Hancock  Jackson,  19,901;  Douglas  over  Breck- 
inridge, 27,484. 

"To  have  been  beaten. by  this  'unknown,'  Orr,  would,  indeed,  have  been  an  humiliation 
to  Claib  Jackson.  A  thought  of  that  kind,  if  it  had  entered  his  head,  would  have  sent 
him  distracted,  for  he  had  formed  the  supremest  contempt  for  him  on  account  of  his 
presumption.  Jackson  had  never  calculated  on  less  than  25,000  plurality,  and  to  have  re- 
ceived less  than  one-third  of  it  was  disappointment  enough.  As  for  Orr,  he  made  his  exit 
from  politics  in  Missouri  as  mysteriously  as  he  entered.  Not  long  after  the  election  he 
'went  West,'  and  was  last  heard  from  in  Montana.  Like  a  meteor,  he  shot  athwart  the 
sky  in  a  gleaming  path  and  disappeared." 

Blair's  First  Speech  after  the  War. 

"In  the  outskirts  of  Louisiana,  Mo.,"  said  Champ  Clark,  "stand  four  immense 
sugar  trees,  which,  if  the  Druidical  rehgion  were  in  vogue  in  the  Missouri  Valley, 


640  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

would  be  set  aside  as  objects  of  worship  by  democrats.  They  form  the  corners 
of  a  rectangle  about  large  enough  for  a  speaker's  platform.  Beneath  their  grate- 
ful shadow,  with  the  Father  of  Waters  behind  him,  the  eternal  hills  in  front  of 
him,  the  blue  sky  above  his  head,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  and  curious  concourse 
of  people,  Frank  Blair  made  the  first  democratic  speech  in  Missouri  after  the 
close  of  the  Civil  war.  Excitement  was  intense.  Armed  men  of  all  shades  of 
opinion  abounded  on  every  hand.  When  Blair  arose  to  speak  he  unbuckled  his 
pistol  belt  and  coolly  laid  two  navy  revolvers  on  the  table.  He  prefaced  his 
remarks  as  follows : 

"'Fellow  citizens.  I  understand  that  I  am  to  be  killed  here  today.  I  have  just  come 
out  of  four  years  of  that  sort  of  business.  If  there  is  to  be  any  of  it  here,  it  had  better 
be  attended  to  before  the  speaking  begins.' 

"That  calm  but  pregnant  exordium  has  perhaps  no  counterpart  in  the  entire  range 
of   oratory. 

"  'There  was  silence  deep  as  death ; 
And  the  boldest  held  his  breath 
For  a  time.' 

"He  then  proceeded  with  his  speech,  but  had  not  been  going  more  than  five  minutes 
until  a  man  of  gigantic  proportions  started  toward  him,  shaking  his  huge  fist  and  shout- 
ing, 'He's  an  arrant  rebel  I  Take  him  out!  Take  him  out!'  Blair  stopped,  looked  the 
man  in  the  face,  crooked  his  finger  at  him  and  said,  'You  come  and  take  me  out!'  which 
put  an  end  to  that  episode,  for  the  man  who  was  yelling,  'Take  him  out!'  suddenly  realized 
that  Blair's  index  finger,  which  was  beckoning  him  on,  would  soon  be  pressing  the  trigger 
of  one  of  those  pistols  if  he  did  go  on,  and  he  prudently  declined  Blair's  invitation. 

"He  got  through  that  day  without  bloodshed ;  but  when  he  spoke  at  Warrensburg.  a 
little  later,  he  had  not  proceeded  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  a  prominent  citizen  sitting 
on  the  speaker's  stand  started  toward  Blair  with  a  pistol  in  his  hand  and  with  a  mighty 
oath,  yelling,  'That  statement  is  a  lie!'  which  instantly  precipitated  a  free  fight,  in  which 
one  man  was  killed  and  several  severely  wounded.  Blair  went  on  with  his  speech  amid 
ceaseless  interruptions.  I  know  a  venerable,  mild-mannered  Christian  statesman,  now  in 
this  very  capitol,  who,  for  two  mortal  hours  of  that  pandemonium  stood  with  his  hand 
upon  his  revolver  ready  to  shoot  down  any  man  that  assaulted  Blair. 

"Afterwards  Blair  was  advertised  to  speak  at  Marshall,  in  Saline  county.  On  the 
day  of  his  arrival  an  armed  mob  was  organized  to  prevent  him  from  speaking,  and  an 
armed  body  of  democrats  swore  he  should.  A  collision  occurred,  resulting  in  a  regular 
pitched  battle,  in  which  several  men  lost  their  lives  and  others  were  badly  injured.  But 
Blair  made  his   speech. 

"One  night  he  was  speaking  in  Lucas  Market  place,  in  St.  Louis,  when  a  man  in  the 
crowd,  not  twenty  feet  from  the  stand,  pointed  a  revolver  directly  at  him.  Friendly  hands 
interposed  to  turn  the  aim  skyward.  'Let  him  shoot,  if  he  dares,'  said  Blair,  gazing 
coolly  at  his  would-be  murderer.  'If  I  am  wrong,  I  ought  to  be  shot,  but  this  man  is  not 
the  proper  executioner.'     The   fellow  was  hustled   from   the  audience. 

"Amid  such  scenes  he  toured  the  state  from  the  Des  Moines  river  to  the  Arkansas 
line  and  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  raging  Kaw.  The  man  who  did  that 
had   a  lion's  heart   in  his   breast. " 

"Before  the  war  Blair  went  to  Hannibal  to  make  an  emancipation  speech.  A  mob 
gathered  to  break  up  the  meeting.  While  he  was  speaking  some  one  hit  him  squarely  in 
the  forehead  with  an  egg.  He  wiped  it  off  with  his  finger,  flipped  it  on  the  ground,  and 
imperturbably  proceeded,  making  not  the  slightest  allusion  to  the  incident.  His  marvelous 
nerve  charmed  his  audience,  hostile  though  it  was,  and  those  who  had  come  to  stone  him 
remained    to   applaud." 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  641 

Champ  Clark  said  Frank  Blair  "was  pronounced  by  General  Grant  to  be  one 
of  the  two  best  volunteer  officers  in  the  service,  John  A.  Logan,  'the  black  eagle  of 
Illinois,'  being  the  other.  In  Sherman's  famous  march  to  the  sea  Blair  com- 
manded a  corps,  and  was  considered  the  Marshal  Ney  of  the  army." 

"Frank  Blair,  with  his  military  laurels  fresh  upon  him,  within  a  few  days  after  Lee 
surrendered,  returned  to  his  state,  which  had  been  ravaged  by  fire  and  sword,  holding 
aloft  the  olive  branch,  proclaiming  to  the  world  that  there  were  no  rebels  any  more,  that 
his  fellow-citizens  who  had  fought  for  the  South  were  entitled  to  equal  rights  with  other 
citizens,  that  real  peace  must  'tinkle  with  the  shepherd's  bells  and  sing  among  the  reapers' 
of  Missouri.  He  took  the  ragged  and  defeated  Confederates  by  the  hand  and,  in  the  words 
of  Abraham  to   Lot,   said,   'We  be   brethren.' " 

The  Riot  at  Warrensbvirg. 

When  Blair  arrived  in  Warrensburg  to  speak,  he  was  met  at  Ming's  hotel 
by  friends  who  told  him  his  life  had  been  threatened  and  that  it  would  be  inad- 
visable for  him  to  carry  out  the  program.  He  replied :  "Gentlemen,  I  will  speak 
this  afternoon  and  I  will  explode  a  shell  in  this  town  that  will  be  remembered  by 
these  scoundrels  as  long  as  they  live."  The  speaking  began  at  one  o'clock.  Blair 
had  been  talking  onl\'  a  few  minutes  w-hen  Bill  Stephens  climbed  on  the  platform 
and  called  Blair  a  liar.  Stephens  was  pushed  off  the  stand.  This  was  the  signal 
for  his  followers  to  make  the  attack.  The  platform  was  pulled  down.  Blair  con- 
tinued to  speak.  Stephens  approached  him  again  and  used  insulting  language. 
In  the  fighting  w-hich  ensued  Bill  Stephens'  son,  Jim,  was  killed  with  a  knife  and 
another  man  was  badly  hurt.  The  disturbers  withdrew.  Blair  talked  until  late 
in  the  afternoon.  The  incident  was  the  climax  of  Johnson  county's  reign  of 
terror.  A  vigilance  committee  was  formed,  and  went  about  its  work  of  cleaning 
up  the  "Comanche  Nation"  as  one  neighborhood  in  the  county  was  known.  After 
six  men  had  been  tried  by  Judge  Lynch  and  executed,  the  committee  disbanded. 
There  was  no  more  trouble.  Johnson  became  one  of  the  model  counties  in  Mis- 
souri, in  respect  to  law  and  order.  William  F.  Switzler  accompanied  Blair  to 
Mexico  in  Audrain  county  during  that  same  campaign.  He  described  what  took 
place  during  the  speaking: 

"Although  his  mission  was  one  of  peace  and  in  the  interest  of  a  reconstructed  Union 
and  the  restoration  of  a  free  ballot  to  all  those  who  had  been  disfranchised  by  the  Drake 
constitution,  there  was  present  a  small  and  boisterous  coterie  of  e.\-L'nion  soldiers  who 
threatened  to  take  him  from  the  stand.  The  crowd  of  citizens  present  was  very  great  and 
filled  a  large  grove  of  forest  trees  in  which  the  platform  was  erected.  Attention  was 
profound.  Order  was  perfect,  but  just  at  the  crisis  of  Blair's  warming  to  his  subject  a 
large,  stalwart  man  in  the  audience,  dressed  in  the  faded  blue  uniform  of  a  soldier,  in 
the  midst  of  others  similarly  dressed,  cried  out:  'He's  a  rebel!  Let  us  take  him  down!' 
and  moved  toward  the  stand.  The  audience  was  panic-stricken,  but  Blair  was  unmoved. 
More  than  this — he  was  unawed.  He  waved  his  hand  to  the  audience  and  said :  'Keep 
your  seats ;  there's  no  danger.'  At  the  same  moment  he  laid  two  big  revolvers  on  the 
stand  in  front  of  him  and  denounced  the  leader  of  the  threatened  mob  as  a  coward,  telling 
him  to  come  on  and  take  him  down,  and  that  he  was  ready  for  him.  But  he  didn't  come, 
and  that  was  the  end  of  it,  except  that  Blair  spoke  for  more  than  two  hours  amid 
demonstrations   of  great   applaus» " 

Vol.  1—41 


642  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Voting  on  String." 

"Voting  on  string"  was  one  of  the  devices  of  reconstruction  days  in  Missouri. 
It  was  adopted  to  avoid  trouble  at  the  polls.  X'oters  who  took  the  Drake,  or  iron 
clad,  oath,  were  registered  and  no  question  was  raised  of  their  right  to  cast  bal- 
lots. There  were  thousands  who  did  not  take  the  oath  and  were  not  registered, 
but  who  insisted  on  voting.  Some  of  these  were  men  of  determination  who  were 
bent  on  exercising  their  suffrage  rights  as  they  conceived  them.  To  refuse  the 
ballots  of  these  men  meant  violence  at  the  polls.  As  judges  of  election  were 
limited  to  those  who  were  registered,  there  was  nothing  in  the  way  of  the  scheme 
called  "voting  by  string"  and  it  was  adopted  at  not  a  few  polling  places.  When 
the  voter  who  was  not  on  the  registration  list  offered  his  ballot  it  was  received 
without  question,  but,  instead  of  being  placed  in  the  box,  was  run  on  a  string. 
When  the  judges  made  their  returns  they  counted  only  the  votes  in  the  box. 
The  secret  of  voting  by  string  was  well  kept  and  unregistered  voters  went  away 
from  the  polls  under  the  impression  that  their  ballots  were  to  be  counted. 

The  Liberal  Republican  Movement. 

The  republican  split  came  in  the  state  nominating  convention  at  Jefferson 
City,  Augu.st  31,  1870.  The  issue  was  enfranchisement  of  those  who  had  been 
in  the  Confederate  army  or  in  sympathy  with  the  Confederacy.  Two  reports 
were  made  from  the  committee  on  platform.  The  majority  of  the  committee 
reported  in  favor  of  a  very  liberal  policy.  The  minority  of  the  committee  re- 
ported differently,  but  when  the  two  reports  reached  the  convention  the  report  of 
the  minority  was  adopted.  The  supporters  of  the  majority  report,  numbering 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  delegates,  withdrew  and  nominated  a  state  ticket 
with  B.  Gratz  Brown  as  candidate  for  governor.  The  other  convention  nomi- 
nated McClurg  for  governor.  Each  of  the  factions  put  out  a  full  state  ticket. 
The  following  extracts  from  the  two  platforms  show  the  differences  of  opinion 
which  led  to  the  division : 

Majority  or  Liberal  Platform.  "Fourth.  That  the  time  has  come  when  the 
requirements  of  public  safety,  upon  which  alone  the  disfranchisement  of  a  large 
number  of  citizens  could  be  justified,  has  clearly  ceased  to  exist,  and  this  con- 
vention, therefore,  true  to  the  solemn  pledges  recorded  in  our  National  and 
state  platforms,  declares  itself  unequivocally  in  favor  of  the  adoption  of  the 
constitutional  amendments  commonly  called  the  suffrage  and  office  holding  amend- 
ments, believing  that  under  existing  circumstances  the  removal  of  political  dis- 
abilities, as  well  as  the  extension  of  equal  political  rights  and  privileges  to  all 
classes  of  citizens,  without  distinction,  is  demanded  by  every  consideration  of 
good  faith,  patriotism  and  sound  policy,  and  essential  to  the  integrity  of  repub- 
lican institutions,  to  the  welfare  of  the  state,  and  to  the  honor  and  preservation 
of  the  republican  party." 

Minority  or  Radical  Platform.  "Third.  That  we  are  in  favor  of  re-enfran- 
chising those  justly  disenfranchised  for  participation  in  the  late  rebellion,  as  soon 
as  it  can  be  done  with  safety  to  the  state,  and  that  we  concur  in  the  propriety  of 
the  legislature  having  submitted  to  the  whole  people  of  the  state  the  question 
whether  such  time  has  now  arrived  ;  upon  which  question  we  recognize  the  right 
of  any  member  of  the  party  to  vote  his  honest  convictions." 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  M-l 

The  democrats  refrained  from  making  nominations  that  year,  with  the  result 
that  the  liberal  republican  ticket  received  a  majority  of  over  forty  thousand. 

The  Possum  Policy. 

In  a  newspaper  office  was  born  the  passive  or  "possum  policy,"  as  it  was 
called.  Democratic  co-operation  was  essential  to  the  success  of  the  liberal 
republican  plan.  The  office  was  the  Missouri  Republican.  The  time  was  1870. 
William  Hyde  and  William  H.  Swift,  with  the  advice  of  that  astute  politician, 
Henry  C.  Brockmeyer,  and  with  the  approval  of  George  and  John  Knapp,  com- 
mitted the  democratic  organization  to  the  passive  policy.  Conflict  of  political 
opinion  in  Missouri  was  over  the  test  oath  and  the  disfranchisement  uf  the  Con- 
federates. Republicans  were  divided.  From  the  Republican  office  was  exercised 
the  influence  which  prompted  Aylett  H.  Buckner,  chairman  of  the  democratic 
state  central  committee,  to  call  a  meeting  in  St.  Louis.  Swift  was  the  secretary 
of  the  committee.  Resolutions  binding  the  committee  not  to  call  a  state  con- 
vention that  year,  1870,  were  carefully  drawn  and  kept  secret  until  the  meeting 
was  held.  There  were  members  who  opposed  the  proposition  and  who  favored 
the  making  of  a  straight  fight.  Before  the  opposition  could  organize,  General 
James  Shields  moved  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions  and  the  democratic  party  of 
Missouri  was  bound  to  make  no  nominations  that  year.  There  was  no  little  pro- 
Jest  but  the  compact  with  the  liberal  republicans  was  carried  out. 

Newspaper  enterprise  had  something  to  do  with  the  success  of  the  plan.  It 
was  essential  that  the  republican  convention,  which  was  to  divide,  should  be 
handled  with  care.  William  H.  Swift  was  sent  to  Jefferson  City  for  the  Missouri 
Republican.  His  instructions  were  to  spare  no  expense.  It  was  of  the  greatest 
importance  that  the  liberal  republican  movement  and  the  passive  policy  should 
be  given  a  good  send-off'  for  the  effect  upon  public  sentiment  in  the  state.  "Hold- 
ing the  wire"  was  a  newspaper  feat  made  possible  in  those  days  by  a  rule  of  the 
telegraph  companies.  In  the  time  of  few  wires  and  few  operators,  the  news- 
paper which  filed  matter  first  had  exclusive  use  of  the  facilities  for  transmission 
until  all  of  its  matter  had  been  sent.  Telegraph  officials  exercised  no  discretion 
as  to  character  of  copy.  They  broke  in  on  press  copy  only  to  send  commercial 
messages.  Swift  found  two  wires  working  from  Jefferson  City  to  St.  Louis.  He 
pre-empted  them.  On  the  hook  over  one  instrument  he  hung  the  United  States 
'  statutes  and  on  the  hook  over  the  other  table  he  hung  the  statutes  of  Missouri. 
Then  he  went  about  the  collection  and  preparation  of  news  of  the  convention. 
When  the  operators  were  ready  for  press  they  started  on  the  statutes.  \\'hen 
Mr.  Swift  came  in  with  copy  he  slipped  the  sheets  into  the  statutes  so  that  they 
would  go  next.  When  other  correspondents  attempted  to  send,  they  discovered 
that  they  were  barred  so  long  as  the  Missouri  Republican  was  willing  to  pay  tolls 
on  the  statutes.  Thus  the  anxious  St.  Louis  public,  during  the  hours  while  the 
split  between  the  republican  factions  at  Jefferson  City  was  widening,  received 
information  through  a  channel  which  gave  the  passive  policy  the  best  of  it.  In 
his  extremity,  Emil  Preetorius  appealed  to  George  Knapp  to  let  a  dispatch  go 
through  to  the  Westliche  Po.st.  .Xnd  the  colonel,  chivalric  as  he  was,  issued  the 
order  to  Mr.  Swift  to  oblige  Mr.  Preetorius.  Swift  refused.  Colonel  George 
threatened  discharge.     Swift  was  firm.     Holding  the  wire  meant  a  bill  of  $1,500 


644  CENTENNIAL  1I1ST(')R^■  OF  MISSOURI 

to  the  Republican.  \\'hen  the  correspondent  got  back  to  St.  Louis  and  went  down 
to  the  office  to  turn  in  his  expense  account  and  to  receive  his  discharge,  George 
Knapp  handed  him  an  honorarium  of  S5.00  and  told  him  to  take  a  vacation  for 
two  weeks.  "Pay  no  attention  to  what  I  said  to  you  at  Jefferson  City,"  Colonel 
Knapp  said  with  a  ghost  of  a  smile. 

Following  the  convention  at  Jefiferson  City,  the  following  messages  were 
e.xchanged : 

"St.  Louis,  Sept.  2,   1870. 
"B.   Gralz   Brown, 

"Jeffer-son   City. 
"The  negroe.s  of  this  state  are   free.     White  men  only  are  now  enslaved.     The  people 
look   to   you   and   your   friends   to   deliver   them    from   this   great   wrong.      Shall   they   look 
ill   vain?  J.   R.   Henderson." 

"Jefferson   City,   Sept.  2,    1870. 
"Hon.   John   B.   Henderson, 
"St.  Louis. 
"The  confidence  of  the  people  of  this  state  shall  not  be  disappointed.     I  will  carry  out 
this  canvass  to  its  ultimate  consequence  so  that  no  freeman  not  convicted  of  crime  shall 
henceforth  be  deprived  of  an  equal  voice  in  our  government.  B.  Gratz  Brown." 

Frederick  N.  Judson's  Analysis. 

Of  the  liberal  republican  niovtnicnt  and  its  passing,  Frederick  N.  Judson, 
who  was  secretary  to  Governor  B.  Gratz  Brown,  said :  "The  completeness  of  its 
success  was  the  cause  of  its  disappearance.  A  party  based  upon  a  single  issue, 
called  into  being  to  meet  a  single  emergency,  could  not  in  the  nature  of  things 
become  permanent.  Its  policies  remained  permanently  adopted  by  the  state, 
and  though  its  party  life  was  short,  it  is  entitled  to  the  imperishable  glory  of 
having  destroyed  the  last  vestiges  of  the  Civil  war  in  Missouri.  A  nobler  record 
no  party  could  have. 

"The  members  of  the  liberal  republican  party  returned  to  the  republican  or 
democratic  parties,  as  their  opinions  or  i)rejudices  inclined  them.  The  greater 
number,  doubtless,  returned  to  the  republican  party ;  this  was  certainly  true  as 
to  the  German-American  voters  who  had  contributed  \ery  largely  to  the  liberal 
movement. 

"The  extent  of  the  disfranchisement  which  was  ended  by  the  liberal  repub- 
lican success  may  be  estimated  by  a  comparison  of  the  total  vote  at  different 
elections.  The  total  vote  in  i860,  the  last  election  before  the  Civil  war,  was 
165,000.  In  1864,  while  the  Civil  war  was  raging,  it  was  103,000.  In  1870. 
the  year  of  the  liberal  republican  success,  when  the  colored  voters,  enfranchised 
under  the  fifteenth  amendment,  voted  for  the  first  time,  the  total  was  167,600, 
showing  but  a  slight  increase  over  i860,  though  there  had  been  a  very  heavy 
increase  in  population.  In  1872,  the  first  election  after  the  removal  of  the  dis- 
abilities, the  total  vote  was  272,900,  being  an  increase  of  over  100,000  from  the 
two  years  before." 

A  Letter  from  B,  Gratz  Brown. 

.\  letter  from  B.  Oatz  Brown  to  his  personal  friend,  Senator  Doohttle,  of 
Wisconsin,  |)reserved  in  the  manuscript  archives  of  the  Missouri  Historical  So- 


■  iiilr,!    .M,,-,,,iiii  ilistoridil  Slid,. IV 

VOLUNTKER  FIRK  DEPARTMENT,  ST.  LOUIS.  18-l:i 


Courtesy  Missoviri  Historical  Society 

TOM   Tin. MB   I\   ST.   LOUIS   IN    1848 

His  (';irii:i};e   nnd    r:iir,   driven   liy   ;i    Dwiiif   Coni'linun*,   on    Exliiliition    ;it    Fniirfli    .nml    Olivi 

Streets.     View  is  loiikiii};  west   from   Eoiirtli. 


MISSOURI   CAMPAIGN'S  647 

ciety,  is  interesting  in  its  relation  to  tiic  liberal   republican  movement.     It  was 
dated  October  17th,   1870: 

"This,  you  will  understand,  of  course,  is  a  Ijitter  fight  in  Missouri;  first,  because  it  is 
death  to  the  'rings';  and  second,  because  it  has  its  ulterior  significance,  and  there  will  be 
nothing  left  undone  on  either  side  to  decide  the   issue. 

"I  can  only  say  to  you  in  a  few  words  that  I  will  win  by  not  less  than  thirty  thousand 
majority — the   President.   Grant,  and  his  influence  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

"I  thank  you  and  the  friends  in  other  states  for  your  good  feeling  in  this  matter. 
Perhaps  I  am  not  the  right  man  to  have  taken  the  lead  in  such  a  conflict ;  hut  there  was 
no  other  that  would  do  it,  and  the  thing  had  to  be  done.  So,  you  see,  despite  all  my  wishes 
and  all  my  designs,  I  am  involved  in  i)olitics  again  much  to  the  detriment  of  my  agricul- 
tural plans." 

New  Paxty  Movements, 

In  i(S74  various  elements  oppo.sed  to  the  Democracy  organized  as  the  "'Peo- 
ple's party,"  or  the  "Reform  party."  They  nominated  a  state  ticket  headed  by 
William  Gentry  of  Pettis  for  governor,  with  S.  W.  Headlee  of  Greene  for  lieu- 
tenant-governor. "The  Tadpole  party"  was  the  name  bestowed  by  the  regular 
democrats  upon  this  new  political  organization.  The  explanation  was  that  the 
movement  meant  a  transition  state  from  which  democrats  who  joined  it  would 
emerge  as  republicans. 

The  Greenback  party  made  its  appearance  in  1878.  In  1880  it  was  strong 
enough  in  Missouri  to  carry  three  Congressional  districts,  electing  Burrows,  Rice 
and  Haseltine. 

In  the  state  campaign  of  1888  an  organization  called  the  Agricultural  Wheel 
of  Missouri  had  to  be  reckoned  with.  It  was  an  anti-monopoly  movement.  The 
members  called  themselves  the  "wheelers."  The  local  bodies  were  known  as 
wheels.  The  wheelers  declared  independence  of  party  and  indorsed  candidates 
understood  to  be  in  sympathy  with  their  political  creed.  The  preamble  to  the 
constitution  of  the  Agricultural  Wheel  of  Missouri  set  forth  these  declarations: 

"We  believe  there  is  a  God,  the  great  creator  of  all  things,  and  that  He  created  all 
men  free  and  equal,  and  endowed  them  with  certain  inalienable  rights,  such  as  life,  liberty 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  and  that  these  rights  are  a  common  inheritance  and  should 
be  respected  by  all  mankind. 

"We  further  believe  that  any  power  or  influence  that  tends  to  restrict  or  circum- 
scribe any  class  of  our  citizens  in  the  free  exercise  of  these  God-given  rights  and  priv- 
ileges is  detrimental  to  the  best  interest  of  a  free  people. 

"While  it  is  an  established  fact  that  the  laboring  classes  of  mankind  are  the  real 
producers  of  wealth,  we  find  that  they  are  gradually  becoming  oppressed  by  combinations 
of  capital,  and  the  fruits  of  their  toil  absorbed  by  a  class  who  propose  not  only  to  live  on 
the  labor  of  others,  but  to  speedily  amass  fortunes  at  their  expense. 

"We  hold  to  the  principle  that  all  monopolies  are  dangerous  to  the  best  interests  of 
our  country,  tending  to"  enslave  a  free  people  and  subvert  and  finally  overthrow  the  great 
principles  purchased  by  Washington  and  his  glorious  compatriots. 

"We  hold  to  the  principle  that  the  laboring  classes  have  an  inherent  right  to  sell 
and  buy  when  and  wherever  their  interests  are  best  served,  and  patronize  none  who  dare 
— by  word  or  action — oppose  a  just,  fair  and  equitable  exchange  of  the  products  of  our 
labor." 


648  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Wheelers. 

The  wheelers  claimed  a  membership  in  ^Missouri  at  that  time  of  over  40,000. 
Another  independent  movement  in  Missouri  was  the  Farmers'  Alliance.  It  was 
organized  May,  1887,  and  before  the  end  of  the  campaign  of  1888  had  a  mem- 
bership of  between  18,000  and  19,000  voters.  The  alliance  attempted  to  intro- 
duce the  principle  of  co-operation  among  the  farmers.  It  advocated  the  estab- 
lishment of  alliance  stores  upon  the  Rochdale  plan.  The  theory  of  the  alliance 
was  that  "Whatever  wealth  a  man  produces,  to  that  he  should  be  entitled." 
The  co-operative  store  was  tried  out  in  Butler  county.  ^lembers  of  the  alli- 
ance subscribed  enough  money  to  buy  the  stock  of  goods.  For  these  loans  they 
received  the  legal  rate  of  interest.  The  store  was  held  by  an  incorporated  com- 
pany with  a  board  of  directors.  These  directors  employed  a  manager  and  such 
clerks  as  were  necessary  on  salaries.  A  cash  business  was  done  as  far  as  possi- 
ble. Where  credit  was  allowed  it  was  extended  only  until  Saturday  night  or 
until  the  end  of  the  month.  The  goods  were  sold  at  regular  retail  prices.  Each 
member  of  the  alliance  had  a  trade  card  on  which  the  record  of  his  purchases 
was  kept.  The  plan  was  to  clean  up  at  the  end  of  every  six  months,  reserve 
enough  to  pay  interest  on  the  loans  and  divide  the  remaining  profits  among  mem- 
bers of  the  alliance  according  to  the  amount  of  trade  each  one  had  done.  The 
membership  in  the  alliance  was  limited  to  farmers,  farm  laborers,  mechanics, 
country  school  teachers,  county  physicians  and  ministers  of  the  gospel.  Law- 
yers were  not  eligible.  The  alliance  was  very  popular  during  the  political  cam- 
paign, but  the  application  of  the  principle  to  co-operative  store  keeping  was 
limited. 

Callaway's  Low  Salary  Party. 

When  Dr.  W.  B.  Tucker  was  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  collector  in  Calla- 
way county,  he  announced  the  following  platform: 

"I  will  collect  the  revenue  of  this  county  for  the  sum  of  $1,500.  The  law,  as  it 
now  stands,  would  give  me  about  $3,000  for  the  .same  amount  of  work ;  but  to 
show  to  the  legislature  of  the  state  that  the  people  are  overtaxed;  that  we  wish 
to  reduce  the  expenses  of  government  in  every  fair  and  honorable  way,  I  propose 
to  return  all  fees,  to  which  I  may  be  entitled  under  the  law.  over  $1,500,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public  schools  of  the  whole  county.  I  will  further  state, — as  it 
has  been  said  by  some  that  there  will  be  nothing  to  bind  me  to  carry  out  the 
proposition, — that  if  elected,  I  will  deposit  in  one  of  the  banks  of  the  city,  the 
amount  of  the  salary  above  $1,500  per  year,  or  my  note  for  the  same,  with  good 
security,  for  the  uses  and  purposes  indicated  in  this  communication."  Dr. 
Tucker  was  elected. 

Later  the  "Low  Salary  party"  was  organized  in  Callaway  county,  and  nomina- 
tions were  made  of  men  who  agreed  to  perform  the  duties  of  the  respective 
offices  at  smaller  compensation  than  that  fixed  by  law.  "Retrenchment,  Reform 
and  Tuckerism"  was  the  slogan  of  the  new  party.  H.  Larrimore,  the  candidate 
for  representative  in  1878  made  a  keynote  speech  in  the  course  of  which  he 
said: 

"We  have  tried  in  vain  to  get  our  legislature  to  reduce  these  high  salaries.  We  have 
appealed  to  them   with   tears   in  our  eyes,  but  they  have  heeded  us  not.     In   the  midst  of 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  649 

our  wrongs  Tucker  stepped  forward.  He  has  done  a  better  and  a  cleaner  job  than  was 
ever  done  before.  It  is  said  that  Billy  Harrison  voted  against  a  bill  that  would  have 
saved  money  to  the  state.  I  like  Billy.  I  am  a  friend  of  Billy.  I  haven't  looked  up 
Billy's  record.  Billy's  vote  is  natural.  He  is  a  moneyed  man.  Billy  has  an  interest  in  a 
bank  and  it  is  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  him  to  vote  for  his  bank's  interest. 
But  if  you  send  me  to  the  legislature,  I,  who  have  been  used  to  hard  things,  who  have 
paid  ten  per  cent  compound  interest  for  money,  I  will  vote  for  the  interest  of  the  tax 
burdened  people.  I  believe  Billy  bolted  a  convention  once.  Yes,  I  know  he  did.  He  did 
right.  They  would  not  elect  Billy  and  he  bolted.  I  would  have  bolted,  too.  Billy  has 
always  worked  with  the  cliques  and  rings.  He  belongs  to  that  brood  of  roosters  that  was 
raised  up  in  the  Fulton  coop.  He  was  fed  by  the  Fulton  ring.  But  when  Billy  came  out 
of   the   Fulton    convention   he   came   out   with   his   neck   feathers   turned   up.     He   said    he 

would  pick  all  of  the  feathers  out  of  the  frizleys.     Billy  belongs  to  the  frizleys.     But, 

fellow  citizens,  Billy  is  not  gwine  to  roost  in  that  thare  hen  roost  over  in  Jefferson  City 
next  winter.     No  sir, — nary  time." 

That  winter  the  low  salary  party  received  a  severe  backset.  The  supreme 
court  in  litigation  which  was  started  by  the  regular  party  organization  ruled 
that,  "It  is  unlawful  for  a  candidate  for  public  office  to  make  offers  to  the  voters 
to  perform  the  duties  of  the  office,  if  elected,  for  less  than  the  legal  fees.  An 
election  secured  by  such  offers  is  void." 

The  legislature  in  1879  passed  an  act  making  it  a  misdemeanor  punished  by 
fine  of  from  $50  to  $500,  or  imprisonment  from  ten  days  to  six  months,  to  offer 
or  promise  to  discharge  the  duties  of  office  for  less  salary  or  fees  than  fixed 
by  the  laws  of  the  state.  The  low  salary  party  movement  thus  started  in  Calla- 
way, which  Joseph  K.  Rickey  had  characterized  as  "one  of  the  grandest  move- 
ments of  the  age"  and  which  he  had  predicted  "will  go  on  from  the  lakes  to  the 
gulf,  from  the  rockbound  shores  of  Alaine  to  the  golden  sands  of  California,  and 
I  believe  it  will  dash  its  waves  against  the  White  House  at  Washington,"  was 
crushed.  Colonel  Rickey  was  vice  president  of  the  low  salary  party  convention 
which  carried  the  county  of  Callaway. 

The  Blind  Bridle  Story  and  Its  Sequel. 

Champ  Clark  once  credited  David  Ball  of  Pike  county  with  being  the  best 
campaign  story  teller  of  his  generation  in  Missouri.  There  has  been  some  ques- 
tion whether  Champ  Clark  or  his  old  law  partner  Ball  held  the  moral  copyright 
on  the  blind  bridle  story.     Ball  told  it  on  the  stump  in  this  way: 

"The  Republicans  are  like  the  old  farmer  up  in  Pike  county  who  had  a  good  wife 
and  a  bank  account  and  seven  children  and  all  the  things  that  are  worth  living  for,  but 
the  preachers  had  praised  his  goodness  so  much  and  had  told  him  so  often  that  when  he 
died  he  would  go  straight  to  heaven  that  he  believed  it  and  at  last  he  became  so  anxious 
to  get  to  heaven  that  he  decided  to  commit  suicide  as  the  quickest  route.  He  went  to  the 
barn  and  took  an  old  blind  bridle  and  put  the  head  stall  around  his  neck,  climbed  on  a 
barrel,  tied  the  reins  to  a  joist  and  jumped  off.  Just  as  he  was  taking  his  last  kick  his 
son  found  him  and  cut  him  down.    When  the  old  man  came  to,  he  said  to  his  son : 

"'John,  what  did  you   do  that  for?     Why  didn't  you  let  me  die  and  go  to  heaven?' 

"'Dad,  do  you  really  believe  you'd  have  gone  to  heaven?' 

'"I  know  I  would,  John.  Why,  I  could  hear  the  angels  singing  as  it  was.  You 
ought  to  have  let  me  die.     I  would  have  been  in  heaven  now.' 

"'Say,  dad,  don't  you  think  you'd  have  cut  a  caper  in  heaven  with  a  blind  bridle  on?'" 


650  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OI-   .MISSOURI 

Champ  Clark's  version  liad  a  sequel.  As  Mr.  Clark  told  the  story  it  ran 
thus : 

"An  old  man  out  in  Missouri  tried  to  commit  suicide  by  hanging  himself  with  a 
blind  bridle.  His  son  cut  him  down  just  in  time.  On  that  foundation  I  added  this: 
When  the  son  cut  him  down  and  brought  him  to,  the  old  man  complained  feebly :  'It 
ain't  right,  Henry,'  the  old  man  said.     'You've  kept  your  old  father  out  of  heaven.' 

"'You'd  cut  a  figure  in  heaven  looking  through  a  blind  bridle,  wouldn't  you?'  retorted 
the  son. 

"Now  I  regard  that  as  my  best  story.  At  least  it  is  the  most  successful.  Bob  Taylor 
stole  it  after  I  had  used  it  for  years,  and  told  it  in  his  lectures,  and  finally  put  it  in  his 
book.  A  friend  of  mine  named  Jordan  put  the  climax  on  the  story  of  my  story,  though. 
He  supposed  I  had  made  it  all  up,  and  he  told  it  one  night  before  an  audience  out  in  our 
country,  an  audience  that  had  tlie  old  man  whose  son  cut  him  down,  on  the  front  seat. 
The  old  man  broke  down  and  cried  and  that  rather  spoiled  the  point  for  Jordan." 

How  Dockery  Saved  a  Seat  in  Congress. 

The  Dockery  motto  in  politics  was  "Never  leave  anything  undone."  Or  he 
might  have  put  it  differently :  "Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  election.''  Strict 
attention  to  details  was  the  secret  of  his  success.  It  saved  him  from  defeat 
one  time  when  he  was  dovv-ned  as  campaigns  go.  The  republicans  carried  Mis- 
souri in  1894.  They  captured  Alexander  Monroe  Dockery's  district.  They  had 
it  safely  on  Monday  morning.  Yet  Mr.  Dockery  was  elected  when  the  polls 
closed  Tuesday  night.  He  should  have  gone  down  with  Bland  and  Champ 
Clark  and  other  Missouri  democrats  under  the  tidal  wave.  That  he  didn't  was 
due  to  one  of  the  smartest  last  minute  moves  ever  made  in  a  Missouri  campaign. 
iMr.  Dockery  was  about  as  familiar  with  his  constituents  as  Miles  Standish  was 
with  his  army.  He  knew  every  man  in  his  party.  That  Monday  morning  Mr. 
Dockery  realized  better  than  any  other  politician  in  his  district  where  he  stood. 
Monday  afternoon  he  sent  300  telegrams.  The  messages  were  all  of  the  same 
purport.  They  urged  "the  necessity  of  getting  out  our  votes."  Mr.  Dockery 
knew  his  men.  He  luiderstood  the  effect  of  the  reception  of  a  telegram  upon  a 
man  not'  accustomed  to  receiving  a  political  appeal  in  that  form.  He  staked 
his  chances  on  the  impression  of  urgency  which  a  telegram  would  make.  It  was 
no  error  of  judgment.  The  returns  gave  Mr.  Dockery  another  term  in  Congress 
by  fewer  votes  than  the  number  of  telegrams  sent.  Mr.  Dockery's  principle  of 
campaigning  snatched  victory  from  the  jaws  of  defeat. 

Party  Loyalty  in  Missouri  Illustrated. 

Senator  Vest  occasionally  told  a  story  to  illustrate  the  supreme  loyalty  of 
the  Missouri  democracy.  Back  in  the  Ozark  country  lived  Uncle  John,  a  devout 
member  of  the  church  and  a  democrat  of  unswerving  fidelity.  A  democratic 
national  convention  was  in  session.  Uncle  John  was  away  from  the  railroad 
and  the  telegraph.  He  waited  impatiently  for  the  news.  This  was  many  cam- 
paigns ago,  at  a  time  when  the  world  had  been  surfeited  with  the  details  of  a 
great  scandal.  The  young  fellows  rode  up  to  the  house.  They  were  just  from 
town,  and  Uncle^John  came  out  to  hear  what  they  could  tell. 

'"Have  you  heard  the  ticket.  Uncle  John?"  they  asked. 

"No,"  said  Uncle  John.     "Hev  thev  nominated?" 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  651 

"Yep." 

"Who?" 

"Beecher  and  Tilton." 

"Sho!" 

"It's  a  fact.  Uncle  John.  The  democrats  have  nominated  Beecher  for  Presi- 
dent and  Tilton  for  Vice-President." 

The  old  man  looked  incredulously  at  his  informants.  Their  faces  gave  no 
sign  of  deception.  He  gazed  down  the  road  thoughtfully  for  a  few  moments. 
Then,  as  he  turned  to  go  into  the  house,  he  said: 

"Well,  boys,  they're  very  able  men." 

Champ  Clark's  Political  Philosophy. 

"Some  men  are  bound  to  be  democrats  and  some  men  are  bound  to  be  repub- 
licans," reasoned  Champ  Clark  in  a  campaign  speech.  "I  don't  know  what  it 
is,  but  there  seems  to  be  something  in  a  man's  skull  that  makes  it  so.  It  is 
sort'er  like  the  two  forces  in  philosophy,  the  centripetal  force  turns  everything 
into  the  center.  The  centrifugal  turns  everything  out  from  the  center.  That 
is  what  makes  a  republican  party  and  a  democrat  party."  After  a  slight  pause 
Mr.  Clark  added,  "I  don't  know  what  makes  a  third  party." 

Mr.  Clark's  political  philosophy  was  always  interesting.  He  thinks  it  must  be 
habit  that  makes  a  man  go  on  voting  his  party  ticket  when  he  knows  the  other 
thing  is  what  he  ought  to  do.  "The  great  Dr.  Johnson,  father  of  the  English 
dictionary,"  Mr.  Clark  illustrated,  "visited  a  widow  every  night  tor  twenty 
years.  Somebody  said  to  him,  'Doctor,  why  don't  you  marry  her?'  'Marry 
her?'  repeated  the  doctor,  'if  I  did  where  would  I  spend  my  evenings?'  And 
that  is  about  as  good  an  argument."  concluded  Mr.  Clark,  "as  some  men  can 
make  for  going  on  voting  their  party  ticket." 

A  Pike  County  Reminiscence. 

"I  used  to  think  that  a  man  never  made  the  same  political  speech  twice,  and 
I  used  to  wonder  how  in  the  world  they  could  make  so  many  speeches,"  said 
Champ  Clark,  in  talking  of  Missouri  campaigns.  "That  was  before  I  heard 
George  Easley,  who  was  about  the  smartest  man  I  ever  met.  make  the  same 
identical  speech  three  times  in  one  day.  After  that  experience  I  changed  my 
mind.  People  who  have  heard  me  once  in  a  campaign  probably  think  they  are 
getting  something  that  sounds  very  familiar  the  next  time  they  get  in  front  of 
me."  Before  long  experience  enabled  him  to  enlarge  his  repertoire.  Mr.  Clark 
had  one  string  of  very  good  stories  when  he  started  on  a  campaign,  and  he  aimed 
to  make  them  last  him  until  election  'day.  This  habit  led  to  a  funny  scene  some 
years  ago  at  a  speaking  in  one  of  the  Pike  county  townships.  Matt  G.  Reynolds 
was  billed  for  a  republican  speech  at  the  same  time  that  Clark  was  to  expound 
democratic  doctrine.  Time  was  divided  and  it  fell  to  Reynolds  to  make  the 
opening  speech.  Reynolds  had  been  to  several  of  Clark's  meetings  and  he  had 
heard  Clark's  stock  of  stories  until  he  knew  them  by  heart.  So,  after  he  had 
made  his  acknowledgments  to  the  assemblage  gathered  at  the  cross  roads,  Mr. 
Reynolds  started  off  with,  "VVhen  Mr.  Clark  arises  to  address  you  tonight  he 
will  begin  by  telling  you  this  story."     Mr.  Reynolds  gave  the  ston.-  with  which 


652  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

-Mr.  Clark  usually  opened.  He  niade  his  own  application  of  it  and  then  i)ro- 
ceeded  to  the  next  story.  And  he  went  on  until  he  had  told  the  whole  string  of 
stories  which  constituted  Mr.  Clark's  regulation  speech.  And  Champ  Clark  sat 
there  for  an  hour  wondering  how  he  was  going  to  get  even.  When  his  turn 
came  he  had  not  solved  entirely  the  question.  With  considerable  difficulty  he 
went  through  his  improm])tn  remarks,  recalled  some  new  stories  and  refused 
to  meet  Reynolds  in  debate  again. 

Stage  Fright. 

Champ  L'lark  once  owned  up  frankly  to  nervousness  on  the  platform.  He 
said : 

"It  may  interest  young  speakers  wlio  suffer  from  that  most  excruciating:  anfl  exasper- 
ating disease  or  affliction  known  as  'stage  fright'  to  learn  that  even  veterans  are  liable  to 
suffer  from  it.  At  any  rate.  I  have  had  it  so  tiad  twice  in  the  last  eleven  years  that  I 
could  hardly  speak  at  all.  In  1888,  when  I  placed  David  A.  Ball  in  nomination  for  lieuten- 
ant-governor, my  tongue  was  so  dry  that  I  thought  it  would  stick  to  the  roof  of  my 
mouth  in  spite  of  all  I  could  do,  and  my  knees  knocked  together  as  though  I  had  ague. 
Again,  in  1893,  at  Tammany  Hall,  when  I  began,  I  had  as  severe  a  case  of  stage  fright 
as  any  girl  that  ever  appeared  before  the  footlights  for  the  first  time.  But,  in  each 
instance,  there  was  something  in  the  first  sentence  that  set  the  audience  to  laughing  and 
applauding,  and  the  dreadful  sensation — for  that's  what  it  is — passed  off  suddenly.  So 
far  as  I  know,  there  is  neither  preventive  nor  cure  for  this  strange  disease,  if  disease  it 
may  be  called.  There  is  just  a  little  unpleasant  nervousness  immediately  preceding  the 
beginning  of  any  speech  of  importance  that  I  make.  Governor  Charles  P.  Johnson — a 
rare  judge  in  matters  oratorical — once  told  me  that  if  I  ever  ceased  to  feel  that  way  it 
would  be  an  infallible  sign  that  my  powers  as  a  public  speaker  were  on  the  wane." 

The  Spittoon  Racket. 

Under  the  desk  of  each  member  of  the  Missouri  legislature  in  the  old  days 
was  a  big  iron  spittoon  with  a  loose  top.  If  a  speaker  became  tiresome  or  voiced 
unpopular  sentiment,  it  was  the  custom  to  rattle  the  spittoons.  A  member 
could  insert  the  toe  of  his  shoe  under  the  cover  and  by  withdrawing  it  suddenly 
make  a  sharp  clicking  noise.  He  could  do  this  secretly  so  that  only  those  very 
near  him  could- discover  his  action.  If,  as  sometimes  happened,  a  considerable 
number  joined  in  the  rebuke  the  noise  wotild  drown  an  ordinary  tone.  Spittoon 
rattling  was  not  infrequently  resorted  to  as  a  method  of  disconcerting  new 
members  when  they  took  the  floor  for  their  maiden  efforts.  Champ  Clark  came 
to  the  legislature  for  his  first  term.  He  had  heard  about  the  spittoon  rattling. 
When  he  arose  to  make  his  first  speech  he  was  given  close  attention.  For  ten 
minutes  he  went  on  without  interruption.  Then  from  a  few  seats  back  of  him 
came  the  "click,"  "click."  "click."  Turning  squarely  about  and  looking  straight 
in  the  direction  from  which  the  sound  came,  his  face  flaming  with  indignation, 
Mr.  Clark  said :  "The  next  man  that  interrupts  me  that  way  will  have  a  spittoon 
fired  at  his  head."  He  never  heard  another  spittoon  rattle  when  he  had  the 
floor  during  his  entire  legislative  service. 

Oratory  and  Eats  in  the  Ozarks. 

Judge  David  P.  Dyer,  in  a  reminiscent  mood,  told  of  this  incident  in  a  Mis- 
souri campaign : 


MISSOURI  CAMPAIGNS  653 

"It  was  at  the  close  of  a  remarkable  campaign  in  Missouri  politics.  Judge  Lamm  and 
I  were  republicans ;  our  democratic  friends  had  a  rally  at  Springfield,  the  largest  that  had 
been  had  in  that  part  of  the  state,  and  a  beautiful  day  it  was  when  their  rally  came.  Their 
orators  were  there ;  great  crowds  were  there,  and  the  ne.xt  day  had  been  set  aside  for  the 
republican  rally.  It  was  the  year  that  Judge  Lewis,  now  Federal  judge  in  Colorado,  was 
the  candidate  of  the  republican  party  for  governor  of  Missouri.  Lamm  and  I,  with  others, 
went  to  Springfield  for  this  republican  rally.  Men  from  the  mountains — Ozark  mountains 
— and  all  around  came  in  great  numbers,  by  wagon,  on  horseback  and  otherwise,  camped 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  town  and  were  undertaking  to  outdo  their  opponents  by  the  size 
of  the  crowd  and  enthusiasm  that  was  had  at  the  meeting.  We  woke  up  about  sunrise 
of  the  next  morning,  the  morning  that  the  rally  was  to  be,  and  I  have  never  seen  it  rain 
as  hard  in  my  life  as  it  rained  that  day.  It  rained  all  day  and  they  divided  up  the  crowd 
by  sending  part  of  them  to  the  opera  house  and  part  of  them  to  the  court  house  and  a 
part  to  some  other  hall  and  so  the  meetings  were  running  all  day.  I  was  on  the  north 
side  of  the  town.  They  sent  Lamm  over  to  the  court  house  and  he  was  making  a  speech 
about  12  o'clock.  Judge  Hubbard,  who  had  been  judge  of  the  circuit  court  and  I  believe 
then  was  judge  of  the  circuit  court,  was  the  marshal  on  that  occasion  and  I  will  never 
forget  the  size  of  the  sash  he  wore.  It  was  a  red,  white  and  blue  sash  a  yard  wide  and 
ten  feet  long  and  he  was  an  excitable  fellow  and  very  nervous.  Lamm  was  making  a 
speech  and  he  was  making  a  most  eloquent  one.  He  had  the  crowd  entranced,  and  just 
as  he  was  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  with  his  mouth  wide  open  and  his  hand  uplifted 
Hubbard  said,  "I  want  to  announce  to  the  people  here  assembled  that  there  is  a  free  lunch 
downstairs.'  And  that  crowd  left  Judge  Lamm  with  his  mouth  open  and  his  hand  up. 
He  stood  until  he  saw  the  last  one  of  his  auditors  pass  downstairs." 

Vest's  Political  Barometer  for  Missouri. 

Senator  \'est  was  not  surprised  at  the  result  of  the  election  in  1900.  He 
realized  what  was  coming  early  in  the  campaign  and  on  his  return  to  Washing- 
ton he  told  how  the  truth  dawned  upon  him.  One  day  in  September  he  went 
down  to  the  barber  shop  at  Sweet  Springs,  where  he  had  a  cottage.  He  was 
sitting  in  a  chair  out  of  the  way  of  ordinary  obserxation  when  two  typical  Mis- 
souri farmers  came  in  and  began  to  talk  politics.  "Bill,"  the  senator  heard 
one  say  to  the  other,  "what  do  you  think  about  the  election  anyhow?"  The 
senator  was  all  attention,  for  he  knew  how  to  catch  the  course  of  the  wind  with 
a  mighty  small  straw.  "I  dunno,  Jim."  said  Bill.  "I  dunno  hardly  what  to 
think.  You  know  I've  allers  been  a  democrat,  Jim.  Dad  was  a  democrat  before 
me.  Grandpap  was  a  democrat,  too.  But  I  tell  you.  Jim,  I'm  getting  $32  a  head 
more  for  my  mules  than  I  ever  did  in  my  life  before.  Derned  if  I  don't  think 
I'll  have  to  put  in  one  fer  old  Bill  McKinley  this  time."  There  was  silence 
for  part  of  a  minute  and  then  the  reply  from  the  other:  "I  reckon.  Bill,  you're 
right,"  said  Jim.  thoughtfully.  "I've  always  voted  her  straight  democrat  up  till 
now.  But  I'm  doin'  better  on  hogs  than  I  ever  did.  I  don't  want  anything  to 
spoil  good  times.  I  don't  want  ary  change."  The  senator  did  not  interrtipt. 
He  sat  awhile  longer  and  then  he  went  slowly  back  to  the  cottage  and  said  to 
Mrs.  Vest:  "McKinley  is  going  to  be  elected.  Bryan  hasn't  a  chance."  He 
told  the  barber  shop  incident  and  added  simply  his  conviction  that  when  Mis- 
souri democrats  talked  that  way  there  could  be  no  doubt  how  the  country  was 
going. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

SLAVERY  AND  AFTER 

Immigration  Influenced — Illinois  Envious  of  Missouri  Prosperity — The  Secret  Emancipa- 
tion Movement — Benton's  Participation — Coming  of  Lovejoy — Wrecking  of  the  St. 
Louis  Observer — The  Alton  Tragedy — Treatment  of  Missouri  Slaves — What  Kossuth 
Saw — A  Problem  of  Colonial  Days — Marion  College  Troubles — Rev.  Dr.  Nelson's 
E.rputsion — Theological  Students  Sent  to  the  Penitentiar\) — Shackleford's  Reminiscences 
— Dred  Scott — Five  Years  of  Litigation — The  Missouri  Compromise  Unconstitutional 
— The  Case  Judge  Dyer  Defended — Blair  Slaves  Set  Free — Lincoln  and  Blair  Confer- 
ences— Slavery  Issue  in  i860 — Auctions  in  St.  Louis  made  Odious — Lincoln's  Plan  to 
Pay  Missouri  Slaveholders — John  B.  Henderson's  Recollections — Norton's  Effective 
Opposition — Charcoals  and  Claybanks — First  and  Second  Plans  of  Freedom — The  Elec- 
tion of  J862 — Negro  Education — Lincoln  Institute — Jesse  James'  Contribution — .Manual 
Training — Samuel  Cupples'  Interest — Vest  on  the  ex-Slai'e — Negro  Farming  in  Mis- 
souri— Record  Breaking  Results  at  the  Dalton  School — Calvin  M.  IVoodward's  Monu- 
ment— Slavery  in  Missouri  an  Economic  Mistake — Profitable  in  Only  Four  Hemp  Grow- 
ing Counties — An  After-the-War  Investigation. 

We  can't  get  through  this  terrible  war  with  slavery  existing.  You've  got  sense  enough  to  know  that. 
Why  can't  you  make  the  border  states'  members  see  it?  Why  don't  you  turn  in  and  take  pay  for  yout 
slaves  from  the  government?  Then  all  your  people  can  give  their  hearty  support  to  the  Union  We  can 
go  ahead  with  emancipation  of  the  slaves  by  proclamation  in  the  other  states  and  end  the  trouble. — 
President  Lincoln  to  Senator  John  B.  Henderson  in  1862. 

No  sooner  was  Missouri  admitted  to  the  Union  than  there  was  a  renewal  of 
the  slavery  issue  in  the  new-made  state  across  the  Mississippi.  Ford  in  his  His- 
tory of  Illinois,  said :  "A  tide  of  emigrants  was  pouring  into  Missouri,  through 
Illinois,  from  Virginia  and  Kentucky.  In  the  fall  of  the  year  every  great  road 
was  full  of  them  all  bound  for  Missouri,  with  their  money,  and  long  trains  of 
teams  and  negroes.  These  were  the  most  wealthy  and  best  educated  emigrants 
from  the  slave  states.  Many  of  our  people,  who  had  lands  and  farms  to  sell, 
looked  upon  the  great  fortune  of  Missouri  with  envy,  whilst  the  lordly  emigrant, 
as  he  passed  along  with  his  money  and  droves  of  negroes,  took  a  malicious 
pleasure  in  increasing  it.  by  pretending  to  regret  the  shortsighted  policy  of  Illinois, 
which  precluded  him  from  settlement  amongst  us.  and  from  purchasing  the  lands 
from  our  people.  In  this  mode  a  desire  to  make  Illinois  a  slave  state  became 
quite  prevalent."  When  the  Missouri  question  was  before  Congress  the  two 
Illinois  Senators,  Xinian  Edwards  and  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  voted  to  admit  as  a 
slave  state,  while  the  single  Representative,  Cook,  was  on  the  other  side.  Whether 
Illinois  should  follow  Missouri  and  become  a  slave  state  was  one  of  the  chief 
issues  in  the  election  of  1822.  There  were  four  candidates  for  governor.  Edward 
Coles,  who  had  come  out  from  \'irginia  and  had  freed  his  slaves,  was  elected  by 

655 


fi56  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

a  plurality  over  Chief  Justice  Joseph  I'hiHps,  who  divided  the  pro-slavery  vote 
with  Judge  Thomas  C.  Brown.  ^ 

• 
A  Secret  Conference. 

After  the  admission  of  the  state,  Missourians  who  disliked  slavery  began  to 
plan  for  gradual  emancipation.  Benton  was  among  those  who  counselled  such 
a  course.  Missouri  was  not  a  cotton  state.  It  had  comparatively  a  small  popu- 
lation limited  to  certain  sections.  It  looked  to  free  labor  for  its  development.  In 
1828,  Missourians  held  a  secret  conference  to  consider  what  could  be  done  to 
bring  about  emancipation.  The  two  United  States  senators,  John  Wilson  and 
others  were  in  the  conference.  Wilson  at  the  time  lived  in  Fayette.  He  was  a 
lawyer  and  political  leader.  Years  afterwards  he  removed  to  San  Francisco, 
living  there  to  the  ripe  old  age  of  eighty-seven.  A  letter  from  Wilson,  written  to 
Thomas  Shackleford  and  preserved  by  the  Missouri  Historical  Society,  gives  his 
recollections  of  the  moveipent  and  of  what  led  to  the  abandonment  of  it: 

"In  1827  (I  believe  it  may  have  been  in  1828),  I  was  one  of  those  who  attended  a 
private  meeting  in  that  good  old  state,  of  about  twenty  of  us  claiming  at  least  to  be  party 
leaders,  about  equally  representing  every  district  of  the  state,  of  about  equal  numbers  of 
democrats  and  whigs.  Colonel  Benton  and  Judge  Barton  were  present,  the  two  latter, 
however,  not  being  on  speaking  terms.  One  object  that  brought  us  together  was  to  con- 
sider how  we  should  get  rid  of  slavery  in  Missouri.  We  unanimously  determined  to  urge 
action  upon  all  candidates  at  the  approaching  election.  Resolutions  were  drawn  up  and 
printed  (in  secret)  and  distributed  amongst  us,  with  an  agreement  that  on  the  same  day 
these  resolutions,  in  the  shape  of  memorials,  were  to  be  placed  before  the  people  all  over 
the  state,  and  both  parties  were  to  urge  the  people  to  sign  them.  Our  combination,  too. 
then  had  the  power  to  carry  out  our  project.  Unfortunately,  before  the  day  arrived,  it  was 
published  in  the  newspapers  generally  that  Arthur  Tappan  of  New  York  had  entertained 
at  his  private  table  some  negro  men,  and  that,  in  fact,  these  negro  men  had  rode  out  in  his 
private  carriage  with  his  daughters.  Perhaps  it  was  not  true,  but  it  was  believed  in  Mis- 
souri, and  raised  such  a  furor  that  we  dare  not  and  did  not  let  our  memorials  see  the 
light.  And,  as  well  as  I  can  call  to  mind,  of  the  individuals  who  composed  this  secret 
meeting,  I  am  the  only  one  left  to  tell  the  tale ;  but  for  that  story  of  the  conduct  of  the 
great  original  fanatic  on  this  subject  we  should  have  carried,  under  the  leadership  of 
Barton  and  Benton,  our  project,  and  begun  in  future  the  emancipation  of  the  colored  race 
that  would  long  since  have  been  followed  by  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, Tennessee,  etc.  Our  purpose  further,  after  we  got  such  a  law  safely  placed  on  the 
statute  books,  was  to  have  followed  it  up  by  a  provision  requiring  the  masters  of  those 
who  should  be  born  to  be  free  to  teach  them  to  read  and  write.  This  shows  you  how 
little  a  thing  turns  the  destiny  of  nations." 

The  Love  joy  Tragedy. 

Elijah  Parrish  Lovejoy  came  to  Missouri  in  the  latter  part  of  1827.  He  was 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  a  native  of  Maine,  the  son  of  Rev.  Daniel  Lovejoy,  a 
Congregational  minister.  He  had  graduated  at  Waterville  College  in  1826  and 
after  teaching  school  in  Maine  several  months  he  caught  the  western  fever.  In 
St.  Louis,  Lovejoy  became  first  a  school  teacher.  He  was  an  industrious  reader 
and  in  a  short  time  began  writing  for  the  newspapers.  One  of  his  first  articles 
was  a  poem  addressed  to  his  mother.    It  appeai;ed  in  the  Missouri  Republican. 

The  next  year  after  taking  his  residence  in  St.  Louis,  Lovejoy  became  con- 
nected with  the  Times,  the  first  of  five  newspapers  which  have  borne  that  name 


RESIDENCE  OF  JOHN  P.  CABANNE,  OF  ST.  LOUIS,  BUILT  IN  ISlit 


ST.  LOUIS  CATHEDRAL  IN  1840 
Situated  on  Walmit  Street  between  Second  and  Third.     Still  in  use  as  a  Parish  Church.     Con- 
tains a  collection  of  paintings  by  early  masters. 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  67,9 

in  St.  Louis.  The  Times  was  siii)|jorting  Henry  Clay  for  the  jjresidency.  Yuung 
Lovejoy  rapidly  obtained  a  reputati(,)n  in  his  writing  which  made  him  popular 
with  the  whigs.  He  might  have  become  prominent  in  politics,  but  in  the  winter 
of  1831-32  he  was  converted  in  a  religious  revival.  This  experience  changed  his 
views  of  life.  He  united  with  the  I'irst  Presbyterian  Church,  of  which  the  Rev. 
Dr.  W.  S.  Potts  was  the  pastor.  Young  Lovejoy  believed  that  it  was  his  duty 
to  become  a  minister.  On  the  advice  of  Dr.  Potts  he  went  to  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  in  1832,  and  stayed  until  .\pril,  1833.  when 
he  was  given  a  license  to  preach  by  the  Second  Presbytery  at  Philadelphia.  In 
the  autumn  of  1833  he  was  back  in  St.  Louis  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a 
religious  weekly  newspaper  at  the  request  of  a  number  of  church  people  who  had 
known  him  as  a  writer  on  the  Times.  The  capital  was  taised  by  St.  Louis  busi- 
ness men.  The  editorial  and  business  management  was  given  over  to  Lovejoy. 
The  first  number  of  the  St.  Louis  Observer  appeared  November  22,  1833.  Besides 
getting  out  his  weekly  paper,  Mr.  Lovejoy  visited  communities  in  the  vicinity  of 
St.  Louis  on  week  days  as  well  as  Sundays  and  conducted  religious  meetings.  It 
was  not  until  the  summer  of  1834  that  he  formally  declared  himself  against 
slavery  and  began  the  aggressive  course  which  cost  him  his  life  at  Alton  on  the 
7th  of  November,  1837.  ' 

Citizens  of  St.  Louis  appealed  to  Lovejoy  to  stop  when  he  began  the  discus- 
sion of  slavery  in  the  Observer.  They  told  him  that  his  views  caused  resentment 
on  the  part  of  the  pro-slavery  people  and  would  lead  to  trouble.  Editor  Lovejoy 
replied  to  the  protests  in  an  address  calling  attention  to  the  clause  of  the  con- 
stitution of  Missouri  declaring  that  "the  free  communication  of  thoughts  and 
opinions  is  one  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,  and  that  every  person  may  freely 
speak,  write  and  print  on  any  subject — being  responsible  for  the  abuse  of  that 
liberty."  His  deliberate  determination  was  announced  in  one  of  the  closing  para- 
graphs of  the  appeal:  "I  do,  therefore,  as  an  American  citizen  and  Christian 
patriot,  and  in  the  name  of  liberty,  law  and  religion,  solemnly  protest  against  all 
these  attempts,  howsoever  and  by  whomsoever  made,  to  frown  down  the  liberty 
of  the  press  and  forbid  the  free  expression  of  opinion.  Under  a  deep  sense  of 
my  obligations  to  my  country,  the  church  and  my  God,  I  declare  it  to  be  my  fixed 
purpose  to  submit  to  no  such  dictation.  And  I  am  prepared  to  abide  by  the  con- 
sequences. I  have  appealed  to  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  my  country ;  if  they 
fail  to  protect  me,  I  appeal  to  God.  and  with  him  I  cheerfully  rest  my  cause." 

The  Observer  continued  to  print  attacks  on  slavery.  The  men  who  had  pro- 
vided the  capital  concluded  that  it  would  be  safer  to  remove  the  plant  to  Alton. 
Before  the  transfer  a  group  of  men  went  to  the  Observer  office  one  night,  broke 
some  of  the  furniture  and  material  and  threw  the  fragments  into  the  river.  The 
press  was  not  seriously  damaged.  It  was  shipped  to  Alton  but  was  seized  by  pro- 
slavery  men  and  thrown  into  the  river.  At  a  public  meeting  in  Alton  this  act  of 
violence  was  denounced  in  resolutions  which  at  the  same  time  declared  the  meeting 
not  in  sympathy  with  Mr.  Lovejoy's  views  on  slavery.  A  new  press  was  bought. 
The  publication  of  the  Observer  continued  from  September.  1836,  to  August.  1837. 
In  the  summer  of  1837  another  public  meeting  was  held.  Resolutions  were  adopted 
which  condemned  the  course  of  the  Observer.  A  committee  was  appointed  to 
present  the  expression  of  the  meeting  to  the  editor.     Lovejoy  replied  that  he 


fifiO  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

iiUencled  to  continue  the  publication.  On  the  night  of  August  21st  a  mob  entered 
the  office  of  the  Observer  and  wrecked  the  plant.  In  September  the  third  press 
was  delivered  and  placed  in  a  warehouse.  The  same  night  it  was  taken  out  and 
thrown  into  the  river.  Lovejoy  ordered  a  fourth  press.  The  excitement  in- 
creased. An  indignation  meeting  of  citizens  was  held  on  the  3d  of  November. 
Very  strong  resolutions  against  the  continuance  of  the  Observer  were  passed. 
Lovejoy  was  given  an  opportunity  to  express  his  sentiments.  His  address  to  the 
meeting  was  put  in  writing  by  him.     In  the  course  of  it  he  said : 

"Mr.  Chairman,  what  have  I  to  compromise?  If  freely  to  forgive  those  who  have  .so 
greatly  injured  me,  if  to  pray  for  their  temporal  and  eternal  happiness,  if  still  to  wish  for 
the  prosperity  of  your  city  and  state,  notwitlistaiuling  all  the  indignities  I  have  suffered 
in  it;  if  this  be  the  compromise  intended,  then  do  I  willingly  make  it.  My  rights  have  been 
shamefully,  wickedly  outraged;  this  I  know,  and  feel,  and  can  never  forgive.  But  I  can  and 
do  freely  forgive  those  who  have  done  it.  But  if  by  a  compromise  is  meant  that  I  should 
cease  from  doing  that  which  duty  requires  of  me,  I  cannot  make  it.  And  the  reason  is, 
that  I  fear  God  more  than  I  fear  man.  Think  not  that  I  would  lightly  go  contrary  to 
public  sentiment  around  me.  The  good  opinion  of  my  fellow-men  is  dear  to  me,  and  I 
would  sacrifice  anything  but  principle  to  obtain  their  good  wishes;  but  when  they  ask  me  to 
surrender  this,  they  ask  for  more  than  I  can — than  I  dare  give.  Reference  is  made  to  the 
fact  that  I  offered  a  few  days  since  to  give  up  the  editorship  of  the  Observer  into  other 
hands.  This  is  true.  I  did  so  because  it  was  thought  or  said  by  some  that  perhaps  the 
paper  would  be  better  patronized  in  other  hands.  They  declined  accepting  my  offer,  how- 
ever, and  since  then  we  have  heard  from  the  friends  and  supporters  of  the  paper  in  all 
parts  of  the  state.  There  was  but  one  sentiment  among  them;  and  this  was  that  the  paper 
could  be  sustained  in  no  other  hands  than  mine.  It  is  also  a  very  different  question 
whether  I  shall  voluntarily,  or  at  the  request  of  friends,  yield  up  my  post ;  or  whether  I 
shall  forsake  it  at  the  demand  of  a  mob.  The  former  I  am  at  all  times  ready  to  do.  when 
circumstances  occur  to  require  it,  as  I  will  never  put  my  personal  wishes  or  interests  in 
competition  with  the  cause  of  that  Master  whose  minister  I  am.  But  the  latter,  be  assured, 
I  never  will  do.  God,  in  his  providence — so  say  all  my  brethren,  and  so  I  think — has 
devolved  upon  me  the  responsibility  of  maintaining  my  ground  here;  and,  Mr.  Chairman, 
I  am  determined  to  do  it.  A  voice  comes  to  me  from  Maine,  from  Massachusetts,  from 
Connecticut,  from  New  York,  from  Pennsylvania;  yea,  from  Kentucky,  from  Mississippi, 
from  Missouri,  calling  upon  me  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  dear  in  heaven  or  earth,  to  stand 
fast;  and  by  the  help  of  God  I  will  stand.  I  know  I  am  but  one  and  }0U  are  many.  My 
strength  would  avail  but  little  against  you  all.  You  can  crush  me  if  you  will ;  Init  I  shall 
die  at  my  post,  for  I  cannot  and  will  not  forsake  it. 

"Why  should  I  flee  from  Alton?  Is  not  this  a,  free  state?  When  assailed  by  a  mob 
at  St.  Louis,  I  came  hither,  as  the  home  of  freedom  and  of  the  laws.  The  mob  has  pur- 
sued me  here,  and  why  should  I  retreat  again?  Where  can  I  be  safe  if  not  here?  Have 
not  I  a  right  to  claim  the  protection  of  the  laws?  What  more  can  I  have  in  any  other 
place?  Sir,  the  very  act  of  retreating  will  embolden  the  tnob  to  follow  me  wherever  I  go. 
No.  sir;  there  is  no  way  to  escape  the  niuh  but  to  abandon  the  path  of  duty,  and  that,  God 
helping  me,   I   will  never  do." 

The  fourth  press  was  received  and  ])laccd  in  a  warehouse.  Friends  of  Love- 
joy divided  into  squads  of  si.x  to  maintain  guard  over  it.  On  the  night  of  the  7th 
of  November  a  mob  proceeded  to  the  warehouse.  Lovejoy's  friends  were  armed. 
Authority  had  been  given  by  the  mayor,  John  M.  Krum,  afterwards  mayor  of  St. 
Louis,  to  defend  the  property.  There  was  tiring  on  both  sides.  A  man  named 
Bishop  was  killed.  Lovejoy  and  two  others  of  his  party  ventured  outside  of  the 
building.    The  mob  had  fallen  back  after  an  attempt  to  set  fire  to  the  roof.    Several 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  661 

shots  were  fired  from  ambush.  Lovejoy  was  struck  by  five  bullets.  He  was 
mortally  wounded  but  was  able  to  enter  the  warehouse  and  reach  the  second 
story  before  he  fell  and  almost  immediately  expired.  The  others  who  had  been 
on  guard  escaped  with  wounds  by  running  down  the  levee.  The  mob  entered 
the  warehouse  and  destroyed  the  press. 

Treatment  of  Missouri  Slaves. 

The  slave  population  of  St.  Lours  was  never  large.  Evils  of  slavery  were 
mitigated  by  the  humane,  gentle,  even  affectionate  care  which  the  wives  of  St. 
Louis  slave  owners  bestowed  upon  their  dependents.  The  traveling  companions 
of  Kossuth,  the  Hungarian  patriot,  came  to  St.  Louis  expecting  to  find  material  for 
criticism  of  slavery.     They  wrote  about  a  close  view  they  had  of  the  institution : 

"Today  I  visited  a  large  American  establishment  belonging  to  Colonel  O'Fallon.  The 
place  reminded  me  of  a  Hungarian  house,  a  large  solid  stone  building  on  a  hill,  in  the 
midst  of  a  park  with  stately  trees,  surrounded  by  cottages.  But  here  the  likeness  ceased, 
the  inmates  were  black  slaves.  As  far  as  I  saw,  they  are  well  fed  and  well  clothed.  When 
we  arrived  at  the  door  a  negro  woman  opened  it ;  it  was  the  former  nurse  of  Mrs.  Pope, 
the  lady  who  accompanied  me,  the  daughter  of  the  proprietor.  Black  Lucy  seemed  delighted 
to  see  her  young  mistress,  and  brought  all  her  children  and  grandchildren  to  greet  her — 
a  numerous  band  of  woolly  haired  imps,  by  no  means  handsome,  but  Mrs.  Pope  petted  them, 
and  genuine  affection  seemed  to  exist  on  both  sides.  Tomorrow  we  leave  St.  Louis.  On 
the  whole  it  has  left  me  the  pleasant  impression  of  young  and  expansive  life." 

Tradition  tells  of  the  consideration  which  Madame  Chouteau  bestowed  upon 
her  slaves.  There  were  free  negroes  in  St.  Louis  long  before  the  American  occu- 
pation. They  received  concessions  of  land.  The  wills  filed  in  the  colonial  records 
show  that  freedom  was  given  the  faithful  servants.  To  the  Spanish  governor 
petitions,  such  as  the  following,  were  addressed :  "Louis  Villars,  lieutenant  of 
infantry,  in  the  battalion  of  Louisiana,  humbly  prays  you  that  he  is  the  owner  of 
a  negress  named  Julie,  about  thirty  years  of  age ;  that  she  has  rendered  him 
great  services  for  a  number  of  years,  especially  during  two  severe  spells  of  sick- 
nesses your  petitioner  has  undergone.  The  zeal  and  attachment  she  exhibited  in 
his  service  having  completely  ruined  her  health,  he  desires  to  set  her  at  liberty 
with  a  view  to  her  restoration." 

The  Slave  Trade  in  Colonial  Days. 

In  1801  and  1802  a  subject  of  considerable  correspondence  between  the  Spanish 
governor  at  St.  Louis  and  his  superior  at  New  Orleans  was  the  importation  of 
negro  slaves  into  St.  Louis  and  into  other  settlements  of  Upper  Louisiana.  The 
Spanish  representative  at  New  Orleans  was  Juan  Ventura  Morales.  In  1801  he 
sent  to  the  Spanish  governor  at  St.  Louis,  Don  Carlos  Dehault  Delassus,  a  copy  of 
royal  orders  "that  His  Majesty  does  not  wish  for  the  present  to  have  any  negroes 
introduced  into  that  Province."  The  reason  assigned  is  that  the  King  "has  allowed 
5,000  negroes  to  be  introduced  free  under  a  concession  given  to  a  French  firm. 
Cassague,  Huguel,  Raymon  and  Company. 

"For  your  information,"  writes  Morales,  "I  send  you  copy  of  the  royal  orders." 
And  he  adds,  "May  the  Lord  keep  you  many  years."  About  ten  months  later 
Intendant  Morales  wrote  at  considerable  length  about  this  order  against  importa- 


662  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

tion  of  slaves  into  St.  Louis.  The  inference  might  be  drawn  that  Governor 
Delassus  had  found  difficulty  in  the  enforcement  of  the  royal  orders  and  had 
questioned  the  wisdom  of  the  orders.  It  seems  evident  that  Don  Carlos  felt  the 
need  of  advice  or  instruction  from  his  superior.  Morales  wrote  in  May,  1802. 
in  this  way:  "It  is  not  the  place  of  the  subordinate  chiefs  or  of  any  good  subject 
to  inquire  or  investigate  the  causes  which  may  help  the  King  in  his  determina- 
tions. The  duty  of  these  chiefs  is  to  obey  and  comply  blindly  with  whatsoever  is 
ordered  to  them  and  what  is  prescribed  in  the  royal  laws  unless  by  so  doing  they 
see  there  is  some  danger.  In  such  cases  the  subordinate  chiefs  can  delay  the 
compliance  with  such  orders  until  the  King  shall  learn  of  this  and  may  resolve 
what  His  Royal  Majesty  shall  consider  agreeable.  Under  this  principle,  the 
introduction  of  negroes  being  considered,  it  is  my  duty  to  obey  and  comply  with 
the  orders  of  His  Majesty." 

Morales  told  Delassus  that  he  had  been  denying  the  applications  of  planters 
to  import  slaves  and  that  this  policy  must  continue  until  the  French  firm  had 
brought  in  the  5.CKX)  under  the  concession.  He  pointed  out  to  Delassus  the  argu- 
ment which  might  be  used  in  defense  of  the  royal  orders  and  suggested  the 
course  of  action  against  the  violators  of  the  King's  instructions: 

"The  King,  perhaps,  had  strong  political  reasons  for  the  concession  given  to  the  men- 
tioned French  citizens.  It  might  compromise  his  royal  authority  if  this  Intendance  should 
not  watch  for  the  introduction  of  negroes.  To  refuse  the  introduction  of  negro  slaves  we 
have  an  excuse  in  the  revolution  attempted  not  many  years  ago  in  Virginia  and  Carolina 
by  that  class  of  people.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  American  government  and  the  owners 
of  slaves  wish  to  get  free  of  these  people  at  any  sacrifice.  What,  then,  would  become  of 
this  Province  if  its  chiefs,  with  closed  eyes  to  such  an  important  matter,  should  permit  the 
introduction   of  such   a   dangerous   people?" 

Intendant  Morales  proceeded  with  real  diplomacy  to  make  a  fine  virtue  of  the 
necessity  to  enforce  the  royal  orders: 

"The  unfortunate  example  of  the  French  islands  and  the  knowledge  of  what  was  at- 
tempted in  the  North  colonies,  which  was  not  effected  because  the  plot  was  discovered  in 
time,  must  persuade  not  only  the  sensible  men,  but  also  those  who  are  interested  in  an 
imaginary  prosperity  caused  by  this  dangerous  people,  that  it  would  be  against  public  tran- 
quility and  law  and  justice  if  this  Intendance  does  not  see  the  wise  order  prohibiting  intro- 
duction of  negro  slaves  is  not  ignored.  Therefore,  I  request  you  to  exercise  the  most 
exact  watchfulness  without  accepting  any  permission  but  the  one  from  the  King.  In  the 
event  there  shall  be  any  introduction  of  negro  slaves  you  will  make  verbal  process  of  the 
case  and  apprehend  the  negroes.     Vou  will  forward  everything  to  this  Intendance." 

Negro  Taxpayers  in  St.  Louis. 

The  first  list  of  taxpayers  of  .St.  Louis  is  not  a  long  one  but  it  contained  the 
names  of  several  people  of  color  who  owned  real  estate.  Geoffrey  Camp  was 
listed  as  a  mulatto  and  Marie  Labastille  as  "negresse  libre."  Suzanne,  "negresse," 
owned  a  house  and  lot  which  was  assessed  at  $250,  quite  a  comfortable  homestead 
for  1805.  "Laveille,  "free  negro";  Flores,  "free  negress" ;  were  among  these  first 
taxpayers  in  St.  Louis.  Esther  Morgan,  "a  free  mulatto,"  owned  valuable  prop- 
erty on  South  Third  street.  ' 

The  rental  of  slaves  was  practised  to  some  extent  in  Missouri.    .'\?  illustrating 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  663 

the  terms  of  these  rentals,  or  leases,  of  human  chattels  the  following  letter  is 
interesting :  , 

"January  lo,  1843. 
"Mr.  Thomas  J.  Bounds :  Sir — This  will  inform  you  that  the  woman  you  wish  t» 
hire  belongs  to  me.  You  can  have  her  for  a  year  for  forty  dollars  by  clothing  her  in  the 
following  manner,  viz :  Two  winter  dresses,  two  summer  dresses,  two  shifts,  one  blanket, 
a  pair  of  shoes  and  stockings  for  the  woman,  two  winter  dresses,  one  summer  dress,  two 
shifts  for  the  child.  You  will  have  to  lose  the  time  lost  by  the  woman  occasioned  by  sick- 
ness or  other  acts  of  Providence,  and  I'll  pay  all  doctor's  bills.    You'll  have  to  send  for  her. 

"Yours  respectfully, 

"R.   H.   DURRETT." 

Preserving  the  Kindly  Traditions. 

During  one  of  the  cholera  epidemics  Maj.  Richard  Graham,  living  at  his 
■country  seat,  Hazelwood,  in  St.  Louis  county,  wrote  to  a  friend:  "The  cholera 
made  its  appearance  and  was  followed  by  a  congestive  fever  which  carried  off 
sixteen  of  my  negroes.  It  has  shattered  me  a  good  deal,  Marshall,  and  I  have 
not  as  yet  recovered  from  the  shock  of  melancholy  feelings  in  seeing  so  many 
human  beings  dying  around  me  and  looking  up  to  me  as  their  only  hope  in  their 
despair  and  their  agonies.  My  place  was  a  perfect  hospital  and  Mrs.  Graham  and 
myself  constant  attendants  and  nurses  amidst  the  thickest  of  the  cholera.  We 
escaped  as  well  as  our  children."  Mrs.  Francis  D.  Hirschberg,  who  was  Miss 
Mary  Frost,  a  granddaughter  of  Major  Graham,  wrote  in  comment  on  this  letter : 
"A  sidelight,  this,  upon  the  position  of  master  and  slave — since  so  often  mis- 
understood. The  kindly  Virginia  traditions  were  held  to :  no.  slaves  were  sold ; 
no  corporal  punishment  was  allowed.  The  family  ties  were  held  as  sacred  and 
respected  accordingly." 

When  Robert  Lewis  went  to  California  in  the  rush  of  1849  he  took  with  him 
Jesse  Hubbard,  a  slave  who  belonged  to  his  wife.  Lewis  and  the  colored  man 
came  back  with  $i5,cxx).  The  master  divided  fairly  with  the  slave.  Hubbard 
took  his  share  to  his  mistress,  who  in  turn  divided  with  him  and  gave  him  his 
freedom.    The  negro  bought  a  farm  and  settled  in  St.  Louis  county. 

John  Holland,  the  first  settler  in  Linneus,  came  out  from  Virginia  to  prepare 
a  home  for  his  family  to  be  brought  later.  He  had  thirty  sheep  and  when  he 
learned  how  bad  the  wolves  were  he  set  about  planning  to  preserve  his  flock  while 
he  was  gone  to  get  the  family.  He  built  a  two-room  cabin,  penned  the  sheep  in 
one  room  and  placed  a  negro  woman  in  charge,  with  a  mastiflf  to  help  protect 
the  sheep.  Dinah  watched  the  sheep  in  the  day  time  and  permed  them  in  the 
cabin  at  night.  Occasionally  one  of  the  Bowyer  boys  passed  and  stopped  to  se^ 
how  Dinah  was  getting  along,  but  except  for  such  visits  the  woman  was  alone 
with  the  sheep  until  Holland's  return.  When  Holland  died  he  set  the  woman 
free. 

The  Marion  College  Troubles. 

One  of  the  most  sensational  troubles  over  the  slavery  issue  in  the  history  of 
Missouri  occurred  at  a  camp  meeting  near  Palmyra  about  1836.  Marion  college, 
then  recently  foimded,  had  come  under  suspicion  of  the  pro-slavery  people.    Rev. 


664  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Dr.  Nelson  was  president  of  the  college.  On  Sunday  morning  he  read  at  the 
camp  meeting  a  paper  which  he  had  received  from  William  Muldrow,  founder 
of  Marion  City  and  the  supposed  prototype  of  Mark  Twain's  Mulberry  Sellers. 
This  paper  called  upon  members  of  the  church  to  make  subscriptions  to  a  fund 
for  buying  negroes  and  sending  them  to  Liberia.  Dr.  John  Bosley,  a  slaveholder, 
got  up  and  started  for  the  pulpit.  According  to  one  story  he  snapped  his  pistol 
at  Dr.  Nelson,  but  it  did  not  go  off  because  his  wife  fearing  trouble  had  drawn 
the  charge  the  night  before.  Muldrow  drew  a  pocket  knife  and  stabbed  Bosley 
so  seriously  that  it  was  thought  he  would  die.  The  camp  meeting  broke  up  in  a 
general  tight,  many  of  the  church  members  taking  part.  Muldrow  after  hiding 
for  a  short  time  surrendered  to  the  sheriff.  Missourians  who  had  been  some  time 
residents  of  that  part  of  the  state  got  together  and  made  threats  against  "the 
Eastern  run"  as  the  newcomers,  recent  arrivals  from  the  East  to  settle  in  Marion 
City,  were  called.  General  David  Willock,  a  determined  man,  summoned  a  strong 
guard  and  took  Muldrow  to  St.  Charles  for  safe  keeping.  Muldrow's  nerve  was 
shown  by  his  falling  asleep  one  evening  in  his  chair  when  it  was  expected  that  the 
mob  would  make  an  attempt  to  take  him  from  the  sheriff  and  hang  him.  Edward 
Bates  secured  the  release  of  Muldrow  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  Muldrow 
calmly  returned  to  Marion  county,  refusing  to  take  the  advice  of  friends  who 
wanted  him  to  leave  the  country. 

Bosley  slowly  recovered.  Muldrow  went  to  trial  with  Bates,  Uriel  Wright 
and  Thomas  L.  Anderson  as  his  counsel  and  to  the  surprise  of  the  pro-slavery 
people  he  was  acquitted. 

Dr.  Nelson  resigned  the  presidency  of  the  college  and  was  succeeded  by  Rev. 
Dr.  William  S.  Potts  of  St.  Louis.  He  moved  across  the  river  into  Illinois,  but 
on  one  occasion  accepted  an  invitation  to  come  back  and  to  preach  on  communion 
Sunday  in  one  of  the  Marion  county  churches.  Pro-slavery  Presbyterians  went 
armed  to  the  services  bent  on  stopping  Dr.  Nelson  if  he  attempted  to  occupy  the 
pulpit.  Dr.  Nelson  did  not  come  as  expected.  Old  Theodore  Jones  was  one  of 
the  Presbyterians  who  went  with  his  pistol  in  his  pocket.  He  said  long  after- 
wards that  it  was  his  intention  to  go  armed  to  the  communion  table,  and  that  at 
the  time  he  felt  that  he  was  doing  right. 

Expulsion  of  Dr.  David  Nelson. 

Dr.  David  Nelson  came  to  the  northeastern  part  of  Missouri  as  early  as  1829. 
He  obtained  a  large  following  among  the  Presbyterians.  Infidelity  was  wide- 
spread. Dr.  Nelson  had  been  an  infidel.  After  conversion  he  gave  up  his  connec- 
tion with  the  regular  army  and  wrote  a  book  which  was  known  commonly  as  "Nel- 
son on  Infidelity,"  and  which  had  great  influence  in  Missouri  and  the  West  gen- 
erally. Marion  college  was  the  conception  of  Dr.  Nelson.  It  had  no  endowment 
but  Dr.  Nelson  believed  it  was  possible  to  have  the  students  cultivate  farm  land 
and  thus  keep  up  the  college.  What  the  farm  yielded  beyond  the  needs  of  the  sup- 
port of  the  students  was  to  go  to  the  faculty.  The  college  was  started  on  this 
plan  but  eastern  Presbyterians  became  interested  and  made  contributions.  Wil- 
liam Muldrow  was  sent  East  to  canvass  for  help.  He  had  such  success  that  he 
not  only  got  people  to  give  to  the  college  but  induced  them  to  buy  real  estate  in 
Missouri.     Presbyterian  ministers,  influenced  by  Muldrow's  word  pictures  came 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  665 

out  to  take  places  in  the  faculty  and  many  of  them  brought  money  with  tliem. 
One  of  these,  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles  Ely,  who  was  to  become  the  head  of  the 
preparatory  department  of  the  college  is  said  to  have  brought  $100,000  of  eastern 
money  when  he  came. 

Dr.  Nelson  made  no  concealment  of  his  anti-slavery  views.  After  the  general 
fight  which  broke  up  the  camp  meeting  a  body  of  armed  men  rode  up  to  Dr.  Nel- 
son's house  one  night  and  called  him  out.  The  minister  warned  the  mob  not  to 
come  into  the  yard.  The  spokesman  told  the  doctor  that  they  had  come  to  tell 
him  he  must  leave  Missouri  immediately  and  never  return.  This  Dr.  Nelson 
agreed  to  do  and  moved  to  Quincy. 

"Eternal  vigilance  was  the  price  of  slavery'"  in  northeast  Missouri,  to  quote 
Holcombe,  the  indefatigable  preserver  of  county  historical  data  thirty  years  ago. 
Two  agents  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  which  had  for  its  object  the 
gradual  removal  of  negroes  to  Liberia,  brought  into  Hannibal  a  box  of  coloniza- 
tion literature  about  1836.  These  men  named  Garrett  and  Williams  settled  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  new  town  called  Philadelphia.  A  band  of  men  headed  by  Uriel 
Wright  organized  at  Palmyra,  marched  to  Philadelphia,  found  the  "incendiary 
documents"  hidden  under  corn  husks  in  an  outbuilding.  They  took  Garrett  and 
Williams  prisoners  and  marched  away  with  them  some  miles.  Under  a  tree  on 
the  bank  of  North  river,  the  regulators  formed  a  hollow  square.  Uriel  Wright, 
famous  at  that  early  day  as  an  orator,  made  a  speech  and  delivered  the  decision. 
The  two  men  were  given  the  choice  of  being  hung  from  that  tree,  or  of  leaving 
Missouri  and  remaining  away  forever.  They  left.  The  box  of  books  was  taken 
to  Palmyra  and  was  burned  with  formality  and  speechmaking.  Then  followed  a 
series  of  meetings  and  the  adoption  of  resolutions  that  not  only  abolitionists  but 
all  supporters  of  colonization  must  leave.  But  reaction  from  the  extreme  pro- 
slavery  sentiment  took  place.  Two  years  after  the  colonization  agents  were 
driven  out  of  the  state  a  negro  women  Harriet  "appearing  to  be  entitled  to  her 
freedom  and  of  good  character"  was  given  a  license  to  remain  in  Missouri.  This 
was  the  first  case  in  which  such  a  privilege  was  given  to  a  negro  in  Marion  county. 

Three  abolitionists,  George  Thompson,  James  Burr  and  Alanson  Work,  crossed 
over  from  the  Illinois  side  and  met  some  negroes  on  the  Fabius  river.  They 
planned  with  the  slaves  to  take  them  across  the  river  at  night  and  start  them  by 
the  underground  railroad  to  Canada.  The  negroes  betrayed  the  plot.  The  three 
men  were  captured,  tried  at  Palmyra  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  at  Jefferson 
City  to  serve  twelve  year  terms.  The  charge  was  grand  larceny — "stealing  and 
attempting  to  carry  away  certain  slaves."  The  men  remained  in  the  penitentiary' 
several  years  and  were  pardoned  by  Governor  Edwards.  A  subscription  paper 
was  started  in  Palmyra  and  vicinity  "to  remunerate  the  fidelity  of  the  slaves  of 
R.  N.  Wool  folk  and  others  in  betraying  to  their  masters  the  base  attempts  of 
certain  villains  in  the  shape  of  white  men  who  have  attempted  to  decoy  them  off." 
The  sum  of  twenty  dollars,  sixty-two  and  one-half  cents  was  raised.  Mark 
Twain's  father  was  one  of  the  jurors  in  the  trial  of  Thompson.  Burr  and  Works. 
These  three  young  men  were  preparing  for  the  ministry  and  were  students  at  the 
Mission  Institute  in  Illinois  at  the  time  they  became  involved  with  the  Missouri 
authorities. 

Eight  years  after  the  trouble  which  broke  up  the  camp  meeting  and  which 


666  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

resulted  in  the  stabbing  of  Bosky  by  Muldrow,  David  Nelson,  Jr.,  came  over  to 
Little  Union  church  and  attempted  to  address  the  congregation  at  the  close  of 
the  sermon  by  Rev.  Mr.  Ayres.  Bosley  was  there.  He  arose  and  told  Mr.  Nelson 
he  must  not  speak.  "My  wife  is  a  member  of  this  church,"  Dr.  Bosley  said, 
"and  it  shall  not  be  polluted  by  abolitionism  or  abolitionists.  I  now  demand  that 
you  leave  here  peaceably.  If  you  do  not,  force  will  be  used  to  put  you  out." 
Nelson  started  to  leave  but  went  back  to  the  pulpit.  Thereupon  Bosley  repeated 
his  notice  and  when  Nelson  did  not  leave,  he  stepped  forward,  took  him  by  the 
arm  and  led  him  to  the  door  and  put  him  out. 

About  the  middle  of  the  fifties,  the  loss  of  slave  property  became  so  aggravat- 
ing to  the  slaveholders  of  Northeast  Missouri  that  northern  Methodist  ministers 
were  proscribed  in  some  localities.  At  a  meeting  in  Marion  county,  resolutions 
were  adopted: 

"That,  with  all  due  respect  for  religious  toleration,  we,  the  citizens  of  Fabius  and 
adjoining  townships,  do  solemnly  protest  against  the  practice  of  the  said  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  North  in  sending  ministers  among  us,  and  we  respectfully  request  such  ministers 
to  make  no  more  appointments  in  this  vicinity; 

"That  we  are  situated  contiguous  to  Quincy,  a  city  containing  some  of  the  vilest 
abolition  thieves  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  as  we  have  already  suffered  so  much  at 
the  hands  of  those  incendiaries,  we  regard  it  absolutely  necessary  to  the  protection  of  our 
slave  interests,  that  we  close  our  doors  against  abolition  and  free  soil  influence  of  every 
character  and  shade  whatever,  and  that  we  shall  therefore  esteem  it  highly  improper  for 
any  citizen  hereafter  to  countenance  or  encourage  the  preaching  or  teaching  in  this 
community  of  the  ministers  of  the  northern  wing  of  the  Methodist  church." 

About  the  middle  of  the  forties  the  agents  of  the  underground  railroad, 
"Liberators"  they  called  themselves,  became  so  active  and  successful  that  mass 
meetings  were  held  in  Marion,  Lewis  and  Ralls  counties  to  "put  a  stop  to  negro 
stealing."  These  meetings  declared  the  purpose  to  administer  to  abolitionists 
"such  punishment  as  we  deem  necessary."  Vigilance  committees  were  formed  to 
examine  all  strangers  and  if  these  people  passing  through  the  country  could  not 
give  a  satisfactory  account  of  themselves  they  were  to  be  sent  out  of  the  state. 
The  penalty  for  returning  was  fifty  lashes.  Notices  were  put  up  at  the  Canton 
and  other  ferry  landings  on  the  Missouri  side  of  the  Mississippi  that  these  , 
abolitionists  would  be  hung  until  they  were  "dead,  dead,  dead."  Still  they  came 
in  various  disguises,  distributing  their  literature.  Slaves  in  bunches  disappeared 
and  then  insult  was  added  to  injury  by  letters  from  the  "Liberators"  to  the 
despoiled  owners  in  Missouri.  By  way  of  retaliation  a  party  of  Missourians 
crossed  on  the  ice  one  March  night  and  burned  the  chapel  of  what  was  known 
as  Mission  In.stitute,  a  college  conducted  by  free  soilers,  of  whom  Rev.  Dr. 
Nelson  was  the  leader. 

What  Slavery  Meant  in  St.  Louis. 

A  vivid  picture  of  what  slavery  meant  in  St.  Louis,  even  under  the  best  con- 
ditions, was  given  by  Henry  M.  Post.  This  actual  occurrence  might  have  given 
Churchill  the  suggestion  for  his  account  of  a  slave  sale  to  a  young  northerner 
at  the  east  front  of  the  courthouse.  Mr.  Post  wrote  the  account  as  given  to  him 
by  Colonel  William  T.  Mason  who  came  to  St.  Louis  from  New  York,  seeking 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  667 

his  fortune  in  the  early  forties.  Young  Mason  first  settled  in  St.  Charles,  where 
he  became  the  tutor  for  the  children  of  Edward  Bates  and  other  closely  related 
families.  He  moved  to  St.  Louis  and  began  the  practice  of  law,  having  an  office 
with  Hamilton  Gamble  whom  he  served  as  mihtary  aide  with  the  rank  of  colonel 
during  the  Civil  war.  Mason  told  Post  this  story  of  how  he  became  a  slave- 
holder from  humanitarian  motives: 

"Colonel  Joseph  B.  Crockett  was  living  in  St.  Louis  practicing  law  in  1849,  when  the 
'gold  fever'  broke  out  in  California.  With  many  others  he  went  overland  in  pursuit  of 
wealth.  For  some  reason  he  left  in  St.  Louis  a  young  negro  slave  woman  named  Jane. 
This  woman  married  an  unusually  bright  young  colored  man  named  George  Waters. 
They  established  a  home  and  there  were  born  to  them  three  children,  one  boy  and  two 
girls.  George,  himself,  was  a  slave  but  always  hired  his  own  time  from  his  master. 
He  made  his  living  by  caring  for  offices  and  men's  rooms  and  was  serving  me  in  that 
capacity  when  the  incident  I  am  about  to  relate  took  place.  One  morning  about  the  last 
of  May,  1858,  George  came  into  my  office  looking  the  picture  of  misery  and  distress,  the 
tears  rolling  down  his  cheeks,  and  said:  'Colonel  Crockett  is  in  town.  He  has  had  Jane 
and  the  children  thrown  into  Lynch's  slave  pen  and  is  going  to  sell  them  to  be  sold  South 
and  I  shall  never  see  my  wife  and  children  again.     Can't  you  do  something  to  stop  it?' 

"I  was  a  young  man  then  and  knew  little  of  the  workings  of  the  system  of  slavery, 
but  the  fact  that  this  family  was  to  be  thus  separated  forever  caused  my  blood  to  boil. 
'Where  is  Colonel  Crockett?'  I  asked.  George  said  he  was  stopping  at  the  Planters.'  I 
said  I  would  go  and  see  him  at  once,  and  find  out  what  could  be  done,  telling  George,  in 
the  meantime,  to  wait  about  till  I  returned.  I  went  to  the  hotel  and  sent  my  card  to 
Colonel  Crockett  requesting  an  interview.  The  messenger  returned  and  said  the  colonel 
would  see  me  in  his  room.  He  met  me  with  a  look  of  inquiry  on  his  face  and  said :  'To 
what  have  I  the  honor  of  this  visit?'  I  said:  'Are  you  the  gentleman  who  owns  Jane 
Waters  and  her  three  children?'     'I  am,'  he  answered. 

"'Have  you  placed  them  in  Lynch's  slave  pen  and  intend  to  let  them  be  sold  South, 
and   separate   the   wife   from   her  husband   and   the   children    from    their    father    forever?" 

"  'They  are  my  property,  sir,  and  I  am  settling  up  all  my  affairs,  and  I  am  turning 
everything  into  money,  before  I  return  to  California,  my  home.  I  e.xpect  to  sell  them 
today,  and  they  will  go   South.' 

"We  were  standing  facing  each  other.  My  temper  got  the  better  of  me  and  I  opened 
out  on  him  in  the  most  vigorous  style,  if  not  the  most  elegant,  denouncing  an  institution 
that  would  tolerate  such  things  and  the  man  who  would  be  guilty  of  such   inhumanity. 

"The  colonel  stood  looking  at  me  closely  and  smiling  all  of  the  time.  When  I  got 
through  he  said:  'Young  man,  where  were  you  raised?'  I  answered:  'In  New  York  state, 
sir,  where  the  curse  of  slavery  does  not  exist.'  He  rejoined:  'That  accounts  for  the 
different  way  in  which  we  look  at  this  thing.  Jane  and  her  children  belong  to  me  and  1 
can  do  as  I  please  with  them.  She  is  a  likely  breeding  woman  and  I  am  offered  $1,800 
for  them;  but  since  you  take  this  matter  so  much  to  heart  I  will  tell  you  what  I  will  do; 
I  will  sell  Jane  and  her  children  to  you  for  $1,000  cash.' 

"Immediately,  I  said:  'I  will  take  them,  sir.  When  will  you  close  the  bargain?"  We 
appointed  two  o'clock  that  day  at  my  office,  and  at  that  time  he  was  on  hand  and  sat  at 
my  desk  and  wrote  a  bill  of  sale  of  the  'property'  just  as  he  would  have  done  for  a  mare 
and  colt,  or  a  cow  and  calf,  counted  the  money  and  wrote  an  order  on  Lynch  to  deliver 
the  chattels,  and  soon  Jane  and  her  husband  and  children  were  reunited. 

"Unexpectedly  I  found  myself  a  slaveholder.  The  burden  was  more  than  I  was 
willing  to  carry.  I  determined  to  free  them  at  once,  and  looking  up  the  law  found  that 
the  only  way  I  could  do  this  was  by  making  application  to  the  circuit  court  for  permission 
to  do  so.  This  permission  could  be  obtained  only  upon  my  filing  a  deed  of  manumission 
and  giving  bond  that  they  should  never  become  a  charge  on  the  county.  This  was  done 
and  the  then  mayor  of  the  city  and  a  prominent  merchant  went  on  my  bond,  and  Jane 
and   her   children    were    declared    free. 


668  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Lynch  was  a  negro  trader,  a  sort  of  commission  merchant.  He  kept  his  'pen,'  which 
was  absolutely  a  jail,  on  Locust  street,  between  Fourth  and  Fifth  streets.  When  he 
delivered  my  property  to  me,  I  asked  him  how  many  people  he  had  in  his  yard.  He  said 
there  were  some  thirty  or  forty,  but  some  were  going  south  that  afternoon,  and  the  next 
day  those  who  were  left  were  going  on  the  block  at  the  courthouse.  They  came  and  went 
all  the  time.    Lynch  asked  what  I  paid  for  mine,  and  when  I  told  him  he  said  he  did  not 

suppose  Crockett  was  such  a  fool  as  that;  he    (Lynch)   would  give  me  $500  for  my 

bargain  right  then." 

Mr.  Post  said  in  his  narrative  that  the  Waters  family  continued  to  live  in  St. 
Louis  for  many  years.  William  T.  Mason  married  Louise,  a  daughter  of  General 
Stephen  Watts  Kearny,  of  New  Mexico  and  California  fame.  Descendants  of 
Mason  are  well  known  in  St.  Louis. 

Thomas  Shackleford's  Recollections. 

In  his  address  before  the  Missouri  Historical  Society  in  1901,  Thomas  Shackle- 
ford  gave  some  personal  recollections  of  slavery  in  Missouri : 

"John  Harrison  was  a  large  hemp  grower  in  Howard  county.  He  had  many  slaves 
and  was  kind  to  them.  To  illustrate  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  is  inherent  in  the  human 
heart,  I  recall  that  I  was  at  his  home  (he  was  the  father  of  my  wife),  in  the  early  50's, 
when  a  poor  wayfaring  man  and  his  wife  called  to  stay  all  night.  He  was  a  sorry  specimen 
of  humanity,  traveling  with  a  poor  horse  hitched  to  a  rickety  old  chaise.  In  the  morning 
one  of  the  slaves  was  directed  to  get  the  poor  man's  horse,  which  he  hitched  up.  The 
slave  was  named  Smith,  and  as  he  passed  his  mistress  she  said  to  him:  'Smith,  how 
would  you  like  to  be  that  man?  Aren't  you  better  off?"  'Ah,  Missus,'  he  replied,  'he  has 
nobody  to  hinder  him.'  This  poor  slave,  although  well-treated  and  well-fed,  yet  longed 
to  be  situated  where  no  one  hindered  him. 

"Slavery  had  many  dark  phases,  but  it  was  always  a  pleasure  to  consider  only  the 
bright  side,  where  there  was  such  a  natural  attachment  between  master  and  slave,  as  in 
the  case  of  this  man.  Let  me  illustrate  by  two  incidents.  He  had  a  slave  named  Brown 
who  was  a  member  of  the  same  church,  and  attended  the  same  class  meetings,  of  which  I 
was  leader.  Brown  had  a  wife  who  belonged  to  a  neighbor  who  had  failed,  and  the  wife 
of  Brown  and  all  her  children  were  about  to  be  sold  to  a  negro  trader.  Her  master  was 
a  kind  man  and  had  permitted  his  slave  to  hire  her  own  time.  The  law  did  not  permit  the 
slaves  to  be  emancipated  and  live  in  the  state.  Brown  came  to  me  and  said  he  was  about 
to  be  separated  from  his  wife  and  children.  He  said  his  wife  had  money  enough  to  pay 
for  herself  and  children.  I  told  him  to  send  her  to  me.  She  came  with  silver  to  the 
amount  of  $1,000  in  her  handkerchief.  I  took  the  money,  purchased  her,  and  had  the  bill 
of  sale  made  to  me.  I  indorsed  the  fact  on  the  bill  of  sale,  and  kept  it  among  my  secret 
papers.  Publicly  she  was  recognized  as  my  property,  but  kept,  as  before,  her  own  earnings. 
When  it  was  apparent  that  the  federal  troops  were  going  to  occupy  Missouri,  many  per- 
sons sent  their  slaves  South  in  the  vain  hope  of  saving  them.  Mr.  Harrison  made  prepara- 
tions to  send  his  South,  prepared  his  tents  for  the  journey.  Brown  came  to  me  to  intercede 
against  being  sent  away.  I  told  him  to  go  to  his  master  and  say  to  him  that  he  and 
his  associates  would  be  faithful  until  legally  set  free.  I  came  upon  them  just  as  they 
were  having  the  interview,  and  found  both  in  tears.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  tents 
were  folded  up  and  stored  in  the  garret.  All  save  one  remained  faithful,  and  Mr.  Harrison 
provided  homes  for  all.  Such  incidents  were  common,  but  Northern  men  read  only  of 
the  dark  side  of  the  picture.  You  would  hardly  believe  it  when  I  tell  you  I  never  read 
'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.'     I  was  satisfied  the  picture  was  overdrawn. 

"My  father  had  died  when  I  was  about  fourteen  years  of  age.  My  mother  was  left  a 
widow  and  had  the  charge  and  management  of  many  slaves.  We  had  a  law  in  our  statutes 
that  a  slave  should  be  punished  with  forty  lashes  save  one,  who  insulted  a  white  man.  One 
daj'  the  constable  came  to  arrest  a  slave  for  insulting  a  white  man.  My  mother  told  me  to 


••M18S  ANN"   OF  DOVER 
A  historic  character  of  Central  Missouri  who  "aint  got  no 
age,"  who  has  a  "morphine  cat"  and  whose  favorite  phrase  is 
"Aint  it  dish?"' 


DRKD  SCOTT 

The    Idiio;   [vending   litigation   in   belialf   of   this   Missouri   slave 

nullified  the  Missouri  (.'onipromise 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  671 

go  to  the  trial.  The  evidence  was  that  when  the  white  man  was  trading  with  the  slave  an 
altercation  took  place, , and  the  white  man  cursed  the  slave,  and  the  slave  cursed  the  white 
man  in  return.  A  great  crowd  was  present.  The  magistrate  heard  the  evidence  and  con- 
demned the  slave  to  be  lashed.  He  then  took  me  aside  and  said:  'Your  slave  is  not  guilty, 
but  to  satisfy  this  crowd  of  angry  men,  I  had  to  pass  this  sentence.'  I  was  indignant 
'What,'  said  I,  'whip  an  innocent  man?'  'Yes,'  said  the  magistrate.  While  he  was  talking 
the  constable  came  and  asked  if  he  was  to  be  whipped  publicly.  'No,'  said  the  magistrate, 
'take  him  to  the  smoke  house.'  The  slave  was  stripped  and  taken  into  the  house,  and  the 
crowd  counted  the  lashes.  When  the  officer  came  out  he  said  to  the  negro,  'You  must  not 
tell  what  occurred.'  'No,'  said  the  negro,  'I  will  not.'  Then  said  the  officer  to  me :  'You 
must  not  tell.  I  only  lashed  the  post.'  I  said  I  would  only  tell  my  mother.  When  I  came 
home  I  then  asked  my  mother  what  it  meant  that  the  innocent  negro  was  to  be  whipped. 
She  said  to  me :  'Ah,  my  son,  I  cannot  well  explain  these  things  to  you,  but  before  this  evil 
of  slavery  is  righted,  this  land  will  be  deluged  in  blood.'  She  then  called  my  attention  to 
the  fact  that  sons  ip  good  families,  as  well  as  husbands,  were  having  children  by  the  slave 
women,  that  this  social  evil  was  bad  enough  among  free  parties,  but  among  bond  women 
was  terrible.  My  mother  died  before  the  cloud  burst,  but  her  precepts  were  so  indelibly 
impressed  on  my  young  mind  that  when  the  secession  of  the  states  began,  I  looked  anxiously 
in  fear  of  the  fulfillment  of  her  prophecy." 

Dred  Scott  and  His  "Case." 

About  1858  people  on  the  streets  of  St.  Louis  called  attention  to  a  man  of 
striking  appearance  and  said:  "That's  Dred  Scott."  Other  people,  especially 
strangers  in  the  city,  looked  a  second  time  and  with  evident  interest  at  the  stout- 
built  figure,  the  whiskers  and  the  military  bearing.  Dred  Scott  was  then  about 
fifty  years  old.  He  was  of  pure  negro  blood,  born  in  Virginia,  and  might  have 
passed  for  an  African  king.  In  that  period  the  most  military  looking  man  in  St. 
Louis  was  Thornton  Grimsley.  He  had  invented  and  manufactured  the  favorite 
saddle  of  the  United  States  dragoons.  For  two  generations  he  was  in  demand 
for  grand  marshal  of  processions.  Physically  Dred  Scott  was  "another  Thornton 
Grimsley  done  in  ebony,"  as  a  newspaper  reporter  described  him. 

For  five  years  the  Dred  Scott  c^se  had  been  in  the  courts.  It  had  been  the 
most  talked  of  litigation.  It  had  brought  froin  the  United  States  Supreme  court 
a  decision  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  of  no  force.  The  papers  were 
full  of  it. 

Dred  Scott  was  the  slave  and  body  servant  of  Dr.  Emmerson,  a  surgeon  in 
the  United  States  Army,  stationed  in  St.  Louis.  When  the  surgeon  was  ordered 
to  the  post  at  Rock  Island  he  took  his  slave  with  him.  There  Dred  Scott  made 
the  acquaintance  of  a  colored  girl  named  Harriet.  The  girl  belonged  to  Major 
Taliaferro  of  the  army  and  had  been  brought  from  Virginia.  Dred  Scott  and 
Harriet  were  married.  When  Dr.  Emmerson  was  ordered  to  Fort  Snelling  in 
what  is  now  Minnesota  he  was  induced  by  his  slave  to  buy  Harriet.  Two  children 
were  born,  one  of  them  on  the  "Gypsy,"  during  a  steamboat  trip  in  free  territory. 
Surgeon  Emmerson  came  back  to  Jefferson  Barracks,  bringing  the  Dred  Scott 
family.  He  died  in  1852.  The  Scotts  passed  to  the  possession,  by  sale  as  it  was 
supposed,  of  John  F.  A.  Sanford.  Here  was  an  unusual  opportunity  to  test  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  by  which  Congress  had  declared  slaverj'  should  not  exist 
north  of  parallel  36^  30',  except  within  the  limits  of  Missouri.  Not  only  had 
Scott  and  Harriet  been  taken  into  the  free  territory,  but  one  of  the  children, 
Eliza,  had  been  bom  there.  In  1853  suit  was  brought  in  the  St.  Louis  circuit  court. 


672  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  first  decision  freed  the  family.  But  San  ford  took  the  case  to  the  supreme 
court  of  Missouri  which  reversed  the  lower  court.  There  was  another  trial  in 
the  St.  Louis  court.  One  of  the  charges  was  that  Sanford  had  unlawfully  laid 
hands  on  "the  said  Dred  Scott,  Harriet  Scott,  Eliza  Scott  and  Lizzie  Scott." 
Sanford  won.  By  this  time  the  interest  of  anti-slavery  people  in  the  East  had  been 
aroused.  Money  was  supplied  in  considerable  quantities  to  carry  on  the  case.  One 
newspaper  account  had  it  that  enough  was  contributed  to  "buy  a  hundred  slaves." 
The  best  lawyers  in  St.  Louis  were  retained  to  carry  the  case  to  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  on  a  writ  of  error.  On  the  side  of  the  Scotts,  Montgomery  Blair, 
afterwards  postmaster  general,  headed  the  counsel.  Senator  Henry  S.  Geyer  and 
others  represented  Sanford. 

The  main  question  was  whether  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  whether  Congress  had  the  power 
to  provide  as  follows :  "That  in  all  that  territory  ceded  by  France  to  the  United 
States  under  the  name  of  Louisiana  which  lies  north  of  36  degrees  and  30 
minutes  north  latitude,  not  included  within  the  limits  of  the  state  contemplated 
by  this  act,  slavery  and  involuntary  senitude,  otherwise  than  the  punishment 
of  crimes  whereof  the  parties  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  be  and  is 
hereby  forever  prohibited." 

The  case  was  argued  in  1854.  The  Supreme  Court  decided  against  Dred 
Scott.  But  it  held  up  the  decision  over  a  year.  Horace  Greeley,  in  his  "American 
Conflict,"  said  the  delay  was  deliberate  on  the  part  of  the  majority,  the  purpose 
being  to  postpone  the  announcement  until  after  the  Presidential  election  of  1856. 
He  added,  "It  is  quite  probable  that  its  action  in  the  premises,  if  made  public  at 
the  time  originally  intended,  would  have  reversed  the  issue  in  that  Presidential 
election."   Buchanan  defeated  Fremont,  who  carried  a  number  of  northern  states. 

The  decision  of  the  court  was  announced  in  March,  1857,  two  days  after 
Buchanan's  inauguration.  It  was  rendered  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  whose 
honor  a  Missouri  county,  which  gave  Republican  majorities  after  the  war,  was 
named.  The  views  of  the  court  filled  125  pages.  Briefly,  the  court  held  that  no 
slave  or  descendant  of  a  slave  could  sue  in  a  United  States  court  because  such 
person  was  not  and  could  not  be  made  a  citizen.  From  the  foundation  of  the 
republic  and  previously  slaves  had  been  regarded  as  inferiors  and  had  no  rights 
which  the  white  man  was  bound  to  respect.  The  view  had  been  held  in  both 
England  and  the  United  States.  Therefore,  the  act  of  Congress  in  prohibiting 
slavery  north  of  36  degrees  and  30  minutes  was  not  warranted  by  the  Constitu- 
tion. "Neither  Dred  Scott  himself,  nor  any  of  his  family,  was  made  free  by  being 
carried  into  this  territory." 

There  was  widespread  sympathy  for  the  Scotts  as  soon  as  the  court's  decision 
was  known.  A  movement  was  started  to  purchase  freedom  for  the  family.  But 
when  the  title  of  Sanford  was  looked  into,  it  appeared  that  he  was  holding  the 
family  as  executor  of  the  Emmerson  estate.  The  surgeon  had  made  a  will  be- 
queathing a  life  interest  in  the  Scotts  to  his  wife,  the  property  eventually  to  go  to 
a  daughter,  Henrietta  Emmerson.  The  real  owner  was  discovered  to  be  a  lady 
living  in  Boston,  whose  husband  was  a  Congressman.  And  Boston  was  the  anti- 
slavery  center  where  was  the  greatest  sympathy  for  the  Scotts  and  whence  had 
come  funds  for  the  prosecution  of  the  case.    Very  promptly  was  set  in  motion  the 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  673 

procedure  to  manumit  Dred  Scott  and  family.  A  non-resident  could  not  act. 
Therefore,  the  Boston  lady  transferred  the  slave  property  to  Taylor  Blow  of 
St.  Louis  and  Mr.  Blow  at  once  filed  the  deed  of  freedom  in  court.  Dred  Scott 
was  offered  liberal  inducements  to  tour  the  country  and  exhibit  himself  and 
family  in  museums.  He  was  in  demand  for  lectures.  But  with  a  mental  dignity 
which  matched  his  physical  he  declined  all  offers  and  accepted  only  local  fame. 

The  Case  Judge  Dyer  Defended. 

When  he  was  eighty  years  old.  Judge  David  P.  Dyer,  of  the  Federal  court  at 
St.  Louis,  remembered  well  his  personal  experience  with  the  slavery  law  of 
Missouri : 

"I  was  admitted  to  the  bar  l)j  Judge  A.  H.  Buckner  at  Bowling  Green  in  March.  1859. 
He  was  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  that  year.  The  grand  jury  indicted  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Knapp  of  Illinois,  whose  brother  was  afterwards  congressman  from  the  state  of 
Illinois.  Knapp  was  a  John  Brown  sort  of  man.  He  believed  that  everybody  had  a  right 
to  be  free.  He  believed  it  was  his  duty  under  his  conviction  to  point  the  way  to  freedom 
of  every  man  that  was  in  slavery.  We  had  a  statute  at  that  time  in  Missouri  which  im- 
posed a  penitentiary  sentence  upon  any  man  who  would  persuade,  incite  or  ask  any  negro 
to  leave  his  master  and  seek  freedom  in  Canada  or  a  northern  state.  Knapp  went  out 
to  Ashley  in  Pike  county  and  saw  a  negro  belonging  to  old  John  McCormick,  talked  to 
him  about  what  his  rights  were  as  a  man  to  be  free.  The  negro  gave  his  master  the 
information  and  McCormick  and  Sam  Russell  got  the  negro  to  make  an  arrangement  to 
meet  Knapp  at  some  place  at  night  in  the  forest  and  there  to  discuss  the  matter  with  him 
so  they  could  testify  in  court  against  Knapp.  Negroes  at  that  time  could  not  testify  and 
at  that  time  the  defendant  could  not  testify  himself.  The  trap  was  laid  and  the  conversa- 
tion was  had  and  the  indictment  was  returned.  Knapp  was  arrested,  lodged  in  jail  and  I, 
having  just  been  admitted  to  practice, — Knapp  having  no  money, — was  appointed  by  the 
court  to  defend  him.  I  made  the  best  effort  I  could  and  told  what  a  mean,  contemptible 
thing  it  was  to  form  this  conspiracy  and  trap  this  old  fello\v,  but  the  jury  didn't  pay  much 
attention  to  me  and  they  went  out  and  came  back  with  a  verdict  of  guilty  and  a  sentence 
of  five  years  in  the  Missouri  penitentiary.  Old  Johnson  Hendrick,  who  was  a  slave  owner 
and  believer  in  the  verdict  of  the  jury,  went  over  to  Knapp  and  said,  'Mr.  Knapp,  I  want 
to  congratulate  you,  sir.'  Knapp  said,  'I  don't  see  anything  to  be  congratulated  for.  I 
have  done  nothing  except  to  do  what  I  believed  to  be  my  Christian  duty  of  helping  my 
fellow-man.  I  am  to  be  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  at  Jefferson  City,  there  to  be  among 
thieves  and  murderers  for  doing  nothing  more  than  I  would  expect  someone  to  do  for  me 
under  similar  circumstances.'  'Don't  let  us  get  into  that.  I  am  not  going  to  discuss  that 
matter  with  you.  What  I  want  to  congratulate  you  on  is  that  if  you  had  another  lawyer 
like  Dyer  you  would  have  gone  for  ten  years  instead  of  five.'  Now,  that  is  a  matter  of 
history  that  that  old  man  went  to  the  penitentiary  and  remained  in  the  penitentiary  until 
Hamilton  R.  Gamble  turned  him  out.  These  are  things  you  don't  hear  of  in  this  country 
now.     It  was  a  fact  then." 

Blair  Emancipated  His  Slaves. 

At  the  time  when  he  was  advocating  gradual  emancipation  and  practical 
colonization,  Frank  Blair  was  a  slave  owner.  But  in  1859  he  removed  himself 
from  this  classification.  It  was  an  interesting  fact  that  just  three  months  after 
U.  S.  Grant  freed  his  slave  in  St.  Louis  by  going  into  court  and  rnaking  affidavit 
to  the  act,  Frank  Blair  similarly  freed  his  four  slaves.  This  took  place  on  the 
28th  of  June,  1859.    Blair  had  previously  freed  Henry  Dupe,  owned  by  him.    He 


674  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

now  emancipated  Sarah  Dupe,  the  wife  of  Henry,  and  her  three  daughters.    The 
document  he  filed  was  as  follows: 

"I,  Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  of  the  City  of  St.  Loui.s  and  the  State  of  Missouri,  in  con- 
sideration of  faithful  services  to  me  rendered  and  for  divers  other  good  and  sufficient 
reasons  moving  me  thereto,  do  by  these  presents  emancipate  and  set  free  my  negro  slave 
woman,  Sarah,  wife  of  Henry  Dupe  (heretofore  emancipated  by  me).  Said  Sarah  is  about 
42  or  43  years  of  age,  light-colored  and  about  medium-sized.  Also  negro  girl,  Courtenay, 
daughter  of  Sarah,  who  is  about  18  years  of  age;  also  negro  girl,  Caroline,  daughter  of 
said  Sarah,  about  12  years  of  age,  and  Sallie,  daughter  of  Sarah,  about  9  years  of  age. 
And  I  do  hereby  grant  Courtenay,  Caroline,  Sallie  and  Sarah  as  perfect  freedom  as  if 
they  had  been  born  free.  In  testimony  whereof,  I  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this,  the 
28th  day  of  June,   1859,   in   the  presence  of  the  undersigned  witnesses. 

"(Signed)     Frank   P.  Bl.^ir." 

Lucian  Carr  said:  "Ulair  approached  the  subject  as  a  statesman  rather  than 
as  a  moralist." 

Emancipation  Movement  in  Missouri. 

William  Hyde  saw  the  evolution  of  the  emancipation  movement  of  Missouri 
in  the  decade  before  the  Civil  war.  From  close  range  as  a  newspaper  man  he 
measured  its  growth  and  character.  His  impressions  were  given  to  the  Globe- 
Democrat  in  1892: 

"Mr.  Francis  Preston  Blair,  who  became  the  universally  recognized  leader  of  the 
emancipation  party,  together  with  Messrs.  Edward  Bates,  B.  Gratz  Brown,  Dr.  Linton, 
Henry  T.  Blow,  John  D.  Stevenson,  John  How,"  O.  D.  Filley  and  other  conspicuous  mem- 
bers, were  not  believers  in  immediate  emancipation.  They  proposed  and  advocated  a 
gradual  system — a  fixed  time  after  which  children  born  of  slave  parents  would  be  free  and 
a  further  fixed  time  in  the  life  of  each  slave  when  all  should  be  free.  Deportation  and 
colonization  was  a  dream  of  this  Utopia,  involving  compensation  to  slave  owners  who  might 
demand  the  same  for  the  term' of  service  cut  off  by  the  act  of  emancipation  as  nearly  as 
it  could  be  calculated.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  from  the  organization  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society  up  to  twenty  years  ago,  the  whole  number  of  colored  persons  emigrat- 
ing from  this  country  was  but  13,598,  the  futility  of  the  scheme  appears  amazing.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  recorded  that  long  after  the  Southern  war  had  itself  freed  thou- 
sands, President  Lincoln  was  ready  to  negotiate  for  peace  with  emancipation,  on  the  basis 
of  a  money  compensation  for  the  slaves. 

"It  was,  indeed,  a  most  difficult  and  perplexing  problem  with  which  the  courageous 
gradual  emancipationists,  deporters  and  colonizationists  of  Missouri  had  to  deal.  What  to 
do  with  the  freedmen  when  they  should  be  set  at  liberty;  what  should  be  their  social  status; 
how  should  they  be  educated  and  prepared  for  the  duties  of  citizenship — these  and  cognate 
questions  staggered  the  most  thoughtful  promoters  of  the  movement,  and  stagnated  even 
those  who  in  their  hearts  were  more  than  willing  to  let  slavery  go.  In  a  city  like  St.  Louis 
the  question  of  antagonizing  the  cheap  labor  of  slaves  against  the  labor  of  free  white  men 
was  susceptible  of  being  worked  to  great  advantage,  and  it  was  so  worked.  'Free  labor' 
was  one  of  the  rallying  cries  of  the  anti-slavery  party.  Even  after  the  organization  of 
the  Republican  party,  in  1856,  in  which  Francis  P.  Blair,  jr.,  was  one  of  the  prime  movers, 
the  junior  Blair  hesitated  to  adopt  the  name  for  the  Missourians.  'Free  Democratic  ticket' 
was  the  caption  swung  out  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  Blair  candidates  for  local  offices  in  the 
Democrat.  But  it  was  scarcely  a  disguise.  The  columns  of  the  Democrat  bristled  with 
elaborate  emancipation  articles.  Henry  Boernstein,  who  conducted  the  Anzeiger  des 
Westens,  was  not  particular  as  to  hair-splitting  names,  and,  indeed,  the  word  republican 
conveyed  to  his  readers,  many  of  whom  were  German  exiles  of  1848,  a  meaning  which 
was  itself  a  rallying  cry.     In  point  of  fact,  the  Anzeiger  and  its  followers  were  the  radicals 


SLA\"ERY  AND  AFTER  675 

of  the  day,  mucli  more  advanced  in  their  anti-slavery  views  than  Blair  and  his  coterie, 
who  endured  undeserved  disparagement  on  their  account.  For  it  was  not  cowardice  or 
timidity  which  induced  the  latter  to  hesitate  to  adopt  the  Republican  title  at  once.  The 
dubitation  was  whether  that  name  expressed  the  objects  of  the  organization  in  its  primary 
form.  However  there  was  no  beating  around  the  bush  relative  to  the  fact  that  this  organ- 
ization meant  anti-slavery,  emancipation  and  free  soil.  There  was  no  occasion  for  con- 
cealment.    Liberty  of  thought  and  speech  was  as  secure  in  St.  Louis  as  in  "Boston." 

During  a  part  of  the  time  when  emancipation  sentiment  was  growing  in  Mis- 
souri, -Mr.  Hyde  was  the  correspondent  of  the  Missouri  Republican  at  Springfield, 
Illinois,  while  the  legislature  was  in  session.  Blair  visited  Springfield  and  held 
conferences  with  Lincoln.  ^Ir.  Hyde  held  to  this  view  of  the  relations  between 
the  two : 

"It  was  a  sufficient  indorsement  of  Frank  Blair,  in  a  partisan  sense,  that  the  political 
career  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  from  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  was 
patterned  on  his  model.  In  all  their  public  discussions  both  were  anxious  that  the  agitation 
of  the  slavery  question  should  not  imperil  the  Union.  They  had  no  part  or  lot  with  those 
who,  like  N.  P.  Banks,  would  'let  the  Union  slide,"  or  with  those  who,  like  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  regarded  the  Union  as  'a  league  with  hell  and  a  covenant  with  death.'  Both 
opposed  'conceded  disunion  or  constrained  emancipation,'  as  a  dreaded  and  unnecessary 
alternative.  Adopting  the  view  made  prominent  in  Blair's  speeches,  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  one 
of  his  earliest  messages,  advocated  a  system  of  colonizing  the  blacks  freed  by  the  war,  and 
even  hinted  at  the  deportation  of  those  who  were  free  before.  In  his  first  cabinet  were 
Montgomery  Blair  and  Edward  Bates,  who  held  identical  views  with  Francis  P.  Blair.  In 
his  opposition  to  Fremont's  administration  in  Missouri,  Blair  was  heartily  sustained  by  the 
President.  But,  by  this  time.  Judge  Bates  had  quarreled  with  the  Blairs  about  the  adminis- 
tration methods  in  Missouri,  their  differences  dating  back,  in  fact,  to  the  time  when 
General  Harney  was  superseded  by  Captain  Lyon,  just  previous  to  the  capture  of  Camp 
Jackson." 

Slave  Auctions  Made  Odious. 

The  slave  traders  had  no  social  recognition  in  St.  Louis.  One  of  them  was 
stoned  by  boys  shortly  before  the  Civil  war.  St.  Louis  parted  with  slavery  will- 
ingly. What  pro-slavery  sentiment  had  existed  was  largely  because  of  sympathy 
for  the  South,  where  family  ties  hound  and  trade  relations  existed.  New  Year's 
Dav,  iXf')!.  brought  a  curious  revelation  of  sentiment  in  St.  Louis  on  the  slavery 
question.  In  the  settlement  of  estates  not  infrequently  there  were  negroes  to  be 
disposed  of.  Like  other  property,  to  be  distributed  to  heirs,  these  slaves  were 
put  up  at  partition  sales.  The  sheriff  or  his  deputy  appeared  at  the  front  door  of 
the  courthouse,  announced  the  terms  and  called  for  bids.  While  estates  were  in 
progress  of  settlement,  the  slaves  were  held  in  the  custody  of  the  court  officers 
and  were  boarded  for  safekeeping  in  the  county  jail.  It  had  become  the  custom 
of  the  court  to  set  the  ist  day  of  January  as  the  date  to  clean  up  slave  property 
left  by  estates.  Encouraged  by  the  election  of  Lincoln  in  the  preceding  November, 
a  secret  organization  was  formed  to  put  an  end  to  these  auction  sales  of  slaves 
by  court  procedure.  On  the  ist  day  of  January,  1861,  the  sheriff  had  seven  slaves 
to  sell  for  the  benefit  of  certain  heirs  of  the  deceased  owners.  In  the  usual  legal 
form  the  sale  was  announced.  Rev.  Galusha  Anderson,  at  the  time  pastor  of  the 
Second  Baptist  Church,  tells  in  his  book,  "A  Border  City  in  the  Civil  War,"  the 
story  of  this  last  slave  auction  by  order  of  court  in  St.  Louis : 


fi76  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  .MISSOURI 

"About  2.000  young  men  had  secretly  banded  themselves  together  to  stop  the  sale, 
and,  if  possible,  put  an  end  to  this  annual  disgrace.  The  auctioneer  on  his  arrival  at  the 
courthouse  found  this  crowd  of  freemen  in  a  dense  mass  waiting  for  him.  The  sight  of 
bondsmen  about  to  be  offered  for  sale,  and  that,  too,  under  the  floating  folds  of  their 
national  flag,  crimsoned  their  cheel«  with  shame  and  made  their  hearts  hot  within  them. 
Yet  they  scarcely  uttered  a  word  as  they  stood  watching  the  auctioneer  and  the  timid, 
shrinking  slaves  at  his  side.  At  last  he  was  ready  and  cried  out,  'What  will  you  bid  for 
this  able-bodied  boy?  There's  not  a  blemish  on  him.'  Then  the  indignant,  determined 
crowd  in  response  cried  out,  at  the  top  of  their  lung?.  Three  dollars,  three  dollars,'  and 
without  a  break  kept  up  the  cry  for  twenty  minutes  or  more.  The  auctioneer  yelled  to 
make  himself  heard  above  that  deafening  din  of  voices,  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  At  last, 
however,  the  cry  of  the  crowd  died  away.  Was  it  simply  a  good-natured  joke  carried  a 
little  too  far?  The  auctioneer  seemed  to  be  in  doubt  how  to  take  that  vociferating  throng. 
'Now,'  he  said,  in  a  bantering  tone,  'gentlemen,  don't  make  fools  of  yourselves;  how  much 
will  you  bid  for  this  boy?'  ■  Then,  for  many  minutes,  they  shouted,  'Four  dollars,  four 
dollars,'  and  the  frantic  cries  of  the  auctioneer  were  swallowed  up  in  that  babel  of  yells. 
His  efforts  were  as  futile  as  if  he  had  attempted  to  whistle  a  tornado  into  silence.  To  the 
joy  of  that  crowd  of  young  men  the  auctioneer  was  at  last  in  a  rage.  It  had  dawned  upon 
him  that  this  was  no  joke;  that  the  crowd  before  him  were  not  shouting  for  fun  on  this 
annual  holiday,  but  were  in  dead  earnest.  When  their  cries  once  more  died  away,  he 
soundly  berated  them  for  their  conduct.  But  they  answered  his  scolding  and  storming 
with  jeers  and  catcalls.  At  last  he  again  asked,  'How  much  will  you  bid  for  this  first-class 
nigger?'  This  was  answered  by  a  simultaneous  shout  of  'Five  dollars,  five  dollars';  and 
the  roar  of  voices  did  not  stop  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  And  so  the  battle  went  on. 
The  bid  did  not  get  above  eight  dollars,  and  at  the  end  of  two  hours  of  exasperating  and 
futile  effort,  the  defeated  auctioneer  led  his  ebony  charges  back  to  the  jail.  Through  the 
force  of  public  opinion  freedom  had  triumphed.  No  public  auction  of  slaves  was  ever 
again  attempted  in  St.  Louis." 

Lincoln's  Border  States  Policy. 

President  Lincoln  wanted  to  pay  the  loyal  slaveholders  of  Missouri  $300  apiece 
for  every  man,  woman  and  child  slave  in  the  state.  He  chose  Gen.  John  B. 
Henderson  to  champion  this  policy  in  Congress,  and  he  used  his  influence  as  far 
as  he  felt  he  consistently  could  to  press  the  measure.  This  policy  the  President 
adopted  before  he  had  been  in  the  White  House  a  year.  His  desire  was  to  have 
Congress  reimburse  the  loyal  slaveholders  of  the  border  states  for  their  slaves, 
and  then  to  emancipate  by  proclamation  slaves  in  the  other  states.  Missouri  was 
selected  for  tlie  first  application  of  the  policy.  John  B.  Henderson  entered  the 
Senate  by  appointment  of  Governor  Gainble,  taking  the  place  of  Trusten  Polk,  who 
had  gone  into  the  Confederate  army.  He  was  but  little  beyond  the  age  which 
made  him  eligible.  When  tlie  Missouri  legislature  met  Senator  Henderson  was 
elected  for  the  unexpired  term,  and  when  the  term  ended  he  was  elected  for  the 
new  term.  Within  three  months  after  he  became  senator,  in  1862,  General  Hen- 
derson had  been  taken  into  the  confidence  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  was  urging  the 
policy  of  payment  for  the  slaves  of  the  border  states. 

As  early  as  his  message  to  Congress  on  December  3.  186  r,  the  President  said 
the  government  must  use  all  indispensable  means  to  maintain  the  Union.  He 
hinted  at  colonization  as  a  possible  remedy  for  slavery. 

On  the  6th  of  March  he  sent  to  Congress  a  message  recommending  pay  for 
slaves  of  the  loyal.     He  wrote  private  letters  urging  the  initiation  of  emancipa- 


SLAVERY  AXD  AFTER  677 

tion  legislation.  "I  say  'initiation,'  "  he  wrote,  "because  in  my  judgment  gradual 
and  not  sudden  emancipation  is  better  for  all." 

On  the  loth  of  ^larch,  he  invited  the  jNIissourians  and  the  other  Members  of 
Congress  from  border  States  to  the  White  House  for  a  conference  and  presented 
his  plan  for  gradual  compensated  abolishment.  Only  two  of  the  Missourians 
favored  the  plan.  They  were  Senator  John  B.  Henderson  and  Representative 
John  W.  Noell.  Frank  Blair,  who  was  for  the  plan,  was  not  there.  He  was  in 
the  field  with  his  command.  Subsequently  he  wrote  a  letter  on  the  policy  to 
Rudolph  Doehn  of  ^lissouri  in  which  he  declared  himself  for  a  "gradual,  peace- 
ful and  just  measure  of  emancipation." 

After  the  March  conference  the  President  urged  his  views  upon  the  Members 
of  Congress  individually.  He  chose  Senator  Henderson  to  champion  the  pay-for- 
slaves  policy.  Some  years  ago,  in  Washington,  Senator  Henderson  gave  the  writer 
his  recollections. 

John  B.  Henderson's  Recollections. 

There  was  great  pjressure  being  brought  to  bear  upon  the  President  to  emanci- 
pate. Delegations  of  ministers  from  the  North  came  to  Washington  to  depiand 
such  action.  The  republican  leaders  were  very  insistent.  Senator  Zach  Chandler 
of  Michigan,  Senator  Ben  \\'ade  of  Ohio,  and  Senator  Charles  Sumner  of  Massa- 
chusetts, called  almost  daily  at  the  White  House  to  tell  Mr.  Lincoln  what  he 
ought  to  do.  General  Henderson  was  sent  for  frequently  to  report  how  the 
border  states  policy  was  progressing. 

"As  I  went  in  one  day,"'  General  Henderson  said,  "I  noticed  that  the  Presi- 
dent looked  troubled.  He  was  sitting  in  one  of  his  favorite  attitudes — in  a  rocking 
chair  with  one  leg  thrown  over  the  arm.  I  knew  that  he  suffered  terribly  from 
headaches,  and  I  said : 

"  'Mr.  President,  you  must  have  one  of  your  headaches ;  you  look  so  gloomy.' 

"  'No,'  said  he.  'it  isn't  headache  this  time.  Chandler  has  been  here  to  talk 
again  about  emancipation,  and  he  came  on  the  heels  of  Wade  and  Sumner,  who 
were  here  on  the  same  errand.  I  like  these  three  men,  but  they  bother  me  nearly 
to  death.  They  put  me  in  the  situation  of  a  boy  I  remember  when  I  was  going 
to  school.'  " 

General  Henderson  noted  the  brightening  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  face.  He  recog- 
nized the  signs  that  a  story  was  coming.  ^Ir.  Lincoln  leaned  forward,  began  to 
smile,  and  clasped  his  hands  around  the  knee  of  the  leg  resting  on  the  arm  of  the 
chair. 

"The  te.xt-book  was  the  Bible,"  Mr.  Lincoln  went  on.  "There  was  a  rather 
dull  little  fellow  in  the  class  who  didn't  know  very  much.  We  were  reading  the 
account  of  the  three  Hebrews  cast  into  the  fiery  furnace.  The  little  fellow  was 
called  on  to  read  and  he  stumbled  along  until  he  came  to  the  names  of  the  three 
Hebrews — Shadrach,  Meshach  and  Abednego.  He  couldn't  do  anything  with 
them.  The  teacher  pronounced  them  over  very  slowly  and  told  the  boy  to  tr}'. 
The  boy  tried  and  missed.  This  provoked  the  teacher  and  he  slapped  the  little 
fellow,  who  cried  vigorously.  Then  the  boy  tried  again,  but  he  couldn't  get  the 
names.  'Well,'  said  the  teacher  impatiently,  'never  mind  the  names.  Skip  them 
and  go  on.'    The  poor  boy  drew  his  shirt  sleeve  across  his  eyes  two  or  three  times, 


678  CENTENNIAT,  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

snuffed  his  nose  and  started  on  to  read.  He  went  along  bravely  a  little  way, 
and  then  he  suddenly  stopped,  dropped  the  book  down  in  front  of  him,  looked 
despairingly  at  the  teacher  and  burst  out  crying.  'What's  the  matter  now?' 
shouted  the  teacher,  all  out  of  patience.  'H-h-here's  them  same  darn  three  fellers 
again.'  sobbed  the  boy. 

''That.''  said  the. President,  "is  just  my  fix  today.  Henderson.  Those  same 
darn  three  fellers  have  been  here  again  with  their  everlasting  emancipation  talk." 

The  President  stopped  a  few  moments  to  enjoy  the  story,  and  becoming 
serious,  continued : 

"But  Sumner  and  Wade  and  Chandler  are  right  about  it.  I  know  it  and  you 
know  it,  too.  I've  got  to  do  something  and  it  can't  be  put  off  much  longer.  We 
can't  get  through  this  terrible  war  with  slavery  existing.  You've  got  sense 
enough  to  know  that.  Why  can't  you  make  the  border  states  members  see  it? 
Why  don't  you  turn  in  and  take  pay  for  your  slaves  from  the  government?  Then 
all  your  people  can  give  their  hearty  support  to  the  Union.  We  can  go  ahead 
with  emancipation  of  slaves  by  proclamation  in  the  other  states  and  end  the 
trouble." 

Lincoln  and  the  Missourians. 

The  President  held  out  as  long  as  he  could,  hoping  to  carry  out  the  border 
states  policy  upon  which  his  heart  was  set.  On  the  12th  of  July  he  again  invited 
the  delegation  from  Missouri  and  the  members  from  other  states  to  come  to  the 
White  House.  He  read  a  carefully  written  appeal  to  them  to  adopt  his  policy  of 
compensated  abolishment.     He  said: 

"I  intend  no  reproach  or  complaint  when  I  assure  you  that,  in  my  opinion,  if 
you  all  had  voted  for  the  resolution  in  the  gradual  emancipation  message  of  last 
March,  the  war  would  now  be  substantially  ended." 

Twenty  of  these  Members  sent  their  rejtly  two  days  later.  They  pledged  their 
loyalty  but  declared  their  judgment  to  be  against  the  pay-for-slaves  policy.  The 
Missourians  signing  the  paper  were  Senator  Robert  Wilson  and  Representatives 
James  S.  Rollins,  William  A.  Hall,  Thomas  L.  Price  and  John  S.  Phelps. 

Senator  Henderson  and  Representative  Noell  wrote  to  the  President  that 
they  would  endeavor  to  secure  from  the  people  of  Missouri  consideration  of  his 
plan.  They  did  so.  The  policy  became  the  issue  in  the  campaign  which  followed. 
Of  the  nine  Members  of  Congress  elected  by  Missouri  in  November,  six  were 
avowed  emancipationists.  The  lower  branch  of  the  legislature  was  emancipation 
and  chose  the  emancipation  candidate  for  speaker  by  a  vote  of  sixty-seven  to 
forty-two.  Governor  Gamble  in  his  message  advised  the  legislature  to  take  up  the 
subject. 

When  Congress  met  in  December  for  the  short  session  the  House  appointed 
a  select  committee  on  gradual  emancipation  in  the  loyal  slave-holding  states. 
Frank  P.  Blair  was  made  the  Missouri  member  of  it.  On  the  loth  of  December 
Senator  Henderson  introduced  in  the  Senate  his  bill  to  give  Missouri  $20,000,000 
to  pay  for  the  slaves  of  loyal  owners.  The  next  day  Noell  put  in  his  bill  in  the 
House,  appropriating  $10,000,000  to  reimburse  loyal  owners  of  slaves  in  Mis- 
souri. Both  bills  passed  by  large  majorities  but  the  difference  in  the  amounts 
made  it  necessary  to  compromise.    The  President  did  all  he  could  to  expedite  the 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  679 

legislation.  On  the  lotli  of  January  he  sent  this  telegram  to  General  Curtis  in 
command  at  St.  Louis : 

"I  understand  there  is  considerable  trouble  with  the  slaves  in  Missouri.  Please 
do  your  best  to  keep  peace  on  the  question  for  two  or  three  weeks,  by  which  time 
we  hope  to  do  something  here  towards  settling  the  question  in  Missouri." 

As  early  as  May,  1862,  President  Lincoln  had  told  General  Henderson  of  his 
intention  to  issue  the  emancipation  proclamation.  Action  was  not  taken  until  six 
months  later,  and  the  proclamation  was  announced,  to  take  effect  January  i,  1863. 
The  President  held  out  as  long  as  he  could  in  the  hope  that  he  might  be  able  to 
carry  out  his  border  states  policy.  The  introduction  of  the  bill  to  pay  loyal 
owners  in  Missouri  was  the  beginning.  It  was  followed  by  bills  to  pay  for  slaves 
in  Kentucky,  Maryland  and  other  border  slave  states.     * 

"I  do  not  remember,"  said  General  Henderson,  "whether  Mr.  Lincoln  drafted 
the  bill  or  I  got  it  up,  but  the  inspiration  came  from  him.  I  did  all  in  my  power 
to  press  it.  The  proposition  went  through  the  House  and  Senate,  but  it  was 
passed  in  somewhat  different  forms.  The  Senate  increased  the  amounf,  and  this 
difference  had  to  be  adjusted  in  conference.  There  was  a  good  majority  for  the 
Missouri  bill  in  both  branches  of  Congress  and  there  was  not  much  trouble  about 
compromising  the  difference  of  opinions  on  the  amount  to  be  appropriated,  but  the 
session  was  almost  at  an  end  and  a  small  minority  in  the  House  was  able,  by 
filibustering  and  obstructing,  to  prevent  the  final  action  there.  If  the  bill  could 
have  been  brought  before  the  House  in  its  finished  form  it  would  have  passed 
finally  as  easy  as  it  did  in  the  Senate. 

What  Cost  Missourians  $15,000,000. 

"President  Lincoln  watched  the  progress  of  the  legislation  with  a  great  deal 
of  interest,"  continued  General  Henderson.  "He  could  not  understand  why  the 
border  states  members  should  not  be  for  it.  And  I  could  not,  either.  It  was 
perfectly  plain  to  me  that  slavery  had  to  go.  Here  was  a  voluntary  offer  on  the 
part  of  the  government  to  compensate  the  loyal  men  in  the  border  states  for  the 
loss  of  their  property.  I  talked  with  the  members  from  ]\Iissouri  and  from  Ken- 
tucky and  with  the  others  who  were  most  interested,  but  I  couldn't  make  them 
see  it  as  I  did.  They  had  exaggerated  ideas  of  the  results  which  would  ensue 
from  a  free  negro  population.  They  took  the  position  that  slavery  must  not  be 
touched.  It  was  their  determined  opposition  to  the  end  that  deferred  the  bill  to 
give  the  Missouri  slaveholders  $15,000,000  for  their  slaves.  If  the  Missouri  bill 
had  gone  through  the  others  would  have  followed  undoubtedly  and  the  loyal 
slaveholders  in  all  of  the  border  states  would  have  received  pay  for  their  slaves." 

President  Lincoln  and  General  Henderson  were  so  confident  the  bill  to  dis- 
burse $15,000,000  for  Missouri  slaves  would  become  law  that  some  figuring  was 
done  on  the  amount  which  would  be  paid  per  capita. 

"I  recollect  quite  distinctlv  the  calculations  I  made  at  the  time,"  General 
Henderson  said.  "I  found  that  the  amount  which  the  government  would  have 
distributed  to  Missourians  under  the  terms  of  the  bill  finally  agreed  upon  in  con- 
ference would  have  given  the  loyal  owners  in  my  state  about  $300  for  each  slave 
— man,  woman  and  child.  That  I  consider  a  pretty  good  price,  for  while  we  were 
legislating  the  emancipation  proclamation  had  become  assured,  and  it  was  very 


680  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

evident  to  my  mind  that  slavery  was  doomed,  even  among  those  slaveholders  who 
had  remained  loyal." 

Beaten  by  a  Small  Minority. 

The  record  bears  out  Senator  Henderson's  recollections.  The  House  passed 
Noell's  hill  by  seventy-three  to  forty-six.  The  -Senate  accepted  the  compromise 
on  the  amount,  which  was  $15,000,000,  by  a  vote  of  twenty-three  to  fifteen.  But 
the  compromise  was  not  reported  until  six  days  before  the  end  of  the  session 
and  a  smsll  minority  in  the  House  was  able  to  prevent  a  vote  on  it.  In  this 
minority  were  three  Missourians,  William  A.  Hall,  Elijah  H.  Norton  and  Thomas 
L.  Price. 

To  have  the  courag^of  their  convictions  has  ever  been  characteristic  of  Mis- 
sourians sent  to  Congress.  The  three  Missourians  who  fought  the  compensated 
abolishment  bill  to  its  death  were  honest.  No  one  who  reads  the  debate  can 
doubt  that.  Elijah  H.  Norton,  who  represented  the  Platte  district,  was  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  small  opposition  minority.  He  fought  the  measure  from  its 
introduction  to  the  end  of  the  session. 

One  point  which  Judge  Norton  made  was  that  Missouri  could  not  free  her 
slaves  without  paying  the  owners  the  full  equivalent  for  them.     He  said: 

"According  to  the  ccn.sus  of  i860,  there  were  of  slaves  in  Missouri  about  120,000. 
According  to  the  report  of  the  auditor  of  the  state,  founded  upon  returns  made  for  the 
year  1862  by  the  assessors  of  forty  odd  counties,  there  can  not  now  be  less  than  100,000 
slaves  in  the  state.  In  my  judgment  not  over  5,000  of  them  are  subject  to  confiscation 
under  the  confiscation  law,  leaving  9.=;,ooo  to  be  bought  and  paid  for.  Before  the  legislature 
can  emancipate  them,  they  must  first  pay  a  full  equivalent  for  them.  Not  an  equivalent 
which  Congress  by  an  arbitrary  legislative  act  fixes;  not  an  equivalent  which  legislative 
enactment  declares,  but  the  worth,  the  value  of  the  slave  as  ascertained  from  the  market 
rate  by  a  proceeding,  not  legislative,  but  judicial  in  its  character.  I  notice  sales  recently 
made  in  Howard  county,  in  the  district  of  my  colleague,  at  $900;  in  other  counties  at  from 
$600  to  $700,  for  negro  men.  These  figures  and  the  former  value  of  slaves  lead  me  to 
conclude  that  the  average  value  of  slaves  in  the  state  would  not  fall  below  $450.  Thus, 
sir,  we  have  the  price,  being  $450,  and  the  number  95,000  to  be  bought.  The  value  of  these 
slaves  would  be  $42,750,000.  By  this  bill  you  place  at  the  disposal  of  the  governor  $20,000,- 
000  of  bonds;  and  if  the  legislature,  out  of  the  state  treasury,  could  also  appropriate  $22,- 
750,000,  then  the  legislature  could,  in  twelve  months,  pass  a  valid  and  constitutional  law 
for  the  emancipation  of  slaves  according  to  the  terms  of  the  bill.  But,  sir,  this  is  im- 
possible." 

Judge  Norton  took  the  position  that  the  general  government  had  no  authority 
to  carry  out  the  proposed  plan  of  emancipation.     He  said : 

"The  citizens  of  Missouri  are  willing  to  acknowledge  their  proper  and  just  allegiance 
to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  but  they  have  always  held  and  hold  to-day  that 
under  the  obligations  of  that  allegiance,  fixed  and  defined  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  they  are  not  required  to  give  up  their  state  rights  and  bow  down  in  the 
dust  like  serfs  and  slaves  to  federal  dictation,  or  the  dictation  of  any  one  or  more  states 
of  the  Union.  Missouri  has  rights  as  a  state  of  tlie  Union.  Missouri  has  rights  as  a  state 
of  this  Union  which  you  dare  not  invade  without  disregarding  your  oaths  and  trampling 
in  the  dust  the  Constitution  watered  with  the  blood  of  your  Revolutionary  sires.  You 
can  not  abolish  our  state  courts,  nor  our  legislature;  nor  can  you  deprive  us  of  two 
senators  or  our  proper  number  of  representatives  upon  this  floor.    You  can  not  make  local 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  ,  681 

laws  for  our  local  internal  police  government  conflicting  with  the  reserved  rights  of  the 
state  and  the  people.  While  you  can  not  do  any  of  these  things,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly, neither  can  you  by  direction  or  indirection,  as  you  propose  by  this  bill,  abolish 
slavery.  That  is  as  much  their  concern  as  is  the  election  of  their  legislature.  The  people 
of  that  state  are  a  brave,  magnanimous,  patriotic  and  just-minded  people;  and  whenever 
in  the  exercise  of  their  virtues  they  determine  that  it  is  for  their  interest  and  to  the 
interest  of  the  state  and  country  generally  that  the  institution  of  slavery  should  be 
abolished  in  a  legal  and  constitutional  mode,  all  citizens  of  the  state  will  agree  to  their 
verdict  and  sanction  their  action.  You  do  not  propose  to  have  it  accomplished  in  this 
way,  but  are   for  stepping  in  and  settling  the  matter  at  once." 

In  conclusion  Judge  Norton  pictured  the  horrors  as  he  foresaw  them  of  a  free 
negro  population  in  Missouri : 

"Under  this  bill  you  propose  to  turn  adrift  upon  the  people  of  the  state  100,000  persons 
without  a  dollar,  without  homes  or  provision  made  for  them  to  get  homes,  persons  of  all 
ages,  sexes  and  conditions,  the  old  and  mfirm,  the  halt,  lame  and  blind,  the  young  and 
defenseless,  in  one  promiscuous  mass.  Is  this  humanity?  Humanitarians  on  the  other 
side  of  the  House  may  answer.  The  original  bill  pledged  the  faith  of  this  government 
to  take  the  emancipated  slaves  out  of  the  state;  the  substitute  adopted  by  the  Senate,  and 
now  here  for  action,  strikes  this  provision  out,  thus  converting  Missouri  into  a  free  negro 
state.  You  can  not  inflict  a  greater  injury  on  Missouri  than  thus  to  fill  up  her  communi- 
ties with  this  kind  of  worthless  population.  A  free  negro  population  is  the  greatest  curse 
to  any  country." 

Charcoals  and  Claybanks. 

The  Union  men  of  Alissouri  divided  sharply  in  1862  upon  the  question  of 
freeing  the  slaves  in  this  state.  The  Charcoals  were  for  immediate  emancipation; 
the  Claybanks  favored  what  Frank  P.  Blair,  in  a  letter  to  Rudolph  Doehn  called 
a  "gradual,  peaceful  and  just  measure  of  emancipation."  Missourians  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  freedom  of  the  slaves  of  the  disloyal  was  coming  as  an  act  of 
war.  The  issue  for  this  state  was  the  course  to  be  pursued  regarding  the  slaves 
of  the  Union  men.  In  the  spring  of  1863  there  were  held  two  local  conventions 
in  St.  Louis,  one  called  the  Republican  Emancipation  convention  by  the  "Char- 
coals," and  the  other  the  Union  Emancipation  convention  by  the  "Claybanks." 
The  "Charcoals"  nominated  Cliauncey  I.  Filley  for  mayor;  the  "Claybanks" 
nominated  his  cousin,  O.  D.  Filley.  for  mayor.  The  Democrats  nominated  Joseph 
O'Neill.  The  Charcoals  resolved  in  their  convention  "Emancipation  in  Missouri 
should  be  sought  in  the  most  speedy  manner  consistent  with  law  and  order."  The 
resolutions  endorsed  the  President's  proclamation  of  January  i,  1863,  freeing 
the  slaves  in  the  Confederate  states.  The  Claybanks  resolved  "That  we  regard 
slavery  as  an  evil  and  believe  that  our  state  ought  to  adopt  some  constitutional 
mode  of  getting  rid  of  an  institution  which  has  been  a  clog  upon  the  wheels  of  her 
prosperity  and  the  fruitful  source  of  trouble  and  disaster."  The  Charcoals  were 
successful,  electing  Chaimcev  I.  Filley  over  the  Claybank  and  the  Democratic 
candidates.  . 

James  Taussig  returning  in  May,  1863,  from  Washington,  quoted  President 
Lincoln  as  saying:  "The  Union  men  of  Missouri,  who  are  in  favor  of  gradual 
emancipation,  represent  my  views  better  than  those  who  favor  imincdiate  emanci- 
pation." 

In  1863  a  plan  of  gradual  emancipation  was  offered  to  the  people  of  Missouri 


682  CENTENNIAL  HJSTuRY  OF  MISSOURI 

in  the  form  of  a  constitutional  anicndnicnt.  But  in  1865  a  constitutional  con- 
vention declared  for  immediate  freedom  of  all  slaves.  Negro  schools  were  started 
in  St.  Louis  by  voluntary  contributions,  the  laws  at  that  time  forbidding  use  of 
public  money  for  such  a  purpose. 

Negro  Education  in  Missouri. 

A  negro  regiment,  composed  in  the  main  of  former  Missouri  slaves,  started 
the  fund  which  bought  the  site  of  Lincoln  Institute  at  Jefferson  City.  The  first 
contribution  was  $20,  given  by  Maj.  Samuel  A.  Love,  for  many  years  a  leader 
among  the  negro  Baptists  of  Missouri.  The  time  was  pay  day  for  the  colored 
troops;  also  it  was  Sunday.  J.  Milton  Turner,  afterwards  Minister  to  Liberia 
Tp'  appointment  from  General  Grant,  addressed  the  soldiers.  He  told  them 
that  education  was  the  great  need  of  their  people  now  that  freedom  had  been 
obtained.  He  explained  that  colored  teachers  must  be  trained.  To  accomplish 
that  there  must  be  a  normal  school.  The  fund  thus  started  grew  with  contribu- 
tions from  another  negro  regiment.  It  was  sufficient  to  buy  the  site.  The  legis- 
lature was  a.sked  for  help.  An  understanding  was  reached  by  which  the  state 
was  pledged  to  recognize  and  support  the  institute  when  the  contributions  from 
individuals  reach  $15,000.  Capt.  R.  B.  Foster  who  had  been  in  the  movement 
from  the  beginning  went  East  with  Turner.  Anti-slavery  people  contributed 
freely.  The  guarantee  fund  was  raised.  The  state  administration  redeemed  its 
promise  and  Missouri  inaugurated  one  of  the  earliest  training  schools  for  colored 
teachers.  Turner  established,  as  he  believed,  the  first  negro  school  in  Missouri 
outside  of  St.  Louis.  He  said  one  of  his  supporters  was  Jesse  James,  who  on 
several  occasions  contributed  from  $10  to  $25.  "But  for  Jesse  James,"  said 
Turner,  "I  could  not  have  kept  up  the  school." 

Samuel  Cupples  and  Dr.  Woodw^ard. 

The  introduction  of  colored  teachers  for  colored  schools  was  one  of  the  inno- 
vations which  St.  Louis  tried  with  admirable  results.  It  came  about  after  Samuel 
Cupples  and  Dr.  Calvin  M.  Woodward  had  become  active  in  the  public  school 
board.  For  a  number  of  years  the  teachers  of  the  colored  schools  were  white. 
When  a  young  white  woman  was  assigned  to  teach  a  colored  school  there  followed 
an  indignant  protest  from  her  friends.  White  teachers  failed  to  arouse  the 
interest  among  their  pupils  necessary  for  best  results.  Mr.  Cupples  was  a  trustee 
of  the  Lincoln  Institute  at  Jefterson  City.  He  made  inquiries  as  to  the  capabilities 
of  the  students  who  were  being  educated  at  the  institute  and  proposed  the  trial  of 
colored  teachers  in  the  St.  Louis  colored  schools.  Dr.  Harris,  Dr.  Woodward 
and  others  favored  the  experiment.  At  that  time  the  enrollment  of  children  in  the 
colored  schools  was  about  two  thousand.  Mr.  Cupples,  Dr.  Harris  and  Dr. 
Woodward  visited  the  colored  schools,  invited  the  parents  to  a  conference,  had 
refreshments  and  explained  the  purpose  to  better  the  educational  facilities  for  the 
children.  They  urged  that  they  must  have  the  cooperation  of  the  parents  to 
obtain  the  improvement  desired.  Children  must  attend  regularly,  must  not  be 
kept  out  on  Mondays  to  go  after  the  laundry  and  at  other  times  to  nm  errands, 
but  must  be  present  five  days  in  the  week.  In  a  year  the  enrollment  of  the  colored 
schools  of  St.  Louis  had  doubled.    The  improved  conditions  under  colored  teachers 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  683 

has  been  so  marked  and  gratifying  that  it  brought  the  pubhc  school  board  to  the 
conclusion  to  build  a  colored  high  school  to  cost  $350,000,  the  best  equipped  high 
school  for  colored  pupils  in  the  United  States. 

A  few  years  ago  Sir  William  Mather,  accompanied  by  Lady  Mather,  visited 
St.  Louis  to  observe  the  progress  made  in  manual  training.  From  the  white 
schools  they  went  to  the  colored  and  saw  the  boys  and  girls  receiving  the  same 
practical  instruction  in  the  use  of  their  hands  as  well  as  their  minds. 

"I  am  surprised,"  exclaimed  the  lady.  "Wasn't  this  a  slave  state?  I  am  sur- 
prised that  you  are  doing  so  much  for  the  negroes." 

"Madame,"  said  Mr.  Cupples.  "the  only  people  who  understand  the  negroes 
and  who  know  how  to  make  good  citizens  of  them  are  those  who  lived  in  the 
former  slave  states." 

Then  Lady  Mather  insisted  upon  having  some  pictures  of  the  colored  school 
children  of  St.  Louis  at  their  studies  and  especially  engaged  in  the  manual  training 
and  domestic  science  work. 

"When  we  go  up  to  Khartoum,"  she  said  to  Sir  William.  "I  want  to  show 
what  these  people  are  doing  for  the  little  Africans  in  St.  Louis." 

The  Missouri  Negro. 

When  the  bill  to  reimburse  the  depositors  of  the  Freedman's  Savings  bank 
was  before  Congress,  Senator  Vest  opposed  it.  He  said  that  the  bill  was  in  the 
interest,  not  of  the  original  depositors,  but  for  the  benefit  of  claim  agents.  And 
then  he  paid  this  touching  tribute  to  the  negro  as  he  had  known  him  in  Missouri : 
"I  have  nothing  to  say  to  any  man  who  thinks  that  I  would  grind  the  African 
race  out  of  one  cent.  If  any  man  in  this  world  has  reason  to  be  their  friend,  I 
am  that  man — raised  with  them,  nursed  by  one  of  them,  an  humble  owner  of 
them  as  inherited  property.  I  never  bought  or  sold  one  for  gain  in  my  life.  They 
are  a  docile,  gentle,  inoffensive  race,  and  the  Southern  man  who  would  wrong 
them  deserves  to  be  blotted  from  the  roll  of  manhood.  When  our  wives  and 
children  were  in  their  hands  during  the  war  they  acted  so  as  to  make  every  man 
in  the  South  their  friend  who  had  one  particle  of  manhood  about  him." 

According  to  Commissioner  Fitzpatrick,  of  the  state  bureau  of  labor  statistics, 
there  were  in  1913  nearly  3,800  Missouri  farms  owned  by  negroes  and  these  farms 
were  worth  $27,768,000,  taking  the  average  value  of  a  farm  in  the  state  as  a  basis. 
Investigation  by  the  bureau  showed  that  these  farms,  as  a  rule,  were  well  kept  and 
well  stocked  and  productive,  growing  wheat,  corn,  oats,  grasses,  watermelons, 
strawberries,  peaches,  apples  and  all  other  food  necessities.  Negroes  raised 
poultry  for  the  market,  sold  eggs,  milk  and  butter,  had  bee  hives  and  plenty  of 
honey,  produced  sugar  cane,  which,  in  fall,  they  boiled  out  for  sorghum  molasses. 
Their  daily  menu  was  made  of  the  best  things  they  produced.  Nearly  every  negro 
farmer  in  Missouri,  the  commissioner  stated,  had  a  bank  account. 

In  1913  the  sweepstakes  premium  for  "the  highest  yield  of  corn  on  one  acre," 
awarded  at  the  University  of  Missouri,  went  to  a  negro  farmer.  It  was  given  to 
N.  C.  Bruce,  connected  with  the  Dartlett  Farm  and  School  for  negroes  at  Dalton 
in  Chariton  county.  Bruce  raised  108  bushels  on  a  .single  acre.  The  average 
for  a  field  of  sixty  acres  at  the  Dalton  institution,  where  negroes  are  taught 
agriculture  and  other  useful  branches,  was  between  sixty-five  and  seventy-five 


684  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

bushels  an  acre.  One  of  the  chief  promoters  of  the  DaUon  school  was  the  late 
Professor  Calvin  M.  Woodward,  father  of  manual  training. 

Bruce's  record,  officially,  was  io8  bushels  of  corn  on  a  single  acre.  The  negro 
students  of  the  Dalton  school  raised  an  average  of  sixty-five  bushels  on  a  field 
of  sixty  acres.  In  191 5,  Bruce  won  the  first  prize  on  corn  for  the  entire  United 
States  at  the  San  Francisco  Exposition. 

"Some  of  us,"  Bruce  recently  wrote  to  the  writer,  "the  state's  farthest  down 
humanity,  want  to  be  saved  to  better  service.  We  want  our  people  to  become 
desirable  assets  instead  of  a  liability  on  white  citizens.  We  know  that  the  farms, 
farming  and  domestic  service  training,  offer  us  our  best  opportunity.  We  have 
shown  our  white  neighbors  and  are  trying  to  show  white  law-makers  and  authori- 
ties of  the  state  that  we,  country  life  Missouri  black  people,  are  worth  saving 
equally  as  our  brothers  in  Alabama  and  other  southern  states.  We  follow  the 
lines  of  the  late  Booker  T.  Washington  and  get  even  quicker  and  better  results 
with  the  poorest  equipment." 

"A  minimum  programme  negro  advancement"  was  recently  put  forward  by 
the  "National  Association  for  the  Betterment  of  the  Colored  People."  This  pro- 
gramme, summarized,  demands  that  lynching  shall  be  stopped;  that  negroes  shall 
have  fair  trial  in  courts;  that  employment  shall  not  be  denied  on  account  of  color 
in  any  work  for  which  negroes  are  qualified ;  that  there  shall  be  no  peonage  and 
that  criminal  penalties  shall  not  be  imposed  for  the  breaking  of  labor  contracts; 
that  common  school  education  shall  be  open  to  all  children ;  that  agricultural  and 
industrial  training  shall  be  available  to  all  children ;  that  teachers  from  their  own 
race  shall  be  provided  for  negro  schools ;  that  there  shall  be  no  segregation  to  con- 
fine negroes  in  cities  to  a  slum  district;  that  where  segregation  is. enforced,  there 
shall  be  like  service  for  the  same  cost ;  that  voting  laws  shall  be  the  same  for 
colored  as  for  white  people;  that  "grandfather  restrictions"  on  suffrage  shall  be 
repealed. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  Missouri,  either  through  statutes  existing  and  enforced,  or 
through  public  sentiment,  concedes  nearly  all  of  these  demands.  Perhaps  no  other 
state  in  the  Union  comes  nearer  the  recognition  of  this  "minimum  programme." 
In  the  matter  of  education,  the  negro  child  in  the  Missouri  cities  enjoys  advantages 
equal  to  the  white.  But  in  the  matter  of  agricultural  education,  the  excellent 
Dalton  school  is  left  to  private  subscription. 

Missouri  Slavery  an  Economic  Mistake. 

^Missouri  was  not  much  of  a  slave  State  even  in  i860,  when  the  crisis  was 
impending.  That  year  the  population  was  1,182.012,  while  the  number  of  slaves 
was  only  114,931,  or  only  one  in  ten.  Ten  southern  states  had  more  slaves  than 
Missouri.  Five  of  these  states, — Virginia,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  Alabama  and 
South  .Carolina,- — had,  each,  more  than  400,000.  Arkansas,  which  ranked  twelfth 
in  the  number  of  slaves,  had  111,114,  nearly  as  many  as  Missouri. 

What  is  more  significant  in  its  bearing  on  the  interest  of  Missouri  in  the 
slavery  rjuestion  and  also  in  the  struggle  of  1861  for  control  of  the  state  is  the 
showing  that  two-thirds  of  the  slaves  in  Missouri  were  within  a  few  miles  of 
the  Missouri  river.  Twelve  counties  contained  50,280  slaves,  nearly  one-half  of 
the   114.935- 


SLAVERY  AND  AFTER  68;j 

Boone    S.034  Jackson   3,944 

Callaway    , 4,257  Lafayette    6,357 

Chariton    2,837  P'ke    4,056 

Clay   3.456  Platte  3,313 

Cooper     2,800  St.  Charles 2,181 

Howard    5,889  Saline    4,876 

While  the  census  of  i860  gave  Missouri  1,182,912  population,  it  also  showed 
that  there  were  only  24,320  owners  of  slaves  in  Missouri.  And  while  the  most 
of  the  slaves  were  in  the  Missouri  valley,  with  909  slave  owners  in  one  county, 
Lafayette,  it  was  an  interesting  fact  that  only  one  county  was  without  a  single 
slave.     That  was  Douglas  county,  in  the  Ozarks. 

Slavery  was  dying  out  in  Missouri.  If  the  Civil  war  had  been  postponed  ten 
years,  slavery  would  have  ceased  to  be  an  issue  in  Missouri.  These  were  the 
very  interesting  economic  conclusions  reached  as  the  result  of  an  exhaustive 
study  made  under  the  auspices  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  by  William  Clark 
Breckenridge.  The  study  showed  that  at  the  beginning  of  1861  Slavery  was  in- 
dustrially profitable  in  only  four  Missouri  counties.  Those  were  Missouri  coun- 
ties where  hemp  growing  wa^  a  leading  industry.  For  all  other  branches  of  agri- 
culture in  Missouri  slave  labor  was  not  profitable.  Custom  and  tradition 
prompted  the  Missouri  slaveholders  to  hold  to  their  peculiar  institution  against 
financial  interest. 


CHAPTER  XX 
LAST  OF  THE  BENTON  DUELS 

Thomas  C.  Reynolds  and  B.  Grate  Rrmvn — Tivo  Ch<illenges  and  Two  Acceptances — The 
First  Offending  Editorial — Benton's  Championship  of  Settlers — The  District  Attorney 
Protests — Bro-cun  Declares  Authorship — Reynolds  Satisfied — Friends  in  the  Controversy 
— A  Year  Later — The  Combination  Against  Benton — "Is  It  Perjury  or  Is  It  Not?" — 
Reynolds  Asks  "the  Proper  Atonement" — Rifles  at  Eighty  Yards — A  Question  of  Short- 
sightedness— The  Meeting  Off— Benton  the  Issue  Again — Reynolds'  German  Speech — 
"Germans  and  Irish  on  an  Equality  zvith  Negroes" — "An  Unmitigated  Lie" — The  Editor 
Posted — A  Peremptory  Challenge — Acceptance  in  Two  Lines — Friends,  Advisers  and 
Surgeons — Selma  Hall — .-)  Graphic  Story  of  the  Meeting — Duello  Etiquette — Kennetfs 
Arrangements — Interchanges  of  the  Seconds — Bearing  of  the  Principals — The  Pistols — 
"Fire!" — Reynolds'  Quickness — Broivn  Wounded — The  Return  to  St.  Louis — No  Prose- 
cution— In  Later  Years — Political  and  Personal  Friends — Brown's  Career  Not  Satisfy- 
ing^Reynolds'  Fate. 

They  belong,  too,  to  the  small  class  of  hermaphrodite  politicians  who,  here  in  Missouri,  style  themselves 
antis,  and  who,  in  their  blind  opposition  to  Benton,  arc  even  willing  to  go  to  the  length  of  subverting  by  the 
revival  of  obsolete  laws,  all  he  has  done  for  thirty  years  past  to  guard  the  rights  of  the  settler  and  to  secure 
him  his  domicile   free   from  intrusion. — B.  Gratz  Brouft's  Offending  Hditurial. 

Thomas  C.  Reynolds  was  of  South  Carohna  nativity.  B,  Gratz  Brown  was 
a  Kentuckian,  grandson  of  the  first  United  States  senator  from  the  state.  Rey- 
nolds graduated  from  the  University  of  Virginia,  went  to  Germany  and  com- 
pleted his  education  at  Heidelberg,  Brown  graduated  at  Transylvania  and  went 
to  Yale  for  his  finishing  course.  He  came  to  St,  Louis  in  1845,  entered  the  law 
office  of  his  relative.  Francis  F,  Blair,  Jr,,  but  devoted  most  of  his  time  to  the 
writing  of  editorials  for  the  newspapers.  Reynolds  settled  in  St,  Louis  a  year 
later,  after  service  as  secretary  of  legation  at  -Madrid,  began  the  practice  of  law, 
but  gave  more  attention  to  local  politics.  In  1853  the  political  zeal  of  Reynolds 
was  recognized  by  his  appointment  as  United  States  district  attorney.  In  1854 
Brown's  facility  with  the  pen  justified  the  appearance  of  his  name  at  the  top 
of  the  editorial  page  of  the  Missouri  Democrat, 

These  young  men  came  to  St.  Louis  at  about  the  same  time.  Both  quickly 
attained  prominence  in  the  community.  Both  were  democrats — but  democrats  of 
factions  between  which  the  hostility  was  intense.  Brown  was  a  free-soil  demo- 
crat, Reynolds  was  a  proslavery  democrat.  Reynolds,  within  five  years  after 
his  coming,  won  a  position  of  influence  in  local  political  councils  so  marked  that 
he  was  made  "the  candidate  of  his  faction  for  Congress  in  1856,  not  with  any 
expectation  of  election,  but  to  swell  the  anti-Benton  vote.  Brown  in  the  same 
time  had  written  himself  into  such  distinction  that  it  was  said  his  editorials  in 

687 


688  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  Democrat  were  "cursed  by  proslavery  men,  commended  by  free-soilers,  and 
read  by  all." 

In  1854  an  editorial  by  Brown  provoked  a  demand  for  explanation  from 
Reynolds.  Three  times  in  three  years  the  editor  and  the  district  attorney  engaged 
in  controversies  over  articles  in  the  Democrat.  Twice  the  challenge  passed  and 
was  accepted.  In  1856  the  duel  was  fought.  It  was  the  last,  in  which  blood 
was  shed,  between  St.  Louisans.  It  closed  a  record  begun  forty  years  before — 
a  long  roll  of  tragedies.  With  the  meeting  between  these  young  men  of  superior 
education,  of  refinement,  of  gentlemanly  instincts,  the  code  passed. 

In  an  editorial  printed  the  21st  of  April,  1854,  the  Alissouri  Democrat  ar- 
raigned the  United  States  marshal  and  the  district  attorney  for  persecution  of 
settlers  in  Southwest  Missouri  by  prosecuting  them  for  cutting  timber  on  gov- 
ernment land  and  then  charging  them  with  "high  treason"  because  they  resisted. 

The  Offensive  Editorial. 

"The  whole  difficulty  in  these  prosecutions,"  said  the  Democrat,  "arises  from 
the  appointment  of  persons  to  office  upon  the  recommendation  of  a  few  nullifiers 
at  Washington  and  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  four-fifths  of  the  people  of  the 
state.  The  present  appointees  owe  their  places  to  the  misrepresentation  of  Atchi- 
son and  Phelps,  who  have  been  laboring  all  along  in  cahoot  to  defeat  the  interests 
of  Missouri,  and,  of  course,  nothing  better  could  be  expected  of  such  proteges. 
They  belong,  too,  to  the  small  class  of  hermaphrodite  politicians  who,  here  in 
Missouri,  style  themselves  antis,  and  who,  in  their  blind  opposition  to  Benton, 
are  even  willing  to  go  to  the  length  of  subverting,  by  the  revival  of  obsolete 
laws,  all  he  has  done  for  thirty  years  past  to  guard  the  rights  of  the  settler  and 
to  secure  him  his  domicile  free  from  intrusion." 

Nothing  in  this  editorial  showed  personal  animus  toward  Reynolds.  The  Mis- 
souri Democrat  was  making  much  of  settlers'  Tights.  That  had  long  been  a 
Benton  doctrine.  The  evolution  from  it  was  the  "squatter  sovereignty"  of 
Douglas,  but  Benton  did  not  follow  to  that  development.  Some  of  these  settlers 
had  shown  resistance  when  the  marshal  tried  to  serve  warrants  on  them  for 
cutting  timber  on  government  land.  They  had  been  charged  with  high  treason 
under  an  old  statute.  They  were  being  prosecuted  in  United  States  courts  by 
the  district  attorney,  far  from  their  homes.  The  cases  gave  the  Democrat  excel- 
lent opportunity  and  use  was  made  of  it  in  the  interest  of  Benton,  who  was  in 
Congress  that  term  and  a  candidate  for  re-election. 

Reynolds  wrote  a  card  in  answer  to  the  editorial,  a  rather  mysterious  card, 
in  which  he  said,  "My  respect  for  the  two  lawyers  who  edit  the  Democrat  for- 
bids my  believing  the  article  was  penned  by  either  of  them."  .'\nd  then  he  pro- 
tested against  the  "comment  on  my  official  action." 

The  Democrat  came  back  in  the  same  issue  which  gave  place  to  the  card : 
"To  satisfy  his  curiosity,  we  can  inform  him  that  the  article  was  written  by 
one  of  the  editors  of  the  Democrat."  Then  followed  something  very  personal: 
"We  remember  that  during  Mr.  Polk's  administration,  the  very  important  fact 
of  an  offer  to  purchase  Cuba  by  the  American  minister  was  made  known  to  the 
public  through  the  New  York  Herald,  although  the  correspondence  was  not 
only  not  published,  but  was  intended  to  be  a  state  secret.    As  the  district  attorney 


Vol.  1—4  4 


LAST  OF  THE  BEXTOX  DUELS  691 

was  secretary  of  legation  at  that  time,  perhaps  he  can  inform  the  pubHc  how 
the  fact  came  to  be  known.  Painful  rumors  were  abroad  through  the  country 
in  regard  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Herald  obtained  its  information,  but  our 
memory  does  not  retain  all  of  the  particulars,  and  we  therefore  await  enlighten- 
ment from  the  district  attorney." 

A  Satisfactory  Explanation. 

When  he  came  down  to  the  Democrat  office  that  morning,  Brown  received 
a  note  from  Reynolds,  asking  if  this  second  editorial  was  "designed  to  be  offen- 
sive," closing  with,  "my  friend  Mr.  Goode  will  receive  your  reply."  This  course 
was  in  accord  with  the  technicalities  of  the  dueling  code.  Brown  replied:  "I 
am  the  author  of  the  articles  to  which  you  allude."  He  added  that  the  card  of 
Reynolds  "contained  an  assumption  which  I  conceived  reflected  upon  me  per- 
sonally." Reynolds'  answer  was  that  he  "had  no  intention  in  any  part  of  that 
communication  to  reflect  on  either  of  the  editors  of  the  Democrat  personally." 
Thereupon  Brown  wrote  that  this  gave  "an  opportunity,  of  which  I  take  pleasure 
in  availing  myself,  to  withdraw  any  language  that  is  personally  offensive  to  you 
in  the  editorial."  The  note  of  Brown  was  delivered  to  Reynolds  "by  my  friend. 
Colonel  Robert  M.  Renick."  Reynolds  answered :  "Your  note  of  to-day  is 
received,  and  it  gives  me  pleasure  to  accept  the  same  as  satisfactory." 

Reynolds'  interest  in  the  controversy  subsided  suddenly  when  Brown  avowed 
himself  the  author  of  the  articles.  Possibly  Reynolds  thought  he  was  on  the 
trail  of  big  game.  He  knew,  as  did  everybody  in  Missouri  politics,  that  Benton 
was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  editorial  page  of  the  Democrat.  To  the  young 
district  attorney,  with  his  South  Carolina  theory  of  personal  responsibility,  an 
issue  like  this  with  the  great  Benton  would  be  very  attractive.  In  his  card,  evi- 
dently written  as  a  feeler.  Reynolds  indicated  his  theory  that  the  first  editorial 
had  not  been  written  by  either  of  the  ostensible  editors  of  the  Democrats.  He 
said  his  future  course  would  depend  upon  his  "opinion  of  the  source"  from  which 
the  editorial  criticism  emanated.  Did  he  at  first  suspect  that  Benton  might  be 
the  author  of  the  editorial?  If  so,  the  readiness  with  which  he  expressed  inten- 
tion to  avoid  personalities  and  with  which  he  accepted  satisfaction  is  accounted 
for. 

Robert  M.  Renick,  the  friend  of  Brown  in  this  first  affair,  was  a  banker. 
George  ^^'.  Goode.  who  acted  for  Reynolds,  was  a  Virginian,  and  had  passed 
through  his  own  experience  with  the  code  of  his  native  state.  He  had  been  a 
law  partner, of  James  A.  Seddon,  afterwards  secretary  of  war  in  the  Cabinet  of 
Jeflferson  Davis.  A  close  friend  of  Goode  had  sustained  an  injury  which  de- 
manded satisfaction  on  the  field  of  honor.  He  was  prevented  by  religious  obliga- 
tions, possibly  church  relations,  from  sending  a  challenge,  but  Goode  had  acted 
for  him.  As  a  result  of  sending  the  challenge  in  \'^irginia,  Goode  moved  to  St. 
Louis.  There  he  was  counsel  in  a  famous  land  case,  won  a  fee  of  $50,000,  bought 
an  estate  in  St.  Louis  county  and  lived  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman. 

A  YeajT  Later. 

The  second  affair  between  Brown  and  Reynolds  enlivened  the  municipal  cam- 
paign eleven  months  after  the  first;  its  beginning  was  a  local  report  of  a  meeting 


692  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSQURI 

held  to  unite  various  ekments  upon  an  anti-'Benton  ticket  for  the  city  election. 
Politics  in  Missouri,  from  1850  to  i860,  was  a  continuous  performance.  At 
the  time  of  these  affairs  between  Brown  and  Reynolds  a  mayor  and  other  city 
officials  were  elected  annually.  Party  lines  were  down.  Factions  formed  and 
reformed.  The  Missourian  could  be  a  Benton  Democrat,  a  "regular"  Democrat, 
a  W'hif,',  a  Know-Nothing,  a  reform  Republican,  an  Emancipationist,  a  Free- 
Soiler.  an  Abolitionist.  Not  infrequently  he  changed  his  factional  affiliation 
from  one  campaign  to  the  next.  Benton  was  beaten  for  the  Senate,  elected  to 
the  House  and  defeated  for  governor,  all  in  six  years.  St.  Louis  had  in  rapid 
succession  a  Democrat,  a  Whig,  an  Emancipationist  and  a  Republican  for  mayors. 
The  young  editor  of  the  Democrat,  guided  by  a  dimly  defined  political  policy, 
realizing  under-the-surface  rumblings  of  the  political  earthquake  which  was 
coming,  endeavored  to  make  his  editorial  page  virile  and  readable;  he  did  not 
shun  personalities. 

In  ]\Iarch,  1855,  the  combination  was  forming  to  beat  the  Benton  party  in 
the  election  for  mayor  of  St.  Louis.  Anti-Benton  Democrats,  Know-Nothings 
and  Whigs  were  in  it.  Boernstein,  the  German  "boss,"  joined  the  coalition.  This 
attempt  to  unite  the  Know-Nothings  and  the  Germans  gave  the  Democrat  its 
opportunity.  .Strange  to  tell,  just  at  this  time  Reynolds  entered  into  a  business 
enterprise  with  Boernstein.  The  district  attorney  and  the  German  leader  became 
partners  in  a  brewery.  Boernstein  was  the  chief  object  of  the  Democrat's  attack. 
Reynolds'  name  did  not  appear  in  the  lively  two-column  description  which  the 
Democrat  reporter  wrote  of  the  speeches  and  scenes  of  the  anti-Benton  mass 
meeting.  A  later  generation  in  journalism  would  have  called  it  "a  good  story." 
In  the  next  column  of  the  Democrat  appeared  a  communication  from  "Anti-Know- 
Nothing"  devoted  to  Reynolds  and  his  brewery  association  with  Boernstein.  The 
letter  assumed  that  the  brewery  was  a  cover  for  a  political  conspiracy  "formed 
for  the  purpose  of  defeating  Benton."  In  the  August  campaign  of  1854,  only  a 
few  months  previous  to  this,  when  Benton  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for 
Congress.  Boernstein  had  pandered  to  Know-Nothing  prejudices  by  anti-Catholic 
articles  in  the  Anzeiger,  his  paper. 

These  articles  were  translated  and  republished  in  the  Missouri  Republican, 
credited  to  the  Anzeiger,  to  drive  Catholic  support  from  Benton.  At  that  time 
the  Anzeiger  was  pretending  to  support  Benton.  The  Democrat's  correspondent, 
"Anti-Know-Nothing,"  insinuated  that  by  secret  intrigue  Reynolds  had  prompted 
Boernstein.  who  was  ostensibly  supporting  Benton,  to  assail  the  Catholics;  that 
Reynolds  translated  these  anti-Catholic  articles  and  furnished  them  to  the  Re- 
publican. Benton  was  beaten  in  that  election,  but  the  appeals  to  religious  preju- 
dices led  to  the  worst  election  riots  St.  Louis  had  known. 

Referring  to  the  application  for  the  brewery  charter  by  Reynolds  and  Boern- 
stein, the  Democrat  asked,  editorially,  "Is  it  perjury  or  is  it  not?"  Reynolds 
demanded  "a  withdrawal  of  your  editorial  of  today,  a  disavowal  and  repudiation 
of  the  communication  of  the  i/tb  and  an  apology  for  their  insertion  in  your 
columns."  He  sent  the  note  by  the  hand  of  the  United  States  collector  of  cus- 
toms at  St.  Louis,  W.  A.  Linn,  commonly  known  as  "Gus"  Linn,  a  relative  of 
the  former  United  States  Senator  Linn.  Brown  replied  that  instead  of  "proceed- 
•  ing  in  the  usual  manner  to  ascertain  the  author  of  the  communication  by  which 


LAST  OF  THE  BENTON  DUELS  693 

you  feel  yourself  to  be  aggrieved,"  Reynolds  was  attempting  '"to  dictate  and 
bully."  Reynolds  sent  a  verbal  challenge  by  Linn.  Brown  replied :  "I  have  no 
more  intention  of  permitting  you  to  brow-beat  me  than  I  have  of  permitting  you 
to  place  nie  in  the  wrong,  and,  therefore,  whenever  you  desire  to  make  a  further 
communication  in  writing,  you  will  not  find  me  unwilling  to  respond  to  your 
satisfaction." 

Challenged  by  Reynolds. 

Reynolds  challenged:  "^'our  notes  are  not  only  insufficient,  but  ofifensive. 
I  ask  the  proper  atonement.  My  friend,  Mr.  W.  A.  Linn,  is  authorized  to  act 
for  me." 

Brown  accepted :  "I  am  convinced  of  your  determination  to  force  a  collision 
with  me,  and  am,  therefore,  constrained  to  gratify  your  unjustifiable  caprice.  I 
will  refer  you  for  all  further  arrangements  to  my  friend,  Cajrt.  D.  M.  Frost,  who 
is  authorized  to  act  for  me  in  the  jjremises." 

Captain  Frost  immediately  notified  Linn  that  the  weapon  to  be  used  was  "the 
common  American  rifle,  with  open  sight,  round  ball,  not  over  one  ounce,  each 
gentleman  to  select  his  own  weapon  of  the  kind  named."  Captain  Frost  added 
for  his  principal :  "He  has  also  chosen  eighty  yards  as  the  distance,  and  will 
on  Sunday  next  arrange  as  to  time  and  place." 

Then  followed  much  letter  writing  on  the  part  of  Reynolds  and  the  seconds, 
Reynolds  demanded  shorter  distance.  "I  consider  the  rifie,  which  you  have  named 
as  the  weapon,,  to  be  unusual  and  barbarous,  and  generally  excluded  by  gentle- 
men. W'ith  this  protest,  as  you  leave  me  no  choice.  I  accept  it  and  exercise  the 
right  (which  I  have  absolutely)  to  shorten  the  distance  from  eighty  paces  to 
.  twenty.  To  show  you  that  I  do  so  not  from  caprice,  but  necessity,  I  assure  you, 
and  it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  I  am  so  nearsighted  that  I  am  unable,  even  with 
my  glasses,  in  ordinary  weather,  to  recognize  any  person,  except  an  intimate 
friend,  at  a  greater  distance  than  thirty  paces ;  and  as  you  have  the  right  to  name 
the  time  of  day  for  the  meeting,  I  can  not  safely  consent  to  a  greater  distance  than 
twenty.  I  hope  that  in  selecting  a  distance  of  eighty  paces  you  were  ignorant  of 
my  defective  eyesight,  and  that  you  did  not  knowingly  propose  terms  on  which 
you,  accustomed  to  the  rifle,  could  shoot  me  down  with  perfect  safety  to  your- 
self." 

The  correspondence  carried  on  by  Frost  and  Linn  over  the  question  of  dis- 
tance ranged  through  the  history  of  the  code.  Rules  of  practice  were  quoted. 
Precedents  were  cited.  In  the  end  Frost  declined  to  shorten  the  distance.  Linn 
refused  to  proceed. 

The  Third  Controversy. 

Benton  still  was  an  issue  in  1856.  He  w'as  running  for  governor  and  was 
supporting  Buchanan  for  President  against  a  member  of  his  own  family,  his  son- 
in-law,  John  C.  Fremont.  In  the  heat  of  that  campaign  the  third  controversy 
between  Brown  and  Reynolds  had  its  origin. 

Reynolds  made  a  speech  in  German  at  Mehl's  store,  in  St.  Louis  county. 
He  had  taken  the  nomination  for  Congress  as  candidate  of  the  anti-Benton 
Democracy.     The  Missouri  Democrat  charged  that  in  his  German  speech  Rey- 


694  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

nolds  "placed  Germans  and  Irish  on  an  equality  with  negroes."'  Reynolds  sent 
a  card  to  the  Missouri  Republican  proclaiming  this  to  be  "an  unmitigated  lie, 
worthy  of  a  sheet  whose  proclivity  to  wilful  and  deliberate  falsehoods  is  only 
exceeded  by  the  notorious  poltroonery  of  its  editor  in  defending  them,  or  his 
meanness  in  not  withdrawing  them  after  their  falsehood  has  been  proven." 
Brown  took  notice  of  the  card  by  this  comment  in  the  Democrat:  "The  office- 
holding  Pierce  candidate  for  Congress  is  as  full  of  manifestoes  against  the 
Democrat  as  a  guinea  fowl  is  of  eggs."  He  added:  "Mr.  Reynolds  must 
certainly  know  that  the  Democrat  has  higher  game  in  view  in  this  canvass  than 
himself  or  the  bogus  ticket  on  which  he  is  running.  He  must  also  know  that 
he,  having  on  former  occasion  backed  out  of  a  challenge  which  he  sent  himself 
to  the  editor  of  this  paper,  can  not  be  longer  viewed  as  within  the  pale  of  those 
who  appeal  to  such  modes  for  the  adjustment  of  personal  difficulties,  or  expect 
his  effusions  to  be  noticed  in  that  light." 

Reynolds  came  out  in  the  afternoon  paper  with  another  card,  which  con- 
cluded: "For  him  whom  this  whole  community  considers  an  unquestionable 
coward,  and  who  has  been  repeatedly  convicted  of  lying,  to  venture  an  opinion 
on  my  standing  as  a  gentleman  is  the  height  of  insolence,  equalled  in  intensity 
only  by  the  abject  cravenness  with  which  he  has,  over  and  over  again,  in  private 
and  public  life,  submitted  to  insults  of  the  most  stinging  and  degrading  kind." 
Reynolds  proceeded  to  "post"  Brown  by  obtaining  the  publication  of  his  two 
cards  outside  of  St.  Louis.  To  "post,"  in  the  language  of  the  code,  was  to  pro- 
claim in  the  most  public  manner  possible  an  adversary  to  be  dishonorable  and 
cowardly.  Brown  waited  until  after  the  election,  having,  as  he  explained  in  a 
personal  note  published  in  the  Democrat,  "no  desire  to  mingle  our  own  personal 
conflicts  with  the  excitement  of  an  election."  On  the  i8th  of  August,  he  sent 
"a 'peremptory  challenge."  There  was  no  exchange  of  correspondence.  The 
acceptance  was  a  matter  of  two  lines. 

The  Last  Political  Duel  in  Missouri. 

A  graphic  account  of  "the  last  political  duel  fought  in  Missouri"  appeared  in 
the  Kansas  City  Times  in  1872.  John  N.  Edwards  was  the  brilliant  editor  of  the 
paper  at  that  time.  He  had  seen  much  of  Reynolds  in  the  days  of  the  Confed- 
eracy. The  two  had  gone  to  Mexico  with  Shelby  after  the  surrender.  Brown 
was  governor  of  Missouri  and  a  leading  Presidential  candidate  in  the  Liberal 
Republican  movement.  The  time  for  reminiscences  was  opportune.  None  other 
than  Major  Edwards  knew  so  well  the  details  or  could  have  written  the  narrative 
that  follows : 

"Both  men  meant  earnest  work,  and  went  about  it  very  calmly  and  very  deliberately. 
Both  represented  a  party,  an  idea,  a  cause,  both  had  a  large  number  of  firm  and  fast  friends, 
and  both  were  cool,  brave,  and  daring.  Brown's  seconds  were  Col.  David  D.  Mitchell, 
formerly  a  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  in  the  West,  and  of  great  reputation  as  an 
Indian  trader  and  fighter,  and  Leo  Walker,  a  gentleman  from  South  Carolina,  who  had 
married  into  a  wealthy  St.  Louis  family,  and  who  resided  there.  It  was  understood,  also, 
that  besides  these  immediate  friends,  Brown  had  as  advisers  Col.  Thomas  H.  Benton  and 
Frank  P.  Blair.  Reynolds'  friends  were  Col.  Ferd.  Kennett,  of  Selma  Hall,  the  best  pistol 
shot  in  Missouri,  and  Capt.  Thomas  B.  Hudson,  a  leading  Democratic  politician  who  had 
distinguished  himself  under  Doniphan  and  in  Doniphan's  march  to  Mexico.     For  advisers, 


LAST  OF  THE  BENTON  DUELS  695 

Reynolds  had  Col.  David  H.  Armstrong,  the  present  chairman  of  the  Democratic  executive 
committee  of  the  state,  Col.  W.  A.  Linn,  the  then  collector  of  customs  at  St.  Louis,  Isaac 
H.  Sturgeon,  for  a  long  time  president  of  the  North.  Missouri  railroad,  and,  in  fact,  the 
Democrats  generally  of  the  city.  John  How  was  mayor  of  St.  Louis  at  that  time,  and 
Judge  Henry  A.  Clover,  prosecuting  attorney.  Although  these  gentlemen  knew  that  a 
duel  was  on  the  tapis,  and  that  a  challenge  had  been  sent  and  accepted,  such  was  the  tone 
of  public  sentiment  and  such  the  leniency  with  which  these  things  were  regarded,  that  no 
efforts  at  arrest  were  made,  and  no  interference  of  any  kind  attempted.  When  people  are 
in  Rome,  they  must  needs  do  as  the  Romans  do,  and  hence  every  preparation  was  fully 
carried  out  by  the  principals  and  their  respective  friends. 

"Selma  Hall,  the  place  of  the  meeting  was  an  elegant  country  seat  in  Jefferson  count}', 
Missouri,  forty  miles  below  St.  Louis,  and  the  property  of  Col.  Ferd.  Kennett.  Here 
nature  and  art  had  combined  to  make  the  spot  one  of  the  loveliest  in  the  West.  Flowers 
and  fountains  abounded  everywhere.  In  the  August  noon,  huge  forest  trees  made  a 
grateful  shade,  under  which  deer  rested  at  ease,  cropping  the  rich  grass  at  intervals  and 
crouching  low  at  intervals,  as  the  memory  of  the  old  wild  days  of  horns  and  huntsmen 
came  up  from  the  lowlands  and  the  river.  There  were  steeds  ever  in  stall  for  the  young 
bloods  who  swore  by  Kennett  and  his  hounds ;  books  for  the  pale  students  who  stole  away 
from  medicine  and  law  to  sleep  one  night  with  the  hills  and  the  clover;  costly  wines  for 
whosoever  would  drink,  and  an  open  door  and  a  ready  latch-string  for  every  wayfarer 
benighted  through  chance  or   inclination. 

"To  this  delightful  place,  on  the  23d  day  of  August,  1856,  Gratz  Brown  and  his  friends 
repaired.  Etiquette  required  that  Reynolds'  second,  Colonel  Kennett,  should  receive  them, 
which  he  did  with  princely  hospitality,  and  they  were  at  once  domiciled  and  surrounded 
with  every  attention  and  luxury  possible.  The  night  before  leaving  St.  Louis,  Reynolds 
remained  at  the  house  of  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon,  and  slept  so  soundly  that  Sturgeon  had  to 
call  to  him  loudly  the  next  morning  before  arousing  him.  He  had  in  the  meantime  pro- 
cured the  services  as  surgeon  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Shore,  a  distinguished  physician  of  St.  Louis, 
who,  together  with  Reynolds,  Kennett  and  Hudson,  passed  over  into  Illinois  by  the  North 
St.  Louis  ferry.  They  proceeded  down  leisurely  to  a  point  opposite  Selma  Hall,  passing 
the  intermediate  night  at  a  friend  of  Kennett's,  and  reaching  their  destination,  at  about 
twelve  o'clock  on  the  second  day. 

"On  Monday  evening,  August  25th,  Reynolds  crossed  over  to  Selma  Hall,  accepting 
the  hospitality  of  G.  W.  Chadbourne,  now  president  of  the  St.  Louis  Shot  Tower  com- 
pany, but  then  living  on  the  river  bank,  a  few  hundred  yards  from  Kennett's  elegant 
mansion.  For  a  week  Kennett  had  been  in  his  element.  Nothing  pleased  him  so  well  as 
a  duel,  if  a  duel  had  to  be  fought,  and  he  made  all  of  his  preparations  with  the  exact  and 
scrupulous  care  so  necessary  in  giving  an  air  of  elegance  and  aristocracy  to  the  whole  per- 
formance. Not  a  single  detail  was  omitted.  Two  cushioned  and  commodious  skiffs  were 
launched  into  the  Mississippi  on  the  morning  of  Tuesday.  August  26th,  1856.  Into  one 
Reynolds  and  his  friends  took  their  seats — into  the  other  Brown  and  his  friends.  A  stal- 
wart negro  oarsman  in  each  rowed  them  to  a  sand-bar  in  the  Mississippi  river,  midway 
between  the  states  of  Illinois  and  Missouri.  The  upper  end  of  this  bar  was  covered  with 
a  growth  of  young  cottonwood.  In  the  branches  of  these  trees  were  singing  birds  that 
made  the  morning  vocal. 

"It  was  not  yet  sunrise.  No  cloud  anywhere  over  the  face  of  the  sky  hid  the  great, 
tender  eyes  of  the  dawn.  It  was  a  summer  morning.  The  gorgeous  robes  of  nature 
adorned  all  the  trees  with  green.  Not  a  land  breeze  shook  the  dew  dimples  out  from  the 
cheeks  of  the  sleeping  river.  The  whole  earth  smelt  sweet  with  living.  The  cottonwoods 
and  the  oaks  were  jubilant  as  a  hive.  In  their  branches  there  was  the  noise  of  many  wings 
— among  their  leaves  the  rippling  of  a  thousand  summer  songs. 

"As  they  went  down  to  the  skiffs  together,  Kennett  took  a  long  look  at  the  panorama 
spread  out  before  him— at  the  river  unrolling  a  curtain  of  silver  to  the  sea — at  the  orchards 
white  and  pink  with  fruit — at  the  glimpses  of  woodland  and  valley  woven  into  warp  and 
woof  by  the  God  of  the  Universe,  and  he  turned  to  grim  old  Mitchell  and  said,  curtly: 
" 'It  is  beautiful  overhead  and  underfoot.     Would  you  like  to  be  shot  today?' 


696  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"'As  well  one  day  as  another.     Why?' 

"  'It  is  so  sweet  to  live  when  the  sap  is  in  the  trees  and  the  birds  abound  in  their 
branches.     It  looks  like  tempting  Providence.' 

"  'It  may  be,  but  Providence  blesses  liim  who  shoots  first  and  pulls  tlie  steadiest 
trigger.' 

"Between  these  two  there  was  no  further  conversation  until  they  reached  the  bar. 

"The  principals  stepped  from  the  boats  as  men  who  were  going  to  a  dance — and  that 
dance  a  waltz.  Reynolds  was  then  in  his  thirty-fifth  year,  and  Brown  was  several  years 
younger.  The  first  had  a  wife  whom  he  had  left  in  total  ignorance  of  the  duel,  the  last 
was  unmarried.  Nothing  could  be  cooler  than  the  bearing  of  each.  Brown  was  dressed 
scrupulously  in  black,  with  his  coat  buttoned  up  to  his  chin — Reynolds  in  a  light  gray 
suit,  scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  sand  of  the  river.  The  terms  had  all  been  arranged. 
They  were  to  fight  with  dueling  pistols,  carrying  an  ounce  ball,  were  to  face  each  other, 
and  were  to  stand  twelve  paces  apart.  The  drop  shot  had  been  accepted  by  both ;  that  is 
to  say,  the  pistols  were  to  be  held,  muzzle  upwards,  until  the  word  was  given,  when  they 
were  to  be  lowered  and  fired.     This  was  understood  to  be  the  most  deadly  way  of  fighting. 

"It  was  now  a  little  after  sunrise.  All  the  east  was  red  as  with  fire.  A  little  breeze 
had  arisen  with  the  sun,  just  enough  to  shake  the  dew-drops  from  the  leaves  and  give  to 
the  waves  a  speech  as  they  broke  on  the  bar. 

"Kennett  took  a  silver  half  dollar  from  his  pocket  and  turned  towards  Mitchell, 
saying : 

"'Shall   we  toss   for  the  position?' 

"  'Yes,  up  with  it.' 

"Kennett  won.     He  tossed  again   for  the   word,  and   won   that. 

"Walker   drew   nearer   to   Hudson,   and   remarked : 

"'Reynolds  is  lucky.     How  about  the  pitcher  which  goes  so  often  to  the  well?' 

"'It  gets  broken  at  last,  the  proverb  says.  I  hope  we  all  may  get  safely  out  of  this 
without  a  verification   of   that   adage.' 

"  'We  shall  see.' 

"The  choice  of  position  was  not  of  much  advantage,  however,  as  the  sun  was  too  low 
to  affect  either.  The  word  remained  with  Kennett,  and  he  was  to  call  out :  'Fire — One — 
Tivo — Three — Slop!'  The  principals  were  not  to  lower  their  pistols  before  the  word 
'Fire',  and  not  to  shoot  after  the  word  'Slop.' 

"Kennett  and  Mitchell  measured  the  ground  carefully.  Each  turned  after  he  had 
finished  and  threw  a  keen  glance  along  the  tawny  track,  and  then  looked  into  the  eyes  of 
the  other.     They  did  not  speak  audibly,  yet  both  said  in  their  hearts : 

"  'It  is  close.' 

"And  it  was.  Too  close  for  two  such  men,  who  had  only  between  them  the  un- 
pleasant memories  of  a  political  quarrel. 

"They  were  placed  face  to  face.  Brown  looked  straight  at  his  adversary,  a  pleasant 
half-smile  on  his  lips.  Not  a  muscle  quivered.  He  stood  as  if  carved  from  the  sand, 
immovable  and  yet  so  full  of  bountiful  life.  Reynolds'  attitude  was  none  the  less  superb. 
The  Kentuckian  and  the  South  Carolinian  were  to  fight  as  their  ancestors  had  fought 
before  them  for  an  hundred  years.  They  recognized  the  code,  and  it  was  well.  By  the 
codj  they  would  be  judged  fairly,  standing  or  falling. 

"The  pistols  were  brought  and  loaded  carefully.  A  grain  of  powder  more  or  less 
might  sacrifice  a  life.  They  were  ugly  looking  weapons  to  say  the  best  of  them,  and  of 
English  make.  On  each  barrel  was  the  word  'London'  engraved.  The  stocks  were  of 
mahogany,  and  of  the  'saw-handle'  shape.  They  had  hair-triggers,  double-sights,  were 
smooth-bores,  and  carried  each  an  ounce  ball.  The  barrels  were  full  six  inches  long,  and 
were  dark  looking  and  ominous. 

"It  was  now  between  six  and  seven  o'clock.  The  negro  oarsmen  looked  on  in  sober 
wonderment.  The  surgeons  arranged  their  instruments  and  bandages.  The  respective 
friends  of  each  principal  took  their  positions,  and  when  everything  was  in  readiness, 
Kennett  called  out  in  a  clear  and  distinct  voice : 

"'Gentlemen,  are  you  ready?' 


LAST  OF  THE  BENTON  DUELS  697 

"So  nearly  together  as   to  sound  as  one  voice,  both   Brown  and   Reynolds  answered : 
"'Ready!' 

"Kennett  then  cried   out: 
"'Fire!' 

"Before   the   word   'One'   was   heard,   Reynolds   lowered   his   pistol   and   fired.     Brown 
fired  almost  simultaneously  with  his  adversary.     Indeed,  the  two  reports  were  blended  so 
nearly  as  to  be  indistinguishable  and  the  seconds  looked  from  one  to  the  other  to  see  if 
either  was  hit.     Reynolds  stood  perfectly  still,  with  the  smoking  pistol   in  his  hand,  while 
Brown  .shifted  his  weight   from  one  leg  to  the  other  as  if  suffering  pain. 
"Hudson   walked   up  to   Reynolds  and   said  to  him : 
"  'I   fear  Brown  is  wounded  in  the  groin.' 
"Reynolds   replied : 

"  'You  must  be  mistaken,  for  I  aimed  at  his  knee.' 

"Hudson  then  went  nearer  to  Brown,  returning  in  a  short  time  to  his  principal 
remarking : 

"  'You  are  right.     He  is  shot  in  the  knee.' 

"  'I  was  certain  of  it,'  replied  Reynolds.  'The  wound  will  not  be  dangerous.' 
"Brown's  friends,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  approached  him,  and  led  him  to  one  side, 
while  the  surgeons  examined  his  wound.  He  was  as  cool  as  a  grenadier.  Although  suffer- 
ing extreme  pain  and  scarcely  able  to  stand,  he  sternly  demanded  another  fire,  insisting  on 
his  ability  to  remain  upon  the  field.  The  surgeons  overruled  his  wishes,  and  immediately  a 
conference  took  place  between  all  the  friends  of  each,  which  was  communicated  to  the 
principals,  and  Reynolds  instantly  advanced  to  where  Brown  was  lying,  the  pain  of  the 
wound  having  forced  him  to  the  ground,  and  offered  his  hand  in  a  frank  and  friendly 
manner.  Brown  took  it  in  the  same  spirit,  and  they  had  some  friendly  conversation  to- 
gether. Mutual  expressions  of  esteem  were  exchanged,  and  the  mutual  withdrawal  of 
everything  offensive  that  had  taken   place  between  them. 

"Just  at  that  time  the  steamer  Editor,  from  Memphis,  heavily  loaded  and  crowded 
with  passengers,  came  in  sight  down  the  river.  She  was  at  once  hailed  and  stopped  to 
take  the  party  on  board.  Brown  had  to  be  removed  in  a  blanket,  the  ball  having  split  the 
bone  of  the  right  leg  just  upon  the  edge  of  the  knee  joint,  causing  profuse  hemorrhage 
and  intense  pain.  A  state  room  was  placed  at  once  at  his  disposal,  and  he  received  the 
most  generous  attention  from  all. 

"Naturally  rejoiced  that  the  duel  had  terminated  no  more  unfavorably,  a  jolly  time 
was  had  on  board  the  boat.  Several  games  of  poker  were  improvised.  Reynolds'  purse 
was  appropriated  by  one  of  his  friends,  and  in  a  very  short  time  its  contents  were  entirely 
absorbed. 

"All  kinds  of  reports  had  preceded  them  to  St.  Louis,  which  they  reached  in  the  after- 
noon. Some  had  Brown  killed  and  some  Reynolds.  One  was  mortally  wounded,  and  the 
other  dj'ing.  Neither  had  been  struck  within  less  than  a  fraction  of  an  inch  of  the  heart. 
The  mayor  and  a  squad  of  police  were  promptly  on  board,  but  having  no  jurisdiction,  they 
of  course  made  no  arrests.  Brown  was  carried  at  once  to  his  lodgings,  and  Reynolds 
carried  directly  home,  where  he  found  his  brave  wife  suffering  greatly,  yet  fully  resolved 
to  bear  the  worst.  She  believed  in  fighting  duels  when  duels  were  necessary,  and  like  the 
Spartan  matron  would  have  buckled  on  her  husband's  armor  and  bidden  him  go  forth  to 
the  fight  and  return  on  his  shield  or  come  not  back  dishonored. 

"Both  Reynolds  and  Brown  were  most  excellent  shots.  Perhaps  the  first  had  the 
advantage  of  practice.  Just  before  the  duel,  he  had  gone  in  company  with  Col.  Wm.  A. 
Linn  to  the  grounds  of  the  Marine  Hospital  in  order  to  have  a  little  exercise  with  the 
drop  shot,  with  rapidity  of  firing,  and  with  a  low  aim.  While  engaged  in  this  kind  of 
practice,  Reynolds  told  Linn  that  he  intended  to  hit  Brown  in  the  knee,  so  as  not  to  wound 
him  seriously.  Linn  remonstrated  and  said  it  was  a  dangerous  business  as  Brown  was  a 
splendid  shot. 

"'Your  life,"  he  continued,  'may  depend  upon  a  fatal  wound.' 

"Reynolds  replied : 

"  'I  am  very  sure  of  my  quickness  in  firing,  and  were  it  otherwise,  I  would  never  con- 


698  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

sent  to  take  a  man's  life  for  a  mere  political  quarrel.     If  I  can  disturb  Brown's  aim  by 
shooting  him  first,  it  will  be  all  I  desire.' 

"Some  difference  of  opinion  existed  as  to  the  direction  of  Brown's  bullet.  Reynolds 
declared  that  he  heard  it  whistle  by  his  head,  while  Kennett  was  equally  positive  that  it 
glanced  from  Reynolds'  breast  and  told  him  afterwards  that  if  he  had  not  fired  so  quickly 
and  so  surely.  Brown  would  have  squarely  hit  him  in  the  chest.  Brown  took  his  wound 
like  a  soldier,  only  gathering  himself  together  once,  and  compressing  his  lips  as  a  man 
does  in  extreme  bodily  pain." 

The  articles  as  first  drawn  provided  lliat  the  second  who  "gave  the  word" 
should  call,  "Fire — one — stop"  in  a  deliberate  manner,  "with  an  interval  not  ex- 
ceeding one  minute  between  words."  Later  the  interval  was  cut  down  to  one- 
half  minute,  but  before  the  parties  went  to  the  sandbar  the  half  minute  was 
changed  to  one  second.  This  required  that  the  pistol  which  was  held  upright,  be 
lowered  and  fired  very  quickly.  Kennett  made  the  changes  and  probably  pre- 
vented a  fatal  termination.     Brown  was  lamed  for  life. 

The  Two  Careers. 

Political  honors  and  official  duties  came  thick  and  fast  to  both  Brown  and 
Reynolds  after  the  duel.  Brown  distinguished  hiinself  the  following  winter  at 
Jefferson  City  by  the  boldness  of  his  utterances  on  the  anti-slavery  side  in  the 
legislature.  He  uttered  sentiments  which  were  of  national  comment.  Reynolds 
took  the  nomination  fov  lieutenant  governor  on  the  "regular"  Democratic  ticket 
in  i860  and  was  elected.  Brown  was  in  the  councils  of  Blair,  Lyon  and  other 
unconditional  Union  men  before  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson.  Reynolds  pre- 
sided over  the  state  senate  in  the  session  of  1861,  and  shared  with  Governor 
Claiborne  F.  Jackson  in  the  planning  for  the  secession  of  Missouri.  He  pub- 
lished a  notable  letter  against  Federal  coercion  of  the  sovereign  State  of  Mis- 
souri. Brown  was  inade  colonel  of  one  of  the  Union  regiments  raised  in  St. 
Louis  in  the  spring  of  1861,  previous  to  the  call  of  President  Lincoln  for  troops 
to  suppress  the  Confederacy.  His  regiment  participated  in  the  capture  of  Camp 
Jackson.  When  Governor  Jackson  left  Jefferson  City  to  try  to  take  Missouri  out 
of  the  Union,  Reynolds  had  preceded  him.  The  convention,  which  met  after 
the  departure  of  Jackson  and  Reynolds,  organized  a  new  state  government.  Jack- 
son and  Reynolds,  moving  from  place  to  place  with  the  state  troops  under  Sterling 
Price,  organized  a  traveling  legislature  and  went  through  the  forms  of  election 
of  senators  and  representatives  to  the  Confederate  Congress  at  Richmond.  Jack- 
son died. 

Reynolds  became  the  Confederate  governor  of  Missouri  without  a  capital. 
Part  of  the  time  he  marched  with  the  army,  and  part  of  the  time  he  was  in 
Richmond,  issuing  occasional  proclamations  and  messages  to  the  people  of  Mis- 
souri and  to  his  traveling  legislature.  Brown  was  made  a  brigadier  general  in  the 
Union  army.  In  1863  he  became  United  States  senator  from  Missouri.  Before 
the  convention  of  1864,  he  supported  the  ordinance  foi*  emancipation  of  slaves  in 
Missouri. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  war  Reynolds  did  staff  duty  with  General  Shelby. 
After  the  war  he  went  with  Shelby  and  a  considerable  force  of  Missourians  to 
Mexico,  remaining  in  that  country  several  years.     In  1868  Reynolds  returned  to 


LAST  OF  THE  BENTON  DUELS  699 

St.  Louis.  Two  years  later  the  Liberal  Republican  movement  was  inaugurated 
with  Brown  as  the  nominee  for  governor.  The  platform  was  restoration  of  civil 
rights  to  ex-Confederates.  The  Democrats  made  no  nominations.  Brown  was 
elected  and  served  two  years.  In  1872  the  effort  was  made  to  give  the  Missouri 
idea  national  application  and  Brown  was  put  forward  for  the  Presidential  nomina- 
tion. The  convention,  held  in  Cincinnati,  gave  first  place  to  Greeley  and  put 
Brown  on  the  ticket  for  Vice  President.  In  1874  Reynolds,  with  his  civil  rights 
restored  by  the  movement  which  Brown  had  headed,  was  elected  to  the  Missouri 
legislature  from  St.  Louis.  During  the  administration  of  President  Arthur  he 
was  appointed  the  Democratic  meiiiber  of  a  commission  sent  to  investigate  pos- 
sible improvement  of  commercial  relations  with  Latin-American  countries. 

Brown  and  Reynolds  were  on  friendly  terms  after  the  war.  From  having 
been  as  far  apart  as  possible  politically,  they  came  to  have  common  political  pur- 
poses. During  the  closing  years  of  their  lives  their  professional  work  was  similar. 
They  performed  such  duties  as  masters  in  chancery  and  commissioners. 

Political  Honors  Not  Satisfying.  • 

Brown  and  Reynolds  gave  the  best  of  their  years  and  talents  to  politics.  \\'heii 
age  came  on,  neither  felt  that  his  career  had  brought  a  satisfying  degree  of  suc- 
cess. Brown  thought  he  should  have  devoted  himself  to  mathematics.  He  had 
a  natural  bent  in  that  direction.  A  treatise  on  algebra  which  he  wrote  attracted 
much  notice.  "Governor  Brown,"  said  Enos  Clarke,  who  knew  him  intimately, 
"should  have  been  a  college  professor.  He  would  have  done  honor  to  the  chair 
of  mathematics  at  any  American  university." 

Reynolds  was  a  linguist  of  no  ordinary  ability.  He  possessed  natural  aptitude 
for  acquiring  other  languages.  During  the  high  tide  of  German  immigration  to 
St.  Louis,  he  used  his  knowledge  of  that  language  to  considerable  effect  in  local 
political  campaigns.  He  made  many  German  speeches.  William  E.  Curtis,  the 
traveler  and  writer,  was  one  of  Reynolds'  colleagues  of  the  Central  and  South 
American  Commission.  He  told  of  the  surprise  which  Reynolds  caused,  as  the 
commission  went  from  capital  to  capital,  by  his  responses  in  several  languages  to 
the  addresses  of  welcome.  Reynolds  replied  officially  in  English  and  then  trans- 
lated his  remarks  into  one  language  after  another  until  everybody  present  under- 
stood him, 

Reynolds  was  a  man  of  much  sentiment.  At  the  time  of  the  death  of  his  first 
wife,  he  wrote  a  sketch  of  her  life,  had  it  printed  and  sent  copies  to  his  intimate 
friends.  In  the  spring  of  1887  he  went  to  the  Federal  building  in  St.  Louis, 
ostensibly  on  legal  business;  he  was  found  at  the  bottom  of  an  elevator  shaft. 
A  short  time  before  his  death  he  wrote  this  memorandum : 

"I  am  troubled  with  insomnia  and  frequent  nervousness.  I  suffer  from  per- 
sistent melancholy.  My  mind  is  beginning  to  wander.  I  have  hallucinations  and 
even  visions,  when  I  am  awake,  of  materialized  spirits  of  deceased  ancestors, 
urging  me  to  join  them  in  another  world.  Life  has  become  a  burden  to  me.  I 
am  now  still  sound  of  mind  and  I  write  down  this  statement  so  that  should  I  do 
anything  rash,  my  friends  may  feel  assured  it  was  done  in  some  temporary  dis- 
order of  mind.  In  that  event  I  commend  myself  to  the  mercy  of  God  and  the 
charitable  judgment  of  men,  soliciting  for  my  excellent  and  devoted  wife  the 
sympathy  of  my  friends." 


CHAPTER -XXI 
MISSOURI   IN   1861 

"You  Can't  Coerce  a  Sovereign  Stale"— An  Extraordinary  Vole— Advice  from  Two  Gover- 
nors— The  Secession  Program— Three  Kinds  of  Democrats— The  Contest  for  the 
Arsenal— General  Frost's  Report— Archbishop  Kenrick  Applies  Scriptures— The  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety— General  Farrar's  Reminiscences— Some  Aggressive  Journal- 
ism—Home Guards  and  Minute  Men— Isaac  H.  Sturgeon's  Warning— An  Insult  to 
Missouri— Harney  Restores  Quiet— The  Testing  of  Sweeny— A  Commissioner  Before 
the  Legislature — John  D.  Stevenson  Interrogates  Lieutenant-Governor  Reynolds — A 
Loaded  Military  Bill— General  Lyon  Arrives— The  State  Convention— Election  of 
Delegates — Missouri  Goes  Union  by  80,000  Majority — Dismay  of  the  Southern  Rights 
Democrats— Blair's  Appeal  to  Lincoln— John  F.  Philips  on  the  Delegates— Sterling  Price 
Elected  President — Minute  Men  Raise  a  Secession  Flag — Riotous  Scenes  in  Front  of 
Headquarters — The  Legislature  Refuses  to  Pass  the  Military  Bill — Prompt  Action  by 
the  Convention — Secession  "Is  Annihilation  for  Missouri" — Colonel  Broadhead's  Pre- 
diction— Price  to  Shackleford — The  Convention  Denounced  in  the  Legislature — Police 
Control  Taken  from  St.  Louis — Lyon  Promises  Arms  to  Home  Guards — The  April 
Election. 

There  never  was  in  this  world  a  struggle  in  which  time  was  more  the  essence  of  things  thart  in  the 
fight  for  Missouri.  The  people  were  divided  into  something  like  three  equal  parts — one  for  the  Union, 
another  for  secession,  while  the  minds  of  the  third  were  not  made  up,  but  were  in  a  plastic  condition. 
This  halting,  wavering  third  became  decisive  of  the  contest.  Td  control  it  Blair  and  his  opponents  waged 
a  battle  royal.  If,  in  the  beginning,  Blair  could  have  aroused  the  federal  government  to  a  realization  of  the 
vast  strategic  importance  of  Missouri  and  to  the  necessity  for  early  action,  his  task  would  have  been  easy. 
If,  in  the  beginning,  his  antagonists  could  have  aroused  the  Missouri  legislature  to  a  comprehension  of  the 
situation  and  could  have  induced  the  state  authorities  to  seize  the  United  States  arsenal  at  St.  Louis  before 
General  Nathaniel  Lyon  was  placed  in  command,  their  task  would  have  been  easy;  but  when  Lyon  appeared 
upon  the  scene,   their  one  golden   opportunity   was  gone. — Champ   Clark. 

South  Carolina  had  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession  on  the  20th  of  December. 
Other  Southern  States  were  preparing  to  follow  in  January.  What  shall  Mis- 
souri do?  All  Missourians  were  asking  that  when  the  new  state  administration 
came  in.  "You  can't  coerce  a  sovereign  state."'  echoed  through  the  valleys  and 
ran  like  flame  over  the  prairies.  "Armed  neutrality!'  was  the  slogan  that  winter 
of  1861. 

The  Presidential  election  of  i860  brought  to  the  polls  nearly  the  entire  voting 
population  of  Missouri.  The  census  that  year  gave  the  state  1,182,912.  Of  this 
population  1 14,935  were  slaves.  A  vote  was  cast  for  every  six  white  persons,  an 
extraordinary  proportion  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  intense  interest  felt  in  the 
issues.  But  the  vote  was  divided  in  a  most  remarkable  manner.  Douglas  carried 
the  state,  yet  he  received  only  about  one-third  of  the  votes  cast,  58,801.  This  was 
the  strength  of  those  Missourians  who  believed  in  "squatter  sovereignty"— in 
giving  to  the  territories  and  new  states  the  right  to  decide  for  themselves  whether 

701 


702  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

rhey  would  have  slavery.  The  anti-slavery  party  cast  17,028  votes  for  Lincoln, 
nearly  all  of  them  in  St.  Louis  and  by  Gemians.  "Southern  Rights  democrats," 
as  they  preferred  to  be  called,  Missourians  who  sympathized  with  the  South, 
believed  in  the  right  to  secede  and  were  willing  to  join  in  this  movement,  polled 
only  12,000  more  votes  than  the  republicans.  They  joined  issue  with  the  Douglas 
democrats  by  declaring  in  favor  of  protecting  "property"  in  every  part  of  the 
L'nion.  They  gave  John  C.  Breckinridge  31,317  votes.  But  there  was  another' 
element  in  Missouri.  It  was  almost  as  strong  as  the  Douglas  following.  It  cast 
58,372  votes  for  John  Bell  and  "Constitutional  Union."  These  Bell  men  held 
that  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  was  not  only  unnecessary  but  dangerous. 
Some  of  them  had  been  whigs.  Others  had  been  Benton  men.  All  of  them 
were  against  the  extremists,  whether  republicans  or  Southern  Rights  democrats. 
While  17,000  Missourians  were  against  extension  of  slavery  and  31,000  demanded 
e.xtension  of  slavery  or  secession,  117,000  Missourians  were  against  the  two 
extreme  minorities.  Five-sevenths,  or  nearly  that,  of  the  Missouri  body  politic, 
was  hostile  to  the  radical  elements  of  the  North  and  the  South.  Thus  it  was 
that  ^Missouri,  at  the  beginning  of  i86i,  presented  conditions  of  public  sentiment 
that  were  unlike  those  of  any  other  state. 

Conflicting  Advice  from  Two  Governors. 

Missouri  changed  state  administrations  on  the  3d  of  January,  1861.  The 
retiring  governor,  Robert  M.  Stewart,  and  the  incoming  governor,  Claiborne  F. 
Jackson,  in  their  messages,  had  much  to  say  of  what  Missouri  should  do.  "Bob" 
Stewart  was  a  northern  democrat,  a  New  Yorker  by  birth,  but  long  a  resident 
of  Missouri.  "Claib"  Jackson  was  of  Kentucky  descent,  a  tall,  fine-looking  man, 
with  a  dignified  bearing  and  considerable  power  on  the  stump.  He  had  led  the 
anti-Benton  fight  against  free-soilism.  Stewart  didn't  like  slavery,  but  he  had 
strong  convictions  that  the  Constitution  guaranteed  to  slaveholders  protection  of 
their  "property"  and  that  they  had  the  right  to  take  that  "property"  into  the 
territories.  South  Carolina  had  seceded.  Other  southern  states  were  preparing 
to  follow  when  Stewart,  on  the  3d  of  January,  said  in  his  retiring  message: 

",\s  matters  stand  at  present  Missouri  will  stand  by  her  lot,  and  hold  to  the  Union 
as  long  as  it  is  worth  an  effort  to  preserve  it.  So  long  as  there  is  hope  of  success  she  will 
seek  for  justice  within  the  Union.  She  cannot  be  frightened  from  her  propriety  by  the 
past  unfriendly  legislation  of  the  North,  nor  be  dragooned  into  secession  by  the  extreme 
South.  If  those  who  should  be  our  friends  and  allies  undertake  to  render  our  property 
worthless  by  a  system  of  prohibitory  laws,  or  by  re-opening  the  slave  trade  in  opposition 
to  the  moral  sense  of  the  civilized  world,  and  at  the  same  time  reduce  us  to  the  position  of 
an  humble  sentinel  to  watch  over  and  protect  their  interests,  receiving  all  the  blows  and 
none  of  the  benefits,  Missouri  will  hesitate  long  before  sanctioning  such  an  arrangement. 
She  w'ill  rather  take  the  high  position  of  armed  neutrality.  She  is  able  to  take  care  of 
herself,  and  will  be  neither  forced  nor  flattered,  driven  nor  coaxed,  into  a  course  of  action 
that  must  end  in  her  own  destruction." 

On  the  same  day  that  the  retiring  governor  defined  the  position  of  Missouri 
on  the  question  of  secession,  his  successor  took  the  ground  that  the  slaveholding 
states  should  stand  together.  In  his  inaugural  Governor  Claib.  Jackson  said  of 
the  republican  party  which  had  triumphed  in  the  election  of  Lincoln : 


MISSOURI  IN  1861  703 

"It  is  purely  sectional  in  its  locality  and  its  principles.  The  only  principle  inscribed 
upon  its  banner  is  Hostility  to  Slavery — its  object  not  merely  to  confine  slavery  within 
its  i)re.sent  limits ;  not  merely  to  exclude  it  from  the  territories  and  prevent  the  forma- 
tion and  admission  of  slaveholding  states;  not  merely  to  abolish  it  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, and  interdict  its  passage  from  one  state  to  another;  but  to  strike  down  its  exist- 
ence everywhere;  to  sap  its  foundation  in  public  sentiment;  to  annoy  and  harass,  and 
gradually  destroy  its  vitality,  by  every  means,  direct  or  indirect,  physical  and  moral,  which 
human  ingenuity  can  devise.  The  triumph  of  such  an  organization  is  not  the  victory  of  a 
political  party,  but  the  domination  of  a  section.  It  proclaims  in  significant  tones  the 
destruction  of  that  equality  among  the  states  which  is  the  vital  cement  of  our  federal 
Union.  It  places  fifteen  of  the  thirty-three  states  in  the  position  of  humble  recipients  of 
the  bounty,  or  sullen  submissionists  to  the  power  of  a  government  which  they  had  no 
voice  in  creating,  and  in  whose  councils  they  do  not  participate.  It  cannot,  then,  be  a 
matter  of  surprise  to  any — victors  or  vanquished — that  these  fifteen  states,  with  a  pecuniary 
interest  at  stake  reaching  the  enormous  sum  of  $3,500,000,000  should  be  aroused  and 
excited  at  the  advent  of  such  a  party  to  power.  Would  it  not  rather  be  an  instance  of 
unprecedented  blindness  and  fatuity,  if  the  people  and  governments  of  these  fifteen  slave- 
holding  states  were,  under  the  circumstances,  to  manifest  quiet  indilTerence,  and  to  make 
no  effort  to  avoid  the  destruction  which  awaited  them?" 

The  Secession  Leader. 
•  The  new  lieutenant-governor,  Thomas  C.  Reynolds,  was  more  outspoken  than 
Governor  Jackson.  While  Reynolds  had  been  nominally  for  Douglas  in  the  state 
campaign,  he  took  the  leadership  of  the  secessionists  as  soon  as  the  assembly  met. 
He  issued  an  address  the  of)ening  day  of  the  session,  declaring  against  the  peace 
policy  of  the  Buchanan  administration.  He  argtied  for  immediate  and  thorough 
militia  organization  "putting  the  state  in  complete  condition  of  defense."  Plainly 
indicating  what  this  meant,  he  said  that  if  there  was  not  an  adjustment  between 
the  North  and  South  before  March  4.  the  inauguration  of  the  republican  admin- 
istration, Missouri  "should  not  permit  Mr.  Lincoln  to  exercise  any  act  of  govern- 
ment" within  the  state. 

Reynolds'  address  to  the  public  appeared  a  few  hours  before  the  messages  of 
the  retiring  and  the  incoming  governors.  He  had  prepared  himself  well  for  the 
part  he  was  to  take.  In  the  December  preceding,  while  Congress  was  in  session, 
Reynolds  passed  some  time  in  Washington,  conferring  with  the  southern  leaders. 
He  fully  assured  himself  that  the  South  would  secede  and  that  hostilities  would 
follow  the  inauguration  of  Lincoln.  Confident  that  he  knew  the  situation,  the 
lieutenant-governor  did  not  hesitate  to  take  the  most  advanced  position  of  the 
Southern  Rights  democrats  of  Missouri.  His  address  was  out  on  the  3d  of 
January.  The  4th  of  January  was  a  "Day  of  National  Humiliation,  Fasting  and 
Prayer,"  so  appointed  by  President  Buchanan  in  the  hope  of  averting  war.  No- 
where was  it  observed  more  devoutly  than  in  Missouri.  On  the  5th  of  January 
bills  in  line  with  the  suggestions  of  Reynolds  were  introduced  in  the  legislature. 
They  were  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  younger  democrats.  Reynolds  ap- 
pointed the  senate  committees  with  strong  southern  rights  chairmen  to  carry  out' 
his  policy.  The  lieutenant-governor  was  in  his  fortieth  year,  "a  short  full- 
bodied  man.  with  jet  black  hair  and  eyes  shaded  with  gold-rimmed  glasses.  He 
spoke  French,  German  and  Spanish  fluently,  wrote  profusely  and  with  consider- 
able force."  He  was  particularly  insistent  that  Missouri  should  declare  her  posi- 
tion on  the  question  of  "coercion."     In  his  address  he  held  that  the  national 


704  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

government  had  no  right  to  compel  any  state  to  remain  in  the  Union  against  its 
will ;  that  it  could  not  use  force  in  any  way  to  collect  revenues  or  execute  laws  in 
a  seceding  state.  He  even  denounced  the  course  of  President  Buchanan  and  said : 
"To  levy  tribute,  molest  commerce,  or  hold  fortresses  are  as  much  acts  of  war 
as  to  bombard  a  city." 

For  a  short  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  .-,uut!icrn  rights  policy  of  Reynolds  would 
sweep  the  legislature.  George  G.  Vest  was  a  member;  he  introduced  a  resolu- 
tion declaring  so  "abhorrent  was  the  doctrine  of  coercion,  that  any  attempt  at 
such  would  result  in  the  people  of  Missouri  rallying  on  the  side  of  their  southern 
brethren  to  resist  to  the  last  extremity."  The  resolution  passed  with  only  one 
negative  in  the  senate  and  fourteen  in  the  house. 

Another  of  the  lieutenant-governor's  recommendations  was  that  a  state  con- 
vention be  called.  In  a  few  days  after  the  organization  of  the  assembly  one  of 
the  committees  brought  in  a  bill  for  such  a  convention  "to  consider  the  relations 
of  the  State  of  Missouri  to  the  United  States  and  to  adopt  measures  vindicating 
the  sovereignty  of  the  state  and  the  protection  of  her  institutions."  This  measure 
passed  with  only  two  negatives  in  the  senate  and  eighteen  in  the  house. 

The  legislature  which  met  at  Jefferson  City  the  beginning  of  1861  was  over- 
whelmingly democratic,  as  the  members  classified  themselves.  In  the  senate 
were  twenty-five  democrats,  seven  unionists,  and  one  republican.  In  the  house 
were  eighty-five  democrats,  thirty-five  unionists  and  twelve  republicans.  Most 
of  the  republicans  were  from  the  German  wards  of  St.  Louis.  But  there  were 
three  kinds  of  democrats,  as  in  the  Presidential  election.  There  were  democrats 
who  believed  in  local  option  on  the  slavery  question  in  the  territories ;  democrats 
who  condemned  "all  this  fuss  about  the  nigger" ;  democrats  who  were  ready  to 
go  out  of  the  Union  now  that  Lincoln  had  been  elected.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  session  the  lines  of  cleavage  in  the  Democratic  party  shaded  so  fine  that  the 
sentiment  of  the  majority  seemed  to  drift  one  way  and  then  the  other  as  the 
questions  of  policy  were  presented. 

One  of  Blair's  utterances  in  i(S6i  was  "Let  us  have  a  country  first,  and  then 
we  can  talk  parties." 

The  Arsenal  Issue. 

In  the  matter  of  property  rights  as  well  as  in  other  relations  between  the 
United  States  and  the  states  this  country  has  traveled  far  since  1861.  According 
to  the  southern  rights  view,  the  right  of  secession  carried  with  it  ownership  of 
government  property  within  the  seceding  state.  Missouri  secessionists  had  no 
doubt  that  the  arsenals  as  well  as  other  government  property  would  belong  to 
Missouri  the  day  that  they  adopted  an  ordinance  of  secession.  They  had,  the 
first  two  months  of  1861,  no  doubt  Missouri  was  going  to  secede.  But  pending 
that  action  possession  of  the  arsenals  and  the  disposition  of  the  contents  gave 
great  concern. 

The  United  States  had  two  arsenals- in  Missouri.  One,  the  smaller,  was  at 
Liberty.  This  had  been  of  considerable  importance  when  Liberty  was  on  the 
border  of  the  Indian  country  and  the  principal  frontier  community,  previous  to 
the  Platte  purchase.     At  the  beginning  of  1861,  the  Liberty  arsenal  contained 


MISSOURI  IN  i86i  705 

some  hundreds  of  imiskets.  ten  or  twelve  cannon  and  a  large  amount  of  powder 
for  those  days. 

But  the  St.  Louis  arsenal  was  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  whole  country. 
Those  were  the  days  of  river  transportation,  it  must  be  remembered.  The  St. 
Louis  arsenal  was  the  su[)ply  depot  of  war  material  for  the  entire  West.  It  occu- 
pied fifty-six  acres  of  ground,  was  surrounded  by  a  massive  stone  wall,  except 
upon  the  river  frontage.  Within  the  enclosure  were  four  great  stone  buildings 
forming  a  square.  Jn  January,  1861,  the  St.  Louis  arsenal  contained  60,000 
stands  of  arms,  nearly  all  of  them  Enfield  and  Springfield  rifles.  In  all  of  the 
South,  outside  of  Missouri,  there  were  only  150,000  muskets.  In  addition  to 
these  rifles  the  arsenal  contained  1.500,000  cartridges,  90.000  pourrds  of  powder, 
several  siege  guns,  the  field  pieces  to  equip  a  number  of  batteries,  a  large  stock  of 
equipment  of  various  kinds.  There  were  ordnance  shops  and  machinery  for  the 
manufacture  of  war  material.  The  arsenal  was  on  a  slope  to  the  river's  edge 
with  hills  of  considerable  height  to  the  west  and  south.  In  the  growth  of  the 
city   these   heights    were    afterwards    graded    down. 

Maj.  William  Haywood  Bell,  a  West  P'ointer,  a  native  of  North  Carolina,  an 
ordnance  officer,  had  been  in  command  at  the  arsenal  for  a  long  time.  With  him 
were  a  few  staff  officers.  The  workmen  were  unarmed.  There  was  practically 
no  guard  save  watchmen  at  the  beginning  of  1861.  The  few  United  States 
soldiers  were  stationed  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  several  miles  below  the  city.  Bell 
had  been  at  the  arsenal  so  long  that  he  felt  himself  a  St.  Louisan.  He  had  in- 
vested in  St.  Louis  real  estate. 

Southern  rights  leaders  in  Missouri  were  fully  agreed  that  the  arsenals  at 
Liberty  and  St.  Louis,  with  their  contents  would  become  state  property  when 
secession  took  place.  They  disagreed  as  to  the  policy  which  should  be  pursued 
by  them  before  secession.  The  younger  and  more  impetuous  wanted  immediate 
action.  They  planned  to  get  control  of  the  arsenals  before  the  state  seceded. 
They  advocated  forcible  seizure,  arguing  that  such  course  would  insure  secession. 
The  older  leaders  counseled  waiting  for  Secession  sentiment  to  develop.  They 
insisted   upon  legal  forms. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  Brigadier-General  Frost,  commanding  the  state  militia 
at  St.  Louis,  went  to  the  arsenal  and  had  a  talk  with  Major  Bell.  He  reported 
to  Governor  Jackson   that  the   interview   was   .satisfactor)'.     He   said : 

"I  found  the  major  everything  that  you  or  I  could  desire.  He  assured  me  that  he 
considered  that  Missouri  had,  whenever  the  time  came,  a  right  to  claim  it  (the  arsenal)  as 
being  on  her  soil.  He  asserted  his  determination  to  defend  it  against  anv  and  all  irre- 
sponsible mobs,  come  from  whence  they  might,  but  at  the  same  time  gave  me  to  under- 
stand that  he  would  not  attempt  any  defence  against  the  proper  state  authorities.  He 
promised  me,  upon  the  honor  of  an  officer  and  a  gentleman,  that  he  would  not  suffer  any 
arms  to  be  removed  from  the  place  without  first  giving  me  timely  information,  and  I 
promised  him,  in  return  that  I  would  use  all  the  force  at  my  command  to  prevent  him 
being  annoyed  by  irresponsible  persons.  I.  at  the  same  time,  gave  him  notice  that,  it 
affairs  assumed  so  threatening  a  character  as  to  render  it  unsafe  to  leave  the  place  in  its 
comparatively  unprotected  condition,  I  might  come  down  and  quarter  a  proper  force  there 
to  protect  it  from  assaults  of  any  persons  whatsoever,  to  which  he  assented.  In  a  word 
the  major  is  with  us,  where  he  ought  to  be,  for  all  his  worldly  wealth  lies  here  in  St. 
Louis  (and  it  is  very  large),  and  then  again,  his  sympathies  are  with  us." 
Vol.  1—45 


706  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Frost  immediately  issued  a  confidential  notice  to  the  militia  officers  that  "upon 
the  bells  of  the  churches  sounding  a  continuous  peal,  interrupted  by  a  pause  of 
tlve  minutes,  they  should  assemble  with  their  men  in  their  armories  and  await 
further  notice."  A  copy  of  the  notice  was  carried  at  once  to  Blair.  In  those  days 
each  side  had  trusted  men  who  reported  promptly  every  move  of  one  to  the  other. 
Archbishop  Kenrick  was  seen  and  asked  to  prevent  this  use  of  the  Catholic  bells. 
Blair  sent  a  copy  of  Frost's  notice  to  General  Scott  with  his  interpretation  of  it 
as  meaning  the  plan  of  the  state  to  get  possession  of  the  arsenal.  Montgomery 
Blair  in  Washington,  Governor  Richard  Yates  of  Illinois  and  President-elect 
Lincoln  indorsed  Frank  Blair's  request  that  somebody  be  sent  to  supersede  Bell. 
In  a  few  days  Major  Bell  was  ordered  East  and  Maj.  Peter  B.  Hagner  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  was  sent  to  the  arsenal  as  ordnance  officer  in  control. 

St.  Louis  Organizers. 

Among  the  leading  citizens  of  St.  Louis  who  were  against  both  secession  and 
coercion  were  Hamilton  R.  Gamble,  Uriel  Wright,  Robert  Campbell  and  James  E. 
Yeatman.  They  called  a  monster  mass  meeting  in  St.  Louis  early  in  January. 
Resolutions  were  adopted  declaring  that  "the  rights  and  property  of  all  sections 
of  the  country  could  be  better  protected  within  the  American  Union  than  by 
destroying  the  government."  They  also  indorsed  the  new  Crittenden  peace  propo- 
sitions, entreated  the  government  and  the  .seceding  states  to  stay  the  arai  of 
military  power,  and  advised  a  state  convention  "to  protect  the  union  of  the 
states  and  the  rights  and  authority  of  this  state  under  the  Constitution." 

On  the  iTth  of  lanuary  Mayor  O.  D.  Filley  sent  to  the  common  council  the 
following : 

"A  very  general  and  unusual  excitement  prevails  in  our  community,  and,  altliough  I 
do  not  apprehend  that  any  actual  disturbance  or  interference  with  the  rights  of  our  citizens 
will  ensue,  yet  I  deem  it  best  that  all  proper  precautionary  measures  should  be  taken  to 
prepare  for  any  event.  I  would,  hence,  recommend  that  the  members  of  the  council,  from 
each  ward,  select  from  among  their  best  citizens  such  a  number  of  men  as  the  exigencies 
of  the  case  may  seem  to  require  and  organize  them  to  be  ready  for  any  emergency.  Our 
citizens  are  entitled  to  the  full  protection  of  the  laws  and  must  have  it." 

On  the  1 2th  of  January  Archbishop  Kenrick  published  a  card  to  the  Catholics 
of  St.  Louis  advising  them  to  avoid  all  occasions  of  public  excitement: 

"To  the  Roman  Catholics  of  St.  Louis: 

"Beloved  Brethren  :  In  the  present  disturbed  state  of  the  public  mind,  we  feel  it  our 
duty  to  recommend  you  to  avoid  all  occasions  of  public  excitement,  to  obey  the  laws,  to 
respect  the  rights  of  all  citizens  and  to  keep  away,  as  much  as  possible,  from  all  assemblages 
where  the  indiscretion  of  a  word,  or  the  impetuosity  of  a  momentary  passion  might  en- 
danger public  tranquillity.  Obey  the  injunction  of  the  .Apostle  St,  Peter:  "Follow  peace 
with   all   men  and   holiness,  without   which   no  man   can   see   God.' 

"Petfr  Richard  Kenrick, 

"Archbishop  of  St.  Louis." 

The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  organized.  At  the  head  of  it  was  Oliver 
Dwight  Filley.  The  other  members  were  Samuel  T.  Glover,  Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr., 
J.  J.  Witzig,  John  How  and  James  O.  Broadhead.  These  six  men  received  their 
commission  to  act  from  a  mass  meeting  of  unconditional  Union  men.    Republicans,. 


JAMES  O.  BROADHEAD 
Member  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  18G1 


OLIVER  D.  FILLEY 
Cliairmnn  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  1861 


Courtesy    Mlstnun    Historical    SiicirU 

MERCANTILE   LIBRARY   HALL,    BROADWAY    AND   LOCUST   STREETS,   ST.    LOUIS 
Where  the  state  convention  met  in  1861  and  declared  for  the  Union 


MISSOURI  IN  1861  709 

Douglas  democrats  and  Bell  and  Everett  democrats  united  in  this  movement. 
They  had  but  one  plank  in  their  platform — "unalterable  fidelity  to  the  Union 
under  all  circumstances."  Previous  to  the  1  ith  of  January  a  little  group  of  Union 
men  met  in  Mr.  I^'illey's  counting  room  from  time  to  time  and  planned  the  course 
which  was  followed.  The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  an  evolution.  When 
the  six  men  had  been  chosen,  they  made  the  Turner  hall  on  Tenth  near  Market 
street  the  headquarters.    Their  meetings  were  held  daily. 

The  personal  composition  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  most  fortu- 
nate. Mr.  Filley  was  from  Connecticut,  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  families 
which  came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  Mr.  How  had  been  reared  in  Pennsylvania. 
Mr.  Witzig  represented  the  great  influx  of  German  population.  Mr.  Blair  was  of 
Kentucky  birth,  the  son  of  a  Virginia  father.  Mr.  Glover  was  a  Kentuckian. 
Mr.  Broadhead  was  of  Virginia  parentage.  The  widespread  sources  of  St.  Louis 
population  were  well  re])resented  in  the  formation  of  the  group.  Glover  and 
Broadhead  were  lawyers  of  high  standing,  known  personally  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 
John  How  had  been  mayor  two  terms  and  was  a  bu.siness  man  of  wide  influence. 
Witzig  had  the  confidence  of  his  fellow  countrymen.  Blair  was  the  Washington 
connection.  He  had  served  one  term  in  Congress,  and  was  representative-elect. 
To  tell  what  manner  of  man  the  chairman  was  detracts  nothing  from  the  honor 
due  the  men  who  were  his  associates  on  the  committee.  Familiarly  he  was  called 
"O.  D."  He  was  kindly  and  approachable.  When  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  had  won,  when  it  had  become  safer  in  St.  Louis  to  be  a  Union  man  than 
a  secession  sympathizer,  the  spirit  of  retribution  was  indulged.  Men  were  arrested 
and  punished  for  words.  Mr.-  Filley  protested.  "Let  them  talk."  he  said.  "If 
they  do  no  overt  act,  do  not  disturb  them."  But  behind  the  kindly  disposition 
was  the  spirit  which  knows  neither  variableness  nor  shadow  of  turning  when 
right  is  at  stake.  \\'hen  cloth  was  wanted  to  uniform  the  force  he  was  recruit- 
ing. O.  D.  Filley  gave  his  word  it  would  be  paid  for,  and  his  word  was  accepted 
where  another  man's  note  would  have  been  asked.  That  was  the  reputation  the 
chairman  had  in  the  community. 

In  the  Presidential  campaign  of  i860  there  were  "wide  awakes"  on  the  re- 
publican side  and  "liroom  rangers"  on  the  democratic  side.  Two  months  before 
the  inauguration  of  Lincoln,  armed  organizations,  built  upon  the  political  clubs, 
were  drilling  in  .St.  Louis.  Those  whose  sympathies  were  with  secession  were 
'minute  men."  Tliis  organization  came  into  existence  early  in  January.  Simul- 
taneously began  the  formation  of  union  clubs,  which  were  called  "union  guards." 
"black  jaegers,"  "home  guards."  The  Minute  Men  had  headquarters  in  the 
Rerthold  mansion  at  Fifth  and  Pine  streets. 

In  six  weeks  sixteen  companies  of  the  Home  Guards  had  been  formed.  The 
Minute  Men  were  numerous.  The  drills  were  nightly.  There  was  little  attempt 
at  secrecy,  la  the  central  and  northern  parts  of  the  city  the  Minute  Men  were 
strong.  South  of  Market  street  were  the  strongholds  of  the  Home  Guards. 
Every  hall  was  an  armory. 

General  Farrar's  Recollections. 

(ieneral  Bernard  G.  I'arrar.  late  in  life,  gave  a  graphic  account  of  what  was 
going  on  in  St.  Louis  during  Januarv  and  Februarv,  1861  : 


710  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"There  still  existed  the  'Wide  Awakes,'  a  political  organization  of  i860.  To  convert 
them  into  a  military  body  was  the  first  thouKht  of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  and  active 
steps  were  taken  to  perfect  that  object.  Tlie  Wide  Awakes  were  numerous  and  ardent, 
but  powerless  for  the  want  of  arms.  The  grave  situation  impelled  the  loyalists  to  prompt 
action.  In  January  a  secret  meeting  of  the  faithful  was  plainied.  .^  notice  to  the  trusted 
few  was  quietly  sent  out,  and  on  a  stated  evening  in  Wyman's  hall  assembled  some  fifteen 
citizens.  J.  J.  Witzig  guarded  the  door  and  admitted  only  those  who  could  give  the 
countersign.  As  far  as  I  can  remember,  the  following  persons  were  present :  Frank  P. 
Blair,  F.  A.  Dick,  O.  D.  and  Giles  F.  Filley,  John  How,  Charles  Elleard.  Samuel  Simmons, 
J.  S.  Merrell,  B.  Gratz  Brown,  William  McKee,  Benjamin  Farrar.  Peter  L.  Foy,  and 
possibly  two  or  three  others  including  myself.  The  meeting  was  informal,  a  simple,  quiet 
talk  all  round.  The  question,  of  arming  the  Wide  Awakes  was  the  vital  point.  To  this 
end  it  was  agreed  to  raise  money  and  at  that  meeting  $400  was  subscribed.  It  was  agreed 
to  write  to  Governor  Vates,  of  Illinois,  for  aid,  and  Blair  at  once  formulated  the  letter 
which  was  sent  the  following  day  by  private  messenger.  This  letter  was  responded  to  a 
few  days  later  in  the  shape  of  200  stand  of  arms  packed  in  sugar  hogsheads  marked 
chinaware  and  consigned  to  O.  D.  Filley.  Those  arms  were  a  godsend,  and  were  quickly 
distributed  to  the  Wide  .Awakes.  The  first  cSmpany  organized  was  armed  and  drilled  in  a 
large  storeroom  where  now  stands  the  Columbia  theater.  More  money  was  soon  raised, 
more  guns  purchased,  and  by  the  1st  of  February  the  Union  men  could  count  on  a  military 
force   of   2,noo   men,   mostly   Germans. 

"During  February  the  secessionists  fi.xed  upon  several  nights  for  a  raid  on  the 
arsenal,  but  spies  in  their  camp  betrayed  their  plans.  The  word  was  passed  down  South 
Broadway;  lights  gleamed  in  every  house;  shotguns  and  various  missiles  were  carried  to 
the  roofs ;  the  Wide  Awakes  hurried  to  their  various  posts,  all  ready  for  the  fray.  The 
secessionists,  learning  that  their  plans  were  known,  abandoned  the  attempts.  For  over 
two  months,  2,000  armed  men  on  either  side  stood  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  engage 
in  actual  warfare. 

"At  that  time  the  population  of  the  city  stood  about  one-third  native,  one-third  Ger- 
man and  one-third  Irish.  The  native  population  was  about  one  for  the  Union,  nine  for 
the  South;  the  Germans  were  a  unit  for  the  Union;  the  Irish  with  some  notable  exceptions 
favored  the  South.  -Two  of  those  notable  exceptions  were  Doyle  and  Crickard,  both  Irish 
stone  masons  and  builders.  In  May  these  men  entered  the  United  States  treasury  office, 
and,  planting. on  the  counter  two  bags  of  gold,  said  to  the  assistant  treasurer,  'We  bring 
you  $10,000.  The  government  is  in  need  of  money.  Please  deposit  as  our  loan.'  At  that 
time  the  government  credit  was  at  very  low  ebb." 

Wartime  Journalism. 

The  journalisiii  of  this  period  wa.s  not  lacking  in  courage  of  con\iction.  W.  H. 
Lusk  was  editing  the  Jefferson  City  En(|uirer  in  the  winter  and  spring  of  1861.  He 
was  offered  the  position  of  public  printer  if  he  would  support  the  states'  'right 
policies  of  the  Jackson  administration.  He  declined  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the  gen- 
eral assembly  declaring  his  position : 

"The  advocates  of  secession  of  the  present  day  should  not  be  treated  with  any  respect 
whatever.  They  are  rebels  and  should  be  punished  as  such.  In  one  sentence  they  utter 
a  Union  sentiment,  to  cover  up  their  treason  while  in  the  next  they  denounce  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  paper  will  not  endorse  these  men,  but  will  denounce  them  as  traitors 
wherever  found — in  the  halls  of  legislation,  on  the  judicial  bench,  as  governor,  as  stump 
orators,  cross-roads  politicians,  office  holders  or  office  seekers.  None  of  these  rebels  shall 
receive  mercy  at  our  hands  as  a  public  journalist." 

The  .southern  rights  faction  did  not  want  for  vigorous  newspaper  support  at 
the  state  capital.  Editor  Corwyn  in  his  Examiner  kept  up  the  light  which  he  had 
made  hot  during  the  campaign  of  iSfx)  with  such  warnings  as  the  following: 


MISSOURI  IN  1861  711 

"Citizens  of  Missouri,  are  jou  ready  for  this?  Are  you  ready  to  see  your  homes  wrapt 
in  flames;  your  wives  and  little  ones  butchered,  and  your  daughters  the  victims  of  Ethiopian 
lust?  If  you  are  you  should  vote  for  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for  president  and  aid  him  in 
fixing  his  squatterism  on  the  country.  His  squatterism  leads  to  that  as  sure  as  the  sun 
shineth — as  sure  as  God  liveth." 

The  Minute  Men. 

The  best  authority  on  "Missouri  in  1861,"  from  the  southern  rights  point  of 
view  was  Thomas  L.  Snead.  He  was  a  St.  Louis  newspaper  man,  connected  with 
the  Bulletin  which  was  owned  by  Longuemare  and  which  took  the  southern  rights 
side  in  the  campaign  of  i860.  In  the  winter  of  1861  Snead  gave  up  his  news- 
paper relation.  He  went  to  Jefferson  City  and  was  in  the  confidence  of  the  seces- 
sionists. He  assisted  Governor  Jackson  in  his  correspondence.  Snead  knew  the 
organization  and  plans  of  the  Minute  Men.  He  named  three  men  as  foremost 
in  the  movement — Basil  VV.  Duke,  a  young  lawyer  from  Kentucky,  about  twenty- 
five  years  old  ;  Colton  Greene,  South  Carolinian  by  birth,  a  young  merchant  of 
delicate  physique  and  retiring  manner;  and  Brock  Champion,  a  bold,  enthusiastic 
young  Irishman.  The  organization  was  started  on  the  iith  of  January,  the  day 
that  forty  regular  soldiers  arrived  from  Newport  Barracks,  and  marched  to  the 
custom  house  on  Third  and  Olive  streets  to  protect  the  sub-treasury  and  the 
$400,cxx)  in  gold.  The  troops  had  been  sent  as  the  result  of  a  letter  from  the 
assistant  United  States  treasurer,  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon,  to  President  Buchanan 
suggesting  that  such  protection  was  advisable  in  view  of  the  public  excitement. 
If  there  had  been  wild  talk  before,  it  was  nothing  to  what  this  show  of  authority 
by  the  government  aroused.  Papers  issued  extras.  Great  crowds  filled  t"he  narrow 
streets  around  the  postoffice.  Threats  were  made  to  resent  this  insult  to  St.  Louis. 
The  news  was  telegraphed  to  Jefferson  City.  Governor  Jackson  sent  word  to  the 
general  assembly.    Senator  Parsons  offered  this : 

"Resolved,  That  we  view  this  act  of  the  administration  as  insulting  to  the 
dignity  and  patriotism  of  this  state,  and  calculated  to  arouse  suspicion  and  distrust 
on  the  part  of  her  people  towards  the  federal  government. 

"Resolved,  That  the  governor  be  requested  to  inquire  of  the  President  what 
has  induced  him  to  place  the  property  of  the  United  States  within  this  state  in 
charge  of  an  armed  federal  force." 

General  Harney,  commanding  the  district,  acted  quickly.  The  forty  regulars 
marched  away  to  the  arsenal  and  the  insult  to  Missouri  became  only  a  reminiscence 
with  the  general  public.  But  Duke,  Greene,  Champion  and  a  few  others  met  that 
day  and  began  to  plan  definitely  for  the  future.    Snead  said: 

"Never  was  there  a  finer  body  of  young  fellows  than  these  Minute  Men.  Some  were 
Missourians ;  some  from  the  North ;  some  from  the  South,  and  others  were  Irishmen. 
.\mong  them  all  there  was  hardly  a  man  who  was  not  intelligent,  educated  and  recklessly 
brave.  Some  who  had  the  least  education  were  as  brave  as  the  bravest,  and  as  true  as  the 
truest.  Most  of  them  fought  afterwards  on  many  a  bloody  field.  Many  of  them  died  in 
battle.  Some  of  them  rose  to  liigh  commands.  Not  one  of  them  proved  false  to  the  cause 
to  which  he  then  pledged  his   faith. 

"They  established  their  headquarters  at  the  old  Berthold  mansion,  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  city,  at  the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Pine  streets,  and  also  formed  and  drilled  companies 
in  other  parts  of  the  city  against  the  time  they  could  arm  and  equip  themselves.     They 


712  CENTEXXIAT,  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

were  hardly  three  hundred  in  all,  but  they  were  so  bold  and  active,  so  daring  and  ubiquitous, 
that  every  one  accounted  them  ten  times  as  numerous. 

"Like  Blair  and  the  Home  Guards,  they  had  Ihcir  eyes  fixed  upon  the  arsenal  end 
expected  out  of  its  abundant  stores  to  arm  and  equip  themselves  for  the  coming  fight.  In 
that  -irsenal  were  sixty  thousand  good  muskets,  while  in  all  the  Confederate  states  there 
were  not  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  more.  They  were  barely  three  hundred  men,  and 
more  than  ten  thousand  stood  ready  to  resist  them,  but  for  the  love  of  the  South,  and  for 
the  love  of  the  right,  and  for  the  honor  of  Missouri,  they  were  willing  to  peril  their  lives 
any  day  to  get  those  muskets,  .^nd  they  would  have  got  them  or  perished  in  the  attempt 
but  for  the  advice  of  their  leaders  at  JefTer.son  City.  These  counseled  delay.  They  believed 
that  it  was  better  to  wait  till  the  people  should,  in  their  election  of  delegates  to  the  con- 
vention, declare  their  purpose  to  side  with  the  South.  They  never  doubted  that  the  people 
would  do  this ;  never  doubted  that  they  would  elect  a  convention  which  would  pledge 
Missouri  to  resist  the  subjugation  of  the  South,  and  would  put  her  in  position  to  do  it. 
Sustained  by  the  voice  of  the  people,  and  instructed  by  their  votes,  the  governor  would 
then  order  General  Frost  to  seize  the  arsenal  in  the  name  of  the  state,  and  he,  with  his 
brigade  and  the  Minute  Men,  and  the  thousands  that  would  flock  to  their  aid  could  easily 
do  it." 

Sweeny  and  the  Regulars. 

In  the  letter  he  wrote  about  tlie  danger  to  the  gold.  Assistant  Treasurer 
Sturgeon  called  attention  to  the  defenseless  condition  of  the  arsenal.  Washington 
also  acted  upon  that  suggestion.  Lieut.  Thomas  W.  Sweeny,  with  regulars,  from 
Newport  Barracks  took  station  in  the  arsenal.  Sweeny  was  a  one-armed  Irishman. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  interest  felt  by  the  Minute  Men  to  know  how  Sweeny 
stood  on  the  issue  of  secession.  Many  St.  Louis  Irishmen  had  joined  the  Minute 
Men  under  the  leadership  of  Brock  Champion.  Other  Irishmen  had  sided  with 
Blair  and  the  Home  Guards.  John  McElroy  in  "The  Struggle  for  Missouri''  has 
told  of  the  testing  of  Sweeny : 

"One  day  a  man  presented  himself  at  the  west  gate  of  the  arsenal  and  asked  to  see 
Captain  Sweeny.  Sweeny  went  to  the  gate  and  recognized  an  old  acquaintance,  St.  George 
Croghan,  the  son  of  that  Lieutenant  Croghan  who  had  so  brilliantly  defended  Fort  Stephen- 
son, at  Lower  Sandusky,  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  who  afterwards  was  for  many  years 
inspector-general  of  the  United  States  .^rmy.  Croghan's  grandfather  had  been  a  gallant 
officer  in  the  Revolution.  It  was  a  cold  day,  and  Croghan  wore  a  citizen's  overcoat.  On 
their  way  to  the  quarters,  the  guards  properly  saluted  Sweeny  as  they  passed.  Said 
Croghan,  'Sweeny,  don't  you  think  those  sentinels  ought  to  salute  me? — my  rank  is  higher 
than  yours.'  At  the  same  time  he  threw  open  his  overcoat  and  revealed  the  uniform  of  a 
rebel  field  officer. 

"'Not  to  such  as  that,  by  Heavens!'  responded  Sweeny,  and  added:  'If  that  is  your 
business,  you  can  have  nothing  to  do  with  me.  You  had  better  not  let  my  men  see  you 
with   that  thing  on.' 

"Croghan  assured  him  his  business  in  calling  was  one  of  sincere  friendship;  but  he 
would  remark  while  on  the  subject,  that  Sweeny  had  better  find  it  convenient  to  get  out 
of  there,  and  very  soon,  too. 

"'Why?'   asked   Sweeny. 

"Replied   Croghan :     'Because  we   intend  to  take   it.' 

"Sweeny  in  great  excitement  exclaimed:  'Never!  .As  sure  as  my  name  is  Sweeny, 
the  property  in  this  place  shall  never  fall  into  your  hands.  I'll  lilow  it  to  hell  first,  and 
you  know  I  am  the  man  to  do  it.' 

"Nine  months  later  Croghan  was  to  fall  mortally  wounded  at  the  head  of  a  cavalry 
regiment  while  attacking  the  Union  troops  near  Fayetteville,  West  Virginia,  while  Sweeny 


MISSOURI  IN   1861  713 

was  to  do  gallant  service  in  the  Union  army,  rising  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  of 
volunteers,  and  commanding  a  division,  and  being  retired  in  1870  with  the  rank  of  briga- 
dier-general." 

A  Commissioner  from  Mississippi. 

While  events  were  cruwding  ai  St.  Louis,  Reynolds  and  the  secessionists  were 
working  incessantly  at  Jefferson  City  to  have  Missouri  declare  for  the  Con- 
federacy. Mr.  Russell  came  as  a  commissioner  of  the  .State  of  Mississippi  to 
urge  that  Missouri  secede.  The  lieutenant-governor  gave  him  a  dinner  with 
Sterling  Price,  Governor  Jackson  and  Speaker  McAfee  present.  The  legislature 
assembled  in  joint  session  to  hear  the  commissioner.  Rejmolds  planned  an  im- 
pressive reception  with  the  members  standing  as  the  commissioner  entered.  John 
D.  Stevenson,  afterwards  a  general  in  the  Union  army,  then  a  member  of  the 
house,  objected  to  the  program.     lie  asked: 

"Are  we  here,  Mr.  President,  to  do  homage  to  the  ambassador  of  some  foreign 
country?" 

President  Reynolds :  I  understand,  sir,  that  this  is  a  joint  session  of  the  general 
assembly  to  listen  to  an  address  from  the  commissioner  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  and 
I  hope  for  the  honor  of  all  parties  that  the  member  from  St.  Louis  will  take  his  seat. 

Representative  Stevenson:     Shall   I  have  a  chance? 

President   Reynolds :     Take  your  seat. 

A  Voice :     Good. 

Representative   Stevenson :     I   desire   to  have  a  chance — . 

President   Reynolds :     Take  your  seat. 

A   Voice:     Better! 

Representative  Stevenson :  Mr.  President,  I  can  read,  sir,  the  rules  that  govern  this 
body,  and  I  suppose,  if  I  am  well  informed,  that  when  the  president  rules  me  out  of  order, 
it  is  his  duty  to  state  why  he  so  rules. 

President  Reynolds :  The  business  of  this  session  is  to  hear  a  speech  from  the  com- 
missioner from  Mississippi,  and  all  other  business  is  out  of  order. 

Representative  Stevenson :  I  understand  that  the  president  commands  the  members 
to  rise. 

President  Reynolds :  I  will  change  it  to  a  rcque.st,  and  I  hope  that  no  member  of  this 
general   assembly   will  have   the   indecency  to   refuse   to   rise. 

Representative    Stevenson :     Oh !     That    will    do,    sir. 

Loaded  Legislation. 

The  military  bill  which  was  being  pressed  in  the  legislature  aimed  at  more 
than  organization  in  support  of  the  southern  rights  movement.  It  was  intended 
to  abolish  Blair's  Home  Guards.  One  of  its  provisions  was  that  the  commanding 
officer  in  each  district  must  disarm  all  bodies  not  "regularly  organized  and  mus- 
tered into  the  service  of  the  state."  Had  the  bill  passed  in  February  or  March 
it  would  have  given  Frost  authority  to  take  all  guns  found  in  the  possession  of  the 
Home  Guards.  Governor  Yates  had  sent  two  hundred  muskets  from  Springfield. 
These  guns  had  been  hauled  under  cover  of  beer  barrels  to  Turner  Hall  and  dis- 
tributed to  the  Home  Guards.  Giles  F.  Filley  had  bought  fifty  Sharp's  rifles,  the 
crack  fighting  piece  of  those  days,  and  had  armed  the  men  in  his  factory.  .\  fund 
of  $30,000  had  been  raised  by  private  contributions  to  get  more  guns  for  the 
Union  companies.   All  of  this  was  known  to  Governor  Jackson  and  the  secession- 


714  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  iMISSOURI 

i.sts.  It  added  to  their  anxiety  about  the  military  bill.  The  state  was  not  well 
prepared  for  fighting.  In  February,  Harding,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  armory 
at  JefTersun  City,  re])orted  to  the  governor  that  the  state  had  about  one  thousand 
muskets,  two  six-pounders  without  limbers  or  caissons,  forty  sabres  and  fifty- 
eight  swords.  He  said  these  swords  were  of  such  anti<iuated  pattern  that  they 
"would  not  be  as  useful  in  war  as  so  many  bars  of  soap." 

Pive  companies  of  Minute  Men  were  recruited  in  St.  Louis  under  Captains 
Barret,  Duke,  Shaler.  Greene  and  Hubbard.  Anticipating  the  passage  of  the 
military  bill  they  were  mustered  into  state  service  as  militia  by  General  I*"rost 
on  the  15th  of  Februarv  and  assigned  to  Frost's  brigade.  Subsequently  these  five 
companies  were  joined  by  others  and  made  up  Bowen's  regiment. 

Captain  Nathaniel  Lyon,  with  his  company  of  regulars,  came  to  St.  Louis  the 
beginning  of  February.  He  was  forty-two  years  of  age,  a  slender,  sandy-haired 
man,  with  reddish  beard,  deep-set  blue  eyes,  under  medium  height,  of  Connecticut 
birth  and  Yankee  positiveness.  His  service  on  the  western  frontier  had  given  him 
a  rather  rough,  weather-beaten  appearance.  Immediately  the  closest  relations 
were  established  between  Blair  and  Lyon.  The  two  men  were  of  the  same  age 
and  possessed  similar  characteristics  in  that  both  were  personally  without  fear. 
Both  were  devoted  to  the  Union.  Both  were  convinced  that  war  was  certain. 
Neither  was  too  much  hampered  by  regard  for  formalities  of  law.  Lyon  became 
at  once  the  lieutenant  of  Blair  in  the  organization  of  the  Home  Guards.  He 
attended  meetings  of  the  Union  men  and  talked  war.  He  went  to  the  secret 
armories,  drilled  the  men  and  instructed  their  officers.  He  gained  the  confidence 
of  the  Committee  of  Safety.  He  impressed  the  Union  leaders  with  the  vital 
importance  of  saving  the  arsenal.  Recruiting  and  preparations  for  fighting  went 
on  with  the  Home  Guard.s  much  more  rapidly  after  Lyon  came. 

The  Election  Brings  Dismay. 

'I'lie  I  Nth  of  February  approached,  the  day  of  the  election  of  delegates  to  the 
state  con\ention.  Entirely  confident  of  carrying  the  election  the  southern  rights 
men  talked  openly  of  taking  the  St.  Louis  arsenal  and  securing  the  arms  for 
distribution  to  the  state  guard  to  be  organized  under  the  pending  military  bill. 
Blair  and  Lyon  went  to  Isaac  H.  Sturgeon  and  reported  this  talk  of  the  secession- 
ists. They  persuaded  him  to  write  a  letter  to  General  Scott,  telling  him  there  was 
grave  danger  that  the  arsenal  would  be  attacked  on  or  immediately  after  election 
day.  Scott  ordered  the  troops  from  the  barracks  to  the  arsenal  and  they  marched 
up  there  on  the  i6th  of  February.  Sturgeon  not  only  urged  reinforcement,  but 
advised  that  Lyon  be  put  in  command  at  the  arsenal.  The  advice  was  not  fol- 
lowed. If  Lyon  had  been  given  command  it  was  the  purpose  of  Blair  to  put  guns 
in  the  hands  of  the  Home  Guards,  now  several  thousand  strong,  at  the  first 
movement  of  the  Minute  Men  against  the  arsenal.  Of  the  campaign  methods  and 
of  the  election  results  William  Hyde,  who  was  at  the  time  a  newspaper  writer, 
said : 

"The  Republicans,  in  order  to  embrace  a  character  of  men  like  James  O.  Broadhead, 
Samuel  T.  Glover,  James  S.  Rollins,  .\biel  Leonard,  Samuel  M.  Breckinridge.  Odon  Guitar, 
had  adopted  the  title  of  'Unconditional  Union'  men.  A  fusion  ticket  was  formed  in  St. 
Louis   county,   which    was    entitled   to    fourteen    delegates,   on   the   basis   of    the   estimated 


MISSOURI  IX  1861  715 

strength  of  the  three  Union  elements  (Douglas,  Lincoln  and  Bell  men),  the  allotment  being 
seven,  four  and  three,  respectively.  This  ticket  carried  the  county  by  a  majority  of  be- 
tween 5,000  and  6,000.  Similar  combinations  were  made  throughout  the  state,  and  the 
result  was  truly  astonishing,  being  a  surprise  to  all.  The  aggregate  Union  majority  in  the 
state  was  80,000,  and  not  a  single  secessionist  was  returned  as  delegate !  So  overwhelming 
a  declaration  of  fidelity  to  the  Union,  and  so  stunning  a  rebuke  to  Jackson  and  his  coad- 
jutors, was  indeed  a  marvel  of  popular  outpouring. 

"Amazement  and  dismay  settled  upon  minds  and  hearts  of  the  defeated.  To  them 
it  seemed  as  though  a  political  earthquake  had  riven  the  state  from  the  Xishnabotna  to 
the  St.  Francis,  and  from  the  Des  Moines  to  the  Neosho.  Secession  had  seen  'all  her 
pretty  chickens  and  their  dam'  swept  from  Missouri's  confines,  and  not  one  spared !  The 
immediate  eflfect  upon  the  legislature  was  to  indefinitely  postpone  the  governor's  pet 
measure  for  the  reorganization  of  the  militia,  and  was  followed  by  a  general  and  total 
collapse  of  any  lingering  idea  that  the  state  might  be  called  on  to  take  part  in  preparations 
to  resist  the  placing  of  the  'despot's  heel  upon  the  virgin  soil'  of  Missouri." 

The  Delegates. 

Until  nearly  the  end  of  January,  the  southern  rights  sentiment  had  waxed  in 
official  Missouri.  State  officers,  the  legislature,  the  United  States  senators,  .the 
representatives  in  Congress,  the  supreme  court,  with  few  exceptions,  sided  with 
the  South.  The  atmosphere  at  Jefferson  City  favored  secession.  But  February 
brought  a  change.  The  state  at  large  spoke.  To  the  amazement  and  indignation 
of  the  southern  rights  leaders  at  the  state  capital  the  convention  called  to  consider 
Missouri's  relations  to  the  United  States  was  against  secession.  How  did  it  come 
aljout  that  in  the  stress  of  public  feeling,  with  all  of  the  political  intrigue  and 
war  preparation  6f  those  days,  Missouri  was  so  fortunate  in  the  selection  of  the. 
members  of  the  convention?  Judge  John  F.  Philips,  who  was  a  meinber,  in  his 
recollections  given  the  State  Historical  Society  at  Columbia  a  few  years  ago, 
said:  "In  some  respects  that  convention  was  the  most  remarkable  body  of  men 
that  ever  assembled  in  the  state.  With  a  few  exceptions,  they  were  not  of  the 
class  usually  found  in  legislatures  or  popular  assemblages.  They  were  grave, 
thoughtful,  discreet,  educated  men,  profoundly  impressed  with  the  great  respon- 
sibilities of  their  positions.  Among  them  were  judges  of  the  supreme  court,  ex- 
governors,  ex-Congressmen,  ex-state  senators  and  representatives,  leading  law- 
yers, farmers,  merchants,  bankers  and  retired  business  men,  representing  the 
varied,  vital  interests  of  the  communities.  Xo  impartial,  intelligent  man  can  look 
over  the  debates  of  the  body,  extending  over  tw-o  years  and  more,  without  being 
deeply  impressed  with  the  idea  of  their  tremendous  intellectual  power  and  sense 
of  moral,  patriotic  obligation." 

The  convention  was  composed  of  ninety-nine  delegates.  It  was  said  that  fifty- 
three  of  the  members  were  of  Virginia  or  Kentucky  descent.  All  but  seventeen 
were  natives  of  slave  states.  Thirteen  were  from  the  North.  There  were  three 
Germans  and  one  Irishman.  The  convention  met  in  Jefferson  City,  but  almost 
immediately  adjourned  to  meet  in  St.  Louis.  The  adjournment  to  St.  Louis  was 
taken,  it  was  freely  stated,  because  of  the  secession  atmosphere  of  the  state 
capital.  In  the  election  of  president  of  the  convention  the  issue  of  southem  rights 
was  raised.  Xathaniel  \V.  Watkins.  a  half  brother  of  Henry  Clay,  was  nominated 
by  the  southern  rights  delegates.  He  received  only  fifteen  votes.  Sterling  Price 
was  supported  by  the  Unionists  of  varying  opinions  and  received  seventy-five 
votes.    William  Hvde  .said : 


716  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"It  reads  strangely,  now,  tliat  the  name  of  the  gentleman  who,  for  his  stanch  Unionism 
as  well  as  his  commanding  influence,  his  unquestioned  integrity,  his  familiarity  with  public 
affairs  and  his  experience  among  large  bodies  of  men,  captured  the  enthusiastic  support 
of  the  convention  as  its  president  was — Sterling  Price.  In  those  days  any  cause  was  honored 
in  its  being  followed  by  that  personally  magnificent  man.  .\s  member  of  Congress  and  as 
governor,  he  had  'done  the  state  .some  service,  and  they  knew  it.'  Missouri  was  fond  of 
him;  the  people  were  delighted  with  him." 

Minute  Men  Plan  a  Surprise. 

The  ffifeci  of  the  election  of  Union  delegates  was  felt  at  once  at  Jefferson 
City.  It  paralyzed  for  the  time  proiKjsed  legislation  by  the  southern  rights  fol- 
lowing. Talk  of  an  immediate  attack  on  the  arsenal  ceased  suddenly  for  a  few 
days.  The  Minute  Men  began  to  lay  new  plans.  They  hinted  at  a  demonstration 
on  the  4th  of  March,  the  day  of  Lincoln's  inauguration.  Blair  and  Lyon  agreed 
the  situation  was  very  dangerous,  although  the  stale  had  elected  Union  delegates. 
Blair  went  to  Springfield  to  see  Lincoln  who  was  about  starting  for  Washington 
and  to  tell  him  plainly  that  the  faction  which  got  control  of  the  arsenal  would 
hold  Missouri,  convention  or  no  convention.  From  Springfield  Blair  hurried  to 
Washington  and  urged  President  lluchanan  to  give  Lyon  command  of  the- arsenal. 
On  the  25tli  of  February.  Lyon  wrote  to  Blair  at  \\'ashington,  telling  of  Hagner's 
refusal  to  strengthen  the  defenses  of  the  arsenal,  notwithstanding  the  expected 
demonstration  of  the  Minute  Men,  and  said:  '"This  is  either  imbecility  or  damned 
villainy.''  Buchanan  and  General  Scott  refused  Blair's  plea.  Hagner  remained 
in  command. 

The  convention  met  in  St.  Louis  on  the  4th  of  March,  the  day  of  Lincoln's 
inauguration.  The  place  was  Mercantile  Library  hall,  just  two  blocks  north  of 
the  Berthold  mansion,  where  the  Minute  Men  had  hung  out  that  day  a  secession 
flag  and  were  inviting  an  attack  by  Blair's  Hoiue  Guards.  Snead  has  explained 
the  purpose : 

"During  the  preceding  night  some  of  the  Minute  Men  (Duke.  Greene.  Quinlan,  Cham- 
pion, and  McCoy)  raised  the  flag  of  Missouri  over  the  dome  of  the  court-house  and  hoisted 
above  their  own  headquarters  a  nondescript  banner,  which  was  intended  to  represent  the 
flag  of  the  Confederate  states.  The  custodian  of  the  court-house  removed  the  state  flag 
from  that  building  early  in  the  morning;  but  the  secession  flag  still  floated  audaciously  and 
defiantly  above  the  Minute  Men's  headquarters,  in  the  very  face  of  the  submissionists'  con- 
vention, of  the  republican  mayor  and  his  German  police,  of  the  department  commander, 
and  of  Lyon  and  his  Home  Guards;  and  under  its  fold  there  was  gathered  as  daring  a 
set  of  young  fellows  as  ever  did  a  bold,  or  a  reckless  deed.  They  were  about  a  score  at 
first,  but  when  an  e.xcited  crowd  began  to  threaten  their  quarters,  and  the  rumor  to  fly  that 
the  Home  Guards  were  coming  to  tear  down  the  flag,  the  number  of  defenders  grew  to 
about  one  hundred.  They  all  had  muskets  of  the  latest  and  best  pattern.  On  the  floors  of 
the  upper  rooms  were  heaps  of  hand  grenades.  In  the  wide  hall  was  a  swivel,  double-shotted, 
and  so  planted  as  to  rake  the  main  entrance  if  any  one  should  be  brave  enough  to  try  to 
force  it.  At  every  window  there  were  determined  men,  with  loaded  muskets,  and  fixed 
bayonets;  behind  them  were  others,  ready  to  take  the  place  of  any  that  might  fall;  and  in 
all  the  building  there  was  not  a  man  who  was  not  ready  to  fight  to  the  death,  rather  than 
submit  to  the  rule  of  .\braham  Lincoln;  nor  one  who  would  have  quailed  in  the  piesence  of 
a  thousand  foes,  nor  one  of  them  who  survives  today,  who  would  not  fight  just  as  willingly 
and  just  as  bravely  for  the  flag  of  the  Union.  Outside,  too,  throughout  the  ever  growing 
crowd,  other  Minute  Men  were  stationed  to  act  as  the  emergency  might  require. 

"Before  the  hour  of  noon  had  come  all  the  streets  in  the  vicinity  were  thronged  with 


MISSOURI  IX  1861  717 

excited  men,  some  drawn  hither  by  curiosity  and  by  that  strange  magnetism  which  mobs 
always  exert ;  some  to  take  part  with  the  Minute  Men,  if  'the  Dutch'  should  attack  them ; 
some  to  tear  down  'the  rebel  flag,'  and  to  hang  'the  traitors,'  who  had  dared  to  raise  it  on 
the  day  of  Lincoln's  inauguration. 

"Everything  betokened  a  terrible  riot  and  a  bloody  tight.  The  civil  authorities  were 
powerless.  It  was  to  no  purpose  that  they  implored  the  crowd  to  disperse ;  in  vain  that  they 
begged  the  Minute  Men  to  haul  down  their  flag.  The  police  could  do  nothing.  The  Home 
Guards  did  not  dare  attack,  for  their  leaders  knew  that  the  first  shot  that  was  fired  would 
bring  Frost's  brigade,  which  was  largely  composed  of  Minute  Men,  to  the  aid  of  their 
friends,  and  that  they  would  also  be  reinforced  by  the  Irish,  between  whom  and  the  German 
Home  Guards  there  was  the  antipathy  of  both  race  and  religion.  Only  once  did  any  one 
venture  to  approach  the  well-guarded  portals  of  the  stronghold.  The  rash  fools  who  did  it 
were  hurled  back  in  the  street,  amid  the  jeers  and  laughter  of  the  crowd.  Blair  and  the 
republican  leaders,  unwilling  to  provoke  a  conflict,  kept  their  followers  quiet,  and  finally 
towards  midnight  the  crowd  dispersed.  The  next  day's  sun  shone  upon  the  rebel  flag  still 
flying  above  the  roof  of  the  Minute  Men's  quarters.  But  Duke  and  Greene  were  unhappy, 
for  they  had  hoped  to  bring  on  a  fight,  in  which  they  would  have  been  reinforced  by 
Frost's  brigade,  and  the  Irish  and  many  Americans,  and  in  the  confusion  to  seize  the 
arsenal,  and  hold  it  till  the  secessionists  of  the  state  could  come  to  their  aid.  They  were, 
nevertheless,  greatly  elated  because  the  people  believed  more  than  ever  that  there  were 
thousands  of   Minute  Men.  instead   of  hundreds." 

Another  Move  at  Jefferson  City. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  the  day  after  Lincoln's  inauguration,  the  southern  rights 
members  of  the  legislature  made  another  effort  to  pass  the  military  bill.  They 
mustered  their  full  strength.  They  made  use  of  the  riotous  scenes  in  front  of  the 
headquarters  of  the  Minute  Men  on  Fifth  and  Pine  streets  in  St.  Louis  the  day 
previous.  The  Union  men  met  the  appeals  of  the  secessionists.  The  youngest 
member  of  the  House,  a  native  Missourian,  L.  M.  Lawson  of  Platte,  was  one  of 
the  leaders  against  the  bill.  He  said  it  would  place  dangerous  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  governor.  It  would  bring  upon  the  people  of  Missouri  "the  horrors  of 
fratricidal  strife."  He  urged  that  Missouri  had  no  reason  to  secede,  to  arm  her- 
self against  the  federal  government.  "Let  her  be  loyal  to  the  L'nion  and  the 
L'nion  would  still  protect  her  as  it  had  always  done.''  Lawson  said.  The  southern 
rights  leaders,  Claiborne,  Harris  and  others,  quoted  from  Lincoln's  inaugural  of 
the  previous  day  and  demanded  the  ])assage  of  the  bill.  The  House  again  re- 
fused, "in  this,"  said  Snead.  "the  South  sustained  a  defeat  more  disastrous  to 
its  independence  than  any  which  thereafter  befell  its  arms,  down  to  the  fall  of 
Vicksbiirg." 

Blair  used  the  4th  of  March  incident  with  telling  effect  on  the  war  depart- 
ment. Lincoln  was  in  the  White  House.  On  the  13th  of  March,  Lyon  was  as- 
signed to  command  of  the  arsenal,  but  was  not  given  control  of  the  arms. 

Convention  Spirit  and  Conclusions. 

Uriel  Wright  made  an  anti-secession  speech  in  the  convention.  He  was  the 
great  advocate  who  moved  juries  as  did  no  other  Missourian  of  that  day.  He 
referred  to  the  southern  rights  flag  hanging  in  front  of  the  headquarters  of  the 
Minute  Men  : 

"I  looked  one  day  toward  the  southern  skies,  toward  that  sunny  land  which  constitutes 
our  southern  possessions,  and  I  saw  a  banner  floating  in  the  air.  I  am  not  skilled  in 
heraldry,   and   I   may  mistake  the   sign,   but   as   it   first   rose   it   presented  a   single  dim  and 


718  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

melanclioly  star,  set  in  a  field  of  blue,  representing,  I  suppose,  a  lost  pleiad  floating 
through  space.  A  young  moon,  a  crescent  moon,  was  by  her  side,  appropriately  plucked 
from  our  planetary  system,  as  the  most  changeable  of  all  representatives  known  to  it,  a 
satellite  to  signify  the  vicissitudes  which  must  attend  its  career.  The  sad  spectacle  wound 
up  with  the  appropriate  emblem  of  the  cross,  denoting  the  tribulation  and  sorrow  which 
must  attend  its  going.     I  could  not  favor  any  such  banner." 

No  time  was  wasted  by  the  convention  in  discussion.  Hamilton  Gainble  was 
made  chairman  of  the  principal  committee — that  on  "Federal  Relations."  James 
O.  Broadhead  was  the  floor  leader  of  the  Unconditional  Union  men.  John  B. 
Henderson  was,  perhaps,  the  most  outspoken  against  secession.  Price,  Gamble, 
Broadhead  and  Henderson  were  \'irginians. 

On  the  9th  the  formal  report  on  Federal  Relations  was  ready.  It  was  a 
dignified  declaration:  "To  involve  Missouri  in  revolution,  under  the  present 
circumstances,  is  certainly  not  demanded  by  the  magnitude  of  the  grievances  of 
which  we  complain ;  nor  by  the  certainty  that  they  cannot  be  otherwise  and  more 
peaceably  remedied,  nor  by  the  hope  that  they  would  be  remedied,  or  even  dimin- 
ished by  such  revolution.  The  position  of  Missouri  in  relation  to  adjacent  states, 
which  would  continue  in  the  Union,  would  necessarily  expose  her,  if  she  became 
a  member  of  a  new  Confederacy,  to  utter  destruction  whenever  any  ru]>ture 
might  take  place  between  the  different  republics.  In  a  military  aspect  secession 
and  connection  with  a  Southern  Confederacy  is  annihilation  for  Missouri." 

The  report  pledged  the  con\ention  to  do  all  in  its  power  to  bring  back  the 
southern  states  by  a  compromise  through  amendments  to  the  constitution,  but 
repeated  the  conviction  that  Missouri  could  not  join  the  southern  states  in  seces- 
sion :  "To  go  with  those  states- — to  leave  the  government  our  fathers  builded — 
to  blot  out  the  star  of  Missouri  from  the  constellation  of  the  Union  is  to  ruin 
ourselves  without  doing  them  any  good." 

One  of  the  declarations  was,  "That  while  Mis.souri  caniiot  leave  the  Union  to 
join  the  soutliern  states,  we  will  do  all  in  our  power  to  induce  them  to  again 
take  their  places  with  us  in  the  family  from  which  they  liave  attempted  to 
separate  themselves.  For  this  purpose  we  will  not  only  recommend  a  compromise 
with  which  they  ought  to  be  satisfied,  but  we  will  endeavor  to  procure  an  as- 
sembly of  the  whole  family  of  states  in  order  that  in  a  general  convention  such 
amendments  to  the  constitution  may  be  agreed  ujion  as  shall  permanently  restore 
harnmny  to  the  whole  nation." 

William  A.  Hall  pointed  out  the  geographical  impossibility  of  Missouri's  seces- 
sion :  "The  geographical  position  of  Missouri  makes  her  essential  to  the  North 
and  even  if  the  North  should  consent  to  the  secession  of  every  other  slave- 
holding  state,  it  will  never  consent  to  the  secession  of  Missouri.  She  lies  in  its 
pathway  to  the  West.  She  commands  the  navigation  of  the  Missouri  and  all  its 
tributaries,  of  the  Upper  Mississippi,  the  Illinois,  the  Ohio,  the  Tennessee,  and 
the  Cumberland.  Never  will  the  North  and  the  Northwest  permit  the  naviga- 
tion of  these  great  rivers  to  be  controlled  by  a  powerful  foreign  nation,  for  their 
free  navigation  is  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  these  regions.  They  might  let  the 
mouths  of  the  Mississippi  be  held  by  a  weak  confederacy  of  cotton  states,  but 
never  by  a  powerful  people  of  which  Missouri  would  form  a  part.  Our  feelings 
and  our  .sympathies  strongly  incline  us  to  go  with  the  South  in  the  event  of  a 


MISSOURI  IX  1861  719 

separation ;  but  passion  and  feeling  are  temporary,  interest  is  permanent.  The 
influence  of  geograj)hical  position  will  continue  so  long  as  the  face  of  the  earth 
remains  as  it  is,  and  the  position  of  Missouri  and  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
will  be  great  and  important  interests  long  ages  after  the  feelings  and  passions 
which  now  dominate  the  country  shall  have  passed  away  and  been  forgotten." 

The  Convention  Firm  Against  Secession. 

The  great  majority  of  the  convention  accepted  the  report  of  the  committee. 
Mr.  Bast  offered  an  amendment  that  if  the  proposed  compromise  failed  and  the 
other  border  states  seceded  Missouri  would  go  with  them.  Twenty-three  voted 
for  this  proposition,  among  them  Sterling  Price.  Robert  .\.  Hatcher,  Prince  L 
Hudgins.  John  T.  Redd  and  Nathaniel  W.  \\'atkins. 

John  H.  Moss,  a  Union  man,  wanted  the  convention  to  declare  that  Missouri 
would  "never  furnish  men  or  money  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  general  govern- 
ment in  any  attempt  to  coerce  a  seceding  state."  The  resolution  was  voted 
down.  In  supporting  his  resolution.  Mr.  Moss  said:  "I  submit  to  every  man 
of  common  sense  in  this  assembly  to  tell  me  whether  Missouri  will  ever  furnish 
a  regiment  to  invade  a  southern  state  for  the  purpose  of  coercion.  Never! 
Never !  And.  gentlemen.  Missouri  expects  this  convention  to  say  so."  In  con- 
clusion Mr.  ^loss  declared  it  was  the  duty  of  Missouri  "to  stand  by  the  gallant 
men  of  Southern  Illinois,  who  have  declared  that  they  will  never  suffer  a  north- 
ern army  to  pass  the  southern  boundary  of  Illinois  for  the  purpose  of  invading 
a  southern  state.''  But  Fort  Sumter  had  not  been  fired  upon  at  that  time.  In  a 
few  weeks  Mr.  Moss  was  to  raise  and  command  a  Missouri  regiment  in  the 
Union  army.  There  were  others  whose  views  were  to  undergo  sudden  reversal 
on  the  subject  of  coercing  a  sovereign  state.  John  B.  Henderson  opposed  the 
]\Ioss  resolution  because  it  was  entirely  unnecessary.  "Does  any  man  suppose," 
he  asked,  "that  the  President  of  the  United  States  will  so  far  disregard  his  duties' 
under  the  Constitution,  or  forget  the  obligation  of  his  oath,  as  to  undertake  the 
subjugation  of  the  .southern  states  by  force?  Will  the  abstract  principle  of  the 
enforcement  of  the  laws  ever  be  carried  by  the  President  to  the  extent  of  military 
subjugation?  If  so.  this  government  is  at  an  end.  Will  you  tell  me  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  will  send  Don  Quixotes  into  the  southern  states  with  military  force  to 
subjugate  those  states?     Certainly  not." 

Hyde  said :  "A  profound  impression  was  made  by  a  speech  by  Colonel  Broad- 
head,  in  which  he  declared,  as  though  he  knew  whereof  he  spoke,  that  the  state 
had  'not  the  power  to  go  out  of  the  Union'  if  she  wanted  to."  Broadhead  was  a 
member  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety. 

In  his  reminiscences,  given  before  the  Missouri  Historical  Society  in  1901. 
Thomas  Shackelford  told  some  of  the  unpublished  historv-  of  the  time: 

"I  now  wish  to  mention  an  incident  not  heretofore  published,  in  relation  to  the  action 
of  General  Price,  .^fter  the  passage  of  the  original  resolution,  a  member  introduced  a 
resolution  to  the  effect  that  if  all  of  the  border  states,  meaning  Kentucky.  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  seceded  from  the  Union,  then  Missouri  would  take  her  position  with  her  sister 
southern  states.  Judge  William  A.  Hall  and  myself  voted  no  to  this  resolution,  and 
General  Price,  who  voted  last,  voted  yea.  That  evening,  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
convention,  he  took  me  by  the  arm  and  led  me  to  the  extreme  south  end  of  the  hall  in  the 
Planters'   House,  and  said  to  me:     'You  were  surprised  at  my  vote  to-day.'     I   told  him 


720  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

I  was.  He  said  to  me :  'It  is  now  inevitable  that  the  general  government  will  attempt  the 
coercion  of  the  southern  states.  War  will  ensue.  I  am  a  military  man,  a  southern  man, 
and,  if  we  have  to  fight,  will  do  so  on  the  part  of  the  South.'  His  subsequent  acts  are 
matters  of  history. 

"I  must  here  mention  the  treatment  to  which  I  was  subjected,  by  reason  of  my  vote 
on  the  above  resolution.  On  my  return  home  from  the  convention  to  Howard  county,  I 
found  printed  placards,  calling  a  meeting  of  the  people  at  Fayette,  to  condemn  Judge  Hall 
and  myself  for  our  vote  on  this  resolution.  I  attended  the  meeting,  and  asked  to  be  heard, 
but  was  denied  with  hisses  and  shoutings.  I  asked  the  privilege  of  speaking  on  the 
steps  of  the  yard  to  all  who  wished  to  hear  me;  this  was  denied.  Just  at  this  juncture  a 
man  with  whom  I  was  intimate,  whom  I  knew  to  be  raising  a  company  to  go  South,  came 
with  a  number  of  armed  men,  took  position  by  my  side,  and  said  that  I  should  have  the 
privilege  of  speaking.  I  did  so,  and  appealed  to  the  Missourians  present,  and  said  ;  'This 
resolution  does  not  propose  that  Missouri  shall  go  out  of  the  Union  on  principle,  but  will 
abjectly  follow  the  other  border  states.  Now,'  I  asked,  'is  there  a  Missourian  present  who 
would  desire  me  to  vote  for  such  a  cowardly  resolution?'  The  brave  Missourians  present 
gave  me  a  rousing  cheer,  and  voted  to  approve  my  vote." 

Denounced  by  the  Legislature. 

On  the  22d  of  Marcli  the  legislature  received  from  the  convention  which  had 
so  disappointed  the  southern  rights  element  the  resolution  proposing  that  a  con- 
vention of  all  the  states  be  called  to  frame  constitutional  amendments  in  the 
interest  of  peace.  How  resentful  the  southern  rights  men  felt  was  shown  in  the 
treatment  of  the  resolution.  Mr.  Vest  made  the  report  of  the  committee  to 
which  the  matter  was  referred.  That  report  declared  it  was  inexpedient  to  take 
any  steps  toward  calling  a  national  convention.  "Going  into  cottncil  with  our 
oppressors,  before  we  have  agreed  among  ourselves,  can  never  result  in  good. 
It  is  not  the  North  that  has  been  wronged  but  the  South,  and  the  South  can 
alone  determine  what  securities  in  the  future  will  be  sufficient." 

In  the  discussion  on  the  report,  Mr.  Vest  said :  "The  conventioti  has  been 
guilty  of  falsehood  and  deceit.  It  says  there  is  no  cause  for  separation.  If  this 
be  so,  why  call  a  convention?  In  declaring  that  if  the  other  border  slave  states 
seceded  Missouri  would  still  remain  within  the  Union,  these  wiseacres  have  per- 
petrated a  libel  upon  Missouri.  So  help  me  God!  if  the  day  ever- comes  when 
Missouri  shall  prove  so  recreant  to  herself,  so  recreant  to  the  memories  of  the 
past  and  to  the  hopes  of  the  future,  as  to  submit  tamely  to  these  northern  Phili- 
stines, I  will  take  up  my  household  goods  and  leave  the  state." 

The  convention  adjourned  on  the  22d  of  March.  The  legislature  adjourned 
about  one  week  later.  "Submissionist"  was  added  to  the  political  nomeclature 
of  Missouri.  As  soon  as  it  was  evident  that  the  convention  was  in  the  control  of 
the  anti-secession  delegates,  the  southern  rights  men  dubbed  these  delegates 
"submissionists,"'  and  thus  referred  to  them  in  the  fiery  denunciations  on  the  floor 
of  the  legislature  and  in  the  columns  of  the  secession  newspapers. 

Home  Rule  Taken  from  St.  Louis. 

One  of  the  legislative  measures  of  the  southern  rights  members  of  the  gen- 
eral assembly  took  away  from  St.  Louis  home  rule  in  police.  The  bill  was  in- 
troduced early  in  the  session.  It  was  not  passed  until  March.  St.  Louis  had  a 
Union  mayor,  Oliver  D.  Filley.  Up  to  that  time  the  police  had  been  a  city 
department,  controlled  by  the  city  government.     The  legislature  passed  an  act 


MISSOURI  IN  1861  721 

creating  a  board  of  four  police  commissioners  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor. 
The  mayor  was  a  fifth  member,  ex-officio.  This  board  was  given  "absolute 
control  of  the  police,  of  the  volunteer  militia  of  St.  Louis,  of  the  sheriff,  and  of 
all  other  conservators  of  the  peace."  Snead  said :  "This  act  took  away  from 
the  republican  mayor  and  transferred  to  the  governor,  through  his  appointees, 
the  whole  police  power  of  the  City  of  St.  Louis.  This  was  its  expressed  inten- 
tion. It  had  other  and  more  important  purposes  which  were  carefully  concealed." 
Basil  W.  Duke  was  one  of  the  police  commissioners  appointed  under  this  act. 
He  had  been  active  in  the  organization  of  the  Minute  Men  and  commanded  one 
of  the  companies. 

The  other  members  of  the  new  police  board  were  J.  M.  Carlisle,  Charles 
McLaren  and  John  A.  Brownlee.  Brownlee  was  a  northern  man,  in  favor  of 
peace  and  against  forcible  coercion  of  the  South.  The  others  were  sympathizers 
with  the  South  and  in  favor  of  the  secession  of  ^Missouri  if  war  came.  The  use 
which  could  be  made  of  the  police  force  under  state  control  was  shown  when 
Lyon,  for  the  better  defense  of  the  arsenal,  posted  some  of  his  men  outside  of 
the  walls  to  give  warning  of  an  approach.  The  police  commissioners  protested 
against  this  use  of  United  States  soldiers.  Lyon  was  compelled  to  recall  his 
men  within  the  arsenal.  Rumors  that  the  arsenal  was  to  be  seized  by  the  state 
were  renewed  with  the  reorganization  of  the  police  force.  Sentiment  in  St. 
Louis  about  the  end  of  March  shifted  as  the  municipal  election  approached.  It 
became  strongly  antagonistic  to  Blair  and  the  Home  Guards,  most  of  whom  were 
still  without  arms. 

In  the  first  week  of  April  was  held  the  municipal  election.  John  How  was 
the  candidate  of  the  Unconditional  Union  men.  The  leaders  of  the  movement 
which  had  carried  the  city  by  5,000  against  the  southern  rights  men  in  Febru- 
ary supported  How.  Daniel  G.  Taylor,  a  popular  democrat,  but  not  a  secession- 
ist, was  elected  by  2.600  majority. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

CAIMP  JACKSON 

Warlike  Preparations— William  Sclby  Harney— Plans  to  Capture  the  Arsenal— Lyon  Patrols 
Streets— Muskets  "to  Arm  Loyal  Citisens"—Four  Regiments  of  Home  Guards  Brigaded 
— Lincoln's  Call  for  Soldiers— Governor  Jackson's  Defiance — Blair  Grasps  a  Great 
Opportunity— State  Militia  Seize  Liberty  Arsenal— Washington  Warned— The  Com- 
missioners to  Montgomery — General  Frost's  Suggestion — Jefferson  Davis  Sends  Siege 
Guns— Midnight  Trip  of  the  City  of  Alton— Lyon's  Ruse  with  the  Flintlocks— Gov- 
ernor Jackson  Buys  Ammunition — "Armed  Ncutralily"—Editorial  Strategy — Champ 
Clark's  Comments— A  Pike  County  Mass  Meeting— Confidential  Letter  from  Jackson 
— Washington  Recognises  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety — Police  Assert  Stale  Sover- 
eignty— Camp  Jackson — Forms  of  Loyalty — Arrival  of  Confederate  Siege  Guns — 
"Tamaroa  Marble" — Lyon  in  Disguise — Night  Session  of  the  Committee — General  Frost 
Protests — March  on  the  Camp — The  Surrender — Baptism  of  Blood — Mob  Demonstra- 
tions— More  Loss  of  Life — Sunday's  Panic — The  Legislature  Acts — Passage  of  Military 
Bill — Peace  Agreement — Harney  Removed — President  Lincoln's  Doubt  of  the  Pro- 
priety— A  Pathetic  Letter—What  Capture  of  Camp  Jackson  Meant— Frank  Blair's 
Foresight — Vest,  Rassicur  and  Broadhead  on  the  Consequences. 

This  capture  of  Camp  Jackson  was  the  first  really  aggressive  blow  at  secession  that  was  struck  any- 
where   in    the    United    States. — ^0/111    Fiske.      The    Mississilypi    Valley    in    tlie    Cifit   War. 

Camp  Jackson  is  slurred  over  with  an  occasional  paragraph  in  the  history  of  books,  but  it  was  the 
turning  point  in  the  war  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  it  was  the  work  of  Frank  Blair,  the  Kentuckian, 
the   Missourian.   the  slave   owner,   the   patrician,  the   leonine   soldier,   the   patriotic   statesman. — Champ   Clark. 

In  April  began  the  moves  of  Missouri's  game  of  civil  war.  The  state  was  the 
stake.  The  playing  was  fast.  The  legislators  had  gone  home  at  the  end  of  March. 
Governor  Jackson  came  to  St.  Louis  and  held  conferences  with  the  southern 
rights  leaders.  Blair  traveled  and  telegraphed  between  St.  I.ouis  and  Washington. 
L}-on  fretted  at  the  arsenal.  The  Minute  Men  chafed  when  they  thought  of  those 
sixty  thousand  muskets.  The  Home  Guards  stolidly  drilled  at  night  on  sawdust 
deadened  floors  and  with  blanketed  windows.  John  McFJroy,  the  northern 
writer  said : 

"A  man  to  be  reckoned  with  in  those  days  was  the  commander  of  the  department  of 
the  west,  which  inchided  all  that  immense  territory  stretching  from  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  except  Texas.  New  Mexico,  and  Utah.  This  man  was  the  embodiment  of 
the  regular  army  as  it  was  developed  after  the  war  of  1812.  At  this  time  that  army  was 
a  very  small  one — two  regiments  of  dragoons,  two  of  cavalry,  one  of  mounted  riflemen, 
four  of  artillery,  and  ten  of  infantry,  making  with  engineers,  ordnance  and  staff,  a  total  of 
only  12,698  officers  and  men — but  its  personnel  and  discipline  were  unsurpassed  in  the  world. 
Among  its  1.040  commissioned  officers  there  was  no  finer  soldier  than  William  Selby 
Harney.  A  better  colonel  no  army  ever  had.  A  form  of  commanding  height,  physique 
equal  to  any  test  of  activity  or  endurance,  a  natural  leader  of  men  through  superiority  of 

723 


724  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

courage  and  ability,  William  Selby  Harney  had  for  forty-three  years  made  an  unsurpassed 
record  as  a  commander  of  soldiers.  He  had  served  in  tlie  Everglades  of  Florida,  on  the 
boundless  i)lains  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  in  Mexico  during  the  brilliantly  spectacular 
war  which  ended  with  our  'reveling  in  the  Halls  of  the  Montezumas.'  He  it  was,  who 
eager  for  his  country's  advancement,  had,  while  the  diplomats  were  disputing  with  Great 
Britain,  pounced  down  upon  and  seized  the  debatable  island  of  San  Juan  in  Vancouver 
waters.  ■  For  this  he  was  recalled,  but  the  island  remained  American  territory.  He  was 
soon  assigned  to  the  department  of  the  west,  with  headquarters  at  St.  Louis.  He  had  been 
for  twelve  years  the  colonel  of  the  crack  Second  U.  S.  Dragoons,  and  for  three  years  one 
of   the   three  brigadier-generals   in   the   regular   army." 

Plot  and  Counter -plot. 

Snead  said  that  amung  those  with  whom  (iovcriinr  Jackson  conferred  early 
ill  April  were  John  A.  Brownlee,  president  of  l!ie  new  police  hoard;  Judge 
WiUiani  M.  CooUe,  and  Captains  Cjreene  and  DitUe  of  the  Minute  Men.  "They 
all  agreed  that  the  most  important  and  the  first  thing  to  he  done  was  to  seize  the 
arsenal  so  as  to  obtain  the  means  for  at  once  arming  and  equipping  the  state 
militia." 

(leneral  Harney  iieard  of  this;  so  did  Lyon.  The  contents  of  the  armory 
were  still  under  the  cu.stody  of  Major  Hagner.  Lyon  said  if  any  attempt  was 
made  by  the  Minute  Men  to  take  the  arsenal  he  would  issue  arms  to  the  Home 
Guards.  If  Hagner  tried  to  stop  him  he  would  "pitch  him  into  the  river."  On 
the  6th  of  April  General  Harney  issued  an  order  putting  Lyon  in  full  com- 
mand of  the  arsenal  and  giving  control  of  the  cniitents.  Lyon,  however,  went 
beyond  instructions  and  sent  his  soldiers  into  the  streets  outside  of  the  arsenal. 
Citizens  protested  against  the  military  patrol.  Harne)-  ordered  iC  stopped. 
When  Blair  came  from  Washington  the  ijlh  of  April  he  brought  an  order  oi'i 
the  arsenal  for  5,000  muskets  "to  arm  loyal  citizens,''  the  paper  to  be  served 
when  in  his  judgment  conditions  demanded.  He  sent  a  protest  against  Harney's 
instructions  to  Lyon.  On  the  21st  of  April,  Harney  received  notice  to  come  to 
Washington.  That  same  day  Lyon  began  "to  arm  loyal  citizens."  Four  regi- 
ments of  Home  Guards  were  given  guns  and  formed  into  a  brigade.  Lyon  was 
elected  brigadier-general,  by  the  regimental  officers,  Blair  declining  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

Fort  Sumter  fell  on  the  13th  of  April.  President  Lincoln  called  for  75000 
men,  of  which  Missouri's  quota  was  four  regiments  of  infantry.  Governor 
Jackson  replied :  "Not  one  man  will  Missouri  furnish  to  carry  on  such  an  unholy 
crusade."  Commenting  on  the  governor's  action,  the  Missouri  Republican  said: 
"Nobody  expected  any  other  response  from  him,  and  the  people  of  Missoitri  will 
indorse  it.  They  may  not  approve  the  early  course  of  the  southern  states,  but 
they  denounce  and  defy  the  action  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  proposing  to  call  out  75,000 
men  for  the  pur[)ose  of  coercing  the  seceding  states.  Whatever  else  may  happen, 
he  gets  no  men  from  the  border  states  to  carry  on  such  a  war." 

Blair's  Great  Opportunity. 

Blair  came  back  from  Washington  the  day  Governor  Jackson  telegraphed  his 
refusal  to  furnish  Missouri's  quota.  He  wired  the  Secretary  of  War:  "Send 
order  at  once  for  mustering  men  into  service  to  Capt.  N.  Lyon.  It  will  then  be 
surely  executed  and  we  will  fill  your  requisition  in  two  days." 


GENERAL  W.  S.  HABNEY 
111   (■onuiKiiK)   nt   St.   Louis   in    ISCI 


GENERAL  aTEKLING  PKICE 
< 'oiiinianilcr  of   Xfissouri   troo])s   in   Confed- 
erate  army 


Courtesy   Missouri   nist ii    s...  my 

ST.  LOUIS  IN  1861 
Soutlieast  ronicr  of  Scviiitli  and  Olive  streets.    Building  in  the  center  with  balcony  was  Fire 
Dpliaitineut  lu'adi)uaitt'is  iiianv  years.     Home  Guards  marching  north  on  Seventh  Street,  May, 
1S()1,  fired  info  the  building  and  along  tlie  street  with  loss  of  lives. 


CAMP  JACKSON  727 

On  the  23rd  of  April  the  order  came  to  Lyon  to  "muster  into  the  service 
the  four  regiments"  which  the  governor  had  refused.  Lyon  had  an  army. 
He  immediately  mustered  into  United  States  service  the  four  regiments  of  "loyal 
citizens"  already  armed.  The  arsenal  and  the  60,000  muskets  were  lost  to  the 
Minute  Men.  One  thing  that  operated  to  the  advantage  of  Blair  and  Lyon  in 
getting  the  order  to  arm  the  Home  Guards  was  the  seizure  of  the  arsenal  at 
Liberty,  Missouri,  on  the  20th  of  April.  Four  brass  guns  and  other  munitions 
not  in  great  quantity  were  taken  by  state  troops.  Another  moving  influence 
with  the  War  Department  at  Washington  was  a  letter  which  General  Harney 
sent  on  the  day  that  Jackson  refused  President  Lincoln's  call.  "The  arsenal  build- 
ings and  grounds  are  completely  commanded  by  the  hills  immediately  in  their 
rear,  and  within  easy  range,  and  1  learn  from  sources  which  I  consider  reliable, 
that  it  is  the  intention  of  the  executive  of  this  state  to  cause  batteries  to  be  erected 
on  these  hills  and  also  on  the  island  opposite  the  arsenal.  I  am  further  informed 
that  should  such  batteries  be  erected,  it  is  contemplated  by  the  state  authorities, 
in  the  event  of  the  secession  of  the  state  from  the  Union,  to  demand  the  surrender 
of  the  arsenal." 

Lieutenant  Schofield  was  the  man  who  informed  Harney  of  a  plan  to  seize 
the  arsenal  under  cover  of  a  riot.  The  old  war  dog  growled  his  reply,  "A 
blanked  outrage !  Why  the  state  has  not  yet  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession. 
Missouri  has  not  gone  out  of  the  United  States."  Lyon  had  the  same  informa- 
tion. On  the  same  day  he  sent  a  messenger  to  Governor  Yates  at  Springfield 
-  and  asked  him  to  get  authority  from  Washington  to  hold  the  six  Illinois  regiments 
in  readiness  for  service  at  St.  Louis.  Lyon  also  advised  Governor  Yates  to  make 
requisition  on  the  War  Department  for  muskets  at  the  St.  Louis  arsenal  and 
get  them  taken  to  Springfield  as  soon  as  possible. 

Commissioners  Sent  to  Jefferson  Davis. 

Harnfv  and  Lyon  were  well  intdrnied.  ( )n  the  day  following  Harney's  writ- 
ing and  Lyon's  message  to  Yates,  Governor  Jackson  started  Greene  and  Duke 
to  Montgomery,  the  temporary  Confederate  capital,  with  a  letter  to  Mr.  Davis 
asking  him  for  siege  guns  and  mortars  for  the  proposed  attack  on  the  arsenal. 
Judge  William  M.  Cooke  left  for  Richmond  on  a  similar  commission. 

Snead  said  that  just  before  Greene  and  Duke  went  south  to  see  Jefferson  Davis, 
Frost  had  drawn  up  a  plan  which  I'.rownlee  had  indorsed  and  given  to  the 
governor.  This  plan  provided  for  a  special  session  of  the  legislature  and  for 
a  proclamation  to  the  people  of  Missouri.  The  governor  was  to  warn  the  people 
"that  the  President  has  acted  illegally  in  calling  out  troops,  thus  arrogating  to 
himself  the  war-making  power,  that  they  are,  therefore,  by  no  means  bound  to 
give  him  aid  or  comfort  in  his  attempt  to  subjugate  by  force  of  arms  a  people 
who  are  still  free,  but,  on  the  contrar)',  should  prepare  themselves  to  maintain 
their  rights  as  citizens  of  Missouri." 

The  plan  was  dated  the  15th  of  .\pril.  It  also  provided  that  the  governor 
should  order  Frost  "to  form  a  military  camp  of  instruction  at  or  near  the  City  of 
St.  Louis ;  to  muster  military  companies  into  the  service  of  the  state,  and  to  erect 
batteries  and  do  all  things  necessary  and  proper  to  be  done  in  order  to  maintain 
the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  state." 


728  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

'it  was  intended,"  said  Sncad.  "that  the  camp  of  instruction  should  be  estab- 
lished on  the  river  bluffs  below  the  arsenal  in  such  position  that,  with  the  aid  of 
the  siege  guns  and  mortars  which  were  to  be  brought  from  the  South,  Frost 
and  his  brigade,  reinforced  by  Bowen's  command  and  by  volunteers,  would  be 
able  to  force  Lyon  to  surrender  the  arsenal  and  all  its  stores  to  the  state." 

On  the  23rd  day  of  April,  1861.  Jefferson  Davis  wrote  from  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  to  Governor  Claiborne  F.  Jackson : 

"I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  yours  of  the  17th  instant,  borne  by  Capts.  Green  and 
Duke,  and  have  most  cordially  welcomed  the  fraternal  assurances  it  brings.  A  misplaced 
but  generous  confidence  has,  for  years  past,  prevented  the  southern  states  from  making 
the  preparation  required  for  the  present  emergency,  and  our  power  to  supply  you  with 
ordnance  is  far  short  of  the  will  to  serve  you.  After  learning  as  well  as  I  could  from  the 
gentlemen  accredited  to  me  what  was  most  useful  for  the  attack  on  the  arsenal,  I  have 
directed  that  Capts.  Green  and  Duke  should  be  furnished  with  two  12-pounder  howitzers 
and  two  32-pounder  guns  with  proper  ammunition  for  each.  These,  from  the  commanding 
hills,  will  be  effective,  both  against  the  garrison  and  to  breach  the  enclosing  walls  of  the 
place.  I  concur  with  you  as  to  the  great  importance  of  capturing  the  arsenal  and  securing 
its  supplies,  rendered  doubly  important  by  the  means  taken  to  obstruct  your  commerce  and 
render  you  unarmed  victims  of  a  hostile  invasion.  We  look  anxiously  and  hopefully  for 
the  day  when  the  star  of  Missouri  shall  be  added  to  the  constellation  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America." 

Secret  Shipment  of  Guns  to  Illinois. 

Yates  promptly  got  his  order  to  send  Illinois  troops  "to  support  the  garrison 
of  the  St.  Louis  arsenal."'  At  the  same  time  Lyon  was  ordered  from  Washington 
to  equip  these  Illinois  troops  and  to  deliver  to  the  agent  of  Governor  Yates  guns 
and  ammunition  for  10,000  more  troops.  These  orders  came  on  the  20th.  But 
before  Yates  could  .send  his  regiments,  Lyon  had  armed  his  four  regiments  of 
Home  Guards  and  the  arsenal  was  safe.  On  the  night  of  the  26th,  the  City  of 
Alton  dropped  down  to  the  arsenal,  took  on  board  the  muskets  and  ammunition 
and  other  equipment  for  Illinois. 

Governor  Yates  sent  Capt.  James  H.  Stokes  to  represent  him  in  '.he  reinoval 
of  the  arms  from  the  arsenal.  Stokes  came  in  citizen's  dress.  He  had  chartered 
the  City  of  Alton  but  had  instructed  the  captain  to  remain  at  Alton  for  orders. 
When  Stokes  reached  the  arsenal  he  found  a  crowd  of  southern  rights  men 
gathered  at  the  gate.  .-\  rumor  prevailed  that  an  attack  was  to  be  made  by  2,000 
militia  from  Jefferson  City.  With  considerable  effort  Stokes  reached  Lyon  and 
presented  the  requisition  for  10.000  muskets.  In  some  way  the  southern  rights 
men  had  learned  that  an  attempt  might  be  made  to  remove  the  arms.  They 
had  posted  a  battery  on  the  river  bank  some  distance  above  the  arsenal.  Lyon 
sent  out  his  spies  and  learned  of  the  plans  of  the  Minute  Men.  On  the  25th 
of  .^pril  Stokes  .sent  word  to-  the  captain  of  the  City  of  Alton  to  come  down 
the  river  and  reach  the  arsenal  at  midnight.  Early  in  the  evening  Lyon  sent 
some  cases  of  old  flintlock  muskets  up  to  the  levee  as  if  intending  to  ship  them 
by  boat.  Most  of  the  southern  rights  men  who  had  been  watching  the  arsenal 
followed  the  cases  of  flintlocks  and  when  they  were  unloaded  took  possession  of 
them  and  moved  them  to  a  hiding  place,  under  the  impression  that  they  had 
stopped  a  shipment  of  serviceable  guns.  Lyon  arrested  the  remaining  watchers 
and  held  them  prisoners.     The  whole  arsenal  force  was  put  to  work  moving  the 


CAMP  JACKSON  729 

boxes  of  good  muskets.  The  Alton  arrived  in  front  of  the  arsenal  just  before 
midnight.  The  10,000  muskets  were  put  on  board  so  hurriedly  that  they  carried 
the  bow  of  the  boat  down  into  the  mud.  When  the  load  was  on,  the  Alton  could 
not  be  moved.  As  quickly  as  possible  200  boxes,  which  had  been  piled  in  front 
to  protect  the  engines  if  the  boat  was  fired  on  by  the  battery,  were  carried  aft. 
Lyon  interpreted  the  requisition  so  liberally  that  when  the  Alton  pushed  off  she 
carried  20,000  muskets,  500  carbines,  the  same  number  of  revolvers,  110,000 
cartridges  and  considerable  other  war  material.  The  Alton  took  the  channel 
and  started  north.  Botli  .Stokes  and  Captain  Mitchell  of  the  boat  expected  to  be 
fired  on  when  they  passed  the  levee,  but  the  battery  was  silent.  The  ruse  of  the 
flintlocks  had  apparently  deceived  the  Minute  Men.  The  boat  reached  Alton  at 
5  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Stokes  ran  to  the  market-house  and  rang  the  fire-bell. 
As  the  people  responded  he  appealed  for  volunteers  to  help  him  get  the  Alton's 
load  on  board  the  cars.  By  7  o'clock  the  work  was  done  and  Stokes  was  on 
his  way  to  Springfield.  Lyon  prepared  the  arsenal  for  siege.  He  placed  bat- 
teries, built  platforms  to  enable  the  men  to  fire  over  the  walls,  cut  port  holes  and 
arranged  sand  bags  for  protection. 

When  he  learned  of  the  shipment  of  arms  from  the  arsenal  and  of  Lyon's 
elaborate  plans  of  defense,  Governor  Jackson  sent  Harding,  his  quartermaster- 
general,  to  St.  Louis  to  buy  all  of  the  guns  and  ammunition  he  could  find  in  the 
stores.  The  general  was  late.  St.  Louisans  had  been  buying  arms  for  three 
months.  There  were  private  arsenals  everywhere.  Capt.  Sam  Gaty  went  into 
the  office  of  his  lawyer,  Samuel  T.  Glover,  on  legal  business.  He  saw  a  gun 
leaning  in  the  corner  and  said  something  about  it.  "You  secessionists  don't 
expect  to  drive  the  L^nion  men  out  of  St.  Louis,  do  you?"  retorted  Glover. 
Harding  found  stocks  in  the  gun  stores  depleted.  With  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  he  bought  for  the  state  a  few  hundred  hunting  rifles,  some  tents  and  other 
camp  equipage  and  seventy  tons  of  powder.  The  purchases  were  consigned  to 
the  state  authorities  at  Jefferson  City.  The  shipment  was  made  on  the  7th  of 
May  and  Captain  Kelly's  company  of  the  state  militia,  composed  of  fighting 
Irishmen,  went  as  a  guard.  That  was  the  reason  this  crack  company  was  not 
at  Camp  Jackson  when  the  capture  took  place.  Years  afterwards  the  militant 
sympathizers  with  the  South  told  the  story  of  Camp  Jackson  in  a  song  which 
ran : 

"  'Twas  on  the  tenth  of  May 

When  Kelly's  men  were  away " 

The  Armed  Neutrality  Policy. 

While  these  warlike  preparations  of  Blair  and  Lyon  on  the  one  side  and 
Governor  Jackson  and  the  Minute  Men  on  the  other  went  on,  the  voice  of  Mis- 
souri at  large  was  still  raised  for  "armed  neutrality."  In  his  Columbia  States- 
men of  April  15,  1861,  William  F.  Switzler  said: 

"Let  them  (the  border  states)  stand  as  a  wall  of  fire  between  the  belligerent  extremes, 
and  with  their  strong  arms  and  potential  counsel  keep  them  apart.  Let  them  stand  pledged, 
as  they  now-  are,  to  resist  any  attempt  at  coercion,  plighting  their  faith,  as  we  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  plight  the  faith  of  Missouri,  that  if  the  impending  war  of  the  northern  states  against 
the  southern  shall,  in  defiance  of  onr  solemn  protest  and  warning,  actually  occur   (which 


730  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

God  in  his  mercy  forefendl)  we  shall  stand  by  Virginia  and  Kentucky  and  our  southern 
sisters — sharing  their  dangers,  and  abiding  their  fortunes  and  destiny — in  driving  back  from 
their  borders  the  hostile  fleet  of  northern  invaders.     Of  the  South,  we  are  for  the  South." 

The  Missouri  Republican,  organ  of  all  the  con.'iervative  elements,  met  the 
situation  on  the  22d : 

"Let  us  take  the  same  position  that  Kentucky  has  taken — that  of  armed  neutrality.  Let 
us  declare  that  no  military  force  levied  in  other  states,  shall  be  allowed  to  pass  through 
our  state,  or  camp  upon  our  soil.  Let  us  demand  of  the  opposing  sections  to  stop  further 
hostile  operations  until  reason  can  be  appealed  to  in  Congress,  and  before  the  people ;  and 
when  that  fails  it  will  be  time  enough  for  us  to  take  up  arms.  Why  should  we,  all  unpre- 
pared, rush  out  of  the  Union,  to  find  a  doubtful  and  reluctant  reception  in  the  Confederate 
states." 

Long  after  the  war  was  over,  Champ  Clark  pointed  out  the  futility  of  the 
"armed  neutrality"  argument.     He  said : 

"Time  fought  for  Blair  in  this  strange  contest  for  possession  of  a  state,  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Republic.  Those  who  most  effectually  tied  the  hands  of  the  secessionists  and 
who  imwittingly  but  most  largely  played  into  Blair's  were  the  advocates  of  'armed  neutrality,' 
certainly  the  most  preposterous  theory  ever  hatched  in  the  brain  of  man.  Who  was  its  father 
cannot  now  be  definitely  ascertained,  as  nobody  is  anxious  to  claim  the  dubious  honor  of 
its  paternity.  What  it  really  meant  may  be  shown  by  an  incident  that  happened  in  the 
great  historic  county  of  Pike,  a  county  which  furnished  one  brigadier-general  and  five  colonels 
to  the  Union  army  and  three  colonels  to  the  Confederate,  with  a  full  complement  of  officers 
and  men. 

"Early  in  1861  a  great  'neutrality  meeting'  was  held  at  Bowling  Green,  the  county  seat. 
Hon.  William  L.  Gatewood,  a  prominent  lawyer,  a  Virginian  or  Kentuckian  by  birth,  an 
ardent  southern  sympathizer,  subsequently  a  state  senator,  was  elected  chairman.  The 
Pike  county  orators  were  out  in  full  force,  but  chief  among  them  was  Hon.  George  W. 
Anderson,  also  a  prominent  lawyer,  and  East  Tennessean  by  nativity,  afterwards  a  colonel 
in  the  Union  army,  a  state  senator,  and  for  four  years  a  member  of  Congress.  Eloquence 
was  on  tap  and  flowed  freely.  Men  of  all  shades  of  opinion  fraternized;  they  passed  strong 
and  ringing  resolutions  in  favor  of  'armed  neutrality,'  and  'all  went  merry  as  a  marriage 
bell.' 

"Chairman  Gatewood  was  somewhat  mystified  and  not  altogether  satisfied  by  the  har- 
monious proceedings;  so,  after  adjournment  sine  die,  he  took  Anderson  out  under  a  con- 
venient tree,  and  in  his  shrill  tenor  nervously  inquired,  'George,  what  does  "armed  neutrality" 
mean,  anyhow-?'  Anderson,  in  his  deep  base,  growled,  'It  means  guns  for  the  Union  men 
and  none  for  the  rebels !' — the  truth  and  wisdom  of  which  remarks  are  now  perfectly 
apparent.  So  it  was,  verily.  Anderson  had  hit  the  bull's-eye,  and  no  mistake.  If  he  had 
orated  for  an  entire  month,  he  could  not  have  stated  the  case  more  luminously  or  more  com- 
prehensively. He  had  exhausted  the  subject.  Before  the  moon  had  waxed  and  waned  again 
the  leaders  of  that  'neutrality'  lovefeast  were  hurrying  to  and  fro,  beating  up  for  volunteers. 
in  every  nook  and  corner  in  the  county, — some  for  service  in  the  Union,  others  for  service 
in  the  Confederate  army. 

"But  it  is  proverbial  that  'hindsight  is  better  than  foresight.'  Men  must  be  judged  by 
their  own  knowledge  at  the  time  they  acted,  not  by  ours;  by  the  circumstances  with  which 
they  were  surrounded,  not  by  those  which  environ  us.  What  may  appear  unfathomable 
problems  to  the  wisest  men  of  one  generation  may  be  clear  as  crystal  to  even  the  dullest  of 
the  succeeding  generation.  However  ridiculous  'armed  neutrality,'  judged  by  the  hard  logic 
of  events,  may  appear  in  the  retrospect ;  however  untenable  we  now  know  it  to  have  been, 
whom  afterwards  won  laurels  on  the  battlefield  and  laid  down  their  lives  in  one  army  or 
the  fact  nevertheless  remains  that  it  was  honestly  believed  in  and  enthusiastically  advocated 


CAMP  JACKSON  731 

by  thousands  of  capable,  brave,  and  honest  men  all  over  Kentucky  and   Missouri,  many  of 
the  other  in  defense  of  what  they  deemed  right." 

Jackson's  Confidential  Letter. 

A  confidential  letter  by  Governor  Claiborne  Jackson  to  the  editor  of  the  St. 
Louis  Bulletin,  is  in  the  mantiscript  collection  of  the  Missouri  Historical  Society. 
It  is  dated  April  28,  iSf)!.  It  is  an  important  revelation  of  the  state  administra- 
tion's policy  at  the  time  and  of  purposes  behind  the  scenes: 

"I  write  this  note  in  confidence  and  under  a  state  of  mind  very  peculiar.  I  know  not 
when  I  have  been  so  deeply  mortified  as  on  yesterday  when  I  read  the  leading  editorial  of 
the  Republican.  Governor  Price  called  on  me  a  few  days  since,  when  passing  on  his  way 
to  St.  Louis.  We  had  an  interview  of  ten  minutes,  not  more.  It  was  strictly  private  and 
confidential.  Neither  was  at  liberty  to  repeat  what  the  other  said,  much  less  was  either 
licensed  to  misstate  and  misrepresent  the  position  of  the  other. 

"Governor  Price  asked  me  what  I  thought  as  to  the  time  of  calling  the  convention. 
I  told  him  not  to  be  in  a  hurry  but  to  wait  'til  the  legislature  met,  and  to  be  here  at  thatf 
time,  so  that  we  could  consult  with  the  members  from  all  parts  of  the  state,  and  fi.x  upon  a 
proper  time;  that  in  my  judgment  we  should  not  go  out  of  the  Union  until  the  legislature 
had  time  to  arm  the  state  to  some  e.\tent  and  place  it  in  a  proper  position  of  defense.  This 
was  in  substance,  the  sum  total  of  all  I  said  to  him.  Governor  Price  said  many  things  to 
me  in  that  short  interview  which  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  repeat,  and  which  I  could  not  do 
without  doing  violence  to  my  sense  of  honor,  violating  every  rule  of  propriety  which  gov- 
erns the  intercourse  of  gentlemen,  and  forfeiting  all  claim  to  the  position  of  an  honorable 
member  of  the  community. 

"If  it  be  the  purpose  of  Paschall  and  Price  to  make  me  endorse  the  position  of  the 
Republican  and  the  miserable,  base,  and  cowardly  conduct  of  Governor  Price's  submission 
convention,  then  they  are  woefully  mistaken.  Lashed  and  driven  as  they  have  been  by  an 
indignant  and  outraged  constituency  from  the  position  of  'unconditional  union,'  they  are 
now  seeking  shelter  under  the  miserable  absurdity  of  'armed  neutrality.'  About  the  only 
truth  in  Paschall's  article  is  that  in  which  he  states  my  policy  to  be  a  'policy.' 

"This  is  true.  I  am  for  peace,  and  so  is  everybody  except  Lincoln  and  Frank  Blair. 
You  will  do  me  an  especial  favor  to  inform  Mr.  Paschall  that  whenever  Governor  Jackson 
wishes  his  position  upon  matters  of  public  interest  properly  stated  and  set  before  the  people, 
he  will  take  some  direct  manner  of  doing  it,  and  not  rely  upon  the  colored  and  garbled 
statements  of  a  set  of  men  who,  under  the  garb  of  friendship,  seek  to  obtain  his  con- 
fidence only  to  betray  him,  and  play  the  part  of  pumps  and  spies. 

"I  do  not  think  Missouri  should  secede  to-day  or  to-morrow,  but  I  do  not  think  it 
good  policy  that  I  should  publicly  so  declare.  I  want  a  little  time  to  arm  the  state,  and  I 
am  assuming  every  responsibility  to  do  it  with  all  possible  dispatch.  Missouri  should  act 
in  concert  with  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  They  are  all  bound  to  go  out  and  should  go 
together,  if  possible.  My  judgment  is  that  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  .Arkansas  will 
all  be  out  in  a  few  days,  and  when  they  go,  Missouri  and  Kentucky  must  follow.  Let 
us  then  prepare  to  make  our  exit.  We  should  keep  our  own  counsels.  Every  man  in  the 
state  is  in  favor  of  arming  the  state.  Then  let  it  be  done.  All  are  opposed  to  furnishing 
Mr.  Lincoln  with  soldiers.  Time  will  settle  the  balance.  Nothing  should  be  said  about 
the  time  or  the  manner  in  which  Missouri  should  go  out.  That  she  ought  to  go  and  will 
go  at  the  proper  time  I  have  no  doubt.  She  ought  to  have  gone  last  winter  when  she 
could  have  seized  the  public  arms  and  public  property  and  defended  herself.  This  she  has 
failed  to  do,  and  must  now  wait  a  little  while.  Paschall  is  a  base  submissionist.  and 
desires  to  remain  with  the  North  if  every  other  slave  state  should  go  out. 

"This  he  proved  in  indorsing  all  those  who  voted  against  Bast's  amendment.  The 
people  of  Missouri,  I  must  think,  understand  my  position.  Paschall  knows  the  iieople  are 
twenty  to  one  against  him  and  hence  he  seeks  to  drag  me  into  his  aid  and  support.  You 
should   denounce   his   course,   and   expose   his   baseness.     To   frighten   our   people   into  the 


732  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

most  slavish  position  lie  parades  before  tlicm  from  day  to  day  our  defenseless  attitude,  and 
meanly  makes  it  out  a  thousand  times  worse  than  it  really  is.  Missouri  can  put  into  the 
field  to-day  twenty  thousand  men.  better  armed  than  our  fathers  were,  who  won  our  inde- 
pendence. If  you  can,  I  should  be  glad  to  see  you  here  on  Tuesday  evening.  I  hope  you 
will  fully  comprehend  my  whole  policy.  .\nd  without  undertaking  to  shadow  it  forth  spe- 
cifically or  in  detail,  I  only  ask  that  you  will  defend  me  from  the  false  position  in  which 
Paschall  and  Price  seem  disposed  to  place  me.  Call  on  every  country  paper  to  defend  me, 
and  assure  them  I  am  fighting  under  the  true  flag.  Who  does  not  know  that  every  sym- 
pathy of  my  heart  is  with  the  South? 

"The  legislature,  in  my  view,  should  sit  in  secret  session  and  touch  nothing  but  the 
measures  of  defense.  Let  the  measures  of  Mr.  Sturgeon,  ^r.  Paschall,  Mr.  Taylor,  &  Co., 
in  regards  to  their  railroads  aril  go  by  the  board.  I  have  not  the  patience  or  the  time  to 
talk  of  such  matters  now.  Let  us  first  preserve  our  liberties  and  attend  to  business  affairs 
afterwards.     Let  all  our  energies  and  all  our  means  be  applied  to  our  defense  and  safety. 

"Yours  truly, 

"C.  F.  Jackson." 

As  soon  as  he  had  mustered  in  his  four  regiments,  Lyon  set  about  his  plans 
to  make  still  more  complete  the  defense  of  the  arsenal.  On  the  30th  of  April 
he  wrote  to  the  secretary  of  war:  "The  state  is  doubtless  getting  ready  to  attack 
the  government  troops  with  artillery.  I  have  sent  three  volunteer  companies  with 
Captain  Totten's  battery  to  occupy  buildings  outside  of  the  arsenal,  hired  for 
this  purpose,  both  to  give  them  shelter  and  to  occupy  commanding  positions  which 
the  secessionists  had  intended  to  occupy  themselves  and  upon  which  they  openly 
avowed  that  they  W'ould  plant  siege  batteries  to  reduce  this  place,  the  arsenal. 
This  exasperates  them  and  has  given  rise  to  a  singular  correspondence  which, 
when  convenient,  I  will  lay  before  the  War  Department." 

Committee  of  Public  Safety  Recognised. 

The  very  day  that  Lyon's  report  on  the  intentions  of  the  state  against  the 
arsenal  was  mailed.  .Xpril  30th.  there  was  started  from  the  war  department  a 
document  that  conveyed  sweeping  authority.  It  was  signed  by  Secretary  Cameron 
and  was  addressed  to  Capt.  Nathaniel  Lyon,  commanding  department  of  the 
west.    It  read : 

"The  President  of  the  United  States  directs  that  you  enroll  in  the  military  service  of 
the  United  States  loyal  citizens  of  St.  Louis  and  vicinity,  not  exceeding,  with  those  hereto- 
fore enlisted,  ten  thousand  in  number,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  authority  of  the 
L'nitcd  States  and  for  the  protection  of  the  peaceable  inhabitants  of  Missouri,  and  you 
will,  if  deemed  necessary  for  that  purpose  by  yourself  and  Messrs.  Oliver  D.  Filley,  John 
How,  James  O.  Broadhead.  Samuel  T.  Glover,  J.  J.  Witzig,  and  Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  pro- 
claim martial  law  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis." 

The  document  was  indor.sed.  "It  is  revolutionary  times,  and  therefore  I  do 
not  object  to  the  irregularity  of  this.  W.  S."  The  initials  were  those  of  Winfield 
Scott.  The  document  bore  the  further  indorsement,  "Approved  April  30,  1861. 
A.  Lincoln."  The  six  men  named  were  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  who  had 
been  acting  heretofore  by  authority  of  a  meeting  of  citizens.  Now  the  com- 
mittee received  government  recognition.  It  was  "revolution."  But  President 
Lincoln  realized  what  it  meant  to  hold  Missouri  in  the  Union  and  he  did  not  stop 
at  revolution  which  put  state  and  city  in  the  control  of  a  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  composed  of  Missourians  he  trusted. 


CAMP  JACKSO-X  733 

Blair  and  Lyon  lost  no  time  in  acting  luuler  this  authority.  To  the  regiments 
organized  in  April  the  name  of  .Missouri  V'ohuiteers  had  been  given.  More 
regiments  were  organized  with  such  celerity  that  four  of  them  were  sworn  in 
and  armed  on  the  Jth  and  8th  of  May,  just  after  Frost's  brigade  of  state  militia 
had  gone  into  camp  in  IJndell  Grove.  These  regiments  were  named  the  L'nited 
States  Reserve  Corps. 

Police  and  Militia  Movements. 

On  the  6th  of  May  the  police  commissioners  took  action  which  was  in  accord- 
ance with  the  theory  of  state  sovereignty  held  by  those  who  sympathized  with 
the  South.  They  served  a  forma!  demand  upon  Lyon  to  withdraw  all  United 
Stales  troop.s  from  all  buildings  ami  gnmiuls  outside  of  the  arsenal.  The  docu- 
ment set  out  in  legal  phraseology  thai  this  occupancy  was  "in  derogation  of  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States."  Lyon  replied  with  an  inquiry.  He 
asked,  "what  provisions  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  were  being  thus  violated.'" 
The  police  commissioners  stated  Missouri  had  "sovereign  and  exclusive  juris^ 
diction  over  her  whole  territory''  save  only  where  she  had  delegated  certain  tracts 
for  military  purposes  in  the  form  of  arsenals  and  barracks.  The  answer  of  the 
police  commissioners  further  asserted  that  outside  of  these  ceded  tracts  the  United 
States  had  no  right  to  occupy  any  of  the  soil  of  Missouri  without  the  consent  of 
the  state  authorities.  Lyon  refused  to  recognize  the  doctrine  of  state  sovereignty 
and  continued  to  occupy  the  jjositions  he  had  taken  for  his  regulars  and  Home 
Guards  in  anticipation  of  an  attack  upon  the  arsenal.  The  police  board  referred 
the  correspondence  to  the  state  authorities  at  Jefferson  City  and  there  the  matter 
ended. 

While  awaiting  the  return  of  Lireene  and  Duke  from  their  southern  mission. 
Governor  Jackson  called  a  special  session  of  the  legislature  to  meet  in  Jefferson 
City  on  the  2d  of  May,  "for  the  purpose  of  enacting  such  measures  as  might  be 
deemed  necessary  for  the  more  perfect  organization  and  equipment  of  the  militia 
and  to  raise  the  money,  and  provide  such  other  means  as  might  be  required  to 
place  the  state  in  a  proper  attitude  of  defense."  At  the  same  time  the  governor 
ordered  the  commanding  officers  of  the  several  militia  districts  to  go  into  camp 
with  their  commands  on  the  3d  of  May  for  the  annual  instruction  and  drill,  under 
the  militia  law  of  183S. 

Camp  Jackson  Established. 

Camp  Jackson  was  established  on  Monday,  the  6th  of  May.     Snead  said: 

"Though  the  removal  of  tlie  arms  from  the  arsenal  had  taken  away  the  motive  that 
caused  the  governor  to  order  the  militia  into  camp  at  St.  Louis,  it  was  determined  to  hold 
that  encampment,  nevertheless.  The  intention  of  holding  it  on  the  hills  near  the  arsenal 
was,  however,  abandoned.  For  to  camp  there  now  would  be  an  idle  threat  at  best,  and 
,  besides,  and  this  was  a  still  inore  potent  reason,  those  very  hills  had  been  quietly  occupied 
by  Lyon  with  both  infantry  and  artillery.  Frost,  therefore,  selected  a  camp  in  a  wooded 
valley,  known  as  Lindell  Grove,  near  the  intersection  of  Olive  street  and  Grand  avenue,  in 
the  western  part  of  the  city,  and  called  it  Camp  Jackson,  in  honor  of  the  governor.  And 
there  his  brigade,  aggregating  a  little  more  than  seven  hundred  men,  went  into  encamp- 
ment. Besides  the  officers  and  men  of  the  brigade,  there  were  a  number  of  young  men 
in  the  camp,  who  had  come  from  all  quarters  of  the  state  to  learn  sometliing  of  the  art  of 
war,  and  to  take  part   in  any  hostile   movement   which   Frost  miglit   undertake." 


734  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

General  D.  M.  Frost  assenibled  the  First  and  Second  regiments  on  Washing- 
ton avenue  and  marched  to  Camp  Jackson.  Three  troops  of  miUtia  cavalry  under 
Maj.  Clark  Kennedy  arrived  in  the  camp  the  next  day.  The  First  regiment, 
Lieut. -Col.  John  Knapp  commanding,  was  composed  of  long  established  military 
companies.  'J'he  majority,  perhaps,  two  thirds  of  the  members  of  tliis  regiment 
and  of  the  Engineer  Corps,  National  Guards,  were  Union  men.  Many  of  them 
afterwards  served  with  distinction  in  the  Union  army.  The  Second  regiment, 
Col.  John  S.  Bowen,  was  composed  largely  of  the  Minute  Men  who  had  been 
organized  as  militia  in  January  from  the  "broom  rangers"  of  the  political  cam- 
paign of  i860.  The  United  States  and  the  Missouri  state  flags  floated  over 
Camp  Jackson. 

The  general  spirit  of  the  camp  was  not  warlike.  Many  of  the  militia  ob- 
tained daily  furloughs  and  attended  to  their  business  down  town,  reporting  for 
dress  parade  and  sleeping  in  camp.  Of  the  plans  of  the  secessionists  very  few 
were  informed.  The  forms  of  loyalty  to  nation  as  well  as  to  state  were  main- 
tained. This  concession  to  the  strong  Union  element  in  the  older  military  com- 
panies was  necessary.  Colonel  Pritchard  and  some  of  the  other  Union  militia- 
men had  been  advised  by  Blair  and  did  not  go  to  Camp  Jackson.  Several  officers 
had  sent  in  their  resignations  before  the  camp  was  formed. 

On  the  evening  of  the  8th  of  May,  two  days  after  the  column  had  marched 
out  to  Camp  Jackson,  tlie  steamboat,  J.  C.  Swon,  with  a  southern  flag  flying,  ar- 
rived at  the  St.  Louis  le\ee.  She  had  taken  on  board  at  Baton  Rouge  the  cannon 
and  the  ammunition  intended  for  the  siege  of  the  arsenal.  The  guns  and  the 
powder  and  ball  were  in  boxes  of  various  sizes  marked  "marble  Tamaroa." 
They  were  addressed  to  "Cireele'y  and  Gale."  Carlos  S.  Greeley  and  Daniel  Bailey 
Gale  were  New  Hampshire  born.  They  were  most  pronounced  Union  men.  They 
were  in  the  wholesale  grocery  business.  When  the  boxes  of  "marble"  were 
unloaded  Maj.  James  A.  Shaler  was  there  to  receive  them,  and  the  secret  service 
men  were  there  to  see  what  became  of  the  consignment.  Major  Shaler  was  a 
staff  officer  of  Colonel  Bowen's  regiment  of  Minute  Men.  He  removed  the  boxes 
quickly  to  Camp  Jackson.  The  detectives  followed  and  then  reported  to  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  at  Turner  Hall.  The  information  was  at  once  sent 
to  Lyon  at  the  arsenal.  The  afternoon  of  May  9.  Lyon,  in  disguise,  was  at  Camp 
Jackson,  examining  the  surroundings.  The  boxes  of  "marble"  were  there,  but 
impacked.  It  develojjed  long  afterwards  that  but  very  few  officers  and  men  iti 
ihc  ranks  knew  of  the  arrival  of  the  shipment. 

Lyon's  Visit  to  Camp  Jackson. 

The  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  sitting  long  and  late,  knew  better  what  was 
going  on  than  did  the  citizen  soldiers  under  the  tents  in  Lindell  Grove.  Couzin's 
detectixcs  were  alert.  Lyon's  disguise  consisted  of  clothes  borrowed  from  Mrs. 
Alexander,  the  mother-in-law  of  Blair.  Made  up  and  veiled  to  pass  for  an  elderly 
ladv  who  was  quite  deaf,  but  armed  with  two  heavy  revolvers.  Lyon  in  a  carriage 
borrowed  from  Franklin  A.  Dick,  rode  through  Camp  Jackson.  The  di.sguise 
was  so  good  that  when  the  carriage  halted  in  front  of  headquarters  at  the  arsenal 
about  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  Pdair  stepped  forward  to  greet  his  relative.     He 


GEN.  NATHANIEL  LVU.V 

Who    eaptured    Cam])    Jacksiin    and    full    at 

Wilson  's    Creek 


GEX.    DAVID    \L     I  l;i  i>l' 

I'ldiii    a    |iieture    taken   a   short    time   before 

the   capture   of   Camp   Jac-kson 


1  1 


SECOND   I'KESBVTKHIAN    CIirKCH   OF   ST.   LOVIS   IN    1840 
Scene  of  Home  Guards  trapedV  following  tlie  capture  of  Camp  Jackson  in  May,  1S(H.     A 
shot   fired    from   behind   one   of   the   columns   provoked   a    volley   from   the   marching   trooi)s. 
Location,  Broadway,  looking  north  from  Walnut   Street. 


CAMP  JACKSON  737 

was  undeceived  when  the  toe  of  an  army  boot  protruded  from  lieneath  the  bomba- 
zine skirt.  Lyon  immediately  sent  out  messages  by  W'itzig  to  the  members  of  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  to  come  to  him  at  7  o'clock  in  the  evening.  He  had 
made  up  his  mind  what  to  do.  He  wanted  the  committee  to  approve  his  plan.  He 
proposed  to  take  Camp  Jackson.  Late  into  the  night  the  members  of  the  com- 
mittee talked.  They  were  divided.  There  was  no  question  of  the  gravity  of  the 
situation.  The  guns  and  ammunition  from  the  government  arsenal  at  Baton 
Rouge  were  in  Camp  Jackson.  But  the  United  States  flag  floated  over  Camp 
Jackson.  There  had  been  no  "overt  act'' — how  those  two  words  did  roll  from 
the  tongue  in  1861  !  The  lawyers  on  the  committee  favored  a  legal  process. 
They  proposed  to  Lyon  to  get  out  a  writ  of  reple\in  for  government  property  and 
have  it  served  on  General  Frost  as  the  first  step.  That  was  law.  they  said,  and 
should  be  the  first  step.  But  Lyon  said  it  was  not  war.  Perhaps,  in  his  mind  he 
saw  those  big  guns  on  the  high  grounds  south  of  him  and  west  of  him.  He  in- 
sisted that  the  bringing  of  the  guns  and  the  ammunition  from  Baton  Rouge  and 
the  removal  of  them  to  Camp  Jackson  were  sufficient  provocation.  Late  that 
night  the  committee  voted.  Four  approved  Lyon's  proposition  to  take  Camp 
Jackson.  Two  opposed  and  urged  the  legal  process  be  tried  first.  One  of  the 
two  was  Samuel  T.  Glover.  He  insisted  that  the  writ  of  replevin  be  sworn  out 
and  that  the  United  States  marshal  march  at  the  head  of  the  troops,  carrying 
the  writ  to  serve  as  the  first  step.  He  went  so  far  as  to  prepare  the  writ  and  place 
it  in  the  hands  of.  United  States  Marshal  Rawlings.  But  when  the  marshal  went 
to  the  arsenal  next  morning  he  was  denied  admittance.  Another  early  morning 
visitor  was  not  only  refused  admission,  but  the  written  note  he  carried  was  not 
accepted  by  Lyon.  He  was  Colonel  Bowen.  commander  of  the  Second  regiment, 
the  Minute  Men.  Colonel  Bowen  bore  a  letter  from  Frost  to  Lyon  in  which  the 
commander  of  Camp  Jackson  denied  that  he  or  any  of  his  command  had  any 
hostile  intention  toward  the  United  States  government.  He  referred  to  the  re- 
ports that  Camp  Jackson  was  to  be  attacked,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  they 
were  unfounded.  He  concluded:  "I  trust  that  after  this  explicit  statement  we 
may  be  able  by  fully  understanding  each  other  to  keep  far  from  our  borders  the 
misfortunes  which  so  unfortunately  afflict  our  common  country." 

Bowen  carried  the  letter  back  to  Camp  Jackson.  He  was  a  West  Pointer,  a 
Georgian.  He  had  resigned  from  the  regular  army  and  had  established  himself 
in  St.  Louis  as  an  architect.  There  was  no  question  as  to  his  sympathies.  He 
believed  in  the  right  of  secession.  He  was  undoubtedly  in  sympathy  with  Gover- 
nor Jackson's  purpose  to  get  the  arsenal.  Frost,  also,  was  a  West  Pointer.  His 
ser\'ice  in  the  army  had  been  marked  by  special  bravery.  He  was  a  New  Yorker 
by  birth  and  of  one  of  the  old  families  of  that  state.  Classmates  of  Frost  were 
Grant.  McClellan,  Rosecrans  and  Franklin,  all  to  become  famous  Union  gen- 
erals. In  the  same  class  was  Beauregard  of  Louisiana.  Frost  carried  the  class 
honors  in  such  company. 

The  Surrender  and  the  Tragedy. 

Bowen  reported  to  Frost  he  was  certain  from  what  he  had  seen  Lyon  was 
about  to  move  on  Camp  Jackson.    There  was  a  hurried  consultation.    These  were 

Vol.  1—47 


738  Cl'.XI'l'.NXIAI.  IIISIOK^'  (  )l'  MISSOURI 

bravie  men.  but  they  had  bepii  trained  in  military  ],rccedents.  They  had  730  men 
in. camp,  some  of  them  luiarmed.  iiowen  had  not  been  able  to  get  guns  for  all 
of  his  Minute  Men,  ,  Resistance  was  folly.  So  the  leaders,  who  had  studied  in 
the  same  school  that  Lyon  had,  waited  while  the  battalion  of  regulars  and  six 
regiments  of  the  ten  recruited  by  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  marched  up 
from  the  arsenal.  Blair  took. Laclede  avenue;  Boernstein,  Pine  street;  Schuttner, 
Market  street ;  Sigel,  Olive  street ;  Gratz  Brown,  Morgan  street ;  McNeil,  Clark 
avenue.  In  this  order  the  regiments  moved  westward  toward  Grand  avenue; 
thousands  of  men,  women  and  children  filling  the  sidewalks  and  many  following. 
The  men  who  were  marching  were  St.  Louisans.  They  were  going  out  to  kill  or 
take  prisoners  several  hundred  of  their  fellow  citizens.  Lyon  went  through  all 
the  forms, of  war.  He  posted  his  artillery.  He  disposed  of  his  troops  so  that 
the  camj)  was  surrounded.  He  demanded  surrender.  He  had  been  a  captain  in 
the  regular  army  when  he  came  to  St.  Louis.  He  was  in  command  of  the  army 
raised  by  a  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  but  was  still  without  the  commission 
suitable  to  the  rank.  He  was  calling  for  the  surrender  of  his  former  classmate 
who  had  stood  above  liim  in  the  class  at  West  Point  and  who  was  a  brigadier 
general  of  state  troops.  When  his  force  was  in  position  Lyon  sent  his  demand 
jn  writing.  His  note  set  forth  that  Frost  was  in  communication  with  the  Con- 
federacy, and  had  received  war  material  therefrom  which  was  the  property  of 
the  United  States.  He  charged  Frost  with  "having  in  direct  view  hostilities  to 
ihe  general  government  and  cooperation  with  its  enemies."  Thirty  minutes  was 
given  for  the  answer.  Frost  replied,  protesting  against  the  action  of  Lyon  as 
uncon-stitutional.  He  added  that  being  wholly  unprepared  to  defend  his  com- 
mand from  the  unwarranted  attack  he  was  forced  to  comply. 

Lyon  offered  immediate  parole  to  all  who  would  take  the  oath  of  allegiance. 
Several  accepted  the  terms.  The  others  refused,  stating  that  they  had  already 
taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  to  repeat  it  would  be  an  admission  that  they 
had  been  enemies.  The  regulars  gathered  up  the  arms  including  the  "marble." 
The  state  militia  were  marched  out  and  formed  in  line  as  prisoners,  with  armed 
guards  on  both  sides  of  them.  A  long  wait  occurred.  The  crowds  which  had 
followed  the  regiments  from  down  town  pressed  closer.  They  became  noisy. 
.  They  guyed  the  soldiers.  They  grew  bolder.  Insults  were  shouted.  Clods  were 
thrown.  A  pistol  was  fired.  Then  came  war  of  the  character  which  Sherman 
described — "War  is  Hell !"  Ninety  men,  women  and  children  were  shot.  Twenty- 
eight  of  them  died  on  the  streets  or  in  the  hospitals.  A  baby  in  its  mother's  arms 
was  killed.  The  column  moved  on  slowly,  armed  men  and  prisoners,  to  the  center 
of  the  city  and  then  southward  to  the  arsenal.  The  prisoners  were  paroled.  The 
baptism  of  blood,  which  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  for  four  months  stayed, 
had  come  at  last. 

From  the  steps  of  the  Planters,  Uriel  Wright,  who  had  fought  secession  in 
the  convention,  addressed  a  great  throng  of  excited  men.  He  denounced  "the 
Camp  Jackson  outrage."  He  said:  "If  Unionism  means  such  atrocious  deeds, 
as  have  been  witnessed  in  St.  Louis,  I  am  no  longer  a  Union  man."  Mobs  formed 
and  wildly  cheered  the  violent  speeches  made  by  secession  orators.  One  body 
of  men  started  down  Locust  street  to  destroy  the  Missouri  Democrat  ofiice. 
Mavor  Daniel  (lilchrist  Tavlor.  who  ha'd  succeeded  Oliver  D.  Filley  as  the  city's 


CAMP  JACKSON  ,  739 

executive  a  few-  weeks  before,  met  the  rioters  and  warned  them  to  go  back. 
Behind  the  mayor  was  a  line  of  policemen  under  Chief  KlcDonough,  blocking  the 
entire  street.  The  police  were  armed  with  guns.  Their  instructions  were  to  use 
the  bayonet  and  then  fire.  In  the  Democrat  office  the  shooting  stick  had  been  laid 
aside  for  the  shooting  iron.  The  force  was  armed.  The  building  was  prepared 
for  desperate  resistance.  This  coming  of  a  mob  was  the  fulfillment  of  many 
threats  from  those  who  sympathized  with  secession  movement.  For  this  night 
the  newspaper  force  had  been  waiting  weeks.  The  mob  listened  to  the  words  of 
the  mayor  and  went  back  to  the  Planters  to  be  satisfied  with  oratory. 

The  official  report  of  what  was  taken  at  Camp  Jackson  showed  preparation 
for  war.  When  Lyon  had  hauled  the  spoils  to  the  arsenal  he  had  captured,  ac- 
cording to  the  inventory : 

"Three  32-pounders. 
"Three  mortar  beds. 

"A  large  quantity  of  balls  and  bombs  in  ale  barrels. 

"Artillery  pieces  in  boxes  of  heavy  plank,  the  boxes  marked  'marble,  Tamaroa,  care 
Greeley  and  Gale.' 

"Six  brass  field  pieces. 

"Twenty-five  kegs  of  powder. 

"Ninetj'-six    lo-inch   bombshells. 

"Three  hundred  six-inch  bombshells. 

"Six  brass  mortars,  six   inches  in  diameter. 

"One  iron  mortar,   10  inches. 

"Three  iron  cannon,  six  inches,  five  boxes  of  canister  shot." 

Besides  the  rifles  taken  from  the  brigadfe,  there  were  "several  boxes  of  new 
muskets  and  a  very  large  number  of  musket  stocks  and  musket  barrels,  together 
with  lots  of  bayonets,  bayonet  scabbards,  etc." 

But  for  that  long  wait  in  the  streets  after  Frost  had  surrendered,  the  blood- 
shed at  Camp  Jackson  might  have  been  avoided.  And  that  wait  was  in  consider- 
able part  occasioned  by  an  accident  to  General  Lyon.  In  dismounting,  Lyon  was 
kicked  in  the  stomach  by  the  horse  of  one  of  his  aides.  He  was  temporarily 
disabled.  His  condition  was  carefully  concealed  at  the  time  by  his  stafif  and  the 
movement  of  the  troops  back  to  the  arsenal  was  delayed.  It  was  another  case  of 
important  history  turning  on  a  trivial  event. 

General  B.  G.  Farrar  was  in  a  position  to  speak  with  accuracy  of  the  Camp 
Jackson  tragedy: 

"General  Lyon  intrusted  me  with  the  letter  to  Frost  demanding  his  surrender.  I  car- 
ried in  return  Frost's  letter  to  Lyon  accepting  his  terms.  I  was  ordered  back  to  the  camp 
to  receive  General  Frost's  troops,  about  1,300  all  told.  I  was  at  the  head  of  the  column 
led  by  Frost  and  stafif,  and  was  on  the  left  of  Frost  as  we  moved  towards  Lyon's  command. 
A  few  minutes  after  Frost's  troops  had  been  received  into  the  open  ranks  of  Blair's  regi- 
ment, a  man  seated  in  the  crotch  of  an  apple  tree,  some  seventy-five  yards  distant,  fired 
four  shots  with  a  revolver  at  the  troops  drawn  up  on  the  Olive  street  causeway,  the  third 
shot  striking  Captain  Blandowsky  and  fracturing  his  knee.  Captain  Blandowsky  survived 
Camp  Jackson  only  a  few  days ;   was  buried  with   full  military  honors." 

More  Bloodshed  aaid  a  Panic. 

Harney  returned  to  St.  Louis  on  the  nth  of  May.  He  was  again  in  active 
command.    That  day  a  regiment  of  Home  Guards  left  the  arsenal  and  marched 


740  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

up  town.  It  was  composed  largely  of  Germans  whose  homes  were  in  North  St. 
Louis,  or  Bremen,  as  it  was  called.  Some  of  the  secessionists  were  seeking  re- 
venge for  the  bloody  scene  of  Camp  Jackson,  the  day  before.  A  group  gathered 
at  Fifth  and  Walnut  streets,  where  stood  at  that  time  a  Presbyterian  church,  with 
large  columns.  As  the  regiment  passed  the  church  there  came  from  the  protec- 
tion of  the  columns  jeers  and  hisses  and  then  stones.  A  pistol  was  fired.  A 
soldier  fell  dead.  Other  shots  were  fired.  Some  of  the  soldiers  who  had  already 
passed  the  church  turned  and  fired  back.  They  were  raw  recruits.  They  had 
been  given  guns  only  a  short  time.  They  aimed  badly.  They  killed  three  of  their 
own  men  and  two  unarmed  citizens,  also  wounding  several  persons  who  were 
standing  on  the  sidewalk. 

The  bloodshed  of  Saturday  intensified  the  excitement  of  Friday.  With 
Sunday  came  the  worst  panic  in  the  history  of  St.  Louis.  Everywhere  in  the 
central  section  spread  the  rumors  that  the  German  Home  Guards  were  gojng  to 
sack  the  city.  Shutters  were  closed.  Doors  were  bolted.  Many  of  the  churches 
did  not  open  for  Sunday  school  and  service.  Citizens  called  upon  General 
Harney  and  besought  him  to  disarm  the  Germans.  The  general  said  he  could 
not  do  that.  The  report  got  out  that  Harney  had  said  he  "had  no  control  over 
the  Home  Guards."  He  meant  to  inform  the  panic  stricken  that  these  regiments 
were  United  States  volunteers,  accepted  under  the  call  of  the  President,  that  the 
guns  had  been  issued  to  them  in  due  form  and  that  he  could  not  take  them  away. 
But  the  most  alarming  construction  was  put  upon  the  general's  words.  Thou- 
sands of  citizens  hastily  gathered  the  most  necessary  articles  and  went  out  to 
the  suburbs,  west  of  the  city.  Others  crossed  the  river  to  Illinois  towns.  Not 
few  took  boats  and  went  up  or  down  the  river.  .A.ll  day  Sunday  the  exodus  went 
on.  The  panic  fed  upon  itself.  Those  who  did  not  think  of  leaving  in  the  morn- 
ing departed  in  the  afternoon.  Harney  issued  a  proclamation  and  posted  copies 
about  the  city,  declaring  there  was  no  danger.  He  sent  detachments  of  troops  to 
several  centers  to  give  assurance  of  protection.  When  the  people  saw  these 
soldiers  moving  about  and  on  guard  they  were  certain  that  the  Germans  were 
coming  to  attack  the  central  part  of  the  city.  Curiously  the  panic  spread  to  the 
northern  and  southern  parts  of  the  city,  and  in  those  sections  it  took  the  form 
of  fear  that  the  Minute  Men  and  their  friends  were  going  to  raid  and  destroy 
the  homes  of  the  Germans. 

One  regiment  of  Home  Guards  was  composed  principally  of  Americans  and 
Irishmen  who  lived  in  the  central  part  of  the  city.  These  men  in  numbers  as- 
sembled after  dark  Sunday  night  and  formed  a  skirmish  line  from  east  to  west 
across  the  central  part  of  the  city.  They  moved  slowly  and  cautiously  southward 
to  determine  for  themselves  what  there  might  be  in  the  reports  that  the  Germans 
were  assembling  to  attack  the  central  section.  Some  distance  south  of  Chouteau 
avenue  these  American  and  Irish  Home  Guards  came  within  hailing  of  another 
long  line  of  Home  Guards  facing  north.  The  Germans  had  heard  that  the  Ameri- 
cans were  coming  down  to  bum  their  homes  and  they  were  ready  to  protect  their 
families.  As  soon  as  the  German  Home  Guards  and  the  American  and  Irish 
Home  Guards  recognized  each  other  and  realized  that  each  had  been  alarmed  by 
false  reports  about  the  other  there  was  some  loud  laughing  and  healthy  cheering, 
after  which  the  lines  were  disbanded  and  everybody  went  home  to  bed.    Monday 


CAMP  JACKSON  741 

the  panic  was  a  joke,  a  rather  serious  one  for  it  was  the  strangest,  most  strenuous 
moving  day  an  American  city  had  ever  known.  St.  Louisans  with  bag  and  bag- 
gage moved  home. 

Union  men  were  shocked  at  the  bloodshed.  One  delegation  went  to  Wash- 
ington to  urge  the  removal  of  Lyon.  Another  delegation  went  to  urge  Lyon's 
retention.  The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  sent  on  its  report  of  the  Camp 
Jackson  affair,  and  every  member  signed  the  declaration  indorsing  Lyon's  act. 
(jeneral  Harney  investigated  and  reported  that  the  taking  of  Camp  Jackson  was 
justifiable.  Lyon  was  made  a  brigadier-general.  He  followed  up  the  Camp 
Jackson  success  by  stationing  strong  detachments  in  different  parts  of  the  city. 
In  the  meantime  the  interior  of  the  state  was  taking  important  action. 

Prompt  Action  at  the  State  GapitaL 

The  military  bill  had  dragged  along  through  the  regular  session  of  the 
legislature.  It  had  been  taken  up  in  the  special  session  on  the  2nd  of  May. 
In  the  afternoon  of  the  lOth  of  May,  Governor  Jackson  came  into  the  represen- 
tatives' hall  and  told  members  of  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson.  The  military 
bill  was  being  discussed  at  the  time,  Union  men  resisting  action  as  they  had  from 
the  beginning  in  January.  "In  an  instant,"  said  Snead,  "all  resistance  gave  way 
and  within  fifteen  minutes  the  bill  had  passed  both  houses  and  was  awaiting 
the  governor's  signature." 

Late  that  night  an  alarm  was  given  by  the  church  bells.  The  members  of 
the  legislature  were  called  together.  Governor  Jackson  notified  the  members 
that  "two  of  Mr.  Blair's  regiments  were  on  the  way  to  the  capital."  About 
midnight  an  act  was  passed  giving  authority  to  "the  governor  to  take  such 
measures  as  he  might  deem  necessary  or  proper  to  repel  invasion  or  put  down 
rebellion."  It  carried  an  appropriation  of  $30,000.  Governor  Jackson  sent 
armed  men  to  hold  the  Missouri  Pacific  bridges  over  the  Osage  and  the  Gas- 
conade.   One  of  the  squads  exceeded  orders  and  set  the  Osage  bridge  on  fire. 

The  military  bill  was  well  conceived.  It  made  of  each  congressional  district 
a  division.  It  put  in  command  of  each  division  a  brigadier-general.  Imme- 
diately after  the  Camp  Jackson  affair  the  generals  of  the  division  were  appointed. 
Alexander  W.  Doniphan,  the  famous  "Xenophon"  Doniphan  of  the  march  across 
the  plains  to  New  Mexico,  was  offered  one  of  these  commissions.  He  declined 
and  remained  a  Union  man.  The  divisions  of  the  Missouri  State  Guard  as  it  was 
called,  as  finally  organized,  were : 

First  Division,  M.  Jeff  Thompson. 

Second  Division,  Thomas  A.  Harris. 

Third  Division,  M.  L.  Clark. 

Fourth  Division,  William  Y.  Slack. 

Fifth  Divi.sion,  A.  E.  Steen. 

Sixth  EHvision,  M.  M.  Parsons. 

Seventh  Division.  J.  H.  McBride. 

Eighth  Division,  James  L.  Rains. 

These  brigadier-generals  were  ordered  to  make  an  enrollment  of  men  fit  for 
military  duty  and  to  drill  them  for  service.  They  were  well  chosen  in  respect  to 
ahilitv.     Parsons,  Clark  and  Slack  had  been  in  the  ^lexican  war  and  had  given 


742  CF-NTENXIAI.  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

good  account  of  themselves.  That  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  State  Guard  was 
well  luiderstood  by  the  men  who  organized  it  was  apparent  later.  Parsons  became 
a  major-general  in  the  Confederate  army.  Clark,  Slack,  Steen  and  Rains  became 
brigadier-generals. 

Wm.  Y.  Slack  went  at  the  organization  of  the  fourth  military  district  with 
energy.  He  was  a  lawyer  at  Chillicothe  and  had  been  a  captain  with  Doniphan's 
expedition  to  Mexico.  A  paper  was  passed  among  the  southern  rights  men  of 
Livingston  county  and  quite  a  sum  of  money  was  raised.  The  purpose  of  the 
subscription  was  "to  defend  our  homes  against  the  invader."  With  this  credit, 
Slack  placed  an  order  at  a  Hannibal  foundry  for  the  casting  of  two  cannon,  six 
pounders.  The  guns  were  ready  for  shipment  to  Chillicothe  about  the  ist  of 
June.  The  railroad  refused  to  take  the  shipment.  The  foundry  people  loaded 
ihe  guns  into  a  covered  wagon,  concealed  them  with  straw  and  started  the  outfit 
overland.  William  A.  Wilson,  the  driver,  told  all  inquirers  he  was  bound  for 
Pike's  Peak.  But  word  reached  St.  Louis  of  the  shipment  of  the  cannon.  The 
Home  Guard  at  Brookfield  was  ordered  to  intercept  Wilson.  Twenty  well- 
mounteci  men  set  out  over  the  dirt  road,  captured  the  wagon  near  St.  Catherines 
and  drove  furiously  into  Brookfield.  They  were  only  one  hour  ahead  of  the 
escort  General  Slack  had  sent  out  to  meet  and  convoy  his  artillery.  As  the  con- 
tract with  the  Hannibal  foundry  called  for  payment  on  delivery,  the  Chillicothe 
people  never  paid  for  the  cannon.  Twenty-five  years  afterwards  the  subscription 
list  was  still  held  as  a  souvenir  by  Congressman  Charles  H.  Mansur. 

John  S.  Marmaduke  was  stationed  with  his  command  of  regulars  at  Fort 
Laramie  when  officers  of  the  army  faced  the  question  "under  which  govern- 
ment?" He. came  home' to  Missouri  and  talked  it  over  with  his  father.  Vir- 
ginian and  slaveholder,  the  ex-governor  was  strongly  against  secession. 

"John,"  he  said,  as  a  member  of  the  family  recalled  the  conference,  "there 
can  be  but  one  result.  You  will  sacrifice  your  profession.  Secession  will  fail. 
Slavery  will  be  abolished.  But  you  must  decid*;  for  yourself,  following  your 
own  convictions." 

The  young  officer  resigned  his  commission  in  the  United  States  army  and 
organized  a  regiment  under  the  military  bill.  Many  of  his  men  were  from  Saline 
county.  As  the  organization  approached  completion  and  was  about  ready  to 
leave  for  JelTerson  City,  the  father  of  the  young  colonel  was  invited  to  address 
the  regiment.  He  knew  many  of  the  young  soldiers  and  he  knew  the  fathers  of 
more  of  them.  The  regiment  was  dravni  up  at  Marshall  to  receive  the  ex- 
governor.  The  address  was  made;  it  was  along  the  same  line  as  the  counsel 
which  had  been  given  the  son.  The  elder  Marmaduke  told  the  regiment  that 
secession  could  not  succeed ;  that  they  had  enlisted  in  a  cause  that  was  bound  to 
fail.  The  speech  was  not  well  received.  In  the  Marmaduke  family  the  issue  of 
1861  found  a  division  of  sentiment  not  infrequent  among  the  families  of  Central 
Missouri.  Many  of  the  elders  saw  beyond  the  glamour  of  war  and  were  against 
secession.     Military  ardor  carried  the  sons  into  the  field. 

The  Price-Harney  Agreement. 

On  the  17th  of  May. the  Federal  court  at  St.  Louis  issued  warrants  "to  pre- 
serve the  peace  of  St.  Louis  and  promote  the  tranquillity  of  Missouri."     These 


CAMP  JACKSOX  74:i 

warrants  authorized  United  States  Marshal  Rawb'iigs  to  seize  war  material. 
With  the  one-armed  C'aptain  Sweeny  and  a  squad  of  regulars,  the  marshal  went 
to  the  state  tobacco  warehouse  on  Washington  avenue  and  Sixth  street.  There 
he  took  possession  of  several  hundred  rifles  and  pistols  and  some  boxes  of  am- 
munition. The  marshal  then  called  at  the  metropolitan  police  headquarters  on 
Chestnut  street  near  Third  and  took  possession  of  two  cannon  and  many  rifles. 
All  this  was  done  at  the  instance  of  General  Harney.  Then  the  southern  rights 
people  proposed  a  truce.    This  agreement  was  entered  into  by  Price  and  Harney : 

"St  Louis,  May  21,  1861. 

"The  undersigned,  officers  of  the  United  States  government  and  of  the  government  of 
the  State  of  Missouri,  for  the  purpose  of  removing  misapprehensions  and  allaying  public 
excitement,  deem  it  proper  to  declare  publicly  that  they  have  this  day  had  a  personal  inter- 
view in  this  city,  in  which  it  has  been  mutually  understood,  without  the  semblance  of  dis- 
sent on  either  part,  that  each  of  them  has  no  other  than  a  common  object  equally  inter- 
esting and  important  to  every  citizen  of  Missouri — that  of  restoring  peace  and  good  order 
to  the  people  of  the  state  in  subordination  to  the  laws  of  the  general  and  state  govern- 
ments. It  being  thus  understood,  there  seems  no  reason  why  every  citizen  should  not 
confide  in  the  proper  officers  of  the  general  and  state  governments  to  restore  quiet,  and,  as 
ajjiong  the  best  means  of  offering  no  counter-influences,  we  mutually  recommend  to  all 
persons  to  respect  each  other's  rights  throughout  the  state,  making  no  attempt  to  exercise 
unauthorized  powers,  as  it  is  the  determination  of  the  proper  authorities  to  suppress  all 
unlawful  proceedings,   which   can  only  disturb  the  public  peace. 

"General  Price,  having  by  commission  full  authority  over  the  militia  of  the  state  of 
Missouri,  undertakes,  with  the  sanction  of  the  governor  of  the  state  already  declared,  to 
direct  the  whole  power  of  the  state  officers  to  maintain  order  within  the  state  among  the 
people  thereof,  and  General  Harney  publicly  declares  that,  this  object  being  thus  assured, 
he  can  have  no  other  occasion,  as  he  has  no  wish,  to  make  military  movements,  which  might 
otherwise  create  excitements  and  jealousies  which  he  most  earnestly  desires  to  avoid. 

"We,  the  undersigned,  do  mutually  enjoin  upon  the  people  of  the  state  to  attend  to 
their  civil  business  of  whatever  sort  it  may  be,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  unquiet  elements 
which  have  threatened  so  seriously  to  disturb  public  peace  may  soon  subside  and  be  re- 
membered only  to  be  deplored. 

"Sterling  Price, 
"Major-General   Missouri  State  Guard. 
"William  S.  Harney, 
"Brigadier-General   Commanding." 

The  Removal  of  Harney. 

Blair  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War:  "The  agreement  between  Harney  and 
( ieneral  Price  gives  me  great  disgust  and  dissatisfaction  to  the  Union  men ;  but 
I  am  in  hopes  we  can  get  along  with  it,  and  I  think  Harney  will  insist  on  its  execu- 
tion to  the  fullest  extent,  in  which  case  it  will  be  satisfactory."  In  those  four  or 
live  months  of  the  early  part  of  1861,  Frank  Blair  was  going  and  coming  between 
St.  Louis  and  Washington.  He  came  home  from  one  of  these  trips  with  an  order 
for  the  removal  of  General  Harney  at  such  time  as  Blair,  in  his  judgment,  should 
deem  best.  But  after  Blair  had  departed  with  this  order  the  President  wrote 
him  a  jicrsonal  letter  dated  May   18,  eight  days  after  the  Camp  Jackson  affair: 

"We  have  a  good  deal  of  anxiety  here  about  St.  Louis.  I  understand  an  order  has 
gone  from  the  war  department  to  you,  to  be  delivered  or  withheld  at  your  discretion, 
relieving  General  Harney  of  his  command.     1   was  not  quite  satisfied   with  the  order  when 


744  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

it  was  made,  though  on  the  whole  I  thought  it  best  to  make  it ;  but  since  then  I  have  be- 
come more  doubtful  of  its  propriety.  I  do  not  write  to  countermand  it,  but  to  say  I  wish 
you  would  withhold  it,  unless  in  your  judgment  the  necessity  to  the  contrary  is  very 
urgent.  There  are  several  reasons  for  this.  We  had  better  have  him  as  a  friend  than  an 
enemy.  It  will  dissatisfy  a  good  many  who  otherwise  would  be  quiet.  More  than  all,  we 
first  relieve  him,  then  restore  him,  and  now  if  we  relieve  him  again  the  public  ask,  why 
this  vacillation.     Still,  if   in  your  judgment  it  is  indispensable,  let  it  be  so." 

After  a  few  days  lilair  concluded  that  Price  was  not  keeping  faith  with 
Harney.  He  served  the  order  of  removal.  General  B.  G.  Farrar  told  this  remi- 
niscence :  "The  day  before  General  Harney  was  removed  I  was  sent  for  by 
Colonel  Blair.  'Major  Farrar,'  said  he,  T  wish  to  obtain  a  very  important  paper 
in  the  keeping  of  my  cousin.  Miss  Graham.  On  reaching  her  house,  give  her 
this  key  and  ask  for  a  paper  consigned  to  her  care.  On  receipt,. return  to  the 
arsenal  by  a  circuitous  route,  and,  if  attacked,  defend  it  with  your  life.'  This 
v/as  an  order  written  by  President  Lincoln  relieving  Harney.  It  was  to  be  used 
only  in  case  of  absolute  necessity,  and  at  the  discretion  of  Blair."  General 
Harney  wrote  to  the  adjutant-general  at  Washington  this  pathetic  letter : 

"My  confidence  in  the  honor  and  integrity  of  General  Price,  in  the  purity  of  his 
motives,  and  in  his  loyalty  to  the  government,  remains  unimpaired.  His  course  as  president 
of  the  state  convention  that  voted  by  a  large  majority  against  submitting  an  ordinance  of 
secession,  and  his  efforts  since  that  time  to  calm  the  elements  of  discord,  have  served  to 
confirm   the  high   opinion  of   him   I  have   for  many  years  entertained. 

"My  whole  course  as  commander  of  the  department  of  the  west  has  been  dictated  by  a 
desire  to  carry  out  in  good  faith  the  instructions  of  my  government,  regardless  of  the 
clamor  of  the  conflicting  elements  surrounding  me,  and  whose  advice  and  dictation  could 
not  be  followed  without  involving  the  state  in  blood  and  the  government  in  the  unnecessary 
expenditure  of  millions.  Under  the  course  I  pursued  Missouri  was  secured  to  the  Union, 
and  the  triumph  of  the  government  was  only  the  more  glorious,  being  almost  a  bloodless 
victory;  but  those  who  clamored  for  blood  have  not  ceased  to  impugn  my  motives.  Twice 
within  a  brief  space  of  time  have  I  been  relieved  from  the  command  here;  the  second  time 
in  a  manner  that  has  inflicted  unmerited  disgrace  upon  a  true  and  loyal  soldier.  During  a 
long  life,  dedicated  to  my  country,  I  have  seen  some  service,  and  more  than  onte  I  have 
held  her  honor  in  my  hands;  and  during  that  time  my  loyalty,  I  believe,  was  never  ques- 
tioned ;  and  now,  when  in  the  natural  course  of  things  I  shall,  before  the  lapse  of  many 
years,  lay  aside  the  sword  which  has  so  long  served  my  country,  my  countrymen  will  be 
slow  to  believe  that  I  have  chosen  this  portion  of  my  career  to  damn  with  treason  my  life, 
which  is  so  soon  to  become  a  record  of  the  past,  and  which  I  shall  most  willingly  leave 
to  the  unbiased  judgment  of  posterity.  I  trust  that  I  may  yet  be  spared  to  do  my  country 
some  further  service  that  will  testify  to  the  love  I  bear  her,  and  that  the  vigor  of  my  arm 
may  never  relax  while  there  is  a  blow  to  be  struck  in  her  defense. 

"I  respectfully  ask  to  be  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  department  of  California, 
and  I  doubt  not  the  present  commander  of  the  division  is  even  now  anxious  to  serve  on 
the  Atlantic   frontier. 

"I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient   servant, 

"Wm.  S.  Harney, 
"Brigadier-General   U.   S.   Army." 

General  Harney,  realizing  that  the  second  removal  from  command  at  St. 
Louis  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  ask  reinstatement  there,  offered  to  go  to 
California.  He  started  for  Washington  but  on  the  way  was  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Confederates  when  the  train  was  captured  at   Harper's  Ferry.     The  Con- 


CAMP  JACKSON  745 

federate  authorities  at  Richmond  immediately  ordered  his  release  when  he  was 
brought  there.  Harney's  mission  to  Washington  was  fruitless  so  far  as  transfer 
to  California  was  concerned.  He  remained  on  the  active  list  but  without  being 
given  a  command  until  1863.  when  he  was  retired  as  a  brigadier-general.  At  the 
close  of  the  war  the  government  attempted  to  repair  the  injustice  done  by 
brevetting  him  major-general. 

Blair  wrote  to  President  Lincoln  on  the  30th  of  May,  1861,  asking  authority 
to  recruit  a  large  force  of  Missourians.  "We  are  well  able  to  take  care  of  our- 
selves in  this  state  without  assistance  from  elsewhere  if  authorized  to  raise  a  suf- 
ficient force  within  the  state ;  and  after  that  work  is  done  we  can  take  care  of  the 
secessionists  from  the  Arkansas  line  to  the  Gulf,  along  the  west  shore  of  the 
Mississippi." 

What  the  Capture  of  Camp  Jackson  Meant. 

Champ  Clark  said,  "If  Frank  Blair  had  never  captured  Camp  Jackson — for  it 
was  Blair  who  conceived  and  carried  out  that  great  strategic  movement,  and  not 
Gen.  Nathaniel  Lyon,  of  Xew  England,  as  the  northern  war  books  say — Missouri 
would  have  joined  the  Confederacy  under  the  lead  of  Governor  Claiborne  F. 
Jackson  and  Gen.  Sterling  Price,  the  peerless  soldier,  and.  with  her  vast  resources 
to  command,  Lee's  soldiers  would  not  have  been  starved  and  broken  into  sur 
render. 

"When  we  consider  the  men  who  were  against  Blair  it  is  astounding  that  he  suc- 
ceeded. To  say  nothing  of  scores,  then  unknown  to  fame,  who  were  conspicuous  soldiers 
in  the  Confederate  army  and  who  have  since  held  high  political  position,  arrayed  against 
him  were  the  governor  of  the  state,  Claiborne  F.  Jackson ;  the  lieutenant-governor, 
Thomas  C.  Reynolds;  ex-United  States  Senator  David  R.  Atchison;  United  States  Senators 
Trusten  Polk  and  James  S.  Green,  the  latter  of  whom  had  no  superior  in  intellect  or  as  a 
debater  upon  this  continent;  Waldo  P.  Johnson,  elected  to  succeed  Green  in  March,  1861, 
and  the  well-beloved  ex-governor  and  ex-brigadier-general  in  the  Mexican  war.  Sterling 
Price,  by  long  odds  the  most  popular  man  in  the  state. 

"No  man  between  the  two  oceans  drew  his  sword  with  more  reluctance  or  used  it 
with  more  valor  than  'Old  Pap  Price.'  The  statement  is  not  too  extravagant  or  fanciful 
for  belief  that  had  he  been  the  sole  and  absolute  commander  of  the  Confederates  who 
won   the   battle   of   Wilson's   Creek,   he   would   have   rescued    Missouri    from   the   Unionists. 

"The  thing  that  enabled  Blair  to  succeed  was  his  settled  conviction  from  the  first  that 
there  would  be  war — a  war  of  coercion.  While  others  were  hoping  against  hope  that  war 
could  be  averted  or,  at  least,  that  Missouri  could  be  kept  out  of  it,  even  if  it  did  come — 
while  others  were  making  constitutional  arguments,  while  others  were  temporizing  or 
dallying— he  acted.  Believing  that  the  questions  at  issue  could  be  settled  only  by  the 
sword,  and  also  believing  in  Napoleon's  maxim  that  'God  fights  on  the  side  of  the  heaviest 
battalions,"  he  grimly  made  ready  for  the  part  which  he  intended  to  play  in  the  bloody 
drama." 

In  the  capitol  at  Washington,  Senator  George  G.  Vest,  speaking  at  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  statue  of  Blair  in  Statuary  Hall,  said  of  Camp  Jackson  and  what 
^  immediately  followed : 

"Blair,  although  he  was  not  anticipating  what  was  called  the  massacre,  was  immediately 
prepared  for  action  against  the  consequences.  He  knew  that  the  railroad,  the  only  railroad 
running  west  from  St.  Louis,  would  be  destroyed  by  the  state  government,  but  he  seized 
five  steamboats  lying  at  the  wharf,  put  crews  on  them,  went  up  the  river  with  his  German 


746  LKXri:.\XIAl.  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

regiments,  captured  Jefferson  City,  the  capital,  dispersed  tlie  state  government,  overwlielmed 
the  few  hundred  militia,  unarmed  and  undisciplined,  who  met  him  at  Boonville,  and;  in 
my  judgment,  caused  Missouri  to  divide  her  forces  in  the  war  between  the  North  and 
the  South  instead  of  going  solidly  to  the  Confederate  cause,  as  but  for  him  would  have 
been   the   case. 

"I  say  here  now  today,  deliberately,  from  my  personal  knowledge  of  affairs  then  in  the 
state,  that  but  for  Frank  Blair,  Missouri  would  have  given  her  solid  strength  to  the 
southern  cause.  I  do  not  choose  to  conjecture  what  would  have  been  the  result.  Southern 
Illinois,  Kentucky  and  Maryland,  as  all  the  world  knows,  sympathized  with  the  South. 
and  the  result  of  the  war  might  have  been  different  but  for  the  wonderful  fearlessness  and 
promptitude  with  which  Blair  acted." 

Conclusions  Fifty  Years  After. 

At  the  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson, 
Major  Leo  Rassieur,  one  of  the  participants  in  the  capture,  told  of  secret  corre- 
spondence between  the  secretary  of  war  of  the  Confederate  government  and 
Governor  Claiborne  Jackson.  He  quoted  from  the  letters  exchanged.  The 
governor's  letter  was  dated  only  five  days  before  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson. 
Major  Rassieur,  who  was  one  of  Winston  Churchill's  characters  in  "The  Crisis," 
said  in  liis  address  at  the  semi-centennial  of  Camp  Jackson : 

"The  governor  of  Missouri  was  written  to  on  April  26  by  L.  P.  Walker,  secretary 
of  war  of  the  southern  Confederacy  as  follows:  'Can  you  arm  and  equip  one  regiment 
of  infantry  for  service  in  Virginia,  to  rendezvous  at  Richmond?  Transportation  will  be 
provided  by  this  government.  The  regiment  to  elect  its  own  officers  and  must  enlist  for 
not   less  than  twelve  months,  unless  sooner  discharged.' 

"Although  the  State  of  Missouri,  as  a  legal  organization,  had  assumed  no  obligation 
to  the  southern  Confederacy  and  was  then  a  part  of  the  Federal  government,  still,  the  man 
who  held  the  office  of  governor  answered  as  follows,  on  May  5th,  from  the  executive 
department  of  this  state,  to  wit :  'Yours  of  the  26th  ult.  received.  I  have  no  legal  author- 
ity to  furnish  the  men  you  desire.  Missouri,  you  know,  is  yet  under  the  tyranny  of  Lin- 
coln's government,  so  far,  at  least,  as  forms  go.  We  are  woefully  deficient  here  in  arms, 
and  can  not  furnish  them  at  present;  but  so  far  as  men  are  concerned,  we  have  plenty  of 
them,  ready,  willing  and  anxious  to  march  at  any  time  to  the  defense  of  the  South.  Our 
Legislature  has  just  met,  and  I  doubt  not  will  give  me  all  necessary  authority  over  the 
matter.  If  you  can  arm  the  men  they  will  go  whenever  wanted  and  to  any  point  where 
they  may  be  most  needed.  I  send  this  to  Memphis  by  private  hand,  being  afraid  to  trust 
our  mails  and  telegraphs.  Let  me  hear  from  you  by  the  same  means.  Missouri  can  and 
will  put  100,000  men  in  the  field  if  requested.  We  are  using  every  means  to  arm  our 
people,  and  until  we  are  better  prepared  must  move  cautiously.  I  write  this  in  confidence, 
with   prayers   for  success." 

Speaking  of  the  plans  of  I-yon  and  of  the  execution  of  them,  Major  Rassieur 
continued : 

The  arrangements  made  by  Gen.  Lyon  were  so  well  perfected  and  carried  out  that,  not- 
withstanding the  regiments  started  from  camps  many  miles  apart  and  marched  by  different 
routes  to  reach  their  destination,  when  the  hour  of  taking  the  assigned  positions  arrived 
each  regiment  was  present  to  perform  its  full  duty.  The  best  regular  troops  of  the  war, 
with  years  of  instruction  and  experience  to  guide  them,  never  performed  with  more 
promptitude  and  military  discipline  the  dangerous  duties  attending  a  warlike  proceeding. 
Gen.  Lyon  had  no  cause  to  regret  the  confidence  reposed  in  his  citizen-soldiery. 

They  bore  the  abuse  heaped  upon  them  by  the  crowd  of  southern  sympathizers  who 
followed  the  troops  to  the  camp,  with  the  fortitude  of  the  regulars  of  the  army,  and  it  was 


CAMP  JACKSON  747 

only  when  fired  upon  liy  the  surrounding  crowd  and  when  Capt.  Blandowsky  of  the  Third 
Regiment,  Missouri  Volunteers,  had  been  wounded  that  both  regulars  and  volunteers  re- 
turned the  fire,  and  thus  saved  the  city  from  general  riot  and  further  bloodshed.  The 
camp  and  its  occupants  were  surrendered  without  firing  a  gun,  as  was  doubtless  anticipated 
by  Gen.  Lyon,  and  as  a  direct  result  the  City  of  St.  Louis  and  the  government  of  the 
State  of  Missouri  remained  true  to  the  Union  during  the  greatest  trial  of  the  institutions 
of  this  country. 

In  conclusion,  Major  Rass^ieur  quoted  from  a  paper  read  by  James  O.  Broad- 
head  before  the  St.  Louis  Commandery,  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  regarding  the 
importance  of  the  events  connected  with  Camp  Jackson : 

"Colonel- James  O.  Broadhead,  who  participated  in  the  excitements  of  those  days,  in 
April  and  May,  1861,  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  and  whose  excellent  judg- 
ment and  love  of  truth  have  never  been  questioned,  says  in  his  paper,  prepared  and  read 
to  the  Loyal  Legion : 

"'The  regiments  that  were  raised  in  St.  Louis  in  the  spring  of  l86r,  chiefly  under  the 
auspices  of  General  Blair,  and  placed  under  the  command  of  General  Lyon,  secured  Mis- 
souri to  the  Union  cause,  and  this,  in  mj-  judgment,  the  impartial  historian  who  comes  to 
learn  all  the  facts  connected  with  that  period  will  say;  and  he  will  say  further  that  had 
Missouri  taken  the  other  side  of  that  contest  the  result  might  have  been,  most  probably 
would  have  been  different.'  " 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  STATE  THE  STAKE 

Missourians  Against  Missourians — A  Final  Effort  for  Peace — Lyon's  Ultimatum — "This 
Means  IV ar" — Jackson's  Proclamation— The  State  Guard  Called  Out — An  Expedition 
Southwest — The  State  Capital  Abandoned — Battle  of  Boonville — Its  Far-reaching  Sig- 
nificance— A  Week's  Important  Events — Richmond's  Early  Missouri  Policy — The  March 
Southward — Home-made  Avimunition — Historic  Buck  and  Ball — Character  of  the  State 
Guard — Battle  of  Carthage — The  Honors  with  2,000  Unarmed  Missourians — Sigel's 
Masterly  Retreat — Lyon  Reaches  Springfield — Polk  .and  the  Army  of  Liberation — 
Richmond  at  Last  Heeds  Missouri's  Appeal — McCulloch  Joins  Forces  with  Price — 
Lyon  Outnumbered — Fremont's  Costly  Delay — The  Battle  of  Wilson's  Creek — McCul- 
loch's  Attack  Anticipated — How  the  Missourians  Fought — Death  of  Lyon — The  State 
Won  for  the  Union — Fremont's  Failure  to  Support — A  Secret  Chapter  of  the  War — 
Jeff  Thompson's  Dash  for  St.  Louis — Grant  Checks  the  Army  of  Liberation — The  Battle 
of  Lexington — A  Great  Victory  for  the  State  Guarif — Ruse  of  the  Hemp  Bales — Fre- 
mont's Army  of  the  West — The  Marching  Legislature  at  Neosho — Ordinance  of  Seces- 
sion Passed — "A  Solemn  Agreement" — Fremont  Removed — The  Anti-Slavery  Protest — • 
President  Lincoln  on  the  Fremont  Fiasco — Border  States  Policy  Endangered — Mrs.  Fre- 
mont's Midnight  Visit — The  Browning  Letter — When  Washingto}i  Discovered  Grant — 
The  Grant  Family  in  Missouri — Kansas  City  Saved — First  Iron-Clads  in  Naval  History 
— The  Civil  War  Kindergarten. 

Rather  than  concede  to  the  State  of  Missouri  the  right  to  demand  that  my  government  shall  not 
enlist  troops  within  her  limits,  or  bring  troops  into  the  state  whenever  it  pleases,  or  move  its  troops  at 
its  own  wilt  into  or  out  of  or  through  the  state;  rather  than  concede  to  the  State  of  Missouri  for  one 
single  moment  the  right  to  dictate  to  my  government  in  any  matter,  however  unimportant,  I  would  sec 
you,  and  you,  and.  you,  and  every  man,  woman  and  child  dead  and  buried.  This  means  war.  In  an  hour 
one  of   my   olficers  will  call    for  you  and   conduct   you   out   of   my   lines. — General   Nathaniel  Lyon. 

Missourians  went  to  war  with  Missourians  on  the  12th  of  June,  1861.  The 
last  futile  effort  to  keep  peace  within  the  state  was  made  the  night  before. 
William  A.  Hall,  David  H.  Armstrong  and  J.  Richard  Barret  appealed  to 
Governor  Jackson  and  Gen.  Sterling  Price  to  meet  Blair  and  Lyon  for  confer- 
ence. Thomas  T.  Gantt,  the  warm  personal  friend  of  Blair,  joined  with  Mr. 
Hall  in  persuading  Lyon.  Safe  conduct  was  g^ven  the  governor  and  Price. 
The  paper  stipulated  that  if  they  "should  visit  St.  Louis  on  or  before  the  12th 
of  June,  in  order  to  hold  an  interview  for  the  purpose  of  effecting,  if  possible, 
a  peaceable  solution  of  the  troubles  of  Missouri,  they  should  be  free  from 
molestation  or  arrest  during  their  journey  to  St.  Louis,  and  their  return  from 
St.  Louis  to  Jefferson  City." 

On  the  evening  of  the  nth  the  conference  was  held  in  the  Planters'  House. 
Six  men  were  in  it.  Blair  and  Lyon  represented  the  national  government.  Major 
Conant  attending  as  Blair's  aide.  Governor  Jackson  and  General  Price  repre- 
sented the  state  government,  Thomas  L.  Snead  being  present  as  the  governor's 

749 


750  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OK  MISSOURI 

aide.  For  more  than  four  hours  these  men  argued  about  the  relations  between 
tlie  United  Stales  and  the  State  of  Missouri.  That  was  the  issue, — state 
sovereignty.  Blair,  at  first,  spoke  for  the  Federal  authority.  But  Lyon  soon 
got  into  the  discussion.  Snead  said:  "In  half  an  hour  it  was  he  that  was  con- 
ducting it,  holding  his  own  at  every  point  against  Jackson  and  Price,  masters 
though  they  were  of  Missouri  politics,  whose  course  they  had  been  directing 
and  controlling  for  years,  while  he  was  only  captain  of  an  infantry  regiment 
on  the  plains.  He  had  not,  however,  been  a  mere  soldier  in  those  days,  but 
had  been  an  earnest  student  of  the  very,  questions  that  he  was  now  discussing, 
and  he  comprehended  the  matter  as  well  as  any  man,  and  handled  it  in  the 
soldierly  way  to  which  he  had  been  bred,  using  the  sword  to  cut  knots  that 
he  could  not  untie."  • 

It  became  plain  to  the  six  men  that  there  was  no  middle  ground  on  which 
they  could  agree.  Lyon  ended  the  conference.  He  said,  finally,  without  passion 
but  with  deliberation  and  emphasis:  "Rather  than  concede  to  the  State  of 
Missouri  the  right  to  demand  that  my  government  shall  not  enlist  troops  within 
her  limits,  or  bring  troops  into  the  state  whenever  it  pleases,  or  move  its  troops 
at  its  own  will  into,  out  of,  or  through  the  state ;  rather  than  concede  to  the 
State  of  Missouri  for  one  single  instant  the  right  to  dictate  to  my  government 
in  any  matter  however  unimportant,  I  would  see  you,  and  you,  and  you,  and  you, 
and  you,  and  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  state  dead  and  buried." 

As  he  closed,  he  stood  up  "and  pointed  in  tum  to  each  of  the  other  five  men 
in  the  room,  not  excepting  Blair  and  Conant.  Then  he  addressed  Governor 
Jackson:  "This  means  war.  In  an  hour  one  of  my  officers  will  call  for  you  and 
conduct  you  out  of  my  lines." 

It  did  mean  war.  Lyon  "strode  from  the  room,  rattling  his  spurs  and  clank- 
ing his  sabre."  He  went  from  the  Planters'  House  conference  to  telegraph  for 
5,000  more  muskets  and  for  authority  to  enlist  more  Missourians.  The  war 
department  answered  immediately  and  favorably.  This  meant  organization  of 
I  lome  Guards  outside  St.  Louis,  wherever  there  was  strong  Union  sentiment, 
to  fight  State  Guards. 

Jackson  Burns  His  Bridges.  w 

Jackson,  Price  and  Snead  went  from  the  Planters'  to  the  old  Missouri  Pacific 
depot  and  took  the  evening  train  for  Jefferson  City.  They  burned  their  bridges 
behind  them, — the  Gasconade  and  the  Osage,  as  soon  as  Price  could  give  the 
orders  to  waiting  State  Guards.  All  of  the  way  to  Jefferson  City  that  Tuesday 
night,  they  planned  war  measures.  It  was  agreed  the  governor  would,  issue  a 
proclamation  and  call  Missourians  to  arms  to  resist  Federal  aggression;  that 
Price  would  muster  an  army;  that  an  appeal  would  be  made  to  Jefferson  Davis 
to  send  Confederate  troops  to  defend  Missouri  against  the  Union.  The  plans 
were  formed  when  the  little  party  left  the  train  at  Jefferson  City  after  2  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  Before  sunrise  Snead  had  completed  the  proclamation  as  the 
governor  outlined  it  and  the  printers  were  putting  it  in  type.  No  state  official 
slept  that  night.  The  packing  of  records  and  state  papers  went  on.  Wednesday 
morning  brought  such  scenes  as  no  other  American  state  capital  had  witnessed. 
The  entire  official  organization  of  a  .state  still  in  the  Union  was  preparing  to 


GEN.  EMMETT  McDONALD 
A  leafier  of  the  8t.  Louis  mimite  nicii 


GEN.   MONROE  M.   PARSONS 
One    of   the    organizers    of    the    Missouri 
State  Guard  in   1861.     Served  under  Price 
in    Tonfederate   Army. 


Courtesy    Mlss(.iiri     lli  i.  r  in     -.uiav 

THE  BERTHOLI)  MANSION,  BROADWAY  AND   PINE   STREETS,  ST.  LOUIS 
Headquarters  of  the  Minute   i^fen  in   18tU 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  753 

evacuate  the  seat  of  government,  not  to  escajje  a  foreign  enemy  but  the  authority 
of  the  national  government  of  which  it  was  a  part. 

To  all  parts  of  the  state  the  proclamation  of  the  governor  was  sent  out  on 
\\'ednesday.  It  set  forth  the  irreconcilable  differences  of  the  Planters'  House 
conference,  which  meant  war.  Nothing  was  said  about  slavery.  Asserting  that 
the  state  authorities  had  "labored  faithfully  to  keep  the  agreement"  with  Harney, 
Governor  Jackson   continued : 

"We  had  an  interview  on  the  iith  inst.  with  General  Lyon  and  Colonel  F.  P.  Blair,  Jr., 
at  which  I  submitted  to  them  this  proposition  :  That  I  would  disband  the  State  Guard  and 
break  up  its  organization;  that  I  would  disarm  all  the  companies  which  had  been  armed  by 
the  state;  that  I  would  pledge  myself  not  to  attempt  to  organize  the  militia  under  the  military 
bill;  that  no  arms  or  other  munitions  of  war  should  be  brought  into  the  state;  that  I  would 
protect  all  citizens  equally  in  all  their  rights,  regardless  of  their  political  opinions  ;  that  I 
would  suppress  all  insurrectionary  movements  within  the  state ;  that  I  would  repel  all 
attempts  to  invade  it  from  whatever  quarter  and  by  whomsoever  made ;  and  that  I  would 
thus  maintain  a  strict  neutrality  in  the  present  unhappy  contest,  and  preserve  the  peace  of 
the  state.  .'\nd  I  further  proposed  that  I  would,  if  necessary,  invoke  the  assistance  of  the 
United  States  troops  to  carry  out  these  pledges.  All  this  I  proposed  to  do  upon  condition 
that  the  Federal  government  would  undertake  to  disarm  the  Home  Guards,  which  it  has 
illegally  organized  and  armed  throughout  the  state,  and  pledge  itself  not  to  occupy  with 
its  troops  any  locality  not  occupied  by  them  at  this  time. 

"Nothing  but  the  most  earnest  desire  to  avert  the  horrors  of  civil  war  from  our  state 
could  have  tempted  me  to  propose  these  humiliating  terms.  They  were  rejected  by  the 
Federal  officers.  They  demanded  not  only  the  disorganization  and  disarming  of  the  state 
militia  and  the  nullification  of  the  military  bill,  but  they  refused  to  disarm  their  own  Home 
Guards  and  insisted  that  the  Federal  government  should  enjoy  an  unrestricted  right  to 
move  and  station  its  troops  throughout  the  state,  whenever  and  wherever  that  might,  in 
the  opinion  of  its  officers,  be  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  'loyal  subjects'  of  the 
Federal  government,  or  repelling  of  invasion;  and  they  plainly  announced  that  it  was  the 
intention  of  the  administration  to  take  military  occupation,  under  these  pretexts,  of  the 
whole  state,  and  to  reduce  it,  as  avowed  by  General  Lyon  himself,  to  'the  e.xact  condition 
of  Maryland.' 

"The  acceptance  by  me  of  these  degrading  terms  would  not  only  have  sullied  the 
honor  of  Missouri,  but  would  have  aroused  the  indignation  of  every  brave  citizen,  and 
would  have  precipitated  the  very  conflict  that  it  has  been  my  aim  to  prevent.  We  refused 
to  accede  to  them  and  the  conference  was  broken   up." 

Rallying  the  State  Guard. 

Governor  Jackson  concluded  by  "calling  the  militia  of  the  .state  to  the  num- 
ber of  50,000  into  the  active  service  of  the  state,  for  the  purpose  of  repelling 
said  invasion,  and  for  the  protection  of  the  live.s,  liberties,  and  property  of 
the  citizens  of  this  state.  And  I  earnestly  exhort  all  good  citizens  of  Missouri 
to  rally  under  the  flag  of  their  state,  for  the  protection  of  their  homes  and 
firesides,  and  for  the  defense  of  their  most  sacred  rights  and  dearest  privileges." 

Before  Wednesday  night  the  proclamation  was  on  the  way  to  all  parts  of 
the  state,  but  not  as  it  would  have  been  distributed  in  this  later  day.  \\'hen 
Missourians  went  to  war  with  Missourians  conditions  were  far  different.  It 
is  well  that  this  be  borne  in  mind.  The  rapid  succession  of  strange  and  startling 
events  of  those  June  days  of  1861  can  then  be  better  understood.  No  railroad 
reached  Kansas  City.  The  Missouri  Pacific  stopped  at  Sedalia.  The  Wabash 
as  it  is  now  called,   then   the    North    Missouri,   had   been   built   only   half   way 

Vol.  I— 4S 


754  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OE  MISSOURI 

across  the  state.  The  I'risco,  then  the  Southwest  Branch,  had  its  terminus  at 
Rolla.  The  Iron  Mountain  ended  at  Ironton.  Missouri's  railroad  development 
was  in  the  first  decade  of  its  development.  The  telegraphic  facilities  were  meagre. 
Jackson's  proclamation  was  carried  to  many  communities  by  couriers.  But 
before  Thursday  night  men  were  riding  away  from  their  homes  to  Boonville, 
to  Lexington,  to  other  rallying  places. 

With  the  governor's  proclamation  went  orders  from  General  Price  to  the 
conmiander  in  each  military  district,  telling  him  to  assemble  all  of  the  available 
State  Gtiard  and  get  them  ready  for  service.  There  was  one  exception.  Gen. 
John  B.  Clark  was  ordered  to  Boonville  and  was  told  to  get  his  men  there 
as  quickly  as  possible.  The  war  council  had  decided  that  Jeflferson  City  must 
be  abandoned;  that  the  first  stand  against  Federals  would  be  made  at  Boonville.  - 
Germans  were  too  numerous  in  Cole  county;  they  favored  the  Federal  side  of 
the  issue.    Boonville  was  the  center  of  strong  state  sovereignty  sentiment. 

Lyon  Takes  the  Field. 

Lyon  was  even  more  prompt  in  action  than  Jackson  and  Price.  Tuesday 
night,  following  the  conference,  he  issued  orders  for  an  expedition  into  South- 
west Missouri.  The  regiments  of  Sigel,  Salomon  and  B.  Gratz  Brown,  composed 
of  St.  Louis  Germans,  were  ordered  to  proceed  to  Springfield,  Missouri.  They 
formed  part  of  the  second  brigade  which  Blair  and  Lyon  had  organized.  Their 
commander  was  Thomas  W.  Sweeny,  the  one-armed  captain  of  regulars  who 
had  prepared  to  make  bloody  defense  of  the  arsenal.  With  Sweeny's  St.  Louis 
Germans  went  two  batteries  of  guns  under  Major  Backoff.  This  force  began 
moving  on  Thursday.  There  was  railroad  transportation  to  Rolla.  Beyond 
that  was  an  overland  march.  Lyon  had  a  double  purpose  in  sending  out  this 
expedition.  Ben.  McCulloch,  with  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  troops,  was  approach- 
ing the  southwestern  corner  of  Missouri.  Lyon  intended  to  drive  Jackson  and  the 
State  Guard  south  from  the  Missouri  river.  He  intended  to  have  Sweeny  pre- 
vent McCulloch  from  coming  to  the  help  of  Price.  He  also  expected  to  trap 
the  state  forces  between  Sweeny  and  his  own  command.  While  one  of  these  bri- 
gades was  getting  away  to  the  southwest,  Lyon  was  marching  part  of  the  other 
on  board  steamboats  to  go  up  the  Missouri.  Blair's  regiment,  nine  companies  of 
I'.oernstein's,  two  companies  of  regulars  and  Totten's  battery,  about  2,000  men, 
were  marched  on  board  the  boats  Thursday.  In  the  afternoon  of  that  same  day 
there  was  another  embarkation  at  Jefferson  City.  Jackson  and  the  other  state 
officers,  with  Kelly's  St.  Louis  company  of  the  State  Guard  went  on  board  the 
River  Queen  and  steamed  up  the  river  to  Boonville.  The  militia  men  who  had 
come  to  Jefferson  City  in  response  to  the  governor's  proclamation  were  hastily 
organized  by  General  Monroe  M.  Parsons.  When  the  state  officers  left  by  river, 
Parsons  took  his  force  by  land  to  Tipton  and  awaited  orders. 

Lyon  reached  Jefferson  City  at  two  o'clock  Saturday  afternoon.  He  left 
liocrnstein  and  three  companies  for  a  garrison.  Sunday,  Lyon  started  for  Boon- 
ville. Price  had  not  counted  on  such  rapid  advance.  His  plan  was  to  assemble 
an  army  at  Lexington  and  hold  the  Missouri  river  permanently  at  that  point, 
lie  meant  to  make  as  good  a  fight  as  possible  at  Boonville,  holding  Lyon  there,  if 
lie  could  not  defeat  him.  until  Lexington  could  he   fortified  and  a  strong  force 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  755 

could  be  organized  and  equipped.  Price  depended  upon  the  rich  and  populous 
counties  of  Central  Missouri  for  his  army.  Two  or  three  weeks  before  Lyon 
issued  his  declaration  of  war,  the  quartermaster  general  of  the  state  had  moved 
to  Boonville  and  had  put  his  ordnance  shop  in  operation. 

The  Battle  of  Boonville. 

Clark  had  several  hundred  men  at  Boonville  when  Price  and  the  state  officers 
got  there  Thursday  night.  Friday  and  Saturday  more  militiairien  came  in.  The 
regiment  which  John  S.  Marmaduke  had  organized  in  May  mustered  in  good 
force.  The  companies,  however,  had  had  little  drilling.  They  had  been  sent  home 
from  Jefferson  City  shortly  after  being  organized,  when  Harney  and  Price  en- 
tered into  their  agreement.  In  addition  to  the  men  who  had  been  recruited,  Mis- 
sourians  who  wanted  to  fight  flocked  by  squads  to  Boonville,  many  of  them 
riding  their  own  horses,  and  bringing  shot  guns  and  rifles.  Not  since  the  "Lex- 
ington Alarm"  had  America  known  such  an  assembling  for  war,  without  waiting 
for  organization  or  equipment. 

Saturday  brought  news  which  tested  the  courage  of  these  Missourians.  There 
was  some  fighting  between  state  troops  and  Federal  cavalry  near  Independence. 
Kansas  regiments  and  the  dragoons  were  preparing  to  advance  on  Lexington 
from  the  west.  Lyon  and  the  St.  Louis  Germans  were  at  Jefferson  City.  Sunday 
morning  Price  hurried  to  Lexington  to  take  personal  command.  He  ordered 
John  B.  Clark  to  hold  Boonville  as  long  as  possible  and  then  join  his  force  with 
Parsons.  The  state  forces  were  without  artillery.  Price  realized  that  the  aban- 
donment of  his  plan  to  hold  the  river  was  certain  if  Lyon  forced  the  fighting. 
,\nd  Lyon,  as  usual,  lost  no  time.  Sunday  he  left  Jefferson  City.  At  daylight 
Monday  morning  he  was  eight  miles  below  Boonville.  His  troops  landed  and 
moved  up  the  river  road.  One  company  of  Blair's  regiment  and  a  howitzer  were 
left  on  the  boats  and  started  up  the  river  to  deceive  the  state  troops.  After  Price 
left,  Governor  Jackson  issued  the  orders.  As  soon  as  he  learned  that  Lyon  had 
left  JefTerson  City  he  sent  word  to  Parsons,  who  was  twenty  miles  away,  to 
come  to  Boonville.  He  told  Marmaduke  he  must  take  his  regiment  out  to  meet 
Lyon  and  try  to  hold  him  until  Parsons  could  arrive.  Marmaduke  was  a  relative 
of  Governor  Jackson's  wife.  He  protested  that  the  movement  was  useless  and 
advised  that  the  proper  course  was  to  withdraw  to  the  Osage  river  in  the 
vicinity  of  Warsaw  and  concentrate  there.  But  the  governor  insisted  it  would 
never  do  to  give  up  Boonville  without  a  fight.  Against  better  judgment,  Marma- 
duke marched  eastward  from  Boonville  until  he  met  Lyon.  He  had  about  500 
men,  one-fourth  as  many  as  Lyon.  The  country  Missourians  put  up  a  fight 
against  the  city  Missourians.  Lyon  brought  up  his  battery  and  Marmaduke 
fell  back  to  another  position.  "The  Battle  of  Boonville"  was  soon  over.  On 
the  Union  side  two  were  killed  and  nine  wounded.  Of  the  state  troops  two  were 
killed  and  half-a-dozen  were  wounded.  General  Clark  and  General  Parsons 
joined  their  forces  and  escorting  the  state  government  marched  southward  to 
the  Osage.  At  Lexington,  Price  heard  of  the  fall  of  Boonville.  He  had  found 
Brigadier-Generals  Rains  and  Slack  there  with  several  thousand  men,  but  many 
of  thcni  were  unarmed.  Lexington  was  evacuated.  Rains  and  Slack  moved  with 
their  unorganized  armv  southwestwardlv  toward  Lamar  in  liarton  county.    Price 


756  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

with  a  small  escort  rode  as  rapidly  as  possible  across  the  state  to  Arkansas  to 
find  McCulloch. 

The  Trick  at  Lexin^^on. 

Fifteen  years  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  war  came  the  explanation  of  the 
rapid  evacuation  of  Lexington  when  it  had  been  expected  and  planned  that  a 
stand  would  be  made  there.    The  story  was  told  by  an  old  resident : 

"A  young  fellow  named  Brown,  who  was  a  printer  in  the  Lexington  Expositor  office, 
suggested  a  plan  to  have  some  fun,  but  the  affair  was  never  known  only  to  Pirner,  Brown, 
James  Curry  and  a  young  telegraph  operator  whose  name  I  cannot  now  recall.  The 
telegraph  operator  had  a  pocket  instrument  of  his  own.  The  telegraph  at  that  time  went 
eastward  by  Waverly.  Pirner  and  the  operator  went  out  a  little  way  east  of  Old  Town, 
after  it  was  quite  dark  and  quiet  for  the  night,  and  managed  to  reach  a  telegraph  wire  and 
hitch  on  the  pocket  instrument.  The  Lexington  office  was  informed:  'The  Federals  have 
left  Marshall  for  Lexington;  may  arrive  any  miiuite.'  The  young  wags  then  went  back 
to  the  city  to  watch  the  effect ;  and  sure  enough  by  the  time  they  got  up  to  Main  street,  in 
the  vicinity  of  Laurel  street,  there  were  horsemen  riding  rapidly  to  and  fro,  between  the 
college  grounds  and  different  parts  of  the  city.  The  jokers  didn't  dare  ask  any  questions 
for  fear  of  some  suspicion  arising,  which  would  have  been  sure  death.  But  in  the  early 
morning  the  state  troops  were  gone.  Several  war  histories  speak  of  the  sudden  and 
rapid  retreat  from  Lexington,  but  until  1880  no  one  had  given  the  secret  of  its  mysterious 
suddenness." 

Just  one  week  from  the  Planters'  House  conference  had  passed.  The  state 
capital  had  been  abandoned.  The  first  battle  had  been  fought.  "The  Missouri 
river  was  in  the  possession  of  the  L'nion  forces.  What  did  it  mean?  Snead,  who 
was  there  and  the  right-hand  man  of  Jackson  and  Price,  said: 

"Insignificant  as  was  this  engagement  in  a  military  aspect,  it  was  in  fact  a  stunning 
blow  to  the  southern  rights  people  of  the  state  and  one  which  did  incalculable  and  unending 
injury  to  the  Confederates.  It  was  indeed  the  consummation  of  Blair's  statesmanlike 
scheme  to  make  it  impossible  for  Missouri  to  secede  or  out  of  her  great  resources  to 
contribute  abundantly  of  men  and  material  to  the  southern  cause,  as  she  would  surely 
have  done  had  her  people  been  left  free  to  do  as  they  pleased. 

"It  was  also  the  crowning  achievement  of  Lyon's  well-conceived  campaign.  The  cap- 
ture of  Camp  Jackson  had  disarmed  the  state  and  compelled  the  loyalty  of  St.  Louis  and 
all  the  adjacent  counties.  The  advance  upon  Jefferson  City  had  put  the  state  government 
to  flight  and  taken  away  from  it  that  prestige  which  gives  force  to  established  authority. 
The  dispersion  of  the  volunteers  who  had  rushed  to  Boonville  to  fight  under  Price  for 
Missouri  and  the  South  extended  Lyon's  conquest  over  all  that  country  lying  between  the 
Missouri  river  and  the  state  line  of  Iowa,  closed  all  the  avenues  by  which  the  southern 
men  of  that  part  of  Missouri  could  make  their  way  to  Price,  made  the  Missouri  an  unob- 
structed highway  from  its  source  to  its  mouth,  and  rendered  it  impossible  for  Price  to  hold 
the  rich,  populous  and  friendly  counties  in  the  vicinity  of  Lexington.  Price  had  indeed  no 
alternative  now  but  to  retreat  in  all  haste  to  the  southwestern  corner  of  the  state,  there  to 
organize  his  army  under  the  protection  of  the  force  which  the  Confederate  government  was 
mustering  in  Northwestern  Arkansas  under  General  McCulloch  for  the  protection  of 
that   state   and   the   Indian   Territory." 

Price  found  McCulloch  but  received  very  little  encouragement  at  first.  Mc- 
Culloch had  been  instructed  quite  positively  from  Richmond  to  confine  himself 
to  defense  of  .Arkansas  and  the  Indian  Territory  against  attacks  from  Kansas. 
On  the  4th  of  Jidy,  the  Confederate  secretary  of  war  further  cautioned  General 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  757 

McCulloch  that  "the  po.sition  of  Missouri,  as  a  southern  state  still  in  the  Union, 
requires,  as  you  will  readily  perceive,  much  prudence  and  circumspection,  and  it 
should  only  be  when  necessity  and  propriety  unite  that  active  and  direct  assistance 
should  be  afforded  by  crossing  the  boundary  and  entering  the  state." 

Organizing  an  Army  Under  Difficulties. 

As  Rains  and  Slack  with  their  thousands  of  volunteers  marched  southward 
from  Lexington,  the  state  officers,  with  Generals  I'arsons  and  Clark,  moved 
westward.  The  two  bodies  came  together  the  3rd  of  July  on  Spring  river,  three 
miles  north  of  Lamar.  Snead  was  with  the  state  officers.  He  said  the  column 
of  troops  was  followed  by  a  ''long,  motley  train  of  vehicles  of  every  description 
laden  not  only  with  supplies  for  an  army,  but  chiefly  with  household  goods  and 
utensils  of  every  sort,  conspicuous  among  which  were  featherbeds  and  frying- 
pans."    High  water  in  the  numerous  streams  added  to  hardships  of  the  march. 

There  were  several  encouraging  incidents  on  the  retreat  from  Boonville  to 
\\'arsaw  and  Lamar.  Cole  Camp  was  one  of  the  loyal  centers  to  which  Blair 
and  Lyon  had  sent  guns  and  ammunition.  Home  Guards  had  been  organized.  A 
command  of  State  Guards  raised  in  the  vicinity  of  Warsaw  by  Lieutenant  Walter 
.?.  O'Kane  and  Alajor  Thomas  H.  Murray  routed  the  Home  Guards  and  joined 
the  governor's  column  with  362  of  the  muskets  which  had  been  sent  out  from  St. 
Louis  for  Union  men.  About  the  same  time  John  O.  Burbridge  with  a  party 
from  Pike  county  came  into  the  state  camp  at  Warsaw  bringing  150  muskets 
which  had  been  sent  to  arm  Home  Guards  in  their  county.  Two  men  from  St. 
Louis  trying  to  get  into  Jackson's  camp  were  arrested  on  suspicion  of  being 
spies.  They  were  Henry  Guibor  and  William  P.  Barlow,  lieutenants  of  a  bat- 
tery taken  in  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson  by  Lyon  on  the  loth  of  May.  Guibor 
End  Barlow  had  concluded  that  their  capture  was  illegal  and  that  they  were  not 
bound  by  their  paroles.  They  had  come  out  to  join  the  State  Guards.  As  soon 
as  the  explanations  were  made,  Guibor  and  Barlow  were  not  only  set  free,  but 
the  four  brass  cannon  taken  from  the  United  States  arsenal  at  Liberty  in  May 
were  turned  over  to  them.  These,  cannon  had  been  hauled  away  from  Jefferson 
City  by  Parsons  but  were  useless  because  they  were  without  equipment  and 
ammunition.  Guibor  and  Barlow  organized  a  company  of  artillery,  took  the 
bare  g^ns  and  prepared  for  service.  Lieutenant  Barlow  has  told  the  wonderful 
story  of  that  preparation.  "One  of  Sigel's  captured  wagons  furnished  a  few 
loose,  round  shots.  Guibor  establi.shed  an  arsenal  of  construction.  A  turning 
lathe  in  Carthage  supplied  sabots.  The  owner  of  a  tinshop  contributed  straps 
and  canisters.  Iron  rods  which  a  blacksmith  gave  and  cut  into  small  pieces  made 
good  slugs  for  the  canisters ;  and  a  bolt  of  flannel,  with  needles  and  thread, 
freely  donated  by  a  dry-goods  man,  provided  us  with  material  for  our  cartridge 
bags.  A  bayonet  made  a  good  candlestick.  At  night  the  men  went  to  work 
making  cartridges,  strapping  shot  to  the  sabots,  and  filling  the  bags  from  a  barrel 
of  powder  placed  some  distance  from  the  candle.  My  first  cartridge  resembled 
a  turnip,  rather  than  the  trim  cylinders  from  the  Federal  arsenals,  and  would 
not  take  a  gun  on  any  terms.  But  we  soon  learned  the  trick  and,  at  close  range, 
at  which  our  next  battle  was  fought,  our  home-made  ammunition  proved  as 
effective  as  the  best."    Was  it  any  wonder  that  with  such  initiative  and  deter- 


758  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

niinatioii  "(iuiljor's  battery"  of  Missourians  became  one  of  the  famous  organ- 
izations of  the  Confederates! 

Snead,  who  was  chief  of  ordnance,  said  he  "did  not  know  the  ditYerence  be- 
tween a  siege  gun  and  a  howitzer,  and  had  never  seen  a  cartridge."  General 
James  Harding,  the  quartermaster  general,  said:  "We  did  not  have  any  too  mucli 
to  eat,  and  at  one  time  rations  were  very  scarce,  and  much  grumbling  was  heard 
in  consequence.  How  we  got  along,  I  don't  know ;  more  by  luck  than  manage- 
ment,  probably." 

As  primitive  and  as  effective  were  the  ways  found  to  supply  anmnmition  for 
those  of  the  State  Guard  so  fortunate  as  to  possess  shot  guns  and  squirrel  rifles. 
>.Iajor  Thomas  H.  Price  organized  an  ordnance  force  from  Missourians  who 
had  never  seen  an  arsenal.  He  obtained  lead  from  the  Granby  diggings.  The 
ninety  barrels  of  powder  which  Governor  Jackson  had  bought  in  St.  Louis  after 
the  Camp  Jackson  capture  were  drawn  upon.  Trees  were  cut  down  and  made 
into  molds.  Buckshot  and  bullets  by  the  bushel  were  turned  out.  From  such  raw 
material  the  historic  buck-and-ball  cartridges,  terribly  effective  at  short  range, 
were  manufactured. 

Lyon  stopped  at  Boonville  two  weeks.  He  wanted  reinforcements.  While  he 
'vaited,  he  garrisoned  Jefferson  City,  Boonville  and  Lexington.  He  put  Colonel 
John  D.  Stevenson  in  command  of  the  Missouri  river  from  Kansas  City  to  the 
mouth.  Stevenson  was  the  member  of  the  legislature  who  had  protested  when 
Lieutenant-Governor  Reynolds  ordered  the  assembly  to  honor  the  secession  com- 
missioner from  Mississippi  by  rising.  He  was  of  southern  birth  but  strongly 
for  the  Union.  Wherever  there  was  encouraging  sentiment  in  the  eastern  coun- 
ties Lyon  organized  Home  Guards  and  supplied  muskets  and  ammunition.  From 
P)Oonville,  he  issued  a  soothing  proclamation  pledging  that  anj'  man  who  had 
t?ken  up  arms  would  not  be  subject  to  penalty  if  he  now  returned  to  his  home  and 
was  quiet.  Price  believed  that  this  proclamation  kept  thousands  of  Missourians 
from  joining  the  State  Guards. 

The  Trainingf  Camp  at  Lamar. 

At  Camp  Lamar  the  brigadier-generals  organized  their  forces  as  rapidly  as 
possible.  Hundreds  of  the  volunteers  up  to  that  time  had  not  been  assigned  to 
commands.  Rains  had  nearly  3,000  men.  His  effective  force  consisted  of  1,200 
infantry  under  Colonel  Weightman,  600  mounted  men  and  Bledsoe's  battery  of 
three  guns.  The  remainder  of  Rains'  men  were  without  arms.  Parsons'  brigade 
consisted  of  650  armed  men  and  nearly  as  many  without  arms.  Kelly  had  become 
a  colonel  and  his  St.  Louis  company  had  become  a  regiment.  Guibor's  battery  was 
attached  to  Parsons'  brigade.  Under  General  John  B.  Clark  were  365  armed 
men  commanded  by  Burbridge.  Slack  had  500  mounted  men  under  Rives  and  700 
infantry  under  Colonel  Hughes  and  Major  Thornton.  With  each  of  these  armed 
commands  were  many  unarmed  men,  "waiting  to  pick  up  and  use  the  arms  of 
tho.se  who  might  sicken  in  camp  or  on  the  march,  or  who  might  fall  in  battle." 
Such  was  Price's  army  of  Missourians  in  July,  1861.  Was  there  any  other  like 
command  going  to  w-ar  on  either  side?    Snead  said: 

"In  all  their  motley  array  there  was  hardly  a  uniform  to  be  seen,  and  then,  and 
throughout  all  the  brilliant  campaign  on  which  they  w-ere  about  to  enter  there  was  nothing 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  759 

to  distinguish  their  officers,  even  a  general,  from  the  men  in  the  ranks,  save  a  bit  of  red 
flannel,  or  a  piece  of  cotton  cloth,  fastened  to  the  shoulder,  or  to  the  arm,  of  the  former. 
But  for  all  that  they  were  the  truest  and  best  of  soldiers.  Many  of  them,  when  just  emerg- 
ing from  boyhood,  had  fought  under  Price  or  Doniphan  in  Me-Kico.  Many  had  been  across 
the  great  plains,  and  were  inured  to  the  dangers  and  privations  of  the  wilderness ;  and 
many  had  engaged  in  the  hot  strife  which  had  ensanguined  the  prairies  of  Kansas. 
Among  them  there  was  hardly  a  man  who  could  not  read  and  write,  and  who  was  not 
more  intelligent  than  the  great  mass  of  American  citizens;  not  one  who  had  not  volun- 
tarily abandoned  his  home  with  all  its  tender  ties  and  thrown  away  all  his  possessions, 
and  left  father  and  mother,  or  wife  and  children,  within  the  enemy's  lines,  that  he  might 
himself  stand  by  the  South  in  her  hour  of  great  peril,  and  help  her  to  defend  her  fields 
and  her  firesides.  And  among  them  all  there  was  not  a  man  who  had  come  forth  to 
fight  for  slavery." 

A  Battle  Won  by  2,000  Unarmed  Men. 

While  Governor  Jackson  was  trying  to  get  the  State  Guard  organize4  at  Camp 
Lamar,  waiting  for  Lyon  to  make  the  ne.xt  move  from  Boonville,  he  had  no  idea 
of  what  was  going  on  south  of  him.   According  to  Snead,  Sweeny  reached  Spring- 
field on  the  1st  of  July.   On  the  way  he  added  about  a  thousand  Home  Guards 
to   his    St.   Louis    regiments.     Sigel    was    in    advance    of    Sweeny.     He    pushed 
westward  with  Salomon's  and  his  own  regiment,  hoping  to  cut  off  Price  before 
the  latter  could  reach  McCulloch  across  the  Arkansas  border.    He  went  as  far  as 
Neosho  and  Sarcoxie  only  to  learn  that  Price  had  passed  down  to  the  state  line. 
Sigel  then  turned  northward  to  hold  Governor  Jackson  and  the  State  Guard  until 
Lyon  could  arrive  and  spring  the  trap.    Lyon  left  Boonville  on  the  3rd  of  July 
with  2,500  men  and  marched  toward  Camp  Lamar.    Sturgis  with  900  regulars 
from  Fort  Leavenworth  and  two  Kansas  regiments  was  following  the  trail  of 
Rains.   Thus  three  small  Union  armies  were  converging  on  Jackson  and  the  State 
Guard  at  Lamar.   But  Sigel  arrived  too  soon.    On  the  4th  of  July  Sigel  marched 
into  Carthage  and  was  discovered  by  a  quartermaster's  detail  which  had  gone 
there  from  Jackson's  army  to  get  supplies.    On  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  July 
a  man  rode  furiously  up  to  Parsons'  headquarters  with  the  news  that  the  Fed- 
erals were  at  Carthage.   At  daybreak  of  the  5th,  Governor  Jackson  started  with 
his  whole  army  of  4,000  armed  and  2,000  unarmed  men  to  meet  the  Union  force. 
Sigel  had  been  about  as  prompt.      The  two  armies  of  Missourians  came  together 
on  a  prairie  near  Coon  creek.    Sigel  had  950  infantry  and  Backoff's  battery  of 
seven  guns  and  125  men.   He  began  the  fight.    For  an  hour  Backoff  on  one  side 
and  Guibor  and  Bledsoe  on  the  other  pounded  away  without   much   damage. 
Then  Governor  Jackson  ordered  an  advance  of  Rains'  600  mounted  men  at  one 
end  of  his  long  front  and  of  Rives  at  the  other  end.    At  the  same  time  the  2,000 
unarmed  men  were  sent  off  to  the  right  into  some  timber  to  take  shelter  and  to 
be  out  of  the  way.     Sigel  saw  this  movement,  but  did  not  know  the  men  were 
unarmed.    He  thought  the  2,000  men  moving  for  the  timber  were  being  sent 
round  to  take  him  in  the  rear.   He  retreated  and  so  ended  the  Battle  of  Carthage. 
Sigel  lost  thirteen  killed  and  thirty-one  wounded.   The  State  Guard's  loss  was  ten 
ki-lled  and  sixty-four  wounded.    The  Battle  of   Carthage  was   famous   for  two 
things.   The  honors  were  with  the  2,000  Missourians  who  had  no  guns  and  were 
Irving  to  get  out  of  the  way.   Sigel  got  away  from  an  armed  force  outnumbering 
him  four  to  one  and  saved  his  train.   He  did  it  by  retreating  in  good  order,  fight- 


760  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ing  beliind  the  fences  and  houses  of  Carthage  and  marching  until  three  o'clock 
the  next  morning.  Snead,  the  Confederate  historian,  gave  Sigel  this  credit :  "As 
the  engagement  took  place  about  nine  miles  north  of  Carthage,  Sigel  had  on  the 
5th  of  July  marched  under  a  Jjlazing  sun  more  than  ten  miles,  had  met  and 
fought  on  the  same  day  an  army  four  times  as  numerous  as  his  own  and  had 
then  withdrawn  his  men  in  good  order,  first  to  Carthage,  nine  miles  from  the 
field,  and  then  to  Sarcuxie,  fifteen  miles  further,  without  halting  either  to  eat 
or  sleep." 

The  Forced  Maxch  to  Springfield. 

Lyon  was  far  away  when  Jackson  and  Sigel  met.  He  had  about  a  hundred 
miles  to  march.  On  the  evening  of  the  7th  of  July  he  reached  Grand  river 
south  of  Clinton.  There  he  overtook  Sturgis  and  the  Kansans  who  had  been 
waiting  for  him  to  come  up.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  9th  Lyon  was  at  the 
Osage,  nine  miles  above  Osceola,  and  there  the  news  reached  him  that  the  state 
troops  had  defeated  Sigel  and  that  Price  and  AlcCulloch  had  formed  the  junc- 
tion he  had  planned  to  prevent.  LTnder  the  impression  that  the  state  troops  were 
pursuing  Sigel,  Lyon  ferried  his  army  over  the  Osage,  working  day  and  night. 
There  had  been  heavy  rains.  The  rivers  were  bank  full.  On  the  morning  of  the 
11th  Lyon  started  on  another  eighty  mile  march  toward  Springfield.  He  made 
twenty-seven  miles  without  a  stop.  A  halt  for  food  and  rest  was  made  in  the 
afternoon.  At  sunset  the  forced  march  was  resumed.  At  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  Lyon  was  within  thirty  miles  of  Springfield  when  he  learned  that  Price 
had  not  followed  Sigel ;  that  the  latter  had  made  a  safe  retreat,  and  that  Price 
was  at  Cowskin  prairie.  The  night  of  the  12th  Lyon  camped  within  twelve  miles 
of  Springfield  and  the  next  morning  he  rode  into  Springfield  with  his  "body-guard 
of  ten  stalwart  troopers  enlisted  from  among  the  German  butchers  of  St.  Louis 
for  that  special  duty." 

Price  joined  Jackson  and  the  other  state  troops  immediately  after  the  Carthage 
affair.  On  his  journey  to  .Arkansas  for  help  he  had  recruited  1,200  men  for  the 
.State  Guard.  He  had  obtained  650  muskets  from  the  Arkansas  people  and  he  had 
induced  McCulloch  and  his  well  organized  and  uniformed  men  to  come  into  Mis- 
souri. Price  had  done  quick  work  for  word  had  reached  him  that  Lyon  and 
Sturgis  and  .Sigel  were  marching  against  Governor  Jackson.  But  the  retreat  of 
.'^igel  had  averted  the  great  danger.  The  coming  of  McCulloch  although  not 
needed  created  great  enthusiasm  among  the  Missourians.  McCulloch  marched 
back  to  the  Arkansas  line.  Price  took  command  of  all  of  the  State  Guard  and 
conducted  them  to  Cowskin  prairie  in  the  extreme  southwestern  corner  of  Mis- 
souri. Lyon  modified  his  plan  and  joined  Sigel  at  Springfield.  The  Union  Mis- 
sourians and  the  State  Missourians  now  began  to  prepare  for  real  battle.  Both 
sides  wanted  a  fight  to  a  finish.  Governor  Jackson  went  to  Memphis  to  urge  Gen- 
eral Polk  to  send  a  Confederate  army  into  Southeast  Missouri.  Price  urged  Mc- 
Culloch to  bring  his  troops  into  Missouri  and  join  him  in  an  attack  upon  Lyon  at 
Springfield. 

There  were  strong  reasons  for  pushing  the  campaign  those  July  days.  The 
state  convention  which  had  declared  against  secession  and  had  given  the  southern 
rights  wing  in  Missouri  such  bitter  disappointment  in  March  had  been  called  to 


BEAR  VIEW  OF  THE  LOG  HOUSE  BUILT  BT  GEX.  U.  S.  GRANT 


GENERAL  FHKDERICK  DENT  GRANT 

In  front  of  the  log  house  in  which  he  was  born.     The  house  was  built  by  Gen.  XJ.  S.  Grant  on 

his  Missouri  farm.     It  is  preserved  as  a  historic  relic  by  August  A.  Busch 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKI-:  763 

meet  in  Jefferson  City  on  the  22nd  of  July.  The  action  of  that  convention,  if  the 
Union  men  still  held  the  state,  was  foreseen.  The  officers  who  had  been  driven  to  a 
corner  of  the  state  would  be  declared  out  of  office.  A  new,  provisional  state  gov- 
ernment would  be  organized.  Missouri  would  remain  in  the  Union.  As  a  state 
it  would  be  permanently  against  the  South.  Response  to  the  appeals  of  the  Mis- 
sourians  was  delayed.  At  Richmond  the  proposition  to  invade  Missouri  was  still 
treated  coldly.  It  was  not  until  the  31st  of  July  that  McCulloch  and  the  Arkansas 
troops,  making  with  the  Missourians  an  army  of  15,000,  got  under  way  for 
Springfield. 

The  Army  of  Liberation. 

General  Polk,  the  militant  Methodist  bishop,  on  the  23rd  of  July  had  ordered 
i'illow  to  take  6,000  and  join  Jeff  Thompson  and  the  ]Missourians  who  had  come 
together  in  Southeast  Missouri.  Polk  called  this  "the  Army  of  Liberation."  Pil- 
low entered  Missouri  on  the  28th  of  July  and  occupied  New  Madrid.  He  had 
great  expectations.  The  Battle  of  Bull  Run  had  given  the  Confederates  con- 
fidence. Those  in  the  West  were  anxious  to  show  that  they,  too,  were  irresistible. 
In  his  plan  of  campaign  for  the  Army  of  Liberation,  General  Pillow  declared  that 
his  army  was  in  Missouri,  at  the  request  of  Governor  Jackson,  to  aid  as  allies  in 
"placing  our  downtrodden  sister  on  her  feet."  On  the  ist  of  August  Jeff  Thomp- 
.son  at  Bloomfield,  issued  this  appeal  "to  the  people  of  Missouri." 

"Having  been  elected  to  command  the  gallant  sons  of  the  first  military  district  of 
Missouri  in  the  second  war  for  independence,  I  appeal  to  all  whose  hearts  are  with  us, 
immediately  to  take  the  field.  By  a  speedy  and  simultaneous  assault  on  our  foes,  we  can. 
like  a  hurricane,  scatter  them  to  the  winds,  while  tardy  action,  like  the  gentle  south  wind, 
will  only  meet  with  northern  frosts,  and  advance  and  recede,  and  like  the  seasons  will  be 
the  history  of  the  war,  and  will  last  forever.  Come  now !  Strike  while  the  iron  is  hot ! 
Our  enemies  are  whipped  in  Virginia.  They  have  been  whipped  in  Missouri.  General 
Hardee  advances  in  the  center.  General  Pillow  on  the  right,  and  General  McCulloch  on 
the  left,  with  twenty  thousand  brave  southern  hearts  to  our  aid.  So,  leave  your  plows  in 
the  furrow,  your  ox  to  the  yoke,  and  rush  like  a  tornado  upon  our  invaders  and  foes,  to 
sweep  them  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  or  force  them  from  the  soil  of  our  state!  Brave 
sons  of  the  first  district,  come  and  join  us!  We  have  plenty  of  ammunition,  and  the  cat- 
tle on  ten  thousand  hills  are  ours.  We  have  forty  thousand  Belgian  muskets  coming; 
but  bring  your  guns  and  muskets  with  you,  if  you  have  them ;  if  not,  come  without  them. 
We  will  strike  our  foes  like  a  southern  thunderbolt,  and  soon  our  camp-fires  will  illumi- 
nate the  Meramec  and  Missouri.     Come,  turn  out!" 

According  to  the  War  Records,  General  Thompson,  not  long  after  the  issue  of 
his  appeal,  sent  out  a  scouting  party  for  fresh  meat.  The  only  cow  of  a  widow  was 
taken.  The  widow  came  into  camp  and  called  upon  the  commander.  "Why, 
General,"  she  protested,  "is  it  possible  you  intend  to  rob  a  widow  of  the  only 
cow  she  has  in  the  world,  when,  as  you  have  said  in  your  proclamation,  the 
cattle  on  ten  thousand  hills  are  yours?"  The  general  grinned  and  ordered  the 
cow  returned  to  the  widow. 

Wilson's  Creek  and  the  Corn  Fields. 

Some  fields  of  ripening  corn  determined  the  location  of  the  Battle  of  Wilson's 
creek.     On  the  way  to  Springfield  Price  and  McCulloch  camped  on  the  banks  of 


764  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  creek  near  the  fields.  They  expected  to  Hve  on  tliat  corn  while  waiting  for 
their  trains  to  come  up.  And  there  they  were  attacked  by  the  man  they  expected 
to  attack  in  Springfield.  Wilson's  creek  has  its  beginning  in  the  suburbs  of  Spring- 
field. It  Hows  in  a  westerly  direction  several  miles,  bends  southward  and  follows 
that  course  about  ten  miles  to  its  junction  with  the  James. 

At  Springfield  Lyon  found  himself  with  between  7,000  and  8,000  men,  nearly 
all  of  them  2\Iissourians.  He  had  3,000  men  who  had  been  enlisted  for  three 
months  and  their  terms  would  be  out  the  middle  of  August.  He  had  no  idea 
of  giving  up  the  advantage  gained  and  began  to  prepare  for  battle,  sending  urgent 
messages  to  Fremont  in  St.  Louis  for  reinforcements.  "Governor  Jackson  will 
soon  have  in  this  vicinity  not  less  than  30,000  men.  I  must  have  at  once  an  addi- 
tional force  of  10,000  men  or  abandon  my  position,"  he  wrote.  He  didn't  get  his 
reinforcements  and  he  didn't  abandon  his  position.  Blair  was  in  Washington. 
He  carried  Lyon's  appeals  to  the  Cabinet.  Orders  were  sent  to  Fremont.  Far- 
rar,  Cavender  and  John  S.  Phelps,  afterwards  governor,  went  as  a  delegation 
to  Fremont  and  urged  that  help  be  sent  to  Lyon  at  Springfield.  Fremont  prom- 
ised 5,000  men.  It  was  not  until  the  4th  of  August,  too  late,  that  two  regiments 
were  ordered  to  go  to  Lyon,  Stevenson's  from  Boonville  and  Montgomery's  from 
.  Leavenworth.  Finally  Lyon  sent  defiantly  to  Fremont  that  he  would  fight  any- 
way.    And  he  did. 

Lyon  learned  on  the  ist  of  August  that  Price  and  McCulloch  had  started 
tow-ard  Springfield.  He  marched  out  to  meet  them,  hoping  to  be  able  with  his 
smaller  force  to  attack  them  separately.  A  skirmish  occurred  at  Dug  Springs 
in  which  the  L'nion  troops  had  the  best  of  it.  Price  urged  McCulloch  to  join 
him  in  attacking  Lyon.  The  commander  of  the  .Arkansas  troops  was  reluctant. 
He  referred  to  the  instructions  he  had  about  going  into  Missouri.  Snead  said 
this  was  not  McCulloch's  real  reason  for  holding  back.  "He  had  in  truth  no 
confidence  in  the  Missouri  troops,  and  none  in  General  Price,  or  in  any  of  his 
officers  except  Colonel  Weightman.''  Up  to  this  time  McCulloch  had  com- 
manded the  Arkansas  troops  and  Price  the  Missourians.  Price  saw  that  McCul- 
loch had  "determined  not  to  advance  another  mile  except  in  chief  command  of 
the  entire  force."  On  Sunday  morning  Price  took  Snead  with  him  and  went 
to  McCulloch's  headquarters  to  make  a  final  effort.  According  to  Snead  Gen- 
eral Price  said: 

"I  am  an  older  man  than  you,  General  McCulloch,  and  I  am  not  only  your  senior  in 
rank,  but  I  was  a  brigadier-general  in  the  Mexican  war,  with  an  independent  command 
when  you  were  only  a  captain ;  I  have  fought  and  won  more  battles  than  you  have  ever 
witnessed ;  my  force  is  twice  as  great  as  yours ;  and  some  of  my  officers  rank  and  have  seen 
more  service  than  you,  and  we  are  also  upon  the  soil  of  our  own  state ;  but.  General  Mc- 
Culloch, if  you  will  consent  to  help  us  to  whip  Lyon  and  to  repossess  Missouri,  I  will  put 
myself  and  all  my  forces  under  your  command,  and  we  will  obey  you  as  faithfully  as  the 
humblest  of  your  own  men.  We  can  whip  Lyon,  and  we  will  whip  him  and  drive  the 
enemy  out  of  Missouri,  and  all  the  honor  and  all  the  glory  shall  be  yours.  All  that  we 
want  is  to  regain  our  homes  and  to  establish  the  independence  of  Missouri  and  the  South. 
If  you  refuse  to  accept  this  offer,  I  will  move  with  the  Missourians  alone  against  Lyon. 
For  it  is  better  that  they  and  I  should  all  perish  than  that  Missouri  be  abandoned  without 
a  struggle.  You  must  either  fight  beside  us  or  look  on  at  a  safe  distance,  and  see  us  fight 
alone  the  army  which  you  dare  not  attack  even  with  our  aid.  I  must  have  your  answer 
before  dark,  for  I  expect  to  attack  Lyon  to-morrow." 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  765 

McCuUoch  accepted  the  offer  of  command  about  sunset.  He  explained  that 
he  had  been  awaiting  dispatches;  that  having  learned  Pillow  was  advancing  into 
Missouri  from  New  Madrid,  he  felt  justified  in  attacking  Lyon. 

The  Fight  for  Missouri. 

McCulloch  had  decided  to  move  from  Wilson's  creek  the  night  of  August 
9th  to  attack  Lyon  in  Springfield.  Just  before  the  hour  set  for  the  advance  of 
the  Confederates,  rain  began  to  fall.  The  order  was  countermanded.  The  rea- 
son for  postponement  was  another  of  the  e.xtraordinary  conditions  of  this  early 
fighting  for  Missouri.  Most  of  Price's  men  had  no  cartridge  boxes.  They  were 
carrying  their  ammunition  in  their  pockets.  The  rain  would  have  wet  the  pow- 
der and  put  three-fourths  of  the  Missourians  on  the  Confederate  side  out  of  the 
fighting. 

liut  Lyon,  impatient  to  force  the  issue,  iiidn't  wait  for  McCulloch  to  attack. 
He  left  Springfield  on  the  afternoon  of  the  9th,  intending  to  surprise  the  Con- 
federates by  an  early  morning  attack.  The  L'nion  force  was  divided.  Lyon 
marched  by  a  route  to  take  him  around  the  left  of  the  Confederates.  He  sent 
Sigel  by  a  more  southerly  route  to  pass  around  the  right  of  the  enemy.  Both 
Lyon  and  Sigel  passed  the  opposite  wings  of  the  Confederates  and  were  ready 
at  daylight  to  attack  in  the  rear.  The  Confederate  report  shows  that  so  well 
was  this  movement  carried  out  that  at  six  o'clock  the  morning  of  the  lOth  neither 
Price  nor  McCulloch  knew  that  Lyon  had  left  Springfield  and  they  were  expect- 
ing to  make  the  attack  there. 

Of  the  Missourians  who  fought  five  hours  under  Price  on  Bloody  Hill,  one 
who  was  in  the  thickest  of  it,  Thomas  L.  Snead,  said:  "Many  of  them  had  not 
even  enlisted,  but  had  only  come  out  to  fight ;  thousands  of  them  had  not  been 
organized  into  regiments ;  many  of  them  were  unarmed ;  none  of  them  were 
uniformed;  very  few  of  them  had  been  drilled.  Their  arms  were  mostly  shot- 
guns and  rifles,  and  they  had  no  other  equipments  of  any  kind ;  no  tents  at  all ; 
no  supplies  of  any  sort,  and  no  depots  from  which  to  draw  subsistence,  or  cloth- 
ing, or  ammunition,  or  anything.  They  had  no  muster  rolls  and  they  made  no 
morning  reports.  They  bivouacked  in  the  open  air,  they  subsisted  on  the  ripen- 
ing corn,  and  they  foraged  their  horses  on  the  prairie-grass.'' 

So  many  of  the  higher  officers  on  the  Union  side  fell  with  Lyon,  that  the  sol- 
diers, when  the  battle  closed  were  under  command  of  a  major.  The  First  Mis- 
souri went  into  the  fighting  with  800  men  and  came  out  with  505.  The  First 
Kansas  lost  284.  Of  Steele's  battalion  of  regulars,  sixty-one,  out  of  275  were 
killed  or  wounded.  Price  had  4.200  men  when  the  fighting  begun.  He  was 
wounded  as  were  many  of  his  officers.  He  lost  on  Bloody  Hill  988  in  killed  and 
wounded.  "Never  before,"  said  Snead,  "considering  the  numbers  engaged,  had 
so  bloody  a  battle  been  fought  upon  .\merican  soil ;  seldom  has  a  bloodier  one 
been  fought  on  any  modern  field.  The  lines  would  approach  again  and  again 
within  less  than  fifty  yards  of  each  other,  and  then,  after  delivering  a  deadly 
fire,  each  would  fall  back  a  few  paces  to  reform  and  reload,  only  to  advance 
again,  and  again  renew  this  strange  battle  in  the  woods.  Peculiar  in  all  its 
pspects,  the  most  remarkable  of  all  its  characteristics  was  the  deep  silence  which 
now  and  then  fell  upon  the  smoking  field,  while  the  two  armies,  unseen  of  each 


766  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

other,  lay  but  a  few  yards  apart,  gathering  strength  to  grapple  again  in  the  death 
struggle   for  Missouri." 

Two  newspaper  men  wrote  histories  of  the  Civil  war  in  Missouri.  Both  had 
been  connected  with  St.  Louis  papers.  Both  served  in  the  war.  They  knew 
from  personal  observation  the  local  situation  which  had  no  counterpart  in  any 
other  state.  One  of  these  soldier  historians  was  in  the  southern  army.  The 
other  served  with  the  North.  Thomas  L.  Snead,  the  Confederate,  called  his 
book  "The  Fight  for  Missouri."  And  from  his  point  of  view  the  fight  ended 
with  the  battle  of  Wilson's  creek,  in  August,  1861.  John  McElroy,  who  gave 
the  northern  view,  carried  "The  Struggle  for  Missouri,"  as  he  called  his  book, 
down  to  the  battle  of  Pea  Ridge  in  March,  1862. 

Lyon  had  not  fallen  in  vain.  "By  capturing  the  state  militia  at  Camp  Jack- 
son," said  Snead,  "and  driving  the  governor  from  the  capital  and  all  his  troops 
into  the  uttermost  corner  of  the  state,  and  by  holding  Price  and  McCulloch  at 
bay,  he  had  given  the  Union  men  of  Missouri  time,  opportunity,  and  courage 
to  bring  their  state  convention  together  again,  and  had  given  the  convention  an 
excuse  and  the  power  to  depose  Governor  Jackson  and  Lieutenant-Governor 
Reynolds,  to  vacate  the  seats  of  the  members  of  the  general  assembly,  and  to 
establish  a  state  government  which  was  loyal  to  the  Union  and  which  would  use 
the  whole  organized  power  of  the  state — its  treasury,  its  credit,  its  militia,  and 
all  its  great  resources — to  sustain  the  Union  and  crush  the  South." 

Fremont's  Failure  to  Support  Lyon. 

Of  Fremont's  failure  to  support  Lyon,  General  B.  G.  Farrar  made  this  state- 
ment revealing  a  chapter  of  the  inside  history  of  the  war  in  Missouri: 

"At  Springfield,  Lj'on  was  kept  busy  receiving  delegations  of  loyal  citizens,  issuing 
authority  for  the  raising  of  regiments,  and  actively  supervising  his  little  army.  One 
night  a  deserter  from  Price's  army  was  brought  to  headquarters.  He  gave  Lyon  full 
details  of  Price's  army,  the  number  of  brigades  and  the  names  of  their  commanders,  the 
number  of  cannon,  the  class  of  arms,  the  amount  of  transportation  of  the  several  divisions, 
and  after  a  two  hours'  talk,  summed  up  by  saying  that  Price's  army  numbered  not  less 
than  16,000  men.  So  soon  as  the  deserter  had  left,  General  Lyon  turned  to  me  and  said : 
'Major  Farrar,  I  want  you  to  go  at  once  to  St.  Louis  as  bearer  of  a  letter  to  General 
Fremont.  In  this  letter  I  will  mention  the  fact  that  you  have  heard  all  that  the  deserter 
has  said,  and   I  have  requested  General  Fremont  to  see  you  and  hear  your  statement.' 

"I  left  that  morning  at  four  o'clock,  reached  the  Gasconade  at  night ;  finding  the  river 
full  to  its  bapks,  I  swam  the  river,  reaching  Rolla  that  evening.  By  daylight  I  was  off  on 
an  engine  and  tender,  and  at  four  o'clock  reported  at  Fremont's  headquarters.  Colonel 
Kelton,  his  adjutant  general,  received  my  letter,  took  it  to  Fremont,  and  after  a  long 
delay  returned,  saying  that  the  general  would  see  me  in  the  morning.  When  the  morning 
came  the  word  was  sent  down  that  the  general  was  much  occupied  and  would  I  be  pleased 
to  call  in  the  afternoon.  So  it  went  on  for  three  days.  Finally  I  was  admitted  to  his 
presence,  and  found  him  walking  up  and  down  the  great  parlors,  absolutely  alone.  He 
appeared  but  little  interested  in  what  I  said,  spoke  of  the  great  need  of  troops  at  Cairo 
and  Southeast  Missouri;  said  he  could  give  me  no  definite  answer  at  present,  but  to  call 
in  a  day  or  two.  I  called  many  times,  and,  finally,  becoming  disheartened,  took  the  train 
back  to  Rolla.  That  evening  I  was  at  the  quarters  of  Colonel  Wyman  of  the  Thirteenth 
Illinois,  and  telling  him  of  my  ill  success,  when  a  countryman  was  brought  in  who  at  Once 
stated  that  Lyon  had  given  battle  to  Price ;  that  he  had  been  killed  and  his  army  de- 
feated,  and  that  what  remained  of  it  was   in  retreat  on  that  place." 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  767 

The  Part  Performed  by  Grant. 

(Jn  the  day  that  Lytni  marched  out  of  Springfield  to  attack  Price,  at  Wilson's 
creek,  Grant,  sitting  under  an  oak  tree  at  fronton,  received  his  commission  as 
brigadier-general.  The  sequel  to  the  issue  of  that  commission  was  a  change  in 
the  plans  of  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  Polk  and  Pillow.  The  Army  of  I^iberation 
did  not  make  the  intended  advance  into  Missouri  to  capture  St.  Lx)uis.  Cairo 
very  quickly  became  the  new  storm  center.  Jeff  Thompson  with  2,000  Mis- 
sourians  started  from  Columbus,  Kentucky,  early  in  October.  He  made  a  rapid 
march  up  through  Southeast  Missouri  intending  to  show  the  Confederate  gen- 
erals what  was  possible.  The  Swamp  Fox  gave  the  Illinois  colonels  in  the 
vicinity  of  fronton  quite  a  scare  and  did  some  good  fighting.  Thompson  and 
his  men  were  entirely  at  home  in  the  valleys  and  mountains  of  that  picturesque 
region.  The  Illinois  troops  were  more  accustomed  to  prairies.  Jeflf  Thompson 
made  his  way  as  far  north  as  Big  river  bridge,  forty  miles  from  St.  Louis.  Fre- 
mont was  busy  with  Price  in  the  western  part  of  the  state.  Jeflf  Thompson  sent 
back  word  of  his  success  to  Albert  Sidney  Johnston.  He  expected  Pillow  to 
come  on  rapidly  with  an  army  and  take  St.  Louis.  All  went  well  with  the  Swamp 
Fox  until  the  battle  of  Fredericktown.  There  he  was  attacked  by  3,500  troops. 
ciiiefly  Illinoisans  under  Colonel  Plummer  and  Colonel  Carlin.  Grant  planned 
and  ordered  the  attack.  Thompson  made  a  strong  stand  but  found  he  was  out- 
numbered. His  men  retreated.  The  infantry  followed  him  ten  miles  and  the 
cavalry  pursued  him  twelve  miles  farther  breaking  up  and  scattering  his  force. 
Thompson  reported  from  New  Madrid  that  his  command  was  "very  much 
c'emoralized."  This  ended  the  proposed  movement  to  take  St.  Louis.  Grant 
moved  over  to  Cairo  and  started  an  expedition  to  Paducah  and  elsewhere.  It 
was  Grant's  activity  in  Southeast  IMissouri  and  Western  Kentucky  that  prompted 
Lincoln's  approving  comment  that  the  new  brigadier  seemed  to  be  a  man  who 
"kept  things  moving." 

Battle  of  the  Hemp  Bales. 

The  battle  of  Lexington  lasted  eight  days,  counting  from  the  first  skirmish. 
It  was  one  of  the  strangest  of  the  Civil  war.  Price's  army  had  grown  like  a 
riilling  snowball  as  he  marched  north  from  Springfield  to  the  Missouri  river  in 
the  early  autumn  of  1861.  That  was  characteristic  of  the  campaigning  in  Mis- 
souri. When  Price  advanced,  recruits  flocked  to  him.  As  he  fell  back  many 
of  them  returned  to  their  homes. 

After  the  battle  of  Wilson's  creek,  Price  made  his  headquarters  at  Spring- 
field for  some  days.  Hundreds  of  his  unarmed  men  were  equipped  with  the  gim^ 
captured  on  the  battlefield.  Organization  was  perfected.  The  experience  of  the 
first  battle,  the  baptism  of  blood,  had  told  upon  the  Missourians.  The  well  uni- 
formed and  completely  equipped  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  men  under  McCuUoch 
no  longer  referred  to  Price's  "undisciplined  mob.'"  The  last  week  of  August 
Price  left  Springfield  with  an  army  of  10,000  Missourians  fit  for  any  issue  of 
war.  He  made  a  feint  at  Fort  Scott  which  alarmed  Kansas  and  then  marched 
for  the  Missouri  river.  He  reached  Lexington  on  the  12th  of  September.  The 
usual  irregular  contingents  had  joined  him  on  the  way,  swelling  his  force  to 
over  30.(XX).     .\s   Price  approached,   several  bodies   of  I'nion   troops   fell  back 


768  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  iMISSOURI 

and  concentrated  at  Lexington.  Two  of  these  commands  were  Mulligan's  Twen- 
ty-third Illinois,  an  Irish  regiment,  and  Marshall's  First  Illinois  cavalry,  both 
of  them  recruited  largely  in  Chicago.  The  Eleventh  Missouri  under  Colonel 
Everett  Peabody.  and  300  Home  Guards  under  Colonel  White  made  up  the  force 
in  Lexington  when  Price  arrived.  The  L'nion  troops  could  have  taken  boats 
and  escaped.  But  Lexington  had  been  made  a  depot  of  supplies  and  commanded 
the  river.  Mulligan,  who  took  command  as  the  senior  colonel,  felt  that  he  must 
stay  and  try  to  hold  the  place  and  protect  the  government  property  until  rein- 
forcements reached  him.  He  selected  a  high  hill  between  what  were  then  known 
as  Old  Lexington  and  New  Lexington.  Around  the  grounds  and  buildings  of 
the  Masonic  college  he  threw  up  heavy  earthworks.  Into  the  space  of  about 
fifteen  acres  the  3,500  men,  half  as  many  horses  and  the  wagon  trains  were 
crowded.  At  Jefferson  City  were  5,000  men  under  General  Jeff.  C.  Davis.  Stur- 
gis  had  4,000  men  at  Mexico  and  Pope  was  in  Northwest  Missouri  with  5,000. 
The  expected  reinforcements  did  not  arrive.  Mulligan  fought  well.  Price's 
men  worked  closer  and  closer.  The  nights  were  moonlight.  Squads  of  Mis- 
sourians  crawled  up  ravines  and  found  cover  behind  buildings.  They  kept  up 
a  fusillade  by  night  as  well  as  by  day.  This  was  great  sport  for  the  irregulars 
who  had  brought  their  shotguns  and  squirrel  rifles  and  had  joined  Price's  army 
on  the  way  from  Springfield.  Mulligan's  3,500  ought  to  have  been  slaughtered 
several  times  over  but  the  total  number  killed  was  less  than  100.  The  batteries 
of  Guibor,  McDonald  and  Clark  pounded  away,  making  scars  in  the  stone  walls 
of  the  college  and  occasionally  killing  a  horse  and  a  mule  which  added  to  the 
discomfort  of  the  besieged.  Price  finally  ordered  his  men  to  cIo.se  in.  They 
did  it  by  rolling  bales  of  hemp  up  the  hill.  Mulligan  saw  this  moving  fort  of 
hemp  bales  approach  within  150  feet  of  works.  He  gave  one  last  searching  look 
for  the  reinforcements  which  never  came  and  surrendered.  Price  gave  honor- 
able terms.  He  always  did.  The  Union  troops  surrendered  their  arms,  took 
an  oath  not  to  fight  any  more  against  Missouri,  were  ferried  to  the  north  side 
of  the  river  and  turned  loose.  Mulligan  was  told  to  keep  his  sword.  He  became 
the  guest  of  General  Price  until  some  time  afterwards  he  was  sent  to  St.  Louis, 
escorted  by  L.  D.  Kingsland,  a  young  officer  on  Price's  staff,  to  be  exchanged. 

Price  captured  at  Lexington  3,000  rifles,  five  cannon,  750  horses.  $100,000 
worth  of  commissary  stores,  wagons,  ammunition.  He  also  dug  up  the  great 
seal  of  Missouri  which  Governor  Jackson  and  the  state  officers  had  buried  in  a 
cellar  when  they  abandoned  the  idea  of  making  Lexington  the  temporary  capital 
and  took  a  hurried  departure.  State  records  which  had  been  left  behind  at  that 
time  were  recovered  by  Price. 

The  men  behind  the  hemp  bales  were  from  General  Harris'  command.  When 
the  military  bill  went  into  operation  "Tom"  Harris  was  given  the  most  difficult 
of  the  Congressional  districts  to  organize  for  the  State  Guard.  His  district  was. 
the  northeast  corner  of  the  state.  When  he  had  recruited  a  considerable  force, 
several  newly  mustered  Illinois  regiments  were  sent  into  North  Missouri  to  be 
broken  in.  They  were  put  to  chasing  Harris.  One  of  these  regiments  was  the 
Twenty-first  Illinois,  commanded  by  Colonel  U.  S.  Grant.  Harris  was  followed 
from  place  to  place  until  his  recruits  scattered.  The  chase  was  not  called  off 
until  it  was  reported  that  Harris'  army  was  reduced  to  the  general,  his  staff  and 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  769 

three  enlisted  men  and  that  they  had  successfully  concealed  themselves  in  the 
hills  of  Salt  river. 

Harris'  opportunity  came  with  the  six  days'  fighting  at  Lexington.  In  his 
official  report  General  Harris  told  how  he  took  132  bales  of  hemp  and  rolled 
them  up  the  hill,  sheltering  his  men  behind  them.  He  said,  "I  directed  the  bales 
to  be  wet  in  the  river  to  protect  them  against  the  casualties  of  fire  of  our  troops 
and  the  enemy,  and  soon  discovered  that  the  wetting  was  so  materially  increas- 
ing the  weight  as  to  prevent  our  men  in  their  exhausted  condition  from  rolling 
them  to  the  crest  of  the  hill.  I  then  adopted  the  idea  of  wetting  the  hemp  after 
ii  had  been  transported  to  this  position." 

Mulligan  hoisted  the  white  flag  when  he  saw  the  132  bales  of  hemp  steadily 
approaching  his  trenches  and  within  150  feet  of  them.  "Tom"  Harris'  movable 
breastworks  became  famous.  There  was  some  controversy  about  the  credit  for 
the  suggestion.  Friends  of  Colonel  Thomas  Hinkle,  of  Wellington,  near  Lex- 
ington, and  in  the  hemj)  growing  region  of  Missouri,  claimed  that  he  first  pro- 
posed the  use  of  the  hemp  bales. 

Price  and  Fremont. 

Price  held  Lexington  until  the  ist  of  October  while  Fremont  was  organ- 
izing the  Army  of  the  West  with  elaborate  preparations  to  crush  him.  No  other 
army  of  the  Civil  war  was  outfitted  as  was  Fremont's  in  the  fall  of  1861.  Among 
the  supplies,  which  the  quartermasters  purchased  in  great  quantity,  were  half 
barrels  for  water,  although  Fremont  was  about  to  traverse  the  Ozarks,  a  region 
abounding  in  springs  and  running  streams.  Mules  in  droves  were  bought.  About 
the  middle  of  October,  Fremont  started  his  divisions  from  several  points  to  fol- 
low Price.  He  reached  the  Osage  nine  days  after  Price  had  crossed.  Price 
moved  at  the  rate  of  about  fifteen  miles  ^a  day.  He  was  at  times  one  hundred 
miles  ahead  of  Fremont.  When  he  arrived  at  Neosho  he  stopped  long  enough 
for  the  state  government  to  set  up  a  tempfirary  capital  and  for  members  of  the 
legislature  who  were  traveling  with  the  army  to  hold  a  two  weeks'  session.  The 
principal  business  was  the  passage  of  an  ordinance  of  secession  declaring  Mis- 
souri out  of  the  Union.  This  paved  the  way  for  the  election  of  senators  and 
representatives  to  the  Confederate  Congress  at  Richmond.  Price  moved  still 
nearer  the  Arkansas  line  and  made  his  headquarters  at  Pineville.  Fremont 
stopped  at  Springfield  and  began  to  prepare  for  battle.  Price  was  fifty  miles 
away.  Instead  of  a  battle  a  "solemn  agreement"  was  entered  into  by  Price  and 
Fremont.  It  was  dated  the  ist  of  November.  The  stipulations  signed  by  the 
two  generals  were : 

"i.  No  arrests  whatever  on  accouiit  ni  political  opinions,  or  for  the  merely  private 
expression  of  the  same,  shall  hereafter  be  made  within  the  limits  of  the  State  of  Missouri, 
and  all  persons  who  may  have  been  arrested  and  are  now  held  to  answer  upon  such 
charges  only  shall  be  forthwith  released ;  but  it  is  expressly  declared  that  nothing  in  this 
proclamation  shall  be  construed  to  bar  or  interfere  with  any  of  the  usual  and  regular  pro- 
ceedings of  the  established  courts  under  statutes  and  orders  made  and  provided  for  such 
oflfenses. 

"2.  All  peaceably  disposed  citizens  who  may  have  been  driven  from  their  homes 
because  of  their  political  opinions,  or  who  may  have  left  them  from  fear  of  force  and 
violence,  are  hereby  advised  and  permitted  to  return,  upon  the  faith  of  our  positive  assur- 
voi,  1—49 


770  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ances  that  while  so  returning  they  shall  receive  protection  from  both  the  armies  in  the 
field  wherever  it  can  be  given. 

"3.  All  bodies  of  armed  men  acting  without  authority  or  recognition  of  the  major 
generals  before  named,  and  not  legitimately  connected  with  the  armies  in  the  field,  are 
hereby  ordered  at  once  to  disband. 

"4.  Any  violation  of  either  of  the  foregoing  articles  shall  subject  the  offender  to  the 
penalty  of  military  law,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  offense." 

Fremont  signed  this  agreement  at  Springfield  on  the  ist  of  November  and 
Price  signed  it  at  Cassville  on  the  5th.  But  on  the  2nd  of  November  a  mes- 
senger arrived  at  Springfield  with  an  order  trom  Winfield  Scott  telling  Fremont 
to  turn  his  command  over  to  General  Hunter  and  report  to  general  headquarters. 
Fremont  issued  an  address  of  farewell  to  the  "Soldiers  of  the  Mississippi  Army" 
and  left  Springfield  for  St.  Louis.  In  this  address  he  said:  "Soldiers,  I  regret 
to  leave  you.  Alost  sincerely  I  thank  you  for  the  regard  and  confidence  you 
have  invariably  shown  me.  I  deeply  regret  that  I  shall  not  have  the  honor  to 
lead  you  to  the  victory  which  you  are  just  about  to  win,  but  I  shall  claim  to 
share  with  you  in  the  joy  of  every  triumph,  and  trust  always  to  be  fraternally 
remembered  by  my  companions  in  arms." 

Fremont  was  the  hope  of  the  anti-slavery  people.  Not  long  after  he  took 
command  at  St.  Louis  he  proclaimed  the  freedom  of  the  slaves  owned  by  Mis- 
sourians  who  had  joined  the  Confederates.  John  G.  Whittier  made  this  incident 
the  subject  of  stirring  lines  which  were  copied  throughout  the  country: 

"Thy  error,  Fremont,  simply  was  to  act 

A  brave  man's  part,  without  the  statesman's  tact, 

And,  taking  counsel  but  of  common  sense, 

To  strike  at  cause  as  well  as  consequence. 

Oh,  never  yet  since  Roland  wound  his  horn. 
At  Roncesvalles,  has  a  blast  been  blown 
Far-heard,  wide-fchoed,  startling  as  thine  own. 

Heard  from  the  van  of  freedom's  hope  forlorn." 

Fremont's  Three  Months  in  Missouri. 

On  the  first  day  of  July,  1861,  John  C.  Fremont  came  home  from  France. 
On  the  third  ddy  of  July  he  was  appointed  a  major  general  and  the  western 
department,  with  headquarters  at  St.  Louis,  was  created  for  him.  Fremont 
reached  St.  Louis  on  the  25th  of  July.  Then  followed  in  quick  succession  the 
disastrous  battle  of  Wilson's  creek  and  Lyon's  death  and  Fremont's  proclama- 
tion. Fremont  declared  martial  law  throughout  Missouri.  He  ordered  that  "all 
persons  who  shall  be  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands  within  these  lines  shall  be 
tried  by  court-martial  and  if  found  guilty  shall  be  shot." 

Jeflf  Thompson  came  back  with  a  proclamation  counter  to  that  of  Fremont. 
He  proclaimed,  "that  for  every  member  of  the  Missouri  State  Guards,  or  soldier 
of  our  allies,  the  armies  of  the  Confederate  states,  who  shall  be  put  to  death  in 
pursuance  of  the  said  order  of  General  Fremont,  I  will  hang,  draw  and  quarter 
a  minion  of  said  Abraham  Lincoln.  If  this  rule  is  to  be  adopted  (and  it  must 
first  be  done  by  our  enemies)  I  intend  to  exceed  General  Fremont  in  his  ex- 
cesses, and  will  make  all  tories  that  come  within  my  reach  rue  the  day  that  a 
diflferent  policy  was  adopted  by  their  leaders." 


Courtesy    Mlaeouri   HiBtorical    Society 

THE  BRAXT  RESIDENCE  ON  CHOUTEAU  AVENUE 
Headquarters  of  Fremont  in  1861 


MRS.  JESSIE  BEXTOX  FREMOXT 
Daughter  of  Senator  Tlionias  H.  Benton 


GENERAL  JOHN  C.   FREMONT 
(,'alled    ' '  the    Woolly    Horse ' '    in    the    cam- 
paign of  1856  because  of  his  full  beard 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  773 

Fremont's  Trouble-making  Proclamation. 

In  his  proclamation,  Frcnumt  further  dechired  the  property  of  all  persons 
in  the  State  of  Missouri  who  shall  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States  or 
who  shall  be  directly  proven  to  have  taken  an  active  part  with  their  enemies  in 
the  field,  "to  be  confiscated."'  And  "their  slaves,  if  any  they  have,  are  hereby 
declared  freemen." 

This  brief  reference  to  Fremont's  three  months  in  Missouri  is  necessary  to 
the  understanding  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  intimate  relations  with  this  state.  Fremont 
was  appointed  a  major  general  and  given  the  command  in  Missouri  on  the 
"earnest  solicitation"  of  the  Blairs.  This  President  Lincoln  stated  afterwards 
in  conversation,  which  John  Hay,  his  secretary,  wrote  in  his  diary.  Mr.  Lincoln 
said  that  he  "thought  well  of  Fremont"  at  the  time  but  afterwards  concluded 
that  the  general  had  "absolutely  no  military  capacity." 

The  Blairs  reached  this  conclusion  before  Mr.  Lincoln  did.  Frank  Blair 
went  to  St.  Louis  to  help  Fremont  get  well  started. 

"At  last,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "the  tone  of  Frank's  letters  changed.  It  was  a 
change  from  confidence  to  doubt  and  uncertainty.  They  were  pervaded  with  a 
tone  of  sincere  sorrow  and  of  fear  that  Fremont  would  fail.  Montgomery 
showed  them  to  nie,  and  we  were  both  grieved  at  the  prospect.  Soon  came  the 
news  that  Fremont  had  issued  his  emancipation  order,  and  had  set  up  a  bureau 
of  abolition,  giving  free  papers,  and  occupying  his  time  apparently  with  little 
else." 

Immediately  after  seeing  Frenionl's  emanci])ation  order  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote 
him : 

"Two  points  in  jour  proclamation  of  .August  20  give  me  some  an.\icty. 

"First.  Should  you  shoot  a  man,  according  to  the  proclamation  the  Confederates 
would  very  certainly  shoot  our  best  men  in  their  hands  in  retaliation ;  and  so,  man  for 
man,  indefinitely.  It  is,  therefore,  my  order  that  j'ou  allow  no  man  to  be  shot  under  the 
proclamation,  without  first  having  my  approbation  and  consent. 

"Second.  I  think  there  is  great  danger  that  the  closing  paragraph,  in  relation  to  the 
confiscation  of  property  and  the  liberating  slaves  of  traitorous  owners,  will  alarm  our 
southern  Union  friends  and  turn  them  against  u/;  perhaps  ruin  our  rather  fair  prospect 
for  Kentucky.  Allow  me,  therefore,  to  ask  that  you  will,  as  of  your  own  motion,  modify 
that  paragraph  so  as  to  conform  to  the  first  and  fourth  sections  of  the  act  of  Congress 
entitled,  'An  act  to  confiscate  property  used  for  insurrectionary  jjurposes,'  approved 
August  6,  1861,  and  a  copy  of  which  act  I  herewith  send  you. 

"This  letter  is  written  in  a  spirit  of  caution,  and  not  of  censure.  I  send  it  by  spe- 
cial messenger,  in  order  that  it  may  certainly  and  speedily  reach  you." 

Mrs.  Fremont's  Midnight  Call. 

Frank  Blair  had  become  so  convinced  that  Fremont  was  doing  the  L'nion 
cause  great  injury  in  Missouri  that  he  criticised  him  in  a  newspaper  article. 
Fremont  placed  Blair  under  arrest.  Blair  then  sent  to  Washington  charges 
against  Fremont.  Montgomery  Blair,  the  hrotlier.  on  the  suggestion  of  jNIr. 
Lincoln,  came  on  to  St.  Louis  to  make  a  personal  investigation.  On  the  way 
he  passed  Mrs.  Fremont,  the  daughter  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,  taking  to  Wash- 
ington the  answer  of  her  husband  to  the  President's  letter  asking  that  the  procla- 
mation be  modified.     Mrs.  Fremont  arrived  at  a  late  hour,  went  to  the  A\"hite 


774  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Mouse  about  midnight  and  insisted  upon  a  personal  interview  with  the  Presi- 
dent. The  President,  describing  to  friends  the  experience,  said  she  ''taxed  me 
so  violently  with  many  things  that  I  had  to  exercise  all  the  awkward  tact  I  have 
to  avoid  quarreling  with  her.  She  surprised  me  by  asking  why  their  enemy, 
Montgomery  Blair,  had  been  sent  to  Missouri.  She  more  than  once  intimated 
that  if  General  Fremont  should  decide  to  try  conclusions  with  me,  he  could  set 
up   for  himself." 

Fremont  declined  to  be  guided  by  the  President's  friendly  suggestion.  He 
defended  his  action  in  regard  to  slaves.  He  insisted  that  an  official  order  be 
issued  directing  him  to  change  his  proclamation  if  it  must  be  done.  The  order 
was  sent.  It  drew  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  harsh  criticism  from  anti-slavery  people 
in  the  North.  It  intensified  the  factional  ilil^'erences  in  Missouri.  In  a  few 
weeks  Fremont  was  relieved. 

The  Browning  Letter. 

The  President  regarded  Fremont's  proclamation  more  seriously  than  his 
friendly  letter  might  indicate.  He  wrote  another  letter,  much  longer,  to  O.  H. 
Browning  of  Illinois  showing  that  Fremont's  action  was  a  dangerous  menace  to 
the  border  states  policy.  This  letter  he  marked  "Private  and  Confidential."  Mr 
Browning  made  the  letter  public  before  the  Illinois  Bar  Association  in  1883 

"Executive    Mansion,   Washington,   Sept.    22,    1861 
"Hon.  O.  H.  Browninpr. 

"My  Dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  17th  is  just  received,  and  coming  from  you,  I  confess 
it  astonishes  me.  That  you  should  ohject  to  my  adhering  to  a  law,  which  you  had  assisted 
in  making,  and  presenting  to  me,  less  than  a  month  before,  is  odd  enough.  But  this 
is  a  very  small  part.  General  Fremont's  proclamation,  as  to  confiscation  of  property,  and 
the  liberation  of  slaves,  is  purely  political  and  not  within  the  range  of  military  law  or 
necessity.  If  a  commanding  general  finds  a  necessity  to  seize  a  farm  of  a  private  owner, 
for  a  pasture,  an  encampment,  or  a  fortification,  he  has  the  right  to  do  so,  and  to  so  hold 
it,  as  long  as  the  necessity  lasts;  and  this  is  within  military  law,  because  within  military 
necessity.  But  to  say  the  farm  shall  no  longer  belong  to  the  owner,  or  his  heirs  forever, 
and  this,  as  well  when  the  farm  is  not  needed  for  military  purposes  as  when  it  is.  is  pure- 
ly political,  without  the  savor  of  military  law  about  it.  And  the  same  is  true  of  slaves.  If 
the  general  needs  them  he  can  seize  them  and  use  them,  but  when  the  need  is  past,  it  is 
not  for  him  to  fix  their  permanent  future  condition.  That  must  be  settled  according  to 
laws  made  by  lawmakers,  and  not  by  military  proclamations.  The  proclamation  in  the 
point  in  question  is  simply  'dictatorship.'  It  assumes  that  the  general  may  do  anything 
he  pleases — confiscate  the  lands  and  free  the  slaves  of  loyal  people,  as  well  as  of  disloyal 
ones.  And  going  the  whole  figure,  I  have  no  doubt,  would  be  more  popular,  with  some 
thoughtless  people,  than  that  which  has  been  done !  But  I  cannot  assume  this  reckless 
position,  nor  allow  others  to  assume  it  on  my  responsibility. 

"Vou  speak  of  it  as  being  the  only  means  of  saving  the  Government.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  itself  the  surrender  of  the  Government.  Can  it  be  pretended  that  it  is  any 
longer  the  Government  of  the  United  States — any  government  of  constitution  and  laws— 
wherein  a  general  or  a  president  may  make  permanent  rules  of  property  by  proclamation? 
I  do  not  say  Congress  might  not  with  propriety  pass  a  law  on  the  point,  just  as  General 
Fremont  proclaimed.  I  do  not  say  I  might  not,  as  a  Member  of  Congress,  vote  for  it. 
What  I  object  to  is,  that  I,  as  President,  shall  expressly  or  impliedly  seize  and  exercise 
the  permanent   legislative  "functions  of  the  Government. 

"So  much  as  to  principle.  Now  as  to  policy.  No  doubt  the  thing  was  popular  in  some 
quarters,  and  would  have  been  more  so  if  it  had  been  a  general  declaration  of  emancipa- 
tion. 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  775 

"The  Kentucky  legislature  would  not  budge  till  that  proclamation  was  modified ;  and 
General  Anderson  telegraphed  me  that  on  the  news  of  General  Fremont  having  actually 
issued  deeds  of  manumission,  a  whole  company  of  our  volunteers  threw  down  their  arms 
and  disbanded.  I  was  so  assured  as  to  think  it  probable  that  the  very  arms  we  had  fur- 
nished Kentucky  would  be  turned  against  us.  I  think  to  lose  Kentucky  is  nearly  the  same 
as  to  lose  the  whole  game.  Kentucky  gone,  we  cannot  hold  Missouri,  nor,  as  I  think, 
Maryland.  These  all  against  us,  and  the  job  on  our  hands  is  too  large  for  us.  We  would 
as  well  consent  to  separation  at  orice,  including  the  surrender  of  the  capital.  On  the  con- 
trary, if  j'ou  will  give  up  your  restlessness  for  new  positions,  and  back  me  manfully  on  the 
grounds  upon  which  you  and  other  kind  friends  gave  me  the  election,  and  have  approved 
in  my  public  documents,  we  shall  go  through  triumphantly.  You  must  not  understand  I 
took  my  course  on  the  proclamation  because  of  Kentucky.  I  took  the  same  ground  in  a 
private  letter  to   General   Fremont  before  I  heard   from  Kentucky. 

"You  think  I  am  inconsistent  because  I  did  not  also  forbid  General  Fremont  to  shoot 
men  under  the  proclamation.  I  understand  that  to  be  within  military  law,  but  I  also 
think,  and  so  privately  wrote  General  Fremont,  that  it  is  impolitic  in  this,  that  our  adver- 
saries have  the  power,  and  will  certainly  e.\ercise  it,  to  shoot  as  many  of  our  men  as  we 
shoot  of  theirs.  I  did  not  say  this  in  the  public  letter,  because  it  is  a  subject  I  prefer  not 
to  discuss  in  the  hearing  of  our  enemies. 

"There  has  been  no  thought  of  removing  General  Fremont  on  any  ground  connected 
with  this  proclamation,  and  if  there  has  been  any  wish  for  his  removal  on  any  ground,  our 
mutual  friend  Sam  Glover  can  probably  tell  you  what  it  is.  I  hope  no  real  necessity  for  it 
e.xists  on  any  ground. 

"Your  friend,  as  ever, 

"A.  LixcoLX." 

Lincoln  on  the  Blairs. 

The  influence  of  the  Blairs  with  Mr.  Lincoln  was  strong.  Not  only  was 
Montgomery  Blair  an  official  adviser,  not  only  was  the  judgment  of  Francis  P. 
Blair,  Jr..  in  Missouri  matters  of  great  weight,  but  the  President  listened  in 
regard  to  his  cherished  border  states  policy  to  the  counsel  of  the  elder  Francis 
P.  Blair.  The  relationship  was  peculiar.  The  President  was  not  under  the 
influence  of  the  Blairs  in  the  sense  that  he  leaned  weakly  upon  them.  But  he 
believed  that  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  depended  upon  the  course  of  Mis- 
souri and  the  other  border  states.  In  that  belief,  he  recognized  the  value  of  the 
advice  and  support  of  the  Blairs.  Just  how^  he  regarded  the  Blairs  is  shown 
in  one  of  the  President's  informal  talks  which  John  Hay  wrote  into  his  diary: 

"The  Blairs  have  to  an  unusual  degree  the  spirit  of  the  clan.  Their  family 
is  a  close  corporation.  Frank  is  their  hope  and  pride.  They  have  a  way  of 
going  with  a  rush  for  any  thing  they  undertake,  especially  have  Montgomery 
and  the  old  gentleman." 

When  he  talked  in  this  way,  the  President  had  in  mind  the  Fremont  fiasco 
in  Missouri. 

The  First  Iron  Clads  in  Naval  History. 

Three  days  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumpter  James  B.  Eads  received  a  con^ 
fidential  letter  from  Attorney  General  Bates,  reading: 

"Be  not  surprised  if  you  are  called  here  suddenly  by  a  telegram.  If  called,  come 
instantly.  In  a  certain  contingency  it  will  be  necessary  to  have  the  aid  of  the  most 
thorough  knowledge  of  our  western  rivers,  and  the  use  of  steam  on  them;  and  in  that 
event  I  have  advised  that  you  should  be  consulted." 


776  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OE  MISSOURI 

Merc  was  the  intimation  of  anotlier  signal  part  which  Missouri  was  to  have 
in  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  The  telegram  followed  the  letter.  Eads  went 
to  Washington.  He  was  introduced  to  President  Lincoln  and  went  into  pro- 
longed conference  with  Secretary  of  the  Navy  Gideon  Welles  on  the  problem  of 
cutting  the  Confederacy  in  two  by  opening  the  Mississippi  river.  Eads  came 
back  to  St.  Louis  with  a  contract  to  build  seven  iron  clad  gunboats,  the  first  in 
the  naval  architecture  of  the  world.  The  gunboats  were  to  draw  six  feet  of 
water,  carry  thirteen  heavy  guns  each,  to  be  plated  with  iron  two  and  one-half 
inches  thick,  and  to  run  nine  miles  an  hour. 

Orders  went  out  by  telegraph  putting  sawmills,  rolling  mills  and  machine 
shops  to  work  on  material.  So  well  were  the  details  handled  by  Eads  and  his 
lieutenants  that  the  first  of  these  boats  went  into  the  water  at  the  Carondelet 
ways  on  the  12th  of  October,  1861,  and  the  others  were  launched  only  a  few 
days  later.  Carondelet,  now  a  part  of  St.  Louis,  was  then  a  separate  municipal- 
ity. At  Washington  there  was  confusion.  The  government  officers  were  slow 
about  vouchers.  Perhaps  there  was  the  usual  scepticism  in  naval  quarters  about 
a  civilian  proposition.  At  any  rate,  to  keep  up  the  progress  that  had  been 
planned,  Eads  and  other  Missourians  advanced  thousands  of  dollars  to  meet 
wages  and  bills  for  material.  The  fleet  of  iron  clads  reached  Cairo  the  middle 
of  December,  before  the  river  above  was  closed  by  ice.  In  a  hundred  days  this 
fleet  which  was  to  have  such  an  important  part  in  the  Civil  war  was  in  service. 

The  Confederates  realized  the  vital  importance  of  holding  the  Mississippi. 
They  built  heavy  works,  manned  with  their  largest  guns,  at  Island  No.  to,  at 
Fort  Pillow  which  was  near  Memphis,  at  Vicksburg,  and  at  other,  points.  At 
Columbus,  Kentucky,  General  Polk,  the  fighting  bishop,  had  fortified  so  well 
to  hold  the  river  that  he  called  his  fort  "the  Gibraltar  of  the  West." 

In  the  ca])ture  of  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  in  the  forcing  of  Island  No. 
10  and  down  the  river,  the  fleet  of  iron  clads  proved  the  forecast  which  Eads 
had  made  at  Washington.  They  kept  open  the  rivers  after  the  battles,  perform- 
ing service  which  wooden  boats  could  not  have  done.  The  Missouri  iron  clads 
had  had  their  baptism  in  battle  at  Henry  and  Donelson  long  before  Ericsson 
invented  the  Monitor  to  meet  the  IMerrimac  in  Hampton  Roads. 

Van  Horn  and  Kansas  City. 

While  lilair  and  Nathaniel  Lyon  were  saving  Missouri  to  the  LTnion  by 
their  vigorous  action  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1861,  there  was  supplemental 
action  in  the  western  part  of  the  state,  second  in  its  importance  and  far-reaching 
effects  only  to  that  at  St.  Louis.  The  Jackson  administration  at  Jefiferson  City 
intended  to  accomplish  at  Kansas  City  what  was  planned  for  St.  Louis.  The 
bill  which  took  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Union  mayor  at  St.  Louis  the  control 
of  the  police  force  and  placed  it  in  the  hands  of  commissioners  appointed  by 
Governor  Jackson  applied  also  to  Kansas  City.  The  southern  rights  people 
looked  forward  to  possession  of  Kansas  City  to  be  obtained  bv  methods  like 
those  put  in  operation  at  St.  Louis.  Robert  T.  Van  Horn,  who  had  been  a 
Douglas  democrat  but  who  had  followed  Douglas  in  his  declaration  of  loyalty 
to  the  Union,  had  been  elected  mayor,  defeating  the  secession  candidate.     Learn- 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  777 

ing  of  the  plans  of  the  secessionists  to  take  the  police  power  out  of  his  hands 
and  put  the  city  under  control  of  secession  police  commissioners.  Mayor  Van 
Horn  made  a  hurried  trip  to  St.  Louis.  He  conferred  with  Blair  and  Lyon  who 
promised  aid.  Washington  acted  promptly.  A  small  force  of  United  States 
troops  came  down  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  the  commander  under  instructions 
to  take  orders  only  from  Mayor  Van  Horn.  The  mayor  immediately  recruited 
what  became  known  as  "Van  Horn's  battalion  of  United  States  Reserve  Corps." 
That  was  the  first  Union  military  force  organized  in  Missouri,  outside  of  St. 
Louis.  It  was  mustered  into  service  under  Mayor  Van  Horn  and  established 
Camp  Union  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Tenth  and  Central  streets.  By  only 
a  few  hours  Mayor  Van  Horn  anticipated  the  plan  of  the  secessionists  who  had 
organized  a  force  outside  for  the  purpose  of  taking  possession  of  Kansas  City. 
From  that  time,  the  loth  of  June,  1861,  Kansas  City  remained  in  possession 
of  L^nion  forces.  Twice  Sterling  Price  planned  to  get  Kansas  City,  recognizing 
the  strategic  value  of  possession.  H  he  could  have  succeeded.  Fort  Leaven- 
worth would  have  been  open  to  siege,  the  war  would  have  been  carried  into 
Kansas,  control  of  the  Missouri  river  would  have  been  lost,  and  the  burden  of 
hard  campaigning  to  recover  Missouri  would  have  been  imposed  on  the  Fed- 
eral government.  In  the  history  of  "The  State,  the  Stake"  Robert  T.  \'an  Horn 
has  a  place  with  Blair. 

When  Lincoln  Discovered  Grant. 

Grant,  .Sherman  and  .Sheridan  served  in  Missouri.  These  three  generals, 
who  afterwards  were  advanced  to  the  highest  military  positions,  saw  their 
earliest  war  service  in  this  state.  President  Lincoln  came  to  have  the  greatest 
confidence  in  them.  He  placed  his  dependence  upon  them  for  ultimate  success 
of  the  Union  armies  in  the  closing  year.  Who  can  tell  in  what  measure  the 
recognition  of  these  three  generals  was  in  the  end  due  to  the  intimate  and  anxious 
interest  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  followed  those  early  developments  in  Missouri ! 
The  secretary  of  war  was  of  Pennsylvania.  War  department  influences  were 
eastern.  "On  to  Richmond !"  was  the  cry  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  But  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  with  his  mind  on  the  situation  in  Missouri,  took  a  different  view. 
He  hardly  waited  until  Price's  army  had  left  the  state  before  setting  in  motion 
the  Mississippi  ri\'cr  campaign,  starting  from  Missouri.  He  wanted  to  cut  the 
Confederacy  in  two  by  wav  of  the  river  and  prevent  food  supplies  from  the 
southwest  reaching  the  cotton  states.  Montgomery  Blair,  after  the  death  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  gave  this  among  other  reminiscences : 

"One  (lay  in  c;ibinet  meeting,  Lincoln  turned  to  the  secretary  of  war  and  asked,  'Did 
we  not  receive  a  communication  sometime  last  spring  from  a  man  named  Grant  out  at 
Springfield,  forwarded  by  (jovernor  Vates,  laying  out  a  plan  of  campaign  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi?' The  secretary  replied  that  he  believed  such  a  paper  had  been  received.  The 
President  requested  him  to  have  it  looked  up.  which  was  done,  and  it  was  read  in  cabinet 
meeting.  It  made  a  strong  impression  on  all  its  members,  Lincoln  remarking  that  at  the 
time  it  was  received  it  had  impressed  him  favorably,  but  in  the  multiplicity  of  cares  it  had 
been  forgotten  until  now,  when  he  had  received  a  communication  from  Representative 
Washburne  calling   attention   to   General   Grant  and   suggesting  that  he  be  sent   to   C^iiro. 


778  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Lincoln  then  said,  'Mr.  Secretary,  send  an  order  to  General  Fremont  to  put  Grant  in  com- 
mand of  the  district  of  Southeast  Missouri.'  " 

Grant  went  to  this  new  command,  he  moved  to  Cairo,  took  Paducah,  fought 
the  battle  of  Belmont,  captured  Fort  Donelson.  The  movement  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi did  not  progress  as  loyal  Missourians  thought  it  should.  Judge  Samuel 
Treat  of  the  federal  court  at  St.  Louis  wrote  to  Judge  David  Davis,  presenting 
the  importance  of  the  Mississippi  river  campaign  as  it  appeared  to  him.  He 
received  in  reply  a  letter  from  President  Lincoln,  the  original  of  which  is  pre- 
served by  the  Missouri  Historical  Society: 

Private  E.\ecutive   Mansion,   Washington,   Nov.    19,    1862. 

Judge  S.  Treat, 

St.  Louis,  Mo. 
My  dear  sir : 

Your  verj'  patriotic  and  judicious  letter,  addressed  to  Judge  Davis,  in  relation  to  the 
Mississippi,  has  been  left  with  me  for  perusal.  You  do  not  estimate  the  value  of  the 
object  you  press  more  highly  than  it  is  estimated  here.  It  is  now  the  object  of  particular 
attention.  It  has  not  been  neglected,  as  you  seem  to  think,  because  the  West  was  divided 
into  different  military  districts.  The  cause  is  much  deeper.  The  country  will  not  allow 
us  to  send  our  whole  western  army  down  the  Mississippi,  while  the  enemy  sacks  Louis- 
ville and  Cincinnati.  Probably  it  would  be  better  if  the  country  would  allow  this,  but  it 
will  not.  I  confidently  believed  last  September  that  we  could  end  the  war  by  allowing 
the  enemy  to  go  to  Harrisburg  and  Philadelphia,  only  that  we  could  not  keep  down 
mutiny,  and  utter  demoralization  among  the  Pennsylvanians.  And  this,  though  unhandy 
sometimes,  is  not  at  all  strange.  I  presume  that  if  an  army  was  starting  to-day  for  N'ew 
Orleans,  and  you  confidently  believed  that  St.  Louis  would  be  sacked  in  consequence,  you 
would  be  in  favor  of  stopping  such  army. 

We  are  compelled   to   watch   all  these  things. 

With  great  respect. 

Your  obt.  servant, 

A.  Lixcoi.N". 

Grant  and  Missouri. 

William  H.  Swift-  gave  the  writer  this  account  of  a  conference  held  in  the 
office  of  the  State  Journal  at  St.  Louis  early  in  1861,  before  hostilities  began  in 
Missouri.  The  editor  was  Deacon  Tucker.  His  paper  was  looked  upon  as  the 
organ  of  the  democrats  who  sympathized  most  strongly  with  the  South.  Gov- 
ernor Claiborne  F.  Jackson  came  from  Jefferson  City  to  attend  the  conference. 
David  H.  Armstrong,  Basil  Duke,  Robert  M.  Renick  were  among  the  St.  Louisans 
present,  while  the  interior  of  the  state  was  represented  by  half  a  dozen  generals 
and  colonels  of  the  state  militia.  The  purpose  of  the  conference  was  to  select 
some  one  to  command  the  state  troops.  Governor  Jackson  proposed  Captain 
U.  S.  Grant.  Deacon  Tucker  urged  the  selection  of  Sterling  Price.  At  that 
time  Price  was  a  pronounced  L'nion  man.  He  had  presided  over  the  state  con- 
vention which  declared  against  secession.  Governor  Jackson  continued  to  urge 
the  reasons  why  he  favored  Grant  until  Mr.  Dent,  the  father-in-law  of  Captain 
Grant,  stremtously  opposed  the  proposition.  The  choice  fell  upon  Price.  The 
day  after  the  conference  an  effort  was  made  to  find  Grant,  when  it  was  dis- 
covered that  he  had  gone  to  Illinois.  Shortly  afterwards  he  offered  his  services 
to  Governor  Yates  and  was  given  a  regiment.     Price  clung  to  the  hope  that  he 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE 


could,  with  his  state  guards,  preserve  the  neutrality  of  Missouri;  that  the  United 
States  troops  would  not  go  outside  of  the  arsenal  and  Jefferson  Barracks  against 
the  protest  of  the  state  government.  Then  came  the  capture  of  St.  Louis  militia 
in  Camp  Jackson.     Price  joined  his  fortunes  with  the  Confederacy. 

Grant  had  tried  to  establish  himself  permanently  in  St.  Louis.  He  lived 
several  years  in  his  own  house.  On  the  15th  of  August,  1859,  he  filed  his  appli- 
cation for  the  appointment  of  county  engineer.  Addressing  his  letter  to  the 
county  commissioners,  he  submitted  the  names  of  "a  few  citizens  who  have  been 
kind  enough  to  recommend  me  for  the  office."  He  added,  "I  have  made  no 
effort  to  get  a  large  number  of  names  nor  the  names  of  persons  with  whom  I 
am  not  personally  acquainted."     The  petition  bore  the  signatures  of  these: 


Thomas  E.  Tutt 
Fred  Overstolz 
John  P.  Helfensfein 
Taylor  Blow 
James  M.  Hughes 
John  Mitchell 
J.  G.  McClellan 
Charles  A.  Pope 
W.  S.  Hillyer 
C.  S.  Puskett 
C.  W.  Ford 
A.  J.  Robinson 


Daniel  M.  Frost 
Robert  M.  Renick 
Robert  J.  Hornsby 
Thomas  Marshall 
John  O'Fallon 
John  F.  Darby 
N.  J.  Eaton 
Thornton  Grimsley 
Sam  B.  Churchill 
L.  A.  Benoist'&  Co. 
L.  G.  Pardee 
James  C.  Moodey 


Felix  Coste 
Bauman  &  Co. 
Wm.  L.  Pitkin 
J.  A.  Barrett 
K.  McKenzie 
George  A.  Moore 
R.  A.  Barnes 
G.  \V.  Fishback 
J.  McKnight 
John  How- 
Edward  Walsh 


Accompanying  the  application  were  the  following  high  indorsements: 

St.  Louis,  August  I,  1859. — Capt.  U.  S.  Grant  was  a  member  of  the  class  at  the  mili- 
tary academy,  West  Point,  which  graduated  in  1843.  He  always  maintained  a  high  stand- 
ing and  graduated  with  great  credit,  especially  in  mathematics,  meclianics  and  engineering. 
From  my  personal  knowledge  of  his  capacity  and  acquirements,  as  well  as  his  strict 
integrity  and  unremitting  industry,  I  consider  him  in  an  eminent  degree  qualified  tor  the 
office  of   county  engineer.  I.    I.    Reynolds. 

Professor   Mechanics    and   Engineering,   Washington    University. 

I  was  for  three  years  in  the  corps  of  cadets  at  West  Point  with  Capt.  Grant  and  after- 
ward served  with  him  for  some  eight  years  in  the  army,  and  can  fully  indorse  the  fore- 
going  statements   of    Prof.   Reynolds.  (Signed)       D.   M.    Fkost. 


On  the  back  of  the  application  was  indorsed.  "1859.  application  of  Captain 

L.  S.  Grant  to  be  appointed  county  engineer.     Rejected." 

During  the  Civil  war  this  indorsement  was  changed  to  read,  "Not  appointed." 
The  county  commissioners  were  John  H.  Lightner,  Benjamin  Farrar,  William 

Taussig,  Alton  R.  Easton,  and  Peregrine  Tii)pett.     Mr.  Easton  and  Mr.  Tippett 

voted  for  Grant.     The  others  voted  for  Charles  E.  Salomon.     With  grim  satire 

General  Grant,  in  his  memoirs  recalled  this  experience: 

While  a  citizen  of  St.  Louis  and  engaged  in  the  real  estate  agency  business,  I  was  a 
candidate  for  the  office  of  county  engineer,  an  office  of  respectability  and  emolument,  which 
•would  have  been  very  acceptable  to  me  at  that  time.  The  incumbent  was  appointed  by 
the  County  Court,  which  consisted  of  five  members.  My  opponent  had  the  advantage  of 
birth  over  me  (he  being  a  citizen  by  adoption),  and  carried  off  the  prize. 


780  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  Grants  never  returned  to  St.  Ltmis  to  live  but  the  memories  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  general  clung  to  the  early  home.  General  Grant  acquired  the  estate 
of  his  father-in-law,  White  Haven,  and  maintained  it  for  years.  While  at  the 
head  of  the  army  and  while  President  he  made  several  visits  to  the  place.  He 
Ipoked  forward  to  the  time  when  he  might  retire  and  spend  his  declining  years 
there.  During  the  World's  Fair,  General  Frederick  Dent  Grant  spoke  feelingly 
of  the  house  in  which,  as  a  boy,  he  had  lived.  He  visited  it  in  company  with 
Cyrus  F.  Blanke  and  was  photographed,  sitting  on  his  horse,  at  the  front  door. 
Mrs.  Nellie  (irant  Sartoris  always  showed  strong  affection  for  St.  Louis.  When 
Nellie  Grant's  marriage  occurred  in  the  White  House,  John  N.  Edwards 
wrote  for  the  St.  Louis  Times  a  congratulation  from  St.  Louis  which  brought 
from  Mrs.  Grant  a  personal  letter  full  of  appreciation  for  the  remembrance  of 
the  Grants  by  their  old  time  friends. 

Missouri,  the  Civil  War  Kindergarten. 

Just  before  the  Civil  war,  Ulysses  S.  Grant  was  selling  wood  in  St.  Louis ; 
William  Tecumseh  Sherman  was  managing  the  Fifth  street  railroad ;  John  M. 
Schofield  was  an  instructor  in  Washington  University.  They  rose  to  the  rank 
commanding  the  United  States  army.  Franz  Sigel  was  teaching  school  in  St. 
Louis  and  Peter  John  Osterhaus  had  a  little  business  across  the  river.  They 
became  major  generals  of  volunteers  in  the  Union  army. 

Phil.  Sheridan,  too,  saw  his  earliest  Civil  war  experience  in  Missouri.  He 
came  to  Jefferson  Barracks  a  captain  in  1861.  The  first  duty  of  the  man  who 
was  to  become  the  great  cavalry  leader  on  the  Union  side  was  clerical.  He  was 
assigned  to  audit  accounts  in  the  quartermaster  and  subsistence  department. 
Then  he  was  made  chief  commissary  of  the  army  of  Southwest  Missouri.  He 
surprised  Halleck  and  Curtis  by  performing  in  addition  the  duties  of  chief 
quartermaster  in  the  camjiaign  through  .South  Missouri  leading  to  the  battle  of 
Pea  Ridge.  Sheridan  did  so  well  in  providing  supplies  and  transportation  for 
an  army  of  15,000  men  over  the  muddy  roads  and  across  swollen  streams  that 
after  Pea  Ridge  his  appeal  for  a  part  in  the  actual  fighting  secured  him  the  com- 
mand of  a  regiment  of  cavalry  and  his  great  career  hegan.  But  the  point  is 
that  out  of  Missouri  as  the  Civil  war  kindergarten  came  the  great  commanders 
on  the  Union  side. 

The  year  before  Camp  Jackson,  in  1S60,  the  militia  of  .St.  Louis  were  ordered 
into  camp  under  the  same  provisions  of  law  that  applied  to  the  formation  of 
Camp  Jackson.  Among  the  militia  companies  which  went  into  camp  in  i860 
were  Germans  who,  the  next  year,  participated  with  Lyon  in  the  capture  of 
Camp  Jackson.  Captain  Stifel  who  commanded  a  regiment  of  Lyon's  force  had 
a  company  of  militia  cavalry  under  Frost  in  the  camp  of  i860.  Some  of  the 
German  militia  in  the  camp  of  i860,  it  was  found,  had  difficulty  in  understand- 
ing the  commands  given  in  English.  At  Captain  Stifel's  suggestion,  Franz  Sigel, 
then  a  St.  Louis  school  teacher,  was  employed  to  translate  commands  into  Ger- 
man so  that  German  militia  could  learn  the  tactics.  This  was  carried  out.  A 
few  months  later  Sigel  was  in  command  of  one  of  the  Lyon  regiments  which 
marched  on  Camp  Jackson.  -His  men  sang  through  years  of  war  their  song 
"Fight  mit  .Sigel."    A  statue  of  .Sigel  stands  in  Forest  Park. 


THE  STATE  THE  STAKE  781 

I'>oni  the  little  army  with  which  Lyon  fought  the  battle  of  Wilson's  creek 
in  August,  1861,  came  seven  major-generals  and  thirteen  brigadier-generals.  Of 
the  southern  rights  Missourians  who  fought  in  that  same  battle  seven  rose  to 
be  general  officers  in  the  Confederate  army. 

When  the  year  1861  closed  tliere  had  been  fought  in  Missouri  and  for  the 
most  part  between  Missourians,  si.xty-one  battles.  The  losses  on  the  Union  side 
were  500  to  600  killed,  2,000  wounded  and  3,600  taken  prisoners.  The  losses  on 
the  Confederate  side  were  about  the  same. 

Lincoln,  in  a  letter  about  the  close  of  the  year,  wrote,  "Before  Spring  the 
people  of  Missouri  will  probably  be  in  no  favorable  mood  to  renew  for  next 
year  the  troubles  which  have  so  afflicted  and  impoverished  them  during  this." 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

C1\"1L  WAR  IN  MISSOURI 

A  Great  Emergency — The  Man  of  the  Hour — "Old  Sanitary" — Organising  the  Plan  of  Relief 
— Merciful  Missourians  Behind  the  Firing  Lines — Major  Hodges'  Narrative — James 
E.  Yeatman — The  Sanitary  Fair — Assessment  of  Southern  Sympathizers — Dr.  Eliot's 
Protest  to  President  Lincoln — Desperate  Character  of  the  Conflict — Women  Took  Sides 
— The  Spirit  of  Jael — A  Wooden  Leg  Shot  Off — How  Ben  Prentiss  Assessed — Secret 
Lodges — The  Missouri  Chaos  "Stampeded"  Sherman — .-/  Leai>e  of  Absence — The  Story 
of  Insanity — A  Long  Hidden  Confidential  Letter — Hallcck  Called  Upon  to  Explain — 
Missouri  in  the  War  Records — The  Policy  of  Extermination — "War  Is  Butchery  on  a 
Grand  Scale" — Guerrillas  "Should  Not  Be  Brought  in  as  Prisoners" — "Forty-one  Guer- 
rillas Mustered  Out  by  Our  Boys  in  the  Brush" — William  F.  Suntsler  on  "The  Reign 
of  Terror" — Missouri  Warfare  as  John  F.  Philips  Sazi'  It — Graphic  Story  of  the  Charge 
on  a  Church — Retaliation  by  Order  of  General  Brown — Bill  Anderson  and  the  "Kansas 
First  Guerrilla" — A  Defiant  Proclamation— The  Death  of  Anderson — Depopulation 
Suggested  for  Boone  County — A  Man  Hunt  in  the  Lowlands  of  the  Southeast — "We 
Killed  in  All  Forty-seven" — The  Paw  Paw  Militia  Controversy — Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fisk's 
Reports — A  Brush  Expedition  in  Western  Missouri — The  War  on  Smugglers — Gen. 
John  McNeil's  Order  to  Burn — Fisk  Said,  "Pursue  and  Kill." 

In  Missouri  the  war  was  waged  with  unspeakable  bitterness,  sometimes  with  inhuman  cruelty.  It 
was  fought  by  men  in  single  combat,  in  squads,  in  companies,  in  regiments,  in  great  armies,  in  the  open, 
in  fortified  town,  and  in  ambush,  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  under  the  Stars  and  Bars,  and  under 
the    black    flag.^C/iaiiif    Clark. 

Unpreparedness  was  the  state  of  the  Union  when  Civil  war  broke  out.  Men 
could  be  enlisted.  Guns  and  uniforms  could  be  bought.  Cartridges  could  be 
made.  The  fighting  began  as  if  no  thereafter  was  taken  into  account.  Back 
from  the  front  trickled  the  earliest  human  stream  of  wounded  and  sick.  It 
swelled  rapidly  as  the  months  passed.  The  fighting  became  heavier.  Bom  of  a 
great  emergency,  late  in  the  summer  of  1861,  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission 
came  into  existence. 

From  the  battlefield  of  W'ilson's  Creek  in  mid-August  were  brought  to  St. 
Louis  721  wounded  men.  In  the  whole  city  there  were  not  hospital  accommoda- 
tions for  so  many.  Medical  Director  De  Camp  had  established  an  army  hospital 
at  the  St.  Louis  House  of  Refuge  only  four  days  before  the  battle  but  was  not 
ready  for  patients.  According  to  an  oflficial  report  the  hospital  "had  neither 
stoves  nor  bedsteads,  nor  beds,  nor  bedding,  nor  food,  nor  nurses,  nor  anything 
prepared.  The  first  100  arrived  at  night.  They  had  been  brought  in  wagons 
120  miles  over  a  rough  road,  by  hurried  marches,  suflfering  for  food  and  water, 
from  Springfield  to  Rolla,  and  thence  by  rail  to  St.  Louis,  and  to  the  station  on 
Fourteenth  street.  Then,  having  had  nothing  to  eat  for  ten  hours,  they  were 
put  into  furniture  cars  and  carried  the  remaining  three  miles.    Bare  floors,  bare 

783 


784  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

walls  and  an  empty  kitchen  received  them.  The  kind-hearted  surgeon  obtained 
from  the  neighbors  cooked  food  for  their  supper,  and  lost  no  time  in  getting 
together  the  means  for  their  comfort.  The  poor  fellows  were  so  shattered  and 
travel-worn  that  they  were  thankful  to  get  food  to  eat  and  hard  boards  to  sleep 
upon,  and  no  word  of  complaint  was  heard  from  them.  In  the  course  of  the  week 
300  or  400  more  arrived.  Conditions  were  improving,  but  there  was  so  great  a 
difficulty  in  obtaining  what  was  wanted  that  many  of  the  badly  wounded  lay  in 
the  same  unchanged  garments  in  which  they  had  been  brought  from  the  battle- 
field three  weeks  before,  but  in  the  course  of  a  month  all  were  made  comfortable. 
The  sick  and  wounded  continued  to  arrive  and  other  accommodations  had  to  be 
secured  without  delay.  All  the  wards  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  hospital  and  the 
City  hospital  were  filled.  The  sad  and  neglected  condition  of  those  brought 
from  Springfield  excited  the  sympathies  of  the  patriotic  people.  The  wounds  of 
many  had  not  been  dressed  since  leaving  the  battlefield,  others  were  suffering 
from  unextracted  bullets  and  pieces  of  shell,  and  the. hospitals  were  unprovided 
with  clothing  to  substitute  for  that  which  in  many  cases  was  saturated  with  the 
blood  of  their  wounds." 

The  Western  Sanitary  Commission. 

Of  such  conditions  was  brought  into  activity  the  ^\'estern  Sanitary  Connnis- 
sion.  Fremont  launched  the  organization  on  its  career  of  mercy  by  declaring  in 
a  military  order:  "Its  general  object  shall  be  to  carry  out,  under  the  properly 
constituted  military  authorities,  and  in  compliance  with  their  orders,  such  san- 
itary regulation  and  reforms  as  the  well-being  of  the  soldiers  demands." 

The  general  proceeded  to  indicate  in  specific  details  some  of  the  services 
which  might  be  performed.  These  were  the  selection  and  furnishing  of  build- 
ings for  hospitals,  the  finding  of  nurses,  the  visiting  of  camps,  the  inspection  of 
food,  the  suggestion  of  better  drainage,  the  obtaining  from  the  public  of  means 
for  promoting  the  moral  and  social  welfare  of  soldiers  in  camp  and  hospital. 

To  avert  friction  and  enlarge  usefulness,  Fremont  concluded  his  order  with 
the  following :  ,  "This  commission  is  not  intended  in  any  way  to  interfere  with 
the  medical  staff  or  other  officers  of  the  army,  but  to  cooperate  with  them  and  aid 
them  in  the  discharge  of  their  present  arduous  and  extraordinary  duties.  It  will 
be  treated  by  all  officers  of  the  army,  both  regular  and  volunteer,  in  this  depart- 
ment with  the  respect  due  to  the  humane  and  patriotic  motives  of  the  members 
and  to  the  authority  of  the  commander-in-chief." 

The  hour  had  come.  Where  was  the  man  ?  The  people  recognized  the  emer- 
gency. Hearts  were  throbbing  with  sympathy.  '  Hands  were  ready  to  contribute. 
St.  Louis  was  the  center  of  activities  for  an  extensive  military  front.  Here 
troops  were  mobilized.  Hence  armies  moved  southwest  and  south.  Here  sup- 
plies were  received  and  forwarded.  Back  to  St.  Louis  came  the  boatloads  and 
trainloads  of  wounded.  Whether  Fremont's  Western  Sanitary  Commission 
meant  much  or  little  depended  upon  the  head.  The  man  was  found.  He  was 
southern  bom,  a  native  of  Tennessee.  He  had  lived  in  St.  Louis  nearly  twenty 
years.   He  was  a  banker,  a  little  past  forty  years  of  age. 

James  E.  Yeatman  made  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission.  Good  men  of 
St.  Louis  held  up  his  hands.     They  were  named  with  him — Carlos  S.  Greeley, 


C.  S.  GREELEY 
Of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission 


JAMES  E.  YEATMAN 
Head  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Coinniission 


DR.  JOHN  T.  HODGEN 
Sureoon  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission 


GEORGE  PARTRIDGE 
Of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  787 

Dr.  J.  P..  Johnson,  George  Partridge  and  Rev.  Dr.  William  G.  Eliot.  They 
were  wise  in  counsel,  efficient  in  assistance.  But  Mr.  Yeatman  was  "Old  Sani- 
tary" to  the  soldiers  in  a  thousand  circling  camps.  This  banker,  in  the  prime 
of  manhood,  had  a  bed  put  in  a  room  connected  with  his  office  so  that  he  might 
be  ready  to  respond  to  any  call.  He  was  on  duty  while  he  slept.  A  great  organ- 
ization was  gradually  built  up  under  Mr.  Yeatman's  direction.  Everywhere  in 
the  north  were  local  branches  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission.  The  great 
work  of  relief  was  systematized  and  made  effective.  The  collection  and  for- 
warding of  supplies  contributed  were  directed  and  controlled  as  a  banker  might 
deal  with  his  country  correspondents.    There  was  no  waste. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  Mr.  Yeatman  and  his  associates  was  to  fit  up  and 
open  a  hospital  for  five  hundred  soldiers  on  Fifth  and  Chestnut  streets.  Surgenr 
John  T.  Hodgen  was  given  charge..  In  this  building  were  received  the  sanitary 
stores  contributed  from  hundreds  of  cities,  towns  and  villages.  As  needed,  these 
stores  were  distributed.  Hospital  after  hospital  was  prepared  and  opened  as  the 
wounded  increased  in  numbers.  Hospital  boats  were  put  in  .service  to  bring  the 
wounded  from  the  battlefields.  A  soldiers'  home  was  opened  in  St.  Louis  to  care 
for  the  furloughed  and  discharged  sick  as  they  came  from  the  front.  The  mili- 
tary prisons  in  and  around  St.  Louis  were  filled  with  Confederate  soldiers  and 
those  who  sympathized.  The  Western  Sanitary  Commission  carried  its  work  of 
relief  into  the  prisons.  Refugees  flocked  to  the  city  and  were  temporarily  cared 
for.     Homes  for  soldiers'  orphans  were  provided. 

Nowhere  else  in  the  country  was  there  a  like  center  of  suffering  and  misery 
from  the  war.  Nowhere  else  were  relief  measures  of  such  magnitude  under- 
taken. The  efficiency  of  Mr.  Yeatman's  organization  came  to  be  recognized  the' 
country  wide.  An  appropriation  of  $50,000  by  the  State  of  Missouri  was  made 
for  the  commission.  Another  of  $25,000  came  later.  The  government  of  St. 
Louis  made  appropriations  and  placed  the  money  in  Mr.  Yeatman's  hands.  Gifts 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  countr}'.  Here  was  the  suflfering.  Here  came  the 
contributions.  In  the  midst  of  business  depression,  of  war  hard  times,  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  Sanitary  fair  held  in  St.  Louis  produced  more  than  $500,000 
When  the  books  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  closed,  they  showed  that 
Mr.  Yeatman  had  handled  in  money  and  stores  for  mitigation  of  the  horrors 
of  war  $4,270,098.55.  The  magnificent  liberality  had  been  begotten  of  implicit 
confidence  in  the  integrity  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission. 

Year  after  year,  almost  from  the  very  beginning  of  ho.stilities,  Mr.  Yeatman 
gave  himself  to  this  work.  Repeatedly  he  left  the  headquarters  of  the  commis- 
sion in  St.  Louis  and  went  to  the,  front  to  see  for  himself  the  needs.  He  sought 
the  suffering  and  applied  the  measures  of  relief.  It  was  this  personal  visita- 
tion and  inspection  that  won  for  him  the  tender  regard  of  the  soldiers  and  the 
aflfectionate   title  of  "Old   Sanitary." 

Wonderful  Details  of  Work. 

Major  W.  R.  Hodges,  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  has  described  in  graphic  detail 
the  work  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission : 

"In  September  came  the  siege  and  battle  of  Lexington,  Mo.,  which  threw  300  more 
wounded  into  the  hospitals  of  St.  Louis,  and  within  two  months  five  additional  hospitals 


788  CENTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

were  provided.  The  commission  fitted  up  two  hospital  cars  on  the  Pacific  railroad  with 
berths,  nurses,  cooking  arrangements,  etc.,  probably  the  first  of  the  kind  in  the  United 
States.  The  commission  continued  their  voluntary  labors  without  abatement ;  appeals  for 
contributions  were  made  through  the  newspapers  and  were  generously  responded  to  by 
New  England,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Michigan  and  other  western  states. 

"In  February  came  the  battle  of  Fort  Donelson,  where  2,108  of  our  soldiers  were 
wounded.  An  associate  member  of  the  commission.  Doctor  Pollak,  accompanied  by  nurses, 
members  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society,  proceeded  at  once  by  rail  to  Cairo  and  thence 
by  steamer  to  Paducah  with  sanitary  stores.  The  wounded  had  been  brought  to  this  point. 
The  steamer  Ben  Franklin  was  placed  under  their  charge,  and  loaded  with  wounded.  It 
was  brought  to  St.  Louis.  It  was  then  that  the  suggestion  of  hospital  steamers  was  made 
by  Medical  Director  Simmons  and  embodied  in  the  report  of  the  commission  with  the 
pledge  that  if  the  suggestion  were  approved  the  commission  would  take  the  whole  care 
and  labor  of  carrying  it  into  execution.  The  plan  was  approved  by  Gen.  Halleck,  and  the 
City  of  Louisiana  was  chartered  and  on  the  20th  of  March  she  was  thoroughly  fitted  with 
beds  and  commissary  stores,  the  commission  completing  her  outfit  at  an  expense  of  $3,000. 

"Her  first  trip  was  to  Island  No.  10,  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Yeatman,  as  a  great  battle 
was  expected  there.  Soon  after  came  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  and  this  boat  conveyed  3,389 
patients  to  northern  hospitals.  She  was  soon  after  purchased  by  the  government  and 
renamed  the  R.  C.  Wood  in  honor  of  the  assistant  surgeon  general  of  the  United  States 
Army. 

"During  the  month  of  February,  1863,  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  distributed 
13,250  articles  of  hospital  clothing,  food  for  the  sick,  bottles  of  cordials  and  stimulants, 
etc.,  and  the  members  labored  unceasingly  night  and  day  in  making  the  distribution. 

After  Pea  Ridge. 

"On  the  7th  and  8tli  of  March,  1862,  the  battle  of  Pea  Ridge  was  fought,  and  980 
Union  soldiers  were  wounded.  This  battle  field  was  250  miles  distant  from  Rolla,  the 
railroad  terminus.  The  roads  were  of  the  worst  description,  through  a  half  civilized 
country,  mountainous,  without  bridges,  and  without  hotels,  stripped  of  forage  for  teams 
and  food  for  men,  subject  to  raids  and  murders  by  guerrilla  bands.  It  was  impossible 
to  bring  the  wounded  to  St.  Louis.  The  army  of  Gen.  Curtis  was  deficient  in  transporta- 
tion, and  the  medical  department  was  most  miserably  provided  with  means  for  caring  for 
the  wounded.  Surgeons  were  without  hospitals,  clothing,  stimulants,  or  bedding  for  the 
wounded,  and  the  supply  of  medicines  was  exceedingly  limited.  The  country  was  thinly 
settled,  mostly  log  houses,  with  few  of  the  necessities  of  life.  The  courthouse  at  Cassville 
and  all  the  principal  dwellings  were  filled  with  wounded,  and  the  same  was  true  of  Keites- 
ville.  A  few  of  the  officers  were  taken  by  ambulance  to  Springfield.  The  commission  at 
once  despatched  its  agent  with  hospital  supplies  to  the  front.  In  his  report,  he  says,  'At 
Cassville  I  found  two  large  tents,  six  buildings,  including  the  courthouse  and  tavern,  used 
as  hospitals.  The  patients  were  lying  on  the  floors,  with  a  little  straw  under  them,  and 
with  knapsacks  or  blankets  under  their  heads  as  pillows.  They  had  no  comforts  of  any 
kind,  no  change  of  clothing,  but  were  lying  in  the  clothes  they  fought  in,  stifl  and  dirty 
with  blood  and  soil.' 

"There  were  400  Federal  wounded  here.  Tlie  stores  were  turned  over  to  the  different 
hospitals,  and  never  was  a  provision  train  more  joyously  greeted  by  starving  men  than  this 
ample  supply  of  hospital  supplies  by  these  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  The  Confederate 
wounded  were  treated  with  the  same  consideration  as  our  own.  There  were  two  Con- 
federate surgeons,  and  one  said  to  the  agent  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  'We  are  Texans. 
Our  army  has  treated  us  shamefully;  they  stampeded  and  left  us  here  with  our  sick  and 
wounded  men,  and  I  W'ill  tell  you,  sir,  that  for  two  days  we  had  nothing  to  give  our  poor 
fellows  but  parched  corn  and  water.  Every  Federal  officer  and  man  has  treated  us  like 
gentlemen,  and  Gen.  Curtis  told  me  that  so  long  as  he  had  a  loaf  of  bread  we  should  have 
half  of  it.'  The  agent  said,  'I  visited  the  hospitals  at  Pineville.  No  provision  had  been 
made  by  Price,  and  our  scanty  supplies  had  been  shared  with  them.  For  twenty-five  miles 
around  every  house  was  a  rebel  hospital.  We  had  three  there  then.  There  was  at  this 
point  a  total  absence  of  stimulants  and  men  were  dying  for  want  of  them.' 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  789 

At  Vicksburg. 

"During  February  and  March,  1863,  while  the  army  of  Gen.  Grant  was  occupying  the 
low  region  of  country  above  Vicksburg,  exaggerated  reports  of  sickness  among  the  troops 
were  published  by  northern  newspapers. 

"Mr.  Yeatman  went  down  and  made  a  personal  inspection  and  on  his  return  published 
an  account  of  his  visit.  While  he  found  a  large  amount  of  sickness,  his  report  tended 
to  allay  undue  apprehension.  He  directed  the  agent  of  the  commission  to  immediately 
establish  his  headquarters  near  \'icksburg  for  the  distribution  of  supplies.  After  the 
assault  by  our  forces  on  the  19th  and  22d  of  May,  Mr.  Yeatman  made  a  second  visit,  in 
charge  of  the  steamer  Champion,  accompanied  by  surgeons  and  nurses  and  dressers  of 
wounds  to  the  number  of  fifty-five,  taking  with  him  250  tons  of  sanitary  supplies,  besides 
cots,  mattresses  and  everything  necessary  for  the  care  of  1,000  men.  At  the  time  of  his 
arrival  all  sanitary  stores  were  exhausted  and  the  new  supplies  were  received  with  grati- 
tude. In  his  report  he  said:  'Supplies  were  distributed  most  liberally  wherever  wanted. 
Blessings  were  invoked  by  both  surgeons  and  men  for  this  timely  care  in  providing  for 
them,  in  the  great  extremity  which  always  succeeds  a  series  of  battles  and  which  can  only 
be  fully  provided  for  in  this  way.  No  parched  and  thirsty  soil  ever  drank  the  dews  of 
heaven  with  more  avidity  than  did  those  wounded  men  receive  the  beneficent  gifts  and 
comforts  sent  to  them  through  this  commission.'  One  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand,  six 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  articles  were  distributed  to  Gen.  Grant's  army  prior  to  the  fall  of 
Vicksburg. 

Problem  of  the  Freedmen. 

"In  addition  to  its  work  of  ministering  to  the  sick  and  wounded  of  the  western 
armies  and  navy  and  of  promoting  the  health  of  soldiers  in  the  field,  the  Western  Sani- 
tary Commission  felt  itself  called  upon  to  devote  a  portion  of  its  labors  to  the  relief  of 
the  40,000  freedmen  along  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  river  from  Columbus  to  Natchez. 
They  were  in  a  country  stripped  by  the  ravages  of  war,  with  no  demand  for  labor  except- 
ing in  a  few  localities  and  without  means  of  providing  for  food,  clothing  and  shelter.  In 
December,  1863,  ^fr.  Yeatman  returned  from  a  special  trip  down  the  river  to  ascertain 
and  report  the  actual  conditions.  He  stopped  at  Island  No.  10,  Memphis,  Helena,  Good- 
rich's Landing,  Milliken's  Bend,  Young's  Point,  the  plantations  of  Jeff  and  Joe  Davis  and  at 
Natchez.  As  an  illustration,  he  found  at  Helena  between  3,000  and  4,000  men,  women  • 
and  children,  part  of  them  living  in  a  place  back  of  the  town  called  'Camp  Ethiopia,'  in  cast- 
oflF  tents,  caves,  shelters  of  brush.  Others  were  in  the  poorer  houses  of  the  town,  sixteen 
to  twenty  persons  in  a  room,  and  in  huts  on  the  outskirts.  The  able-bodied  men  were  com- 
pelled to  work  on  the  fortifications,  in  unloading  coal  and  freight  from  steamboats,  teamsters 
and  all  manner  of  fatigue  duty,  for  which  they  received  no  compensation,  through  neglect 
of  officers  to  place  them  on  the  pay  roll  and  general  indiflference  of  military  commanders  as 
to  their  condition.  At  one  time  an  order  was  issued  forbidding  their  paj-ment  on  the  ground 
that  their  former  masters  would  have  a  claim  against  the  government  for  their  services. 

"The  terrible  destitution  and  sufferings  of  these  helpless  people  and  the  injustice  to 
which  they  were  subjected  so  moved  the  sympathetic  heart  of  Mr.  Yeatman  that  he  went 
to  Washington  and  presented  the  subject  to  the  government  and  made  'suggestions  of  a 
plan  of  organization  for  freed  labor,  and  the  leasing  of  plantations  along  the  Mississippi 
river.'  The  high  character  of  Mr.  Yeatman  was  so  well  known  that  his  suggestions  were  re- 
ceived with  favor,  and  he  was  authorized  to  accompany  an  agent  of  the  treasury  depart- 
ment to  Vicksburg  to  mature  and  carry  them  into  effect.  This  trust  he  accepted,  declining 
an  official  position  which  was  offered  him.  About  600  plantations  were  leased,  wise  and 
humane  regulations  for  the  compensation  of  labor  were  enforced,  schools  established,  and 
incalculable  benefits  were  derived  by  the  colored  people,  who  were  encouraged  in  habits  of 
self  reliance  and  saving.  Large  quantities  of  sanitary  stores  were  distributed  among  tliose 
in  dire  extremity.  From  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Yeatman  in  this  direction  National  Freedmen 
Relief  associations  were  organized  all  over  the  northern  states. 


790  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  White  Refugees. 

"Assistance  was  also  rendered  to  white  refugees  from  the  South,  who  came  by  thou- 
sands, many  of  them  women  with  small  children,  often  barefooted  and  wholly  destitute, 
brought  by  steamers  and  landed.  Their  husbands  had  been  killed  in  the  war  by  guerrillas, 
or  conscripted  into  the  rebel  army.  One  poor  blind  woman  with  six  children  walked  all 
the  way  from  Arkansas  to  Rolla,  her  little  children  leading  her  by  the  hand  all  the  way 
over  those  hundreds  of  weary  miles.  From  Rolla  she  was  brought  here  by  rail  as  a 
charity.  Her  youngest  cliildrcn  she  had  never  seen  as  they  had  been  born  since  she  became 
blind.  Her  children  were  adopted  by  Dr.  Eliot  and  placed  in  a  mission  school  on  Eighth 
street,  and  the  mother  was  sent  to  a  hospital,  where  Dr.  Pope  performed  an  operation ; 
the  cataracts  were  removed  from  her  eyes  and  her  sight  restored.  Her  children  were  then 
returned  to  her.  In  consequence  of  the  invasion  of  Missouri  by  Price  in  the  fall  of  186-1 
thousands  of  Union  refugees,  wholly  destitute,  came  to   St.  Louis. 

"The  military  authorities  authorized  a  charity  ration  and  shelter,  ])ut  all  other  ex- 
penses, clothing,  hospital  treatment,  teachers  for  the  children,  were  borne  by  the  Sanitary 
Commission.  Its  area  of  beneficence  extended  over  the  vast  territory  from  St.  Louis 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  westward  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Wherever  troops  were 
the  commission  forwarded  supplies.  Every  call  for  help  from  friend  or  foe  was  instantly 
responded  to." 

Mr.  Yeatman  and  the  Freedmen's  Bureau. 

Catholic  in  his  conception  of  the  commission's  purposes,  this  southern  bom 
man,  once  a  slave-holder,  recognized  the  necessities  of  the  freedmen.  Great 
numbers  of  these  ex-slaves  had  drifted  away  from  the  plantations  and  into 
communilie.s.  The  commission  sent  physicians  and  nurses  and  then  teachers. 
Mr.  Yeatman  suggested  the  plan  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau.  He  recommended 
the  leasing  of  abandoned  plantations  to  negroes,  to  encourage  them  to  become 
self-supporting.  These  views  were  indorsed  as  offering  an  "absolute  solution  of 
the  cotton  and  negro  questions."  They  appealed  so  to  President  Lincoln  that 
he  sent  for  Mr.  Yeatman  and  offered  him  the  commissionership  of  the  Freed- 
men's Bureau.  Four  years  previously  Mr.  Yeatman,  accompanying  Hamilton 
R.  Gamble,  had  called  upon  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  was  a  Union  man.  His  step- 
father, John  Bell,  had  headed  the  Union  ticket  as  the  Presidential  nominee  the 
yejir  before.  Mr.  Yeatman  and  Mr.  Gamble  believed  that  a  pacificatory  policy, 
such  as  General  Harney  was  pursuing  in  St.  Louis,  was  wiser  than  the  more 
radical  course  advocated  by  Francis  P.  Blair,  who  wanted  Harney  superseded. 
Mr.  Lincoln  rejected  the  advice  of  his  visitors.  Mr.  Gamble  and  Mr.  Yeatman 
came  back  to  St.  Louis,  Mr.  Gamble  to  become  the  provisional  governor  of  Mis- 
souri and  to  hold  it  in  the  Union  at  the  cost  of  his  life;  Mr.  Yeatman  to  devote 
himself  unsparingly  to  the  mitigation  of  the  horrors  of  war. 

The  Great  Sanitary  Fair. 

The  Western  Sanitary  Commission  faced  a  depleted  treasury  at  the  beginning 
of  1864.  The  sources  of  revenue  seemed  exhausted.  A  great  fair  was  planned. 
On  the  1st  of  February  the  organization  was  formed.  On  the  17th  of  May  the 
fair  opened.  The  magnitude  and  success  of  that  fair  are  worthy  of  place  in 
history.  That  a  city  so  stricken  as  St.  Louis  had  been  could  plan  and  carr\ 
through  such  a  movement  is  the  wonderful  fact.  The  building  constructed  for 
the  fair  was  500  feet  long.    It  extended  along  Twelfth  street  from  St.  Charles  to 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  791 

Olive,  with  wings  loo  feet  long  on  Locust  street.  In  the  center  was  a  great 
rotunda  seventy-five  feet  across  and  fifty  feet  high.  In  this  central  space  were 
decorative  features — flags  and  evergreens  and  flowers  and  battle  trophies.  Gifts 
of  articles  to  be  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  commission  came  from  as  far  east 
as  Maine  and  as  far  west  as  Nevada.  But  Missourians  gave  in  numberless  ways 
and  in  marvelous  generosity.  Every  element  in  the  population  was  represented 
among  the  givers.  The  contributions  were  classified  and  put  on  sale  in  depart- 
ments. There  were  agricultural  implements  and  works  of  art.  Such  entertain- 
ment features  as  the  curiosity  shop,  the  skating  park  and  the  gallery  of  fine  arts 
were  provided.  The  Holland  kitchen  and  the  New  England  kitchen  catered  to 
the  crowds.  A  theater  presented  dramas.  Military  bands  gave  concerts.  Guard 
duty  was  performed  by  colored  soldiers.  ' 

The  fair  put  into  the  treasury  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  $554,591- 
That  was  at  the  rate  of  $3.50  for  every  man,  %voman  and  child  in  St.  Louis. 
The  fair  enabled  the  commission  to  go  on  with  its  work  to  the  end  of  the  war, 
and  to  give  the  Ladies  Union  Aid  Society  $50,000  for  hospital  service  and  for 
the  assistance  of  soldiers'  families.  The  sum  of  $1,000  a  month  was  devoted 
to  making  the  freed  slaves  self-sustaining  and  $40,000  was  expended  in  the 
maintenance  of  a  home  for  soldiers'  orphans  at  Webster  Groves.  One  who  was 
especially  active  in  the  planning  and  conduct  of  the  fair  has  commented  upon  it: 
"But  the  fair  was  a  blessing  not  only  to  refugees  and  freedmen,  to  the  sick  and 
wounded  in  hospitals,  to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  our  slain  heroes,  but  was 
also  a  measureless  boon  to  St.  Louis.  It  was  one  more  mighty  agency  for  curing 
us  of  our  selfishness.  For  a  time  at  least  it  broke  upon  our  commercialism,  and 
led  us  to  think  of  others  and  to  do  something  for  their  welfare." 

The  Assessnient  of  Southern  Sjrmpathizers. 

In  the  summer  of  1862  there  issued  from  the  general  commanding  at  St. 
Louis  an  order  "to  assess  and  collect  without  unnecessary  delay  the  sum  of  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars  from  the  secessionists  and  southern  sympathizers"  of 
the  city  and  county  of  St.  Louis.  The  order  stated  that  the  money  was  to  be 
"used  in  subsisting,  clothing  and  arming  the  enrolled  militia  while  in  active 
.ervice,  and  in  providing  for  the  support  of  the  families  of  such  militiamen  and 
United  States  volunteers  as  may  be  destitute."  It  was  extended  to  other  parts  of 
the  state. 

The  unpleasant  duty  of  making  and  collecting  the  assessment  was  imposed 
upon  half  a  dozen  of  the  best  known  citizens  of  St.  Louis.  The  assessment 
was  begun.  Collections  were  enforced  by  the  military.  Suddenly  the  board 
having  the  matter  in  charge  suspended  the  work.  The  order  countermanding 
the  assessment  came  from  Washington.  It  was  terse:  "As  there  seems  to  be 
no  present  military  necessity  for  the  enforcement  of  this  assessment,  all  pro- 
_  ceedings  under  the  order  will  be  suspended." 

Two  weeks  before  General  Halleck  directed  discontinuance,  a  letter  was  sent 
to  Washington  saying  "that  the  'assessment'  now  in  progress,  to  be  levied  upon 
southern  sympathizers  and  secessionists,  is  working  evil  in  this  community  and 
doing  great  harm  to  the  Union  cause.  Among  our  citizens  are  all  shades  of 
opinion,  from  that  kind  of  neutrality  which  is  hatred  in  disguise,  through  all 


792  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  grades  of  lukewarmness,  'sympathy'  and  hesitating  zeal  up  to  the  full  loyalty 
which  your  memorialists  claim  to  ]jossess.  To  assort  and  classify  them,  so  as  to 
indicate  the  (li\iding  line  of  loyalty  and  disloyalty,  and  to  establish  the  rates  of 
jiayment  ljy  those  falHng  below  it  is  a  task  of  great  difficulty." 

Reviewing  the  work  as  far  as  it  had  progressed,  the  writer  continued:  '"The 
natural  consequence  has  been  that  many  feel  themselves  deeply  aggrieved,  not 
having  supposed  themselves  liable  to  the  suspicion  of  disloyalty :  many  escape 
assessment  who,  if  any,  deserve  it;  and  a  general  feeling  of  inef|uality  in  the  rule 
and  ratio  of  assessments  prevails.  This  was  unavoidable,  for  no  two  tribunals 
could  agree  upon  the  details  of  such  an  assessment  either  as  to  the  persons  or 
the  amounts  to  be  assessed  without  more  complete  knowledge  of  facts  than  are 
to  be  attained  from  ex  parte  testimony  and  current   reports."    - 

The  writer  appealed  for  a  stay  of  the  assessment  proceedings.  When  the 
letter  was  written  the  intention  was  to  have  it  signed  by  a  number  of  loyal  citi- 
zens of  St.  Louis.  But  the  leading  Union  men  declined  to  sign.  Their  feeling 
against  the  southern  sympathizers  was  bitter.  The  war  sentiment  gripped.  Busi- 
ness had  been  paralyzed.  Sentiment  rather  sustained  a  policy  which  proposed 
to  make  sympathizers  pay  heavily  toward  the  war  expense.  One  man,  with  a 
deep  sense  of  justice,  stood  out  alone.-  He  had  been  among  the  foremost  the 
year  previous  in  counseling  the  aggressive  measures  which  made  St.  Louis  a 
Union  city.  But  now,  when  the  Union  elements  were  all  powerful,  his  appeal 
for  fairness  toward  the  minority  got  no  hearing.  He  signed  his  letter  and  sent 
it  to  Governor  Gamble  who  forwarded  it  at  once  to  Washington.  Years  after  the 
war  this  letter  was  printed  in  a  St.  Louis  newspaper  but  without  the  signature 
and  without  mention  of  the  name  of  Rev.  Dr.  William  G.  Eliot. 

The  character  of  the  assessment  proceedings  will  seem  almost  incredible  to 
this  generation.  When  the  board  had  organized  to  make  the  assessment  the 
president  addressed  a  request  to  "the  unconditional  Union  men  of  St.  Louis" 
to  send  in  "such  information  as  they  have  in  their  possession  which  will  aid  in 
carrying  out  the  requirements"  of  the  orders.  He  concluded  his  request  with, 
"the  board  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  all  communications  and  evidence  will 
be  considered  strictly  private." 

Desperate  Nature  of  the  Conflict. 

Return  I.  Holcombe,  during  the  years  he  passed  going  from  one  Missouri 
county  to  another,  gathering  material  for  local  histories,  was  deeply  impressed 
with  the  information  given  about  the  conditions  of  the  sixties.  He  wrote  for 
the  Globe-Democrat  in   1891 : 

"Perhaps  the  desperate  nature  of  the  civil  war  in  Missouri  will  never  lie  correctly 
understood  save  hy  the  actual  participants.  It  was  bad  to  begin  with,  and  it  grew  worse  all 
the  way  down  to  the  close,  two  months  after  Lee  surrendered.  Family  quarrels  are  al- 
ways the  bitterest,  and  next  to  them  are  neighbors'  feuds.  This  was  a  war  between  fellow- 
citizens  and  neighbors,  and  sometimes  it  was  between  kinsmen — even  brothers.  It  was 
not  a  war  of  races,  nor  of  classes.  Proletarians  and  patricians  were  equally  divided  as  to 
sides.  Some  of  the  largest  slaveholders  were  the  stanchest  Unionists,  and  fought  for  the 
old  flag,  while  innumerable  men,  who,  if  a  slave  were  to  be  sold  by  the  ounce,  could  not 
buy  his  little  finger,  lost  limb  and  life  wliile  fighting  for  the  Confederacy,  whose  corner- 
stone was  human  slavery.     Plenty  of  men  of  northern  birth  wore  the  gray,  and  the  guerrilla 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  793 

king,  Quantrell,  was  an  Ohio  man,  born  and  reared.  Some  of  the  best  blood  of  the 
South  was  hottest  for  the  Union,  and  South  Carolinians,  Virginians  and  Mississippians 
fought  to  save  it  against  Pennsylvanians,  Ohioans  and  Illinois  men  who  tried  to  destroy  it. 
"I  do  not  know  what  made  it  so  desperate.  I  ^do  not  know  what  instigated  men  who 
believed  in  the  Bible  to  go  about  robbing,  plundering,  house-burning  and  murdering  in 
cold  blood,  and  this  is  what  some  men  of  both  sides  did.  There  were  all  sorts  of  trans- 
formations. Sundaj'  school  boys,  who  could  repeat  the  beatitudes  without  skipping  a  word, 
became  as  fierce  and  cruel  as  Comanches,  and  for  years  did  not  see  the  Deity  in  the 
clouds,  nor  hear  him  in  the  wind.  I  think  it  is  only  the  truth  to  say  that  the  pro-Con- 
federates became  the  more  demoralized  of  the  two  parties.  Perhaps  this  was  because  after 
Wilson's  creek  and  Lexington,  their  cause  steadily  lost,  and  the  prospects  for  its  ultimate 
success  daily  waned,  and  desperation  comes  oftener  than  resignation  from  defeat,  and 
madness,  hot  as  vitriol,  frequently  succeeds  the  coldest  despair. 

When  Women  Took  Sides. 

"Women  became  as  bad  as  their  lirothers.  From  the  sewing  of  bandages  and  the 
scraping  of  lint,  came  the  molding  of  bullets,  the  smuggling  of  caps,  the  making  of  cart- 
ridges, and  then  lying  and  spying  and  the  luring  of  men  to  death.  In  the  country  it  was 
hard  to  find  a  woman  no  matter  how  fair  her  face  and  refined  her  character,  who  was 
really  a  non-combatant,  and  was  not  guilty  of  numerous  acts  of  hostility,  covert  and 
overt. 

"Riding  along  from  Brunswick  to  Laclede,  in  the  summer  of  1863.  Lieutenant  William 
Reeves  of  Daviess  county,  a  Union  officer  of  militia,  drew  bridle  at  a  little  cabin  east  of 
Compton's  ferry  in  Chariton  county.  A  bright,  cheery-faced  little  woman  met  him  at 
the  door,  in  one  hand  a  butcher  knife,  in  the  other  a  whetstone,  her  face  abeam,  her  eyes 
aglow.  'Hush !'  she  said,  'there's  a  reb  in  the  back  room  sound  asleep.  Go  in,  quick,  and 
kill  him.  I  told  him  I  was  a  good  secesh,  too,'  she  went  on,  'and  he  says  he  is  a  bush- 
whacker and  has  been  two  nights  without  sleep,  and  so  I  fed  him  and  coaxed  him  to  go 
to  bed,  and  he  has  been  snoring  for  two  hours.  Hurry  in ;  don't  mind  the  blood  on  the 
bed.' 

"'And  what  were  you  going  to  do  with  that  knife?'  asked  the  officer. 

"  'As  soon  as  I  got  it  sharp  enough,'  she  replied,  'I  was  going  to  stick  it  through  his 
heart.' 

"Think  of  that!  And  three  years  before  this  little  woman,  into  whom  the  spirit  of 
Jael  seemed  to  have  entered,  was  a  Sunday  school  teacher,  earnestly  impressing  on  chil- 
dren the  divine  injunction,  'All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you  do  ye 
even  so  to  them.' 

"The  officer  secured  the  bushwhacktr's  arms,  then  the  bushwhacker  himself,  and  took 
him  to  Laclede  a  prisoner,  instead  of  slaying  him  where  he  slept,  to  the  manifest  disappoint- 
ment and  sorrow  of  the  little  hostess,  who  petulantly  said,  'I  have  seen  rebs  after  they 
were  dead,  but  I   wanted  to  see  one  die.' " 

Gleams  of  Humor. 

Civil  war  in  Missouri  was  not  altogether  without  its  humorous  incidents. 
General  Ben  Prentiss,  afterwards  "the  hero  of  Shiloh,"  marched  into  Paris,  the 
county  seat  of  Monroe,  just  following  a  big  demonstration  of  sympathy  for  the 
South.  He  rounded  up  several  scores  of  the  well-to-do  citizens  and  proceeded 
to  levy  an  assessment  after  a  method  all  his  own.  As  one  after  another  of 
the  Parisians  was  brought  before  him.  the  general  would  ask :  "Well,  Mr.  Blank, 
how  do  you  stand.  North  or  South?"  As  the  general  had  gathered  information 
in  advance,  there  wasn't  much  use  in  prevaricating.  In  one  case  the  citizen 
replied:  "General,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  lean  just  a  leedle  to  the  South."  "Twenty- 
tive  dollars,  Mr.  Blank."  the  general  decided  promptly. 


794  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Alissourians  did  not  stay  out  of  the  Civil  war,  on  one  side  or  the  other,  for 
ordinary  and  in  some  instances  for  extraordinary  physical  defects.  One  Mis- 
sourian  with  a  wooden  leg  went  into  the  war.  His  name  was  P.  Wells.  He  was 
a  constituent  of  Champ  Clark  who. said  proudly  of  him  that  he  was  "the  only 
soldier,  living  or  dead,  so  far  as  history  tells,  that  ever  had  a  wooden  leg  shot 
c^ff  in  battle,  for  the  reason,  perhaps,  that  he  is  the  only  soldier  that  ever  went 
into  battle  with  a  wooden  leg.  He  survived  his  wound  to  become  a  wealthv  and 
enthusiastic  Populist." 

Secret  lodges  of  the  Union  League  were  one  form  of  patriotism  in  Missouri 
after  the  war  had  been  going  on  some  time.  Members  took  an  oath  "to  support 
the  government  of  the  United  States  against  all  enemies,  sacrificing  property 
and  life,  if  necessary,  to  preserve  the  Federal  Union  of  states,  to  put  down  this 
and  all  other  rebellions."  Members  of  different  lodges,  uncertain  as  to  each 
other's  identification,  with  the  order,  went  through  this  ritual  of  recognition: 

"Have  you  seen   Sam?" 

"I  have." 

"And  will  draw  Washington's  sword?" 

"And  have  drawn  Washington's  sword." 

"Advance  and  lock  arms  and  one  say  'Union.'  the  other,  'forever.'  " 

"Crazy  Sherman." 

From  the  chaotic  conditions  of  the  war  in  Missouri  came  the  story  that  Gen- 
eral William  Tecumseh  Sherman  was  insane.  On  the  23rd  of  November  Sher- 
man, having  been  relieved  in  Kentucky,  arrived  in  St.  Louis  and  reported  to 
Halleck,  who  had  succeeded  Fremont.  He  was  sent  at  once  to  Western  Missouri 
on  an  inspection  tour,  with  orders  to  take  command  in  case  there  was  danger  of 
attack.  Within  a  week  Sherman  was  telegraphing  from  Sedalia  the  most  alarm- 
ing reports.  He  said  that  Sterling  Price's  army  was  approaching  in  force  and 
that  an  attack  was  imminent.  He  began  to  concentrate  the  troops  for  the 
expected  battle.  Pope,  who  received  one  of  Sherman's  orders,  sent  in  a  vigorous 
protest  to  Halleck.  Other  generals  made  reports  which  did  not  agree  with  the 
representations  from  Sedalia.  Halleck  called  Sherman  back  to  St.  Louis  and 
sent  to  Washington  a  letter  which  remained  buried  in  the  files  of  the  War 
Department  nearlv  thirty  years — long  after  the  death  of  Sherman. 

"(Confidential.) 

"St.  Louis,  Mo.,  December  2.  1861. — Maj.  Gen.  George  B.  McClellan,  Commander-in- 
chief,  Washington,  D.  C. :  General — As  stated  in  a  former  communication,  Brig.  Gen. 
W.  T.  Sherman,  on  reporting  here  for  duty,  was  ordered  to  inspect  troops  (three  divisions) 
at  Sedalia  and  vicinity,  and  if,  in  the  absence  of  Gen.  Pope,  he  deemed  there  was  danger  of 
an  immediate  attack,  he  was  authorized  to  assume  the  command.  He  did  so,  and  com- 
menced the  movements  of  the  troops  in  a  manner  which  I  did  not  approve,  and  counter- 
manded. I  also  received  information  from  officers  there  that  Gen.  Sherman  was  com- 
pletely 'stampeded,'  and  was  'stampeding'  the  army.  I  therefore  immediately  ordered 
him  to  this  place,  and  yesterday  gave  him  a  leave  of  absence  for  twenty  days  to  visit  his 
family  in  Ohio. 

"I  am  satisfied  that  Gen.  Sherman's  physical  and  mental  system  is  so  completely 
broken  by  labor  and  care  as  to  render  him  for  the  present  entirely  unfit  for  duty.  Perhaps 
a  few  weeks'  rest  may  restore  him.  I  am  satisfied  that  in  his  present  condition  it  would 
be  dangerous  to  give  him  a  command  here. 


(IKXERAL  A.  .).  SMITH 


CK.VKRAI,   \V.   T.   SIIKK.MAN" 


IRONTON  AND  THE  ARCADIA  VALLEY 

The  B.-ittle  of  Irontoii  is  known  in  Civil  \v:ir  history  as  the  Thermopylae  of  the  West.     Arcadia 
Valley,  aeeounted  one  of  the  finest   natural  parks  of  the  X'uiteil   States 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  797 

"Can't  you  send  me  a  Brigadier-General  of  high  rank,  capable  of  commanding  a  corps 
d'armee  of  three  or  four  divisions?  Say  Heintzelman,  F.  J.  Porter,  Franklin  or  McCall. 
Those  of  lower  grades  would  be  ranked  by  others  here.  Grant  can  not  be  taken  from  Cairo, 
nor  Curtis  from  this  place  at  present.  Sigel  is  sick  and  Prentiss  operating  against  insurg- 
ents in  Northern  Missouri,  I  dare  not  intrust  the  'mustangs'  with  high  commands  in 
the  face  of  the  enemy.    Vcrj'  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"H.  W.   Halleck,  Major  General." 

Sherman  Asks  an  Explanation. 

This  letter  was  in  Halleck's  handwriting.  It  was  not  made  public  biit  the 
news  that  Sherman  had  broken  down  physically  and  mentally  got  into  the  news- 
papers prominly.  "Crazy  Sherman"  was  the  headline  and  common  expression. 
Sherman  must  have  suspected  or  had  some  intimation  of  the  source,  for  he  wrote 
only  ten  days  later  than  the  date  of  Halleck's  confidential  letter: 

"L.\.\c.\STER,  O.,  December  u,  1861. — Maj.  Gen.  Halleck,  St.  Louis,  Mo.:  Dear  Sir — I 
believe  you  will  be  frank  enough  to  answer  me  if  you  deem  the  steps  I  took  at  Sedalia  as 
an  evidence  of  want  of  mind. 

"They  may  have  been  the  result  of  an  excess  of  caution  on  my  part,  but  I  do  think 
the  troops  were  too  much  s-rung  out,  and  should  be  concentrated,  with  more  men  left 
along  to  guard  the  track.     Thi?  animals,  cattle  especially,  will  be  much  exposed  this  winter. 

"I  set  a  much  higher  measure  of  danger  on  the  "acts  of  unfriendly  inhabitants  than 
most  officers  do,  because  I  ha»  e  lived  in  Missouri  and  the  South,  and  know  that  in  their 
individual  characters  they  will  do  more  acts  of  hostility  than  northern  farmers  or  people 
could  bring  themselves  to  perpetrate.  In  my  judgment  Price's  army  in  the  aggregate  is 
less  to  be  feared  than  when  in  scattered  bands. 

"I  write  to  you  because  a  Cincinnati  paper,  whose  reporter  I  imprisoned  in  Louis- 
ville for  visiting  our  camps  after  I  had  forbidden  him  leave  to  go,  has  announced  that 
I  am  insane,  and  alleges  as  a  reason  that  at  Sedalia  my  acts  were  so  mad  that  sub- 
ordinate officers  refused  to  obey.  I  know  of  no  order  I  gave  that  was  not  obeyed,  except 
Gen.  Pope's,  to  advance  his  division  to  Sedalia,  which  order  was  countermanded  by  you, 
and  the  fact  communicated  to  me. 

"These  newspapers  have  us  in  their  power,  and  can  destroy  us  as  they  please,  and 
this  one  can  destroy  my  usefulness  by  depriving  me  of  the  confidence  of  officers  and  men. 

"I  will  be  in  St.  Louis  next  week,  and  will  be  guided  by  your  commands  and  judgment. 
T   am,  etc., 

"W.  T.  Sherman-, 

Brigadier   General." 

An  Inconsistent  Reply. 

Halleck  replied  at  once  but  in  a  manner  that  was  not  satisfactory  to  Sherman 
and  not  entirely  consistent  with  his  letter  to  Gen.  McClellan : 

"St.  Louis,  December  18,  1861. — Brig.  Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman,  Lancaster,  O. :  My  bear 
General — Yours  of  the  12th  was  received  a  day  or  two  ago,  but  was  mislaid  for  the 
moment  among  private  papers,  or  I  should  have  answered  sooner.  The  newspaper  attacks 
are  certainly  shameless  and  scandalous,  but  I  can  not  agree  with  jou  that  they  have  us  in 
Iheir  power  'to  destroy  us  as  they  please.'  I  certainly  get  my  share  of  abuse,  but  it  will 
not  disturb  me. 

"Your  movement  of  the  troops  was  not  countermanded  by  me  because  I  thought  it 
an  unwise  one  in  itself,  but  because  I  was  not  then  ready  for  it.  I  had  better  information 
of  Price's  movements  than  you  had,  and  I  had  no  apprehension  of  an  attack.  I  intended 
to  concentrate  the  forces  on  that  line,  but  I  wished  the  movement  delayed  until  I  could 
determine  on  a  better  position.  After  receiving  Lieut.  Col.  ifcPherson's  report  I  made 
precisely   the   location   you  had   ordered.     I   was   desirous   at   the   time   not   to  prevent   the 


798  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

advance  of  Price  by  any  movement  on  our  part,  hoping  that  he  would  move  on  Lexington, 
hut  finding  that  he  had  determined  to  remain  at  Osceola  for  some  time  at  least,  I  made 
the  movement  you  proposed.  As  you  could  not  know  my  plans  you  and  others  may  have 
misconstrued  the  reason  of  my  countermanding  your  orders. 

"I  deem  it  my  duty,  however,  to  say  to  you,  General,  in  all  frankness  and  kindness, 
that  remarks  made  by  you,  both  at  Sedalia  and  in  this  city  (if  I  am  correctly  informed), 
about  our  defenseless  condition,  and  the  probability  that  the  enemy  would  take  this  city, 
have  led  to  unfair  and  harsh  comments  by  those  who  did  not  know.  I  say  this  merely  to 
put  you  on  your  guard  in  future. 

"I  hope  to  see  you  well  enough  for  duty  soon.  Our  reorganization  goes  on  slowly, 
but  we  will  effect  it  in  time.     Yours,  truly, 

"H.    W.    H.^LLECK." 

Relatives  Take  Up  the  Controversy. 

Sherman  came  back  to  Missouri  when  his  leave  was  up.  Relatives  of  Sher- 
man, notablj'  his  father-in-law,  Thomas  Ewing,  Sr.,  took  up  the  story  of  in- 
sanity with  a  view  of  tracing  the  authorship.  Halleck  wrote  a  letter  to  Mc- 
Clellan,  guarded  and  diplomatic: 

"Headquartkrs  Department  of  the  Missouri,  St.  Louis,  January  22,  1862. — Maj. 
Gen.  George  B.  McClellan,  Gencral-in-chief  of  the  army,  Wasliington  :  General — I  wrote 
you  in  November  respecting  tlie  health  of  Brig.  Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman  and  my  reasons  for 
giving  him  a  leave  of  twenty  days.  He  returned  and  reported  for  duty  at  the  end  of  that 
time,  greatly  improved,  but  not,  in  my  opinion,  entirely  in  condition  to  take  the  field.  I 
therefore  placed  him  in  command  of  the  Camp  of  Instruction  at  Benton  Barracks,  where 
he  has  rendered  most  excellent  service,  while  at  the  same  time  his  health  has  gradually 
improved.  I  think  in  a  very  short  time  he  will  be  fully  prepared  to  resume  his  duties 
in  the  field,  either  in  this  department  or  in  any  other  to  which  he  may  be  assigned. 

"I  have  made  tliis  explanation  as  I  deemed  it  due  to  both  Gen.  Sherman  and  myself, 
inasmuch  as  some  of  his  friends  may  not  imderstand  why  younger  officers  have  been 
placed  in  more  active  commands.  I  know  that  Gen.  Sherman  himself  is  perfectly  satis- 
fied witli  the  arrangement,  and  will  cheerfully  do  duty  either  in  tliis  department  or  in 
any  other  to  which  he  may  be  as.'iigned.  I  should  be  very  sorry  to  lose  his  services  here, 
but  will  oppose  no  obstacle  to  the  wishes  of  himself  or  friends  if  a  transfer  should  be 
desired.     Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"H.  W.   Hai-leck." 

On  February  15,  1862.  Halleck  wrote  a  fourth  letter  on  the  subject  of  Sher- 
man's mental  condition.  He  addressed  it  to  Ewing,  partially  admitting  the  im- 
pression he  had  received  from  Sherman's  actions  at  Sedalia  and  making  inany 
explanations.  The  relations  between  Halleck  and  Sherman  continued  to  be 
agreeable  on  the  face.  Sherman  not  long  afterwards  got  into  the  field.  After 
Shiloh,  the  newspapers  ceased  to  call  him  "crazy."  The  story  of  insanity  was 
only  one  of  the  strange  and  startling  episodes  of  the  war  in  Missouri. 

Missouri  in  the  War  Records. 

More  than  one  hundred  large  books  were  filled  with  the  war  records.  In  all 
of  these  volumes  there  were  no  other  that  presented  such  revelations  of  the 
horrors  of  the  conflict  as  those  which  pertained  to  Missouri.  Four  volumes,  of 
1,000  pages  each,  preserved  the  official  history  of  what  took  place  in  this  state 
during  part  of   1864. 

"Our  troops  everywhere   now   consider  it   right   to  kill   bushwhackers,  even 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  799 

after  they  surrender,"  Maj.  Gen.  S.  R.  Curtis  wrote,  dated  the  middle  of  October. 
"Their  recent  barbarous  butcheries  in  North  Missouri,  and  the  tortured  bodies  of 
their  victims,  and  the  scalps  and  ears  worn  on  the  bu.sh whackers'  bridles,  wilt 
evince  a  disregard  of  all  rules  of  war,  and  even  savage  barbarity.  I  think,  there- 
fore, the  sympathy  of  your  people  better  be  devoted  to  better  objects  of  human 
sympathy." 

This  was  a  private  letter  in  reply  to  one  deploring  some  sj)ecified  atrocity. 
It  began :  "Your  letter  concerning  the  disposition  of  certain  brigands  calling 
themselves  Confederate  soldiers  is  received.  1  have  not  the  least  sympathy  for 
such  fiends;  we  are  disposing  of  them  very  summarily  everywhere.  When  men 
in  our  rear  betray  the  parole  implied  by  their  shelter  under  the  roofs  of  our 
people  left  at  our  homes  they  deserve  hanging  or  any  other  sort  of  butchery,  as 
you  denominate  the  taking  of  their  lives.  W^ar  is  butchery  on  a  grand  scale,  and 
there  is  none  of  its  horrors  more  justifiable  than  those  which  destroy  the  sneaks 
and  cowards  that  steadily  seek  to  carry  on  war  in  rear  of  our  armed  forces,  and 
disguised  as  citizens.  Brigands  have  no  rights,  and  Napoleon  had  them  shot 
down  by  regiments,  even  when  they  were  caught  in  garbs  of  some  military 
show." 

That  was  the  way  war  was  waged  in  Missouri  the  last  half  of  '64. 

The  Policy  of  No  Quarter. 

Two  messages  from  Gen.  Fisk  on  the  progress  of  a  bushwhacker  hunt  are 
interesting.  More  particularly  because  they  drew  from  headquarters  at  St.  Louis 
a  plain  expression  of  the  p)olicy  of  no  quarter.    Gen.   Fisk  wired : 

"The  bushwhacker  hunt  is  progressing  successfully.  Our  forces  are  cap- 
turing and  killing  a  large  number  of  the  guerrillas  and  securing  their  horses  and 
arms.  The  brush  on  Platte  and  Fishing  rivers,  and  in  the  country  between, 
swarms  with  the  Thornton  squads.    Our  dragnet  will  bring  them  out." 

"The  Thornton  conspiracy  is  fast  flickering  out.  We  are  drag-netting  every 
brush-patch  and  killing  a  good  many  of  the  rascals.  Capt.  Ford's  Paw  Paw 
Militia  have  today  sent  in  a  petition  a.sking  that  they  b?  permitted  to  turn  again 
and  live.    What  shall  I  do  with  them?" 

To  the  inquiry  about  the  disposition  of  those  who  wanted  to  surrender  Gen. 
O.  D.  Greene  replied : 

"Your  dispatch  asking  for  instructions  as  to  the  manner  of  disposing  of  such  of  the 
Paw  Paws  as  went  over  to  Thornton  and  are  now  coming  in  and  giving  themselves  up  is 
received.  My  opinion  of  the  matter  is  that  as  many  of  them  as  are  captured  in  arms  and 
resisting  should  not  betrought  in  as  prisoners.  This  not  from  a  spirit  of  revenge  or 
blood  thirstiness.  but  as  mercy  to  them,  for  under  no  conceivable  circumstances  can  they 
escape  the  penalty  of  their  unpardonable  crimes.  In  the  history  of  the  world  there  is  not 
an  instance  of  a  soldier's  deserting  to  the  enemy  being  pardoned  if  caught.  Of  course,  if 
any  lay  down  their  arms  and  surrender  without  being  so  compelled  by  the  force  of  arms 
it  would  be  murder  to  slay  them.     They  must  be  held  for  action  in  due  course  of  law." 

"fhe  policy  of  extermination  and  banishment  was  not  only  countenanced  in 
execution  by  subordinates,  but  openly  advocated  by  the  highest  authorities. 
"Kill"  was  the  order  from  headquarters,  and  the  L'nion  scouting  parties  return- 
ing from  the  brush  reported  the  dead  as  hunters  might  their  strings  of  game. 


800  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

A  personal  letter  in  July  to  Gen.  Rosecrans  from  E.  M.'Sanniel,  president  of 
the   Farmers  Bank  of   Missouri  at   Liberty,  contained  the   following: 

"I  am  grieved  to  inform  you  that  this  morning,  while  Capt.  Keinper  was  on  a  scout 
in  this  county  (Clay),  about  ten  miles  from  Liberty,  the  bushwhackers  fired  on  his  men 
from  a  safe  position,  wounding  Capt.  Kemper  (who  has  just  been  brought  in)  and  two 
others,  and  killing  two  more.  The  county  is  in  a  deplorable  condition.  Nearly  every  Union 
man  in  the  county  has  come  to  town  for  safety,  and  nearly  all  talk  of  leaving  the  county. 
Last  week  B.  A.  Bailey,  S.  G.  Bigelow  and  John  Bigelow  (Union  men)  were  shot  down 
and  killed,  two  at  their  homes  and  one  on  his  way  home  from  town.  Is  there  no  remedy 
for  those  who  have,  through  trials  and  sufferings,  adhered  to  the  flag  of  their   fathers?" 

"Burn  Him  Cleaji." 

"My  dispatches  of  today,''  Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fisk  wrote,  "from  the  bushwhack 
hunters  report  forty-one  guerrillas  mustered  out  by  our  boys  in  the  brush  in  the 
lower  counties.  I  assure  you.  Major,  we  are  doing  all  we  can  with  the  means 
in  our  hands  to  exterminate  the  murdering  fiends." 

To  Col.  J.  T.  K.  Hayward,  at  Hannibal,  Gen.  Fisk  telegraphed  about  the 
same  time : 

"Make  your  subdistrict  a  very  hot  place  for  rebels  and  a  secure  place  for 
loyalists.  Put  down,  drive  out,  kill  and  exterminate  every  guerrilla  and  thief  you 
can  find." 

The  above  was  in  reply  to  the  following  from  Cul.  Hayward  asking  authority 
to  use  extreme  measures : 

"I  think  all  who  are  proved  to  be  in  a  civil  complicity  with  bushwhackers  should  be 
shot.  When  a  known  disloyal  man  feeds  and  harbors  bushwhackers  and  can't  show  that 
he  did  all  he  could  to  prevent  it,  and  to  give  the  most  speedy  notice  of  it,  burn  him  clean. 
In  this  way  you  soon  make  it  for  the  interest  of  disloyal  men  to  take  sides  actively.  If 
they  go  to  the  bush  shoot  them ;  if  they  don't  you  will  find  them  at  work  in  earnest  to  put 
a  stop  to  guerrilla  depredations.  This  may  not  look  well  in  a  published  order,  but  I  think 
it  would  work  well  in  practice.  When  our  men  leave  home  to  do  duty  let  the  disloyal  at 
home  take  care  of  their  crops.  Our  Union  men  have  always  borne  all  the  suffering;  let 
it  fall  now  on  the  other  side,  and  all  good  men  will  bless  you.  I  hear  today  that  nearly 
every  loyal  man  in  Ralls  County  is  a  refugee  from  home.  The  above  will  be  my  pro- 
gramme  unless   you   countermand    it.   and   don't   require   positive   orders." 

From  Col.  Switzler's  View  Point. 

So  mild  a  mannered  man  as  Wni.  F.  Switzler  indorsed  the  plan  of  extermina- 
tion. In  August  he  wrote  to  Gen.  Fisk:  "I  fear  that  your  duties  elsewhere  in 
directing  the  movements  of  our  troops  against  the  rebel  cut-throats  and  thieves 
with  which  the  district  is  infested  will  prevent  you  from  being  present  at  our 
meeting.  This  I  deeply  regret,  as  well  on  account  of  the  cause  of  your  inability 
to  attend  as  the  fact  itself.  Having  no  convenient  escort,  and  it  being  rather 
unhealthy  to  travel  in  Boone  without  one,  I  could  not  myself  attend  the  meeting, 
but  the  presence  of  Maj.  Rollins,  whom  I  saw  here  on  his  return  from  Wash- 
ington, supersedes  the  necessity.  I  hope  it  will  turn  out  well,  though  the  reign 
of  terror  is  so  great  in  Boone  I  fear  the  result.  As  soon  as  advised  I  will  write 
you  again.  Meantime  be  assured  of  my  cordial  co-operation  with  you  in  your 
noble  efforts  to  overthrow  this  wicked  rebellion  and  drive  from  our  state  or 
exterminate  the  bushwhackers  and  murderers  infesting  it." 


CIVIL  WAR  IX  MISSOURI  801 

In  a  postscript   Mr.  Switzler,  writing  from  St.  Charles  to  Gen.   Fisk,  said: 

"Quite  a  serious  disturbance  is  brewing  in  this  county,  growing  out  of  the  outrages 
against  peaceable  citizens  by  a  force  of  Germans.  As  I  understand  it,  the  trouble  is 
about  this :  One  evening  last  week  a  report  reached  the  neighborhood  of  O'Fallon,  in  this 
county,  that  Troy  had  been  captured  by  700  bushwhackers,  whereupon  many  members  of 
a  militia  company  (Enrolled  Missouri  Militia),  composed  mostly  of  Germans,  collected 
with  the  view  of  marching  to  its  rescue.  Excited  by  the  report  and  many  of  them  drunk, 
they  went  through  the  neighborhood  at  night,  pressing  horses  and  guns,  in  doing  which  they 
unfortunately  abused,  cursed  and  exasperated  several  quiet  citizens  and  families,  insulted 
one  or  more  ladies,  used  personal  violence  against  one,  hurt  with  a  gun  very  badly  a 
Union  man  who  discredited  the  report  and  refused  to  go,  threatened  to  kill  several,  broke 
open  houses,  shot  into  one  several  times,  greatly  to  the  danger  and  terror  of  its  inmates. 
Several  citizens  are  now  in  this  city,  refugees  from  the  neighborhood,  afraid  to  remain 
at  home,  owing  to  the   violence  that   is   threatened   them." 

Missoviri  Warfare  as  John  F.  Philips  Saw  It. 

A  vivid  illustration  of  the  character  of  this  Missouri  warfare  is  given  in  a 
report  made  by  Col.  John  F.  Philips,  later  Judge  Philips,  of  the  Federal  court 
in  the  Western  District  of  Missouri,  by  appointment  from  President  Cleveland. 
In  the  summer  of  1864  Col.  Philips,  in  command  of  the  7th  Cavalry,  Missouri 
State  Militia,  was  hunting  guerrillas.  From  Camp  Grover — mark  the  name — he 
sent  in  this  story : 

"I  sent  Maj.  Houts,  of  my  command,  with  150  men,  northwest  of  this  place,  with 
instructions  to  scout  the  countrj'  thoroughly.  They  went  twenty-five  miles,  and  then  turn- 
ing north  struck  the  Missouri  river  at  Wellington.  In  this  march  they  discovered  abundant 
signs  of  the  presence  of  guerrillas.  This  country  is  a  safe  covert  for  these  outlaws.  It  is  a 
complete  jungle  and  a  perfect  solitude,  the  adjacent  country  to  the  Sni  affording  forage 
and  rations.  Arriving  at  Wellington  about  10  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning,  Maj.  Houts  learned 
from  a  reliable  contraband  that  two  guerrillas  had  been  in  this  town  that  morning,  and 
her  opinion  was  they  had  gone  to  a  church — Warder's  church — distant  two  miles,  where  a 
Hardshell  was  in  the  habit  of  preaching  to  the  'Brushers'  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
good  whisky  and  guerrilla  warfare.  The  Major,  with  accustomed  promptness,  at  once 
detached  about  fifty  men,  under  command  of  the  intrepid  and  cool-headed  Capt.  Hen- 
slee.  Company  L,  and  sent  him  to  this  church.  The  force  approached  this  church  very 
stealthily.  It  is  situated  on  a  high  eminence,  a  bluff  overlooking  the  Sni  river.  The 
command  had  to  reach  this  church  by  a  narrow  road,  having  to  cross  a  bridge  within 
twenty  paces  of  the  building  and  ascend  a  very  abrupt  bank.  The  captain  took  the  pre- 
caution to  send  forward  Sergt.  Brassficld  with  six  men.  with  instructions  to  dash  at  all 
hazards  over  this  bridge  up  the  hill,  and  passing  the  church  to  occupy  a  position  beyond, 
with  a  view  of  intercepting  fugitives,  and  at  the  same  time,  by  attracting  the  attention 
of  the  congregation,  to  make  a  diversion  in  favor  of  the  main  column.  The  guerrillas 
were  then  seven  or  eight  in  number,  besides  some  outpost  pickets  on  the  Lexington  road. 
The  cry  of  'Feds !'  'Feds !'  thundered  from  the  audience,  and  the  worthy  pastor,  who  was 
in  the  midst  of  a  fervent  supplication,  found  his  flock  greatly  demoralized,  and  concluded 
it  wasn't  worth  while  to  pray  any  longer  under  the  circumstances.  The  guerrillas  were 
on  the  alert,  some  at  their  horses,  some  in  the  church,  and  one.  who  was  to  be  married — 
perhaps  that  very  day — to  the  pastor's  daughter,  was  standing  at  the  window,  making 
love  to  his  inamorata.  The  guerrillas  as  quick  as  thought  saw  their  peril,  and  with  drawn 
revolvers  they  began  earnest  work,  with  a  nerve  and  determination  worthy  of  a  better 
cause.  The  captain's  whole  force  was  thrown  into  the  work.  The  women  and  children 
screamed  with  terror,  and,  rushing  wildly  from  the  church,  exhibited  a  method  in  their 
madness  by  throwing  themselves  in  front  of  the  rebel  outlaws.  Captain  H.,  whose  presence 
of  mind  is  equalled  only  by  his  gallantry,  rode  out  and  commanded  the  women  to  'squat.' 

Vol.  1—51 


802  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

They  obeyed  the  summons,  and  the  work  of  death  went  bravely  on.  Five  bushwhackers 
were  killed  outright,  the  sixth  mortally  wounded,  and  one  or  two,  despite  all  vigilance, 
made  their  escape  amid  the  furore  and  confusion.  Wilhite  and  Estes  were  numbered  among 
the  slain.  These  were  noted  and  desperate  fellows,  and  their  crimes  are  as  black  and  in- 
famous as  they  are  numerous. 

"Justice  to  merit  requires  me  to  mention  the  names  of  Privates  John  T.  Anderson, 
Company  L,  and  James  D.  Barnes,  Company  D.  Anderson  was  one  of  the  advance  who 
passed  by  the  church.  He  received  three  shots  through  his  clothes,  one  knocking  the 
skin  off  his  nose  and  one  striking  the  pistol  in  his  hand.  He  rode  right  in  the  midst  of 
the  scoundrels,  and  with  great  coolness  and  precision  shot  right  and  left,  emptying  twelve 
barrels  and  loading  four  more,  all  the  while  directing  the  movements  of  other  soldiers 
around  him.  Anderson  was  badly  wounded  a  year  ago  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight  with 
Livingston  in  Southwest  Missouri.  Barnes,  discovering  one  of  the  bushwhackers  making 
his  escape,  singled  him  out,  charged  on  him,  discharging  his  rifle  flung  it  aside,  and  with 
drawn  pistol  spurred  forward,  chasing  for  half  a  mile  the  rebel  who  was  firing  back  at 
him;  Barnes,  holding  his  fire  until  he  drew  up  on  his  game,  was  just  in  the  act  of  shooting 
at  short  range  when  his  horse  fell  headlong,  precipitating  the  rider  over  his  head  with 
a  fearful  fall.  The  horse  recovered  and  ran  away  after  the  guerrilla,  carrying  equipments,  etc., 
all  of  which  was  the  private  property  of  the  soldier,  and  is  lost.  Barnes  is  a  mere  boy 
and  quite  small,  but  is  as  bold  and  dashing  a  trooper  as  ever  looked  an  enemy  in  the  face." 

Retaliation  on  High  Authority. 

There  was  no  lack  of  deliberation  and  high  official  sanction  for  some  of  the 
acts  of  retaliation.  An  order  from  Brigadier-General  Brovvn  read :  "It  having 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  general  commanding  that  a  band  of  guerrillas,  led 
by  one  Shumate,  have  committed  depredations  such  as  robbing  and  plundering 
peaceable,  law  abiding  citizens  in  Miller  and  adjoining  counties,  and  to  the  end 
that  quiet  and  safety  may  be  restored  to  the  people  of  this  district,  it  is  hereby 
ordered  that  upon  the  first  overt  act  of  lawlessness  committed  by  this  or  any  other 
band  of  guerrillas  or  bushwhackers  upon  the  lives  or  property  of  the  people  of 
this  district,  the  prisoner  John  Wilcox,  a  member  of  the  said  Shumate's  band, 
now  confined  at  Jefferson  City,  Mo.,  awaiting  trial  by  military  commission,  will 
be  immediately  shot.  The  assistant  provost-marshal  of  the  first  sub-military 
district  will  cause  the  prisoner,  John  Wilcox,  to  be  securely  ironed  and  confined, 
and  will  carry  out  the  provisions  of  this  order  under  the  direction  of  the  district 
provost-marshal." 

"Bill  Anderson's  Proclamation"  was  one  of  the  curious  things  which  the 
compilers  of  the  War  Records  found  among  the  papers  pertaining  to  the  savage 
conflict  in  Missouri  during  1864.  This  proclamation  was  sent  to  Gen.  Rosecrans 
by  Gen.  E.  B.  Brown,  into  whose  hands  it  had  fallen.  The  accompanying  indorse- 
ment spoke  of  it  as  a  curiosity  and  a  specimen  of  a  guerrilla  chief's  corre- 
spondence. Gen.  Brown  was  commanding  the  Central  District  of  Missouri,  with 
headquarters  at  Warrensburg.  Anderson  was  in  the  bush.  The  scouting  parties 
had  orders  to  kill  him  and  his  men  wherever  they  found  him.  The  proclamation 
was  addressed: 

"To  the  editors  of  the  two  papers  in  Lexington,  to  the  citizens  and  the  com- 
munity at  large.  Gen.  Brown  and  Col.  McFerran  and  his  petty  hirelings,  such  a» 
Capt.  Burris,  the  friend  of  Anderson." 


ISAAC  H.  STURGEON 
Assistant  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  in  1861 


THE  BATTLE  OF  LEXINGTON 
Known  in  Missouri  historj-  as  ' '  The  Battle  of  the  Hemp  Bales. ' '     This  picture  is  repro- 
duced from  an  oil  painting  liy  F.  Dominico,  a  Hungarian  exile,  who  took  sketches  during  the 
battle.     The  U.  S.  flag  flies  from  what  was  the  Masonic  College,  now  Central  Female  College. 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  805 

Bill  Anderson's  Proclamation. 

Ihe  portion  referring  to  the  editors  of  the  Lexington  papers  was  as  follows: 

"Mr.  Editors — In  reading  both  your  papers  I  see  you  urge  the  policy  of  the  citizens 
taking  up  arms  to  defend  their  persons  and  property.  You  are  only  asking  them  to  sign 
their  death  warrants.  Do  you  not  know,  sirs,  that  you  have  some  of  Missouri's  proudest, 
best  and  noblest  sons  to  cope  with?  Sirs,  ask  the  people  of  Missouri,  who  are  acquainted 
with  me,  if  Anderson  ever  robbed  them  or  mistreated  them  in  any  manner.  All  those  that 
speak  the  truth  will  say  never.  Then  what  protection  do  they  want?  It  is  from  thieves, 
not  such  men  as  I  profess  to  have  under  my  command.  My  command  can  give  them  more 
protection  than  all  the  Federals  in  the  state  against  such  enemies.  There  are  thieves 
and  robbers  in  the  community,  but  they  do  not  belong  to  any  organized  band ;  they  do 
not  fight  for  principles;  they  are  for  self-interest;  they  are  just  as  afraid  of  me  as  they 
are  of  Federals.  I  will  help  the  citizens  rid  the  country  of  them.  They  are  not  friends  of 
mine.  I  have  used  all  that  language  can  do  to  stop  their  thefts;  I  will  now  see  what  I  can 
do  by  force.  But  listen  to  me,  fellow  citizens;  do  not  obey  this  last  order.  Do  not  take 
up  arms  if  you  value  your  lives  and  property.  It  is  not  in  my  power  to  save  your  lives 
if  you  do.  If  you  proclaim  to  be  in  arms  against  the  guerrillas  I  will  kill  you.  I  will 
hunt  you  down  like  wolves  and  murder  you.  You  can  not  escape.  It  will  not  be  Federals 
after  you.  Your  arms  will  be  no  protection  to  you.  Twenty-five  of  my  men  can  whip 
all  that  can  get  together.  It  will  not  be  militia  such  as  McFerran's,  but  regulars  that  have 
been  in  the  field  for  three  years,  that  are  armed  with  from  two  to  four  pistols  and  Sharp's 
rifles.  I  commenced  at  the  first  of  this  war  to  fight  for  my  country,  not  to  steal  from  it. 
I  have  chosen  guerrilla  warfare  to  revenge  myself  for  wrongs  that  I  could  not  honorably 
avenge  otherwise.  I  lived  in  Kansas  when  this  war  commenced.  Because  I  would  not 
fight  the  people  of  Missouri,  my  native  state;  the  Yankees  sought  my  life,  but  failed  to 
get  me.  Revenged  themselves  by  murdering  my  father,  destroying  all  my  property,  and 
have  since  that  time  murdered  one  of  my  sisters  and  kept  the  other  two  in  jail  twelve 
months.  But  I  have  fully  glutted  my  vengeance.  I  have  killed  many.  I  am  a  guerrilla. 
I  have  never  belonged  to  the  Confederate  army,  nor  do  my  men.  A  good  many  of  them 
are  from  Kansas.  I  have  tried  to  war  with  the  Federals  honorably,  but  for  retaliation  I 
have  done  things,  and  am  fearful  will  have  to  do,  that  I  would  shrink  from  if  possible  to 
avoid.  I  have  tried  to  teach  the  people  of  Missouri  that  I  am  their  friend,  but  if  you 
think  that  I  am  wrong,  then  it  is  your  duty  to  fight.  Take  up  arms  against  me  and  you 
are  Federals.  Your  doctrine  is  an  absurdity,  and  I  will  kill  you  for  being  fools.  Peware, 
men,  before  you  make  this  fearful  leap.  I  feel  for  you.  You  are  in  a  critical  situation. 
But  remember  there  is  a  southern  army,  headed  by  the  best  men  in  the  nation.  Many  of 
their  homes  are  in  Missouri,  and  they  will  have  the  state  or  die  in  the  attempt.  You  that 
sacrifice  your  principles  for  fear  of  losing  your  property  will,  I  fear,  forfeit  your  right 
to  a  citizenship  in  Missouri.  Young  men,  leave  your  mothers  and  fight  for  your  principles. 
Let  the  Federals  know  that  Missouri's  .sons  will  not  be  trampled  on.  I  have  no  time  to  say 
anything  more  to  you.     Be  careful  how  you  act.  for  my  eyes  are  upon  you." 

The  guerrilla  then  turned  his  attention  to  Col.   McFerran  in  the   following 

strain : 

"Col.  McFerran,  I  have  seen  your  official  report  to  Gen.  Brown  of  two  fights  that  have 
taken  place  in  Johnson  and  Lafayette  counties  with  your  men.  You  have  been  wrongly 
informed,  or  you  have  willfully  misrepresented  the  matter  to,  your  superior  officer. 
I  had  the  honor,  sir,  of  being  in  command  of  both  of  those  engagements.  To  enlighten 
you  on  the  subject  and  to  warn  you  against  making  future  exaggerations  I  will  say  to 
you  in  the  future  to  let  me  know  in  time,  and  when  I  fight  your  men  I  will  make  the 
proper  report.  As  to  the  skirmish  I  had  with  your  men  in  Johnson,  I  started  to  Kings- 
ville  with  fifty  men  to  take  the  place,  but  before  I  arrived  there  I  discovered  a  scout,  four- 
teen or  fifteen  of  your  men,  on  the  prairie  some  half  a  mile  distant  to  my  left.  I  imme- 
diately gave  chase.     They  fled.     There  were  not  over  eight  of  my  men   ever  got  nea' 


806  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

them.  They  did  not  surrender  or  I  would  not  have  killed  them,  for  I  understand  that 
Company  M  were  southern  men;  they  sent  me  that  word.  I  ordered  them  to  halt  and 
surrender.  I  was  astonished  to  see  them  refuse  after  sending  me  such  word.  One  of 
their  lieutenants  even  planned  the  assassination  of  Gen.  Brown  and  the  taking  of  his 
headquarters,  but  I  refused  to  commit  so  foul  a  deed.  But  they  refused  to  surrender 
and  I  had  them  to  kill.  I  regret  having  to  kill  such  good  southern  men,  but  they  are 
fit  for  no  service  but  yours,  for  they  were  very  cowardly.  Myself  and  two  men  killed 
nine  of  them  when  there  were  no  other  men  in  sight  of  us.  They  are  such  poor  shots  it  is 
strange  you  don't  have  them  practice  more.  Send  them  out  and  I  will  train  them  for  you. 
After  that  I  came  down  near  Burris'  camp  with  twenty-five  regulars  all  told,  belonging 
to  the  1st  Kansas,  some  of  my  first  men.  I  understand  that  Burris  was  an.xious  to  give 
me  a  thrashing.  Not  wishing  to  lose  more  than  twenty-five  men  at  one  time,  I  thought  I 
would  try  him  with  the  aforesaid  number,  but  while  I  was  waiting  for  him  to  come  out 
from  camp,  that  I  might  devour  him  or  be  devoured,  forty-eight  of  your  men  coming 
from  Lexington  with  three  wagons  had  the  audacity  to  fire  on  my  pickets,  and  very  im- 
prudently a.sked  me  to  come  out  of  the  bush  and  fight  them.  I  obeyed  reluctantly.  They 
dismounted  and  formed  on  a  hill.  I  formed  under  their  fire  under  the  hill  and  charged. 
They  fled  and  I  pursued.  You  know  the  rest.  If  you  do  not,  I  can  inform  you;  we  killed 
ten  on  the  ground  and  wounded  as  many  more.  Had  all  of  my  men  done  their  duty  we 
would  have  killed  thirty  of  them.     Farewell,  friend." 

To  Capt.  Burris,  who  was  trj'ing  to  trap  him,  Anderson  inclosed  this  message: 
"To  Burris — Burris,  I  love  you ;  come  and  see  me.     Good-bye,  boy ;  don't  get 
discouraged.    I  glory  in  your  spunk,  but  damn  your  judgment." 

This  remarkable  proclamation  closed  with  the  following  to  Gen.  Brown : 

"Gen.  Brown.  Gener.\l — I  have  not  the  honor  of  being  acquainted  with  you,  but 
from  what  I  have  heard  of  you  I  would  take  you  to  be  a  man  of  too  much  honor  as  to 
stoop  so  low  as  to  incarcerate  women  for  the  deeds  of  men,  but  I  see  that  you  have  done  so 
in  some  cases.  I  do  not  like  the  idea  of  warring  with  women  and  children,  but  if  you  do 
not  release  all  the  women  you  have  arrested  in  Lafayette  county,  I  will  hold  the  Union 
ladies  in  the  county  as  hostages  for  them.  I  will  tie  them  by  the  neck  in  the  brush  and 
starve  them  until  they  are  released,  if  you  do  not  release  them.  The  ladies  of  Warrens- 
burg  must  have  Miss  Pickle  released.  I  hold  them  responsible  for  her  speedy  and  safe 
return.  General,  do  not  think  that  I  am  jesting  with  you.  I  will  have  to  resort  to  abusing 
your  ladies  if  you  do  not  quit  imprisoning  ours.  As  to  the  prisoner  Ervin  you  have  in 
Lexington,  I  have  never  seen  nor  heard  of  him  until  I  learned  that  such  a  man  was 
sentenced  to  be  shot.  I  suppose  that  he  is  a  southern  man  or  such  a  sentence  would  not 
have  been  passed.  I  hold  the  citizens  of  Lexington  responsible  for  his  life.  The  troops  in 
Lexington  are  no  protection  to  the  town,  only  in  the  square.  If  he  is  killed,  I  will  kill 
twenty  times  his  number  in  Lexington.  I  am  perfectly  able  to  do  so  at  any  time.  Yours 
respectfully,  W.  Anderson, 

"Commanding  Kansas  First  Guerrillas." 

The  Death  of  Anderson. 

A  few  weeks  later  came  the  report  by  Assistant  Adjutant  General  Rainsford 
of  the  identification  of  Anderson's  body  at  Richmond  in  Ray  county:  "On 
Anderson's  body  were  also  found  his  likeness  and  that  of  his  wife,  a  small  Con- 
federate flag  with  these  words  inscribed  on  it :  'Presented  to  W.  L.  Anderson 
by  his  friend,  F.  M.  R.  Let  it  not  be  contaminated  by  Fed.  hands.'  He  also 
had  letters  from  his  wife  from  Texas,  and  a  lock  of  her  hair,  about  $600  in 
gold  and  greenbacks.  His  body,  while  at  Richmond  court  house,  was  recog- 
nized by  several  persons.    We  have  heard  of  the  band,  some  300  in  number. 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  807 

crossing  the  river  at  Brunswick,  bound  south ;  they  acknowledge  having  had 
a  fight  with  the  Ray  county  militia,  and  that  Bill  Anderson  was  killed  on  the 
27th.  I  shall  have  his  likeness  in  a  day  of  two  and  I  will  have  some  taken  and 
send  you  one." 

Fisk  Suggests  Depopulation  and  Devastation. 

In  a  letter  to  Gen.  Rosecrans,  dated  midnight,  September  28,  Gen.  Fisk  gave 
a  graphic  description  of  the  difficulties  attending  the  incessant  war  in  the  brush: 

"I  had  the  honor  to  write  you  fully  under  yesterday's  date,  since  which  time  my  tele- 
grams have  advised  you  of  the  disasters  at  Centralia.  The  capture  of  the  railway  train, 
the  inhuman  slaughter  of  the  defenseless  soldiers  thereon,  the  robbery  of  the  passengers, 
the  burning  of  the  moving  train,  and  the  indignities  visited  upon  helpless  women  must  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  barbarisms  of  the  war.  I  am  not  yet  fully  advised  of  the 
extent  of  our  loss  by  the  defeat  of  Maj.  Johnston,  but  fear  it  is  greater  than  the  meager 
reports  already  received  have  led  me  to  believe.  I  am  greatly  pained  at  these  reverses, 
and  am  straining  every  nerve  to  make  reparation.  Troops  were  never  more  earnest  and 
active  in  their  duties  than  the  officers  and  men  now  seeking  the  destruction  of  the  infernal 
fiends  who  are  guilty  of  such  barbarous  atrocities.  I  am  aware  that  it  may  seem  to  your- 
self and  the  impatient  public  remote  from  this  section  that  we  ought  to  accomplish  mor« 
than  we  do ;  that  the  guerrillas  ought  to  be  exterminated  from  the  country,  and  such 
disasters  as  those  at  Centralia  prevented,  but  could  you  see  this  section  of  the  state  and 
study  not  only  the  topography  of  the  country,  but  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  the  people, 
you  would  readily  discover  the  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  finding  and  exterminating 
bushwhackers.  Jackman,  with  less  than  100  men,  remained  in  Boone  county  for  fifteen 
months,  waging  his  bushwhacking  warfare,  and  during  that  period  there  were  scarcely 
any  other  bushwhacking  gangs  in  North  Missouri.  Yet  Gen.  Guitar,  who  was  born  and 
raised  in  Boone  county,  and  knew  every  pathway  and  brush  patch,  with  6,000  good  troops, 
was  not  able  to  drive  out  or  kill  them.  Boone  and  Howard  are  now  our  two  worst  locali- 
ties. In  one  of  them  I  have  Gen.  Douglas,  who  is  a  native  of  the  county,  has  been  its 
sheriff,  and  knows  intimately  the  character  of  the  country  and  the  hearts  of  its  citizens; 
and  in  Howard  is  Maj.  Leonard,  whose  advantages  for  operating  in  his  county  are  equal 
to  those  of  Gen.  Douglas  for  Boone.  In  addition  I  have  Lieut.  Col.  Draper,  who  has 
scouted  through  both  counties  for  two  years.  Yet  with  all  their  knowledge,  industry  and 
perseverance  the  guerrillas  thus  far  scatter  and  concentrate  so  as  to  elude  our  forces.  Our 
movements,  though  made  as  secretly  as  possible,  are  discovered  by  the  bushwhackers' 
friends  and  revealed  from  one  to  another.  The  citizens  at  home  are  our  secret  and  most 
dangerous  foes,  and  in  no  spot  of  all  our  disturbed  territory  has  the  rebellion  more  earnest 
friends  than  in  the  Missouri  river  counties  of  this  district.  The  invasion  in  the  Southeast 
strengthens  our  s>'mpathizing  class  and  they  are  made  to  believe  that  Price  with  'redemp- 
tion draweth  nigh.'  How  shall  these  guilty  people  he  brought  to  repentance  and  good 
works?  And  what  punishment,  short  of  extermination,  is  mete  for  their  treachery  and 
encouragement  of  a  warfare  more  barbarous  than  that  practiced  by  the  savages  of  the 
plains  and  frontier?  We  have  in  these  counties  not  only  the  resident  rebels,  but  in  addi- 
tion a  large  proportion  of  those  who,  by  Gen.  Ewing's  order,  were  last  year  expelled  from 
Johnson,  Jackson,  and  other  border  counties.  Depopulation  and  devastation  are  extreme 
measures,  but  if  this  infernal  warfare  continues  it  will  be  humane  and  economic  of  human 
life  to  adopt  and  vigorously  enforce  such  measures  wherever  the  bushwhackers  have  more 
friends  than  the  government." 

A  Man  Hunt  Among  the  Bayous. 

The  story  of  a  guerrilla  hunt  in  the  lowlands  of  Southeast  Missouri  was  told 
in  a  report  made  by  Lieut.  Col.  John  T.  Burris.  The  party  left  New  Madrid 
on  the  2 1st  of  July.    Between  that  time  and  the  26th  the  report  says: 


808  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"We  routed  several  parties  of  bushwhackers,  killed  four  of  their  number,  burned  a 
distillery  and  a  grocery  at  which  they  were  accustomed  to  meet,  and  captured  some  arms 
and  horses.  We  arrived  at  Scatterville  on  the  evening  of  the  28th.  There  we  routed  a 
rebel  recruiting  party  under  Col.  Clark  and  had  a  skirmish  with  Bolen's  guerrillas.  We 
killed  one  rebel  lieutenant,  took  Capt.  Linebach  prisoner,  captured  some  arms  and  horses 
and  burned  the  houses  under  cover  of  which  the  guerrillas  had  fired  on  my  command.  On 
the  1st  of  August  we  marched  through  the  swamps  and  along  Big  lake  in  a  southerly 
direction.  During  the  day  we  surprised  a  party  of  bushwhackers  and  thieves,  captured 
some  arms,  recaptured  some  negroes  and  horses  previously  stolen  by  these  marauders, 
and  burned  five  of  their  houses.  On  the  2d  we  marched  through  an  almost  continuous 
swamp  for  about  twenty  miles ;  struck  the  settlement  near  Osceola  late  in  the  afternoon ; 
soon  after  came  upon  a  rebel  picket,  who,  after  firing,  retreated.  My  advance,  under 
command  of  Capt.  Preuitt,  pursued,  the  whole  command  following  up  closely  until  we 
came  upon  a  main  rebel  force  of  that  vicinity,  under  Capts.  Bowen  and  McVeigh,  when  a 
general  charge  was  made.  The  rebels  fled.  A  running  fight  ensued,  which  was  kept  up 
for  several  miles  until  the  enemy's  forces  were  scattered  in  every  direction.  We  killed 
seven,  including  a  lieutenant,  and  took  twenty-five  prisoners,  including  Capt.  Bowen.  We 
also  captured  a  considerable  number  of  arms  and  horses.  No  casualty  on  our  side.  August 
3,  marched  north  to  the  Chicasawba  settlement,  crossed  Pemiscot  bayou,  and  encamped  in 
Cowskin  settlement.  During  the  afternoon  a  scouting  party,  under  Capt.  Edwards,  sur- 
prised a  party  of  the  enemy  and  killed  two  of  them,  capturing  their  arms  and  horses. 
The  same  evening  a  foraging  party  killed  one  of  Convers'  bushwhackers.  August  4, 
marched  at  daylight.  Soon  came  upon  a  rebel  picket  commanded  by  Lieut.  Hedges.  The 
rebels  fled,  and  were  pursued  by  Lieut.  Hiller,  commanding  my  advance  guard,  and  Sergt. 
Wright's  party  of  scouts.  After  a  chase  of  two  miles  Hedges  was  overtaken  and  killed. 
His  men  escaped.  We  pursued  the  enemy  six  miles  across  Dogskin  swamp,  when  we 
found  him  in  line  of  battle  in  a  dense  forest,  two  miles  south  of  Elk  chute,  in  Pemiscot 
county.  Mo.  I  immediately  formed  my  battalions  in  line  and  attacked  him.  Our  first 
volley  partially  broke  the  rebel  line,  when  I  ordered  a  charge,  which  was  made  with  spirit. 
The  whole  rebel  force  fell  back  in  confusion.  A  running  fight  was  kept  up  for  two  miles, 
through  the  swamp,  among  the  trees,  and  over  logs.  The  enemy  several  times  succeeded 
in  partially  reforming  their  lines,  but  each  time  only  to  be  driven  back  in  greater  con- 
fusion. The  last  effort  of  Col.  Erwin,  the  rebel  commander,  to  rally  his  forces,  was  within 
about  200  yards  of  the  chute;  but  the  impetuosity  of  the  charge  of  my  battalions  on  their 
lines,  the  deadly  fire  poured  into  their  ranks,  and  the  exultant  shouts  of  my  pursuing  forces 
were  more  than  they  could  stand.  They  again  fled  precipitately,  many  of  them  rushing, 
panic-stricken,  into  the  stream,  some  attempting  to  swim  their  horses  across,  others  aband- 
oning their  horses  and  everj-thing  else,  and  seeking  to  save  themselves  by  swimming,  while 
the  rebel  colonel,  with  a  portion  of  his  terrified  followers,  suddenly  turned  to  the  right 
and,  scattering,  they  soon  hid  themselves  in  the  dense  forest  and  almost  impenetrable  swamps 
of  that  region. 

"Our  only  loss  in  this  engagement  was  Capt.  Francis,  of  the  3d  Cavalry  Missouri 
State  Militia,  mortally  wounded,  and  two  enlisted  men  slightly  wounded.  The  rebel 
loss  was  30  killed,  6  mortally  wounded,  who  fell  into  our  hands,  about  40  less  severely 
wounded,  who  escaped,  and  28  prisoners.  Among  the  killed  was  a  captain,  and  with 
the  prisoners  a  lieutenant.  On  the  morning  of  the  5th  I  had  scouting  parties  out  in  every 
direction.  They  killed  two  guerrillas  and  took  two  of  Erwin's  men  prisoners.  On  the 
same  day  marched  to  Gayoso,  and  on  the  6th  reached  New  Madrid  without  anything 
further  of  interest  occurring.  We  killed  in  all  47,  including  I  captain  and  3  lieutenants, 
mortally  wounded  6,  not  mortally  about  40,  and  took  prisoners  37,  including  2  captains  and 
I  lieutenant.  We  captured  upward  of  200  stand  of  arms,  including  shotguns  and  common 
rifles,  most  of  which,  however,  we  were  compelled  to  destroy  for  want  of  transportation. 
We  captured,  brought  in,  and  turned  over  to  the  quartermaster  230  horses  and  mules.  We 
also  emancipated  and  brought  with  us  near  twenty  colored  persons  who  were  being  held 
as  slaves  by  rebel  masters  in  Arkansas.  Having  started  out  without  transportation  of 
any  kind,  and  almost  without  subsistence,  both  men  and  animals  subsisted  off  the  enemy. 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  809 

We  have,   I   think,  pretty  effectually  cleared  out  the  guerrillas  and   punished  their  accom- 
plices in  the  second  subdistrict." 

The  Paw  Paw  Militia. 

References  to  the  Paw  Paws  were  frequent  in  the  reports.  Gen.  Clinton  B. 
Fisk  wrote : 

"The  so-called  Paw  Paws  were  disloyal  citizens  and  returned  soldiers  and  officers 
from  the  rebel  army  who  had  been  enrolled  as  disloyal  under  general  orders  in  1862. 
These  men  were  organized  into  companies  and  regiments,  under  the  direction  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  State  of  Missouri,  in  the  summer  of  1863,  for  some  purpose  to  me  unknown. 
Of  the  policy  that  dictated  this  organization,  or  of  the  effect  upon  the  loyal  element  thus 
to  be  guarded,  protected  and  watched  by  armed  rebels,  many  of  them  fresh  from  the 
Confederate  army,  I  say  nothing.  Representations  were  often  and  freely  made  to  the 
proper  authorities  that  these  troops  were  doing  a  vast  amount  of  harm  to  the  loyal  senti- 
ment of  the  State  of  Missouri,  and  it  was  shown  in  many  instances  that  these  troops  would 
in  no  case  fight  the  guerrillas  and  thieves  who  infested  the  neighborhoods  where  they 
were  stationed  in  the  northwestern  portion  of  the  state.  The  officers  and  men  of  the  82d 
Regiment  Enrolled  Missouri  Militia  allowed  the  Confederate  Col.  Winston  to  remain 
safely  harbored  and  protected  in  the  county  of  Clay  during  the  winter  of  1863-64,  and 
used  no  exertion  to  arrest  him,  although  his  presence  in  their  very  midst  was  a  well- 
established   fact.     They  would   not  and  did  not  arrest  him. 

"It  was  a  matter  of  common  report  that  Winston  left  a  companion  in  Clay  county, 
commonly  known  as  Coon  Thornton,  but  whose  name  is  John  C.  Calhoun  Thornton.  This 
man,  it  was  well  known,  was  recruiting  for  the  Confederate  service.  Companies  of  the 
8lst  and  82d  Enrolled  Missouri  Militia  were  in  league  with  Thornton. 

"It  was  often  reported  to  me  by  loyal  men  that  these  armed  rebels  were  one  by  one 
slipping  out  of  sight  into  the  brush  with  their  arms,  and  upon  diligent  inquiry  I  ascer- 
tained these  reports  to  be  in  the  main  true.  I  immediately  ordered  the  disarming  of  these 
men,  their  arms  to  be  delivered  to  the  armory  at  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  and  upon  the  receipt  of 
the  order  twelve  men  of  Capt.  Cox's  company,  of  the  8ist  Enrolled  Missouri  Militia,  took 
their  arms  and  disappeared.  The  company  commanded  by  Capt.  Bywater,  at  Camden 
Point,  came  in  and  delivered  up  their  arms  at  Camden  Point  preparatory  to  sending  them 
to  St.  Joseph.  They  were  stored  in  an  old  warehouse  and  two  men  of  the  same  company 
left  on  guard  over  them.  The  same  night  a  small  body  of  unarmed  guerrillas  rode  into  the 
town,  surprised  the  guard  and  carried  off  the  guns  and  accouterments.  Capt.  Bywater's 
company  has  not  been  heard  of  since  then." 

As  a  further  iUustration  of  w^hat  an  uncertain  quantity  tlie  Paw  Paws  were 
Gen.  Fisk  told  what  happened  at  Platte  City,  where  Maj.  John  M.  Clark,  of 
the  82d  Enrolled  Missouri  Militia,  was  commanding.  A  body  of  the  guerrillas 
under  Coon  Thornton  approached  Platte  City.  First  Lieut.  William  Downing, 
of  the  82d.  went  out  and  met  the  guerrillas.  On  his  return  he  told  Maj.  Clark 
that  the  guerrillas  were  coming  into  town,  and  that  he  for  one  did  not  intend  to 
resist  them. 

"On  the  morning  of  the  loth  of  July.  Maj.  Clark  abandoned  the  command  of  the 
post  to  Capt.  R.  D.  Johnston.  Company  A,  82d  Regiment,  and  started  off  for  a  visit  to 
his  family,  fifteen  miles  distant.  Capt.  Johnston  being  left  in  command  immediately  took 
counsel  with  such  of  his  officers  as  were  present,  and  determined,  in  view  of  the  known 
disloyalty  of  most  of  the  command  and  the  continued  assertions  of  Lieut.  William  Down- 
ing that  he  would  not  fight  the  guerrillas,  but  help  them,  that  he  could  do  no  better  than 
surrender  the  garrison.  Upon  his  announcing  this  fact,  Lieut.  Downing  immediately  went 
out  and  came  into  the  town  with  the  guerrillas,  who  forthwith  took  possession  of  the  town 


810  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  all  that  was  in  it.  They  took  down  the  flag  of  the  Union,  and,  tearing  it  into  shreds, 
fastened  them  to  the  heads  of  their  horses.  Here  again  was  repeated  the  scene  of  trans- 
formation of  Missouri  state  soldiers  mto  bushwhackers,  for  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  after  the  occupation  of  the  town  nearly  the  whole  of  Capt.  Johnston's  command  ap- 
peared dressed  in  Confederate  uniforms. 

"Not  less  than  250  or  300  of  these  so-called  Enrolled  Missouri  Militia  joined  the 
guerrillas.  Maj.  Clark,  as  soon  as  his  way  was  clear,  reported  safely  at  my  headquarters. 
I  shall  have  him  brought  to  trial  speedily.  The  total  number  of  troops  that  joined  Thorn- 
ton and  Thrailkill,  his  second  in  command,  was  four  times  the  force  at  Thornton's  dis- 
posal at  the  outset  of  his  raid.  Since  the  15th  of  July  about  thirty-five  of  these  traitors 
have  been  killed.  About  100  are  in  the  brush  sending  messages  to  me  to  know  how  they 
can  renew  their  allegiance,  claiming  to  have  been  conscripted  by  Thornton,  and  a  few  have 
been  taken  at  Atchison  and  Leavenworth,  Kan.,  in  attempts  to  escape,  and  are  now  con- 
fined in  jail  at  Atchison. 

"In  closing  this  report  I  can  only  say  that  every  word  of  it  is  capable  of  proof,  and 
an  examination  of  all  facts  such  as  I  propose  to  make  will  probably  show  up  a  darker 
shade  of  villainy  and  corruption  than  appears  in  this  preliminary  report." 

A  Brush  Expedition  in  Western  Missouri. 

Capt.  Ezra  W.  Kingsbury  led  a  detachment  of  the  2d  Colorado  Cavalry  on 
a  typical  brush  expedition  from  Independence  through  Western  Missouri  coun- 
ties. He  camped  one  night  at  Young's  farm,  four  miles  from  Blue  Mills.  His 
report  said : 

"While  at  this  place  I  learned  that  Fletch  Taylor,  Thrailkill  and  other  bushwhackers 
had  been  in  that  vicinity.  On  starting  next  morning  at  about  3  o'clock,  scouting  the 
country  thoroughly  in  the  vicinity  of  Six  Mile,  learned  that  Taylor  had  procured  a  buggy 
and  started  for  Lafayette  county,  being  severely  wounded.  Struck  the  trail  and  followed 
it  about  fifteen  miles,  until  near  Bone  Hill,  when  lost  it,  and  after  searching  some  time 
turned  back  on  Lexington  road  for  Lafayette  county.  Found  numerous  signs  of  small 
parties  of  bushwhackers,  and  finally  reached  the  farm  of  one  Ish,  in  Lafayette  county, 
where,  by  means  of  passing  as  bushwhackers,  learned  from  a  boy,  whom  I  took  and  com- 
pelled to  go  with  me,  that  there  was  a  body  of  about  100  men  encamped  in  Big  Bottom, 
abcuf  six  miles  from  that  place.  I  started  for  that  point,  but  ascertained  that  Drs.  Mur- 
phy and  Regan,  of  Wellington,  had  amputated  Taylor's  arm  the  morning  before,  and, 
wishing  to  secure  Murphy,  started  twenty-five  men  to  Wellington  to  bring  him,  and  pro- 
ceeded south  with  the  command  two  miles  to  Ewing's  farm,  where  I  found  Murphy,  who 
happened  to  be  there ;  arrested  him,  and,  forage  being  plenty,  fed  the  horses.  On  ex- 
amining Murphy  found  that  he  had  reported  the  facts  concerning  Taylor  to  Lexington 
immediately  after  the  amputation  took  place,  but  could  learn  nothing  definite  concerning 
his  whereabouts.  Before  the  detail  sent  to  Wellington  returned  it  was  nearly  night,  and 
thence  I  moved  south  to  the  house  of  one  Fishback  and  camped  for  the  night,  having 
released  Dr.  Murphy,  Traveled  this  day  about  fifty  miles.  Next  morning  started  at  sun- 
rise and  went  in  a  southerly  course  to  the  Sni,  striking  it  at  the  old  mill-dam,  thence  pro- 
ceeded in  a  west  course  to  Gardiner's  farm  ;  struck  from  thence  in  the  direction  of  Bone 
Hill  and  Judge  Gray's  farm,  scouting  thoroughly  the  brush  in  that  vicinity;  arrived  at  the 
house  of  one  Bord,  near  the  line  of  Jackson  and  Lafayette  counties.  On  examining  him 
at  first  could  get  no  information  from  him;  said  he  had  never  seen  but  six  bushwhackers; 
saw  them  the  evening  before.  Knew  nothing  of  the  whereabouts  of  any  of  them.  I  then 
made  him  go  with  us,  and  told  him  to  guide  us  to  their  camp.  At  first  he  denied  as  before, 
but  finally  took  us  to  the  camp  where  Fletch  Taylor  had  his  arm  amputated,  and  had  left 
there  very  recently,  as  the  signs  were  fresh  and  new.  Found  bandages  stained  with  blood, 
pillow,  etc.,  but  no  man.  Finding  that  Bord  was  only  leading  us  through  the  brush  in 
order  to  give  the  bushwhackers  time  to  escape  I  gave  him  a  little  hanging,  which  imme- 
diately improved  his  knowledge  of  the  country.     He  told  me  two  bushwhackers  had  been 


Courtesy  Missouri  Historical  Society 

GRATIOT  STREET  PRISON,  ST.  LOUIS 
Where   thousands   of  Confederates   were   confined.      Picture   made   during   the   Civil    war 


THE  McCAUSL.\ND  HOME  AT  LEXINGTON 
A  historic  mansion  used  as  a  hospital  in  the  Civil  war 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  813 

at  his  house  the  evening  before  to  see  his  daughter,  and  on  our  starting  again  he  led  us 
through  the  thickest  kind  of  brush  to  four  other  camps,  one  of  which  had  only  been 
vacated  that  morning,  judging  by  the  forage  scattered  around  and  other  fresh  sig^is;  the 
other  three  were  older,  but  had  been  used  during  the  course  of  the  summer.  Searched 
the  brush  thoroughly,  but  could  find  no  one.  Learned  further  from  Bord  that  there  were 
plenty  of  them  in  the  country  in  small  parties  ranging  from  Big  Bottom  to  Bone  Hill. 
Having  obtained  what  information  from  Bord  I  could,  released  him  and  struck  west  for 
Robinson's,  in  Jackson  county;  trailed  fifteen  to  that  place  and  followed  the  trail  to  east- 
ern edge  of  Fire  prairie,  where  I  started  fifteen  in  a  party  and  pursued  them  through  the 
thick  brush  ten  miles  in  a  southerly  course,  when  they  scattered  and  I  lost  the  trail ;  thence 
returned  northwest,  until  I  struck  the  eastern  edge  of  Fire  prairie;  thence  west,  and  started 
another  party  of  eight,  but  at  too  great  a  distance  to  do  anything  with  them.  Struck  the 
trail  of  a  large  party  and  followed  them  four  miles  to  an  old  bridge  across  a  ravine,  where 
I  heard  a  gun,  fired  evidently  as  a  signal  for  them  to  disperse,  as  the  tracks  scattered 
immediately,  and  I  lost  them.  This  vicinity  is  evidently  full  of  small  parties  of  them  con- 
tinually passing  back  and  forth.  After  searching  the  brush  I  crossed  Fire  prairie  to  the 
timber  on  the  Blue,  and  scouted  up  the  river  till  I  reached  Spring  Branch  crossing;  thence 
returned  to  this  place,  arriving  here  about  6  p.  m.,  traveling  that  day  about  sixty-five  miles." 

Plenty  of  signs  but  no  game  wa.s  the  result  of  the  Colorado  man's  scouts. 
It  took  Missourians  to  catch  Missourians  in  this  kind  of  warfare. 

A  Raid  from  RoUa. 

House  burning  was  not  only  considered  the  proper  thing,  but  it  was  reported 
with  evident  pride  in  the  official  narratives  of  the  scouts  against  bushwhackers. 
Capt.  Ferd  Charveaux,  of  the  Fifth  Cavaln,-,  Missouri  State  Militia,  in  giving 
the  details  of  an  expedition  made  from  RoUa  in  the  direction  of  Houston,  made 
a  report: 

"After  traveling  about  six  or  seven  miles  I  received  information  that  about  thirteen 
bushwhackers  had  passed  through  that  country  the  night  previous.  I  went  to  the  house 
of  Richmond,  who  is  bushwhacking  with  his  son.  I  ordered  the  things  taken  out  of  the 
houses  and  had  the  houses  set  on  fire.  I  then  proceeded  five  miles  farther  to  the  house 
of  Absly,  who  is  out  with  the  bushwhackers,  which  I  had  burned  in  the  manner  of  Rich- 
mond's. I  went  about  three  miles  farther  and  received  information  that  there  was  a  gang 
of  about  fifty  bushwhackers  in  the  direction  of  Spring  Valley;  I  tracked  them  about  six 
miles,  and  lost  their  track  through  the  woods  and  the  hills.  I  stopped  over  night  at 
Thomas  Kinnan's  and  started  early  next  morning,  September  17,  to  Spring  Valley,  where 
I  received  information  that  some  rebels  had  been  at  Thomasville  two  or  three  days  prev- 
ious. I  immediately  proceeded  in  direct  course  for  Thomasville,  taking  by-roads.  I  stopped 
over  night  at  the  house  of  William  H.  Goldsberry's.  Next  morning,  September  18,  started 
toward  Thomasville.  After  traveling  about  three  miles  I  met  a  man  who  informed  me  that 
Colonel  Coleman  was  to  be  at  Thomasville  with  his  command  of  about  300  men  the  night 
previous.  I  kept  on  jny  route,  hastening  my  speed;  six  miles  this  side  of  Thomasville,  at 
the  house  of  Nallmesses,  I  was  informed  that  Coleman  had  camped  at  Thomasville  the 
night  previous.  When  I  arrived  within  one  mile  of  Coleman's  camp  the  advance  guard 
captured  a  prisoner,  who  stated  that  Coleman  had  300  men,  but  that  there  were  only  from 
160  to  200  in  camp.  I  used  the  prisoner  as  guide,  and  soon  coming  in  sight  of  the 
camp,  which  was  in  a  field,  I  gave  the  order  to  charge,  which  was  promptly  executed  by 
my  men,  who  were  eager  for  the  sport.  After  a  half  hour's  skirmish  the  enemy  were 
completely  routed,  killing  20  men  and  I  captain  (Taylor),  captured  10  prisoners,  24  head 
of  horses  and  s  mules,  nine  saddles,  and  about  30  stand  of  small-arms,  which  I  was  obliged 
to  have  broken  up  except  three  guns  that  I  brought  in,  as  I  had  not  transportation  or 
means  to  bring  them  here.    No  loss  on  our  side  except  one  horse  slightly  wounded." 


814  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

A  Long  Chase  Near  Huntsville. 

Lieut.  Col.  Alexander  F.  Denny,  of  the  46th  Missouri  Militia,  telling  about 
a  skirmish  near  Muntsville,  conveyed  a  good  idea  of  what  the  bush  fighting  was: 

"We  came  upon  the  trail  of  Jim  Anderson,  the  notorious  robber  and  guerrilla,  some 
five  miles  south  of  this  place,  about  10  o'clock,  and  after  pursuing  it  about  two  hours  lost 
it.  I  scoured  the  brush  for  miles,  and  at  2  p.  m.  came  out  upon  the  road  from  Huntsville 
to  Fayette,  at  the  residence  of  Owen  Bagby.  Four  of  our  men  rode  up  to  the  house,  when 
Anderson  and  his  men  commenced  firing  upon  them  from  the  house.  I  ordered  the  column 
to  dismount  and  charge  them  on  foot.  The  boys  came  up  in  fine  style  with  a  deafening 
yell,  when  Anderson  mounted  his  men  and  retreated  hastily  through  the  rear  of  the  farm, 
having  previously  left  the  gates  down.  I  ordered  the  men  to  remount,  and  with  some 
five  or  six  of  the  men  who  had  their  horses  in  advance,  charged  the  enemy  as  he  re- 
treated through  the  fields.  We  were  obstructed  by  gates  and  fences,  and  the  enemy  got 
under  cover  of  the  woods  some  300  yards  in  advance  of  us.  With  the  little  handful  of 
men  in  the  advance  I  ordered  a  charge  through  the  thick  brush,  which  was  made  in  gallant 
style,  random  shots  being  fired  at  us  and  returned  by  our  men  until  we  reached  a  long 
lane.  Here  the  chase  became  fierce  and  rapid.  We  ran  upon  the  rear,  coming  on  two 
men  mounted  on  one  horse.  The  horse  was  shot  from  under  them,  and  the  men  scaled 
the  fence  and  took  to  the  pastures.  George  Raynolds  of  Captain  Mayo's  company,  who 
was  with  me  in  the  advance,  having  fired  his  last  shot,  fell  back  to  reload.  A  short  hand- 
to-hand  conflict  with  pistols  ensued  between  the  robber  and  myself,  when,  after  the  ex- 
change of  some  four  or  five  shots,  George  Peak,  Company  D,  Ninth  Cavalry,  Missouri 
State  Militia,  came  to  my  relief  and  ended  his  existence  with  a  rifle-shot.  He  had  been 
previously  wounded  in  the  neck  and  back.  John  Kale,  of  Company  D,  Ninth  Cavalry, 
Missouri  State  Militia,  pursued  the  other  dismounted  man  on  foot  through  the  fields  until 
he  had  exhausted  his  last  shot,  having  previously  wounded  him  in  the  neck.  So  soon  a.s 
the  men  came  up  I  ordered  them  forward,  but  Anderson  being  so  well  mounted  could  not 
be  overtaken.  The  men  all  conducted  themselves  well.  At  the  time  of  the  attack  we  were 
not  fully  aware  of  Anderson's  strength.  There  were  only  ten  men  at  Bagby's,  yet  their 
number  was  reported  to  us  subsequently  at  thirty  men.  Result  of  the  skirmish :  One  man 
killed  and  one  mortally  wounded ;  also,  Jim  Anderson  reported  shot  through  the  nose ;  one 
horse  killed,  one  wounded  and  one  captured ;  also,  one  gun  and  four  or  five  pistols. 
Money  taken  from  the  person  of  the  dead  man — $90  in  gold,  $286  in  greenbacks,  $4.50  in 
silver,  $16  W.  M.  B. ;  total,  $396.50.  Our  loss,  one  horse.  Anderson  turned  into  the 
brush  after  a  run  of  three  miles  and  scattered  his  men.  We  followed  the  trail  as  long  as 
we  could,  when  we  turned  in  the  direction  of  Huntsville.  We  came  upon  him  again  at 
6  o'clock  in  the  brush  within  three  miles  of  Huntsville.  A  few  shots  were  fired  by  our 
men,  and  an  exciting  chase  of  ten  minutes,  followed,  when  the  enemy  was  lost  in  the  thick 
brush." 

War  on  the  Smugglers. 

A  good  deal  in  brief  space  was  told  by  Capt.  J.  W.  Edwards,  commanding  at 
Cape  Girardeau:  "I  sent  a  scout,  under  Lieut.  Davis,  of  twenty  men,  Tuesday 
morning,  up  the  country  around  Wolf  island  and  vicinity.  They  returned 
Thursday  evening,  having  scouted  the  whole  country  within  six  miles  of  Charles- 
ton and  also  on  the  river.  They  succeeded  in  breaking  up  large  gangs  of  smug- 
glers, killed  three  authorized  Confederate  smugglers  and  three  noted  guerrillas; 
they  broke  up  seven  skiffs  and  one  flatboat  that  were  used  by  the  smugglers; 
just  opposite  Columbus  captured  two  horses  and  some  contraband  goods.  I 
think  it  has  been  a  severe  lesson  to  them.  The  guerrillas  murdered  John  Gard- 
ner Tuesday  morning  near  Fugitt's.  They  shot  him  sixteen  times  and  robbed 
him  of  his  money  and  horses.   Neute  Massey  and  four  of  his  gang  did  it.    Lieut. 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  MISSOURI  815 

Davis  killed  John  Hancock,  who  was  Massey's  right-hand  man  and  was  a  regular 
authorized  Confederate  smuggler.    I  think  the  scout  did  well." 

One  of  Gen.  John  McNeil's  Orders. 

In  the  latter  part  of  September,  Gen.  John  McNeil,  commanding  the  District 
of  Rolla.  in  sending  out  a  scouting  party  issued  this  order : 

"Lieut.  L.  Storz,  5th  Regiment  Cavalry  Missouri  State  Militia,  will  proceed,  with 
twenty-five  men  and  five  days'  light  rations  in  haversacks,  to  the  country  between  Mill 
creek  and  Spring  creek,  in  search  of  guerrilla  bands  and  disloyal  persons.  The  former  will 
be  pursued  and  exterminated,  taking  no  prisoners  in  arms,  except  such  as  voluntarily  sur- 
render previous  to  conflict.  The  latter  when  found  guilty  of  harboring  and  feeding  guer- 
rillas will  be  warned  out  of  the  state  and  their  houses  burned,  their  fences  and  crops 
destroyed.  The  inhabitants  of  the  country  will  be  warned  that  aiding  and  assisting  the 
enemies  of  this  government,  whether  in  regular  force  or  when  acting  as  guerrillas,  will  call 
down  certain  destruction  on  them,  and  that  the  commandant  of  this  district  gives  them  a 
friendly  warning,  which  he  hopes  they  will  heed,  and  save  him  from  the  disagreeable  duty 
that  will  devolve  on  him  when  they  are  detected  in  such  practices.  Lieut.  Storz  will  call  on 
the  officer  in  command  at  Little  Pina  for  a  guide  and  such  advice  and  assistance  as  he  may 
need  in  the  execution  of  these  orders.  He  will  make  the  power  of  the  government  felt 
and  respected  in  the  counties  he  moves  through  by  the  good  order  and  discipline  of  his 
men  and  respect  for  the  property  of  the  loyal;  next,  by  the  destruction  of  every  house  and 
farm  where  the  occupants  have  violated  the  repeated  orders  of  this  department  against 
feeding  and  harboring  or  giving  aid  and  information  to  bushwhackers." 

Forced  Contributions  in  Callaway. 

Assistant  Provost  Marshal  Charles  D.  Ludwig  sent  in  from  Fulton,  Callaway 
county,  a  discotiraging  review  of  the  situation: 

"During  the  past  month  the  bushwhackers  have  been  more  troublesome  in  this  sub- 
district  than  at  any  time  before.  The  bands  arc  numerous  and  large,  and  it  is  impossible 
for  small  squads  of  men  to  scout,  as  the  bushwhackers  in  every  instance,  nearly,  out- 
number them,  and  they  are  better  mounted  and  better  armed.  In  the  first  part  of  August 
the  troops  here,  in  conjunction  with  a  company  stationed  at  Columbia  and  a  small  squad  of 
Illinois  men,  had  a  fight  with  bushwhackers  in  Boone  county,  under  command  of  one 
Todd,  killing  and  wounding  several  of  the  latter.  About  the  middle  of  August  a  squad 
of  from  twenty  to  forty  were  in  the  eastern  part  of  this  county,  and  on  the  20th  entered 
Portland,  robbed  stores  and  made  the  citizens  pay  a  tax  of  $25  a  head.  They  went  to  the 
place  of  Mr.  Martin,  on  Nine-mile  prairie,  and  robbed  him  of  $S.ooo.  They  collected  over 
$10,000  in  this  manner,  besides  several  fine  horses.  A  squad  of  soldiers  sent  out  from 
here  fell  in  with  these  scoundrels  the  next  day  and  killed  one  of  them.  The  bushwhackers 
are  concentrating  in  Boone  county.  There  is  a  rendezvous  in  Prussia  Bottom,  above  Provi- 
dence, in  Boone  county,  where  there  are  from  300  to  500  men,  who  lately  crossed  the 
Missouri  river.  They  are  not  mounted,  but  are  procuring  horses  very  fast,  and  are  splen- 
didly armed.  They  are  recruiting  with  great  success.  It  is  beyond  a  doubt  that  most  of 
the  drafted  men  in  this  and  Boone  county  will  join  them,  as  it  is  openly  avowed  by  many. 
An  outbreak  is  feared  here  every  moment,  and  Union  men  are  fleeing  from  their  homes. 
David  Cunningham,  a  citizen  of  Boone  county,  a  preacher,  is  recruiting  bushwhackers.  He 
is  said  to  have  eighty  men.  This  man  is  one  of  the  wealthiest  citizens  of  Boone  count}', 
and  holds  a  large  real  estate,  as  also  others  who  are  now  in  the  rebel  service. 

"There  can  be  nothing  done  with  the  troops  here,  as  only  a  few  men  of  Company  L, 
Ninth  Missouri  State  Militia  Cavalry,  are  mounted.  The  enrolled  militia  is  apparently  dis- 
solved, as  many  of  them  have  joined  the  twelve-months'  troops  and  the  rest  went  home. 
It  is  a  sad   fact  that  the  men  of  Company  L,  Ninth   Missouri  State  Militia  Cavalry,  are 


816  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

dreaded  even  by  loyal  men  nearly  as  much  as  bushwhackers,  as  their  officers  seem  to  exer- 
cise but  little  control  over  them.  They  have  a  very  loose  discipline  on  scouts  as  well  as  in 
camp,  as  the  empty  hen  houses  and  watermelon  patches,  etc.,  can  testify.  Complaints  are 
coming  in  nearly  every  day  of  depredations  committed  by  these  men,  but  I  am  at  a  loss 
how  to  detect  the  transgressors  and  bring  them  to  justice,  as  I  have  never  met  with  the 
desired  aid  and  co-operation  from  the  hands  of  Capt.  T.  L.  Campbell,  commanding  post 
here,  and  the  men,  knowing  this,  pay  very  little  respect  to  the  property  of  private  citizens, 
who  are  insulted  and  annoyed  by  such  vandalism." 

Congratulations  from  General  Fisk. 

Maj.  Austin  A.  King,  6th  Missouri  Militia,  sent  in  a  report  that  he  had  come 
upon  Holtzclaw's  command  east  of  Roanoke,  Howard  county.  In  a  running 
fight  of  five  miles  he  killed  six  men  and  wounded  several.  "I  congratulate 
you,"  Gen  Fisk  wrote  from  St.  Joseph  to  Maj.  King,  "on  the  good  beginning 
of  the  bushwhacking  campaign.  Strike  with  vigor  and  determination.  Take 
no  prisoners.  We  have  enough  of  that  sort  on  hand  now.  Pursue  and  kill.  I 
have  two  of  Holtzclaw's  men,  just  captured.  They  state  that  he  camps,  when 
in  Howard  county,  in  the  rear  of  old  man  Hackley's  farm,  not  far  from  Fay- 
ette. Make  a  dash  in  there  at  night,  and  get  him  if  possible.  Let  a  detachment 
secretly  watch  his  mother's  residence.  He  is  home  almost  daily,  and  his  sisters 
are  great  comforters  of  the  bushwhackers.  Old  man  Hackley  has  a  son  in  the 
brush.    I  shall  soon  send  out  of  the  district  tke  bushwhacking  families." 


CHAPTER  XXV 
RECONSTRUCTION  THROES 

A  State  Without  a  Govcrnmen-t — Secret  Conference  in  a  Newspaper  Office — Midsummer 
Session  of  the  Convention — State  Offices  Vacant — Proz'isional  Authority  Established — 
Willard  P.  Hall's  Keynote — Judge  Philips  on  Anomalous  Conditions — Erratic  Course  of 
Uriel  Wright — Governor  Gamble's  Death — The  Enrolled  Militia — Lincoln's  Advice  to 
Schofield — Missouri  Problems  in  Washington — A  Baby  Christened  "Sterling  Price" — 
The  President's  Plain  Words — Seventy  "Radical  Union  Men" — Encouragement  from 
the  Abolitionists — Reception  at  the  White  House — Drake  and  the  Address — A  Prayer 
to  Send  Ben  Butler — Enos  Clarke's  Vivid  Recollections — Lincoln's  Long  Letter — The 
Matter  with  Missouri — "Every  Foul  Bird  Comes  Abroad  and  Every  Dirty  Reptile  Rises 
Up" — Election  of  1864 — Blair  on  the  Permit  Iniquities — Constitutional  Convention — 
Immediate  Emancipation,  Test  Oath  and  "Ousting  Ordinance"— A  Revolutionary  Proposi- 
tion— Removal  of  One  Thousand  Judges  and  Court  Officers — Judge  Clover's  Frank  Re- 
port— Ousting  Vital  to  Reconstruction  Policy — Supreme  Court  Removed  by  Force  from 
the  Bench — A  Military  Demonstration — Thomas  K.  Skinker's  Valuable  Contribution  to 
History — Lincoln  and  Blair  in  Accord — The  President's  Plans  for  the  South — Restora- 
tion,  Not   Reconstruction— Farewell   Message    to    Missourians — Plea    to    Get    Together. 

The  dissensions  between  Union  men  in  Missouri  are  due  solely  to  a  factious  spirit,  whicli  is  exceed- 
ingly repreTiensible.  The  two  parties  ought  to  have  their  heads  knocked  together. — President  Lincoln  to 
James   Taussig,   in   May,   186s. 

In  July,  1861,  Missouri  was  without  civil  government.  "The  governor  and 
the  legislature  had  fled  the  state,"  said  Thomas  Shackleford.  "I  was  called  to 
St.  Louis  to  meet  other  parties  in  regard  to  the  situation.  In  an  upper  room  of 
the  Planters'  House,  Nathaniel  Paschall,  editor  of  the  Missouri  Republican, 
had  a  conference,  at  which  I  was  present,  to  determine  what  it  was  best  to  do 
under  the  circumstances,  to  prevent  anarchy.  Mr.  Paschall  said  he  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  was  best  to  depose  the  present  governor  and  elect  a  pro- 
visional governor.  He  said  that  in  the  next  issue  of  the  Republican  he  would 
advise  this.  This  was  done,  and  in  accordance  with  the  advice,  the  convention 
was  called  together.'' 

Upon  the  adjournment  in  March,  after  declaring  in  favor  of  the  Union, 
the  convention  had  provided  for  future  possibilities  by  giving  to  a  committee 
the  power  to  reassemble  the  body. 

The  convention  met  in  Jefferson  City  on  the  22d  of  July.  Its  president.  Ster- 
ling Price,  was  not  there  but  most  of  the  members  were.  Three  of  the  state 
officers,  the  treasurer,  auditor  and  register  of  lands,  who  had  left  with  Jackson, 
came  back,  swore  allegiance  to  the  United  States  and  took  up  their  duties.  The 
governor,  the  lieutenant-governor  and  the  secretary  of  state,  the  official  staff 

Vol.  1—52  gj7 


818  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  the  legislature  and  most  of  the  state  clerical  force  were  away.  The  first 
action  of  the  convention  was  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  consider  this 
extraordinary  situation  of  a  state  without  a  government.  In  three  days  the 
committee  came  into  the  convention  with  a  solution  of  the  problem.  The  com- 
mittee proposed  that  the  convention  declare  those  offices,  the  holders  of  which 
had  fled,  to  be  vacant.  They  recommended  that  the  convention  appoint  men  to 
fill  these  offices  until  a  special  election  could  be  held ;  that  the  convention  abolish 
the  legislature  which  had  created  it ;  that  the  provisional  governor  be  authorized 
to  order  a  special  election  for  a  new  legislature.  The  committee  further  recom- 
mended that  the  convention  repeal  the  military  law  and  other  legislation  passed 
by  the  legislature  to  facilitate  the  secession  of  Missouri;  and  that  the  militia  law 
of  1859  be  revived.  These  recommendations  reconstructing  state  government 
were  promptly  adopted.  The  convention  chose  Hamilton  R.  Gamble,  governor; 
Willard  P.  Hall,  lieutenant-governor,  and  Mordecai  Oliver,  secretary  of  state. 
The  convention  not  only  did  this  but  immediately  inaugurated  the  new  statf 
officers. 

The  New  Order  of  Things  in  Missouri. 

The  keynote  of  the  new  order  of  things  in  Missouri  was  struck  by  Mr.  Hall 
when  he  took  the  oath  as  lieutenant-governor: 

"I  believe,  gentlemen,  that  to  Missouri,  Union  is  peace  and  disunion  is  war.  I  believe 
that  today  Missouri  could  be  as  peaceful  as  Illinois,  if  her  citizens  had  recognized  their 
obligations  to  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  their  country.  Whatever  might  be  said  by  citizens 
of  other  states,  certainly  Missouri  has  no  right  to  complain  of  the  general  government. 

"I  believe  it  to  be  a  fact  that  there  is  no  law  of  general  character  upon  your  statutes 
that  has  been  enacted  since  Missouri  came  into  the  Union,  but  has  received  the  vote  and 
support  of  the  representatives  of  the  state.  Whatever  we  have  asked  from  the  government 
of  the  United  States  has  been  given  to  us  most  cheerfully.  We  asked  a  liberal  land  policy 
and  we  got  it;  we  asked  grants  for  our  railroads  and  we  got  them;  we  asked  for  a  fugitive 
slave  law  and  it  was  given  to  us ;  we  asked  that  our  peculiar  views  in  reference  to  the 
finances  of  the  country  should  be  regarded,  and  even  that  was  granted.  In  short,  if  the 
people  of  this  state  had  the  whole  control  of  the  Federal  government,  if  there  had  been  but 
one  state  in  the  Union,  the  very  policy  which  has  been  adopted  by  the  general  government 
would  have  been  adopted  as  best  calculated  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  state. 

"Notwithstanding  the  denunciations  we  sometimes  hear  against  the  government  of  the 
United  States  and  the  assaults  made  upon  it,  I  am  free  to  admit,  that  when  I  reflect  upon 
the  history  of  this  state,  when  I  remember  its  humble  origin,  the  proud  and  exalted  position 
it  occupied  but  a  few  months  ago,  my  affections  do  cluster  around  the  government  of  my 
country.  As  a  Missourian  I  desire  no  change  in  the  political  relations  that  exist  between 
this  state  and  the  government  of  the  United  States;  and,  least  of  all,  do  I  desire  such  a 
change  as  will  throw  her  into  the  arms  of  those  who  have  proved  unfaithful  to  the  high  trust 
imposed  upon  them  by  a  generous  and  confiding  people." 

Judge  Philips  on  the  Anomalous  Conditions. 

More  than  eighty  members  attended  this  meeting  of  the  convention.  The 
vote  unseating  the  state  officers  and  creating  a  provisional  government  was 
fifty-six  to  twenty-five.  In  his  paper  prepared  for  the  State  Historical  Society, 
at  Columbia,  Judge  John  F.  Philips  described  in  graphic  manner  the  conditions 
which  confronted  the  delegates: 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  819 

"The  state  treasury  was  depleted,  and  the  convention  was  left  without  the  means  of 
defraying  its  own  expenses.  There  was  no  military  force  to  protect  the  state  in  the  condition 
of  exposure  to  anarchy.  The  state  was  under  martial  law;  and  a  German  military  com- 
mandant, with  but  crude  ideas  of  civil  government,  was  dominant  at  the  state  capital. 
Under  the  recent  census  the  state  was  entitled  to  two  additional  representatives  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  demanding  a  new  apportionment  of  the  Congressional  dis- 
tricts, or  a  legislative  enactment  providing  for  the  manner  of  securing  such  additional 
representation.     The  legislature  had  disbanded  without  making  any  provision  therefor. 

"What  was  the  duty  of  the  members  of  the  convention  in  such  a  conjuncture  to  the 
people  of  the  state  who  had  sent  them  to  the  capital  to  represent  them?  Were  they  to 
display  the  moral  cowardice  of  those  'who  do  not  care  what  becomes  of  the  Ship  of  the 
State,  so  that  they  may  save  themselves  in  the  cockboat  of  their  own  fortune,'  or  should 
they  first  save  the  state,  and  leave  their  action  to  the  sober  judgment  of  posterity?  They 
chose  the  latter  course. 

Uriel  Wright's  Course. 

"Naturally  enough  the  few  favoring  secession  or  nothing,  and  others  in  sympathy 
with  the  absent  state  officials,  desiring  that  nothing  should  be  done  conflicting  with  the 
mere  theory  of  their  official  existence,  vigorously  opposed  any  action  of  the  convention 
other  than  an  adjournment  sine  die.  The  opposition  was  led  principally,  in  so  far  as 
talking  was  concerned,  by  Uriel  Wright  of  St.  Louis,  who  had  come  to  the  convention  as  an 
unconditional  Unionist ;  and  at  its  first  session  had  made  a  three  days'  speech  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  whole  theory  of  secession,  minimizing  the  grievances  of  the  seceding  states,  with 
a  force  of  eloquence  that  enthused,  beyond  description,  the  entire  convention,  including 
the  presiding  officer,  General  Price,  who  while  with  dignity  seeking  to  repress  the  applause 
of  the  galleries  said  to  me  on  adjournment,  in  walking  to  the  old  Planters'  House  where 
we  boarded:  'That  speech  was  so  fine  I,  too,  felt  like  applauding.'  But  alas,  for  the  in- 
firmity of  great  geniuses,  Wright  was  carried  off  of  his  high  pedestal  by  the  small  incident 
of  the  Camp  Jackson  affair,  and  came  to  the  July  session  of  the  convention  anxious  to 
display  the  usual  zeal  of  the  new  convert.  So  he  turned  loose  the  whole  vocabulary  of 
his  invective  against  ever>'thing  and  everybody  pro-Union.  To  my  conception  he  was  the 
most  brilliant  orator  of  the  state,  with  a  vast  wealth  of  historical,  political  and  literary 
mformation.  Like  a  ver>'  tragedian  he  bestrode  the  platform,  and  with  the  harmony  of 
accent  and  emphasis  he  charmed  like  a  siren.  But  he  was  unsteady  in  judgment,  unstable 
in  conviction  and  inconsistent  of  purpose.  And,  therefore,  was  wanting  in  that  moral 
force  that  holds  and  leads  thoughtful  men.  His  rhetoric  went  into  thin  air  before  the 
severe  logic  and  more  sincere  eloquence  of  such  men  as  Judge  Gamble,  the  two  brothers, 
William  A.  and  Willard  P.  Hall,  John  B.  Henderson  and  James  O.  Broadhead." 

The  Convention's  Authority. 

The  convention  was  authorized  in  the  act  creating  it  "to  adopt  such  measures 
for  vindicating  the  sovereignty  of  the  state,  and  the  protection  of  its  institutions 
as  shall  appear  to  them  to  be  demanded."  The  southern  rights  majority  in  the 
legislature  intended  these  words  to  mean  secession.  The  convention  found  in 
them  the  power  to  go  forward  and  reconstruct  an  entire  state  government  loyal 
to  the  Union.     Judge  Philips  said : 

"The  arguments  advanced  in  favor  of  the  power  of  the  convention  to  establish  a  pro- 
visional government  to  meet  the  emergency  may  be  summarized  as  follows :  The  conven- 
tion called  for  by  the  legislature  was  elected  by  popular  vote  of  the  people.  Under  our 
form  of  representative  government  when  such  delegates  met  they  were  as  the  whole  peo- 
ple of  the  state  assembled. 

"In  so  far  as  concerned  the  domestic  local  affairs  and  policy  of  the  state,  the  people 
were  all  powerful  to  make  and  unmake,  bind  and  unbind,  so  long  as  they  maintained  a 


820  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

government  republican  in  form,  and  not  in  conflict  with  the  Federal  constitution.  The 
only  recognizable  limitation  upon  its  power  was  to  be  found  in  the  terms  of  the  legislative 
enactment  calling  it. 

"In  anticipation  and  expectation  of  the  framers  of  the  act  that  an  ordinance  of  seces- 
sion would  be  adopted,  they  sought  to  invest  the  convention  with  most  plenary  powers  in 
order  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  new,  extraordinary  conditions  likely  to  arise,  both 
from  without  and  within  the  state.  Accordingly  the  convention  was  authorized  not  only 
to  take  consideration  of  the  existing  relations  between  the  government  of  the  United 
States  and  the  governments  and  the  people  of  the  different  states,  but  also  'the  govern- 
ment and  people  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  and  to  adopt  such  measures  for  vindicating  the 
sovereignty  of  the  state,  and  the  protection  of  its  institutions  as  shall  appear  to  them  to  be 
demanded.'  So  that  the  convention  during  its  deliberations  found  civil  government  in  the 
state  paralyzed,  without  a  head,  society  unprotected  by  the  arm  of  the  state,  disorder  and 
confusion  fast  spreading  over  it  like  a  pall  of  anarchy.  It  was  the  deliberate  judgment 
of  the  great  majority  that  it  was  neither  extra-constitutional,  usurpatory,  nor  without  the 
recognized  law  of  the  public  necessity,  that  the  convention  should  provide  a  provisional 
government,  ad  interim. 

"The  first  step  in  this  work  of  conservation  was  to  provide  for  an  executive  head. 
And  no  higher  evidence  of  the  conservative  impulses  of  the  convention  could  be  furnished 
than  the  fact  of  its  designation  of  Hamilton  R.  Gamble  as  governor  and  Willard  P.  Hall  as 
lieutenant  governor.  Where  could  have  been  found  two  wiser,  safer,  more  prudent,  un- 
selfish men?  Their  very  names  were  a  rainbow  of  promise  to  the  sorely  vexed  and  per- 
plexed people  of  the  state.  With  unsparing  energ>',  consummate  ability  and  unfaltering 
courage.  Governor  Gamble  set  his  face  and  all  the  aids  he  could  command  to  the  work  of 
restoring  order,  lawful  process,  and  peace  within  the  borders  of  the  commonwealth." 

The  Evolution  of  the  Factions. 

Of  the  subsequent  trials  of  Governor  Gamble  and  the  provisional  government, 
Judge  Philips  drew  this  picture : 

"That  in  that  endeavor  and  purpose  he  and  his  coadjutors  should  have  encountered 
opposition  and  criticism  from  the  very  element  he  so  earnestly  strove  to  protect  excited 
wonder  among  thoughtful,  good  citizens  at  the  time;  and  in  the  light  of  experience  it  now 
seems  anomalous.  There  were  two  extremes  in  the  state.  One  was  the  impracticable 
theorists,  who,  rather  than  accept  deliverance  from  any  source  other  than  the  Claib  Jack- 
son defunct  government,  would  accept  anarchy.  The  other  was  the  inflamed  radicals,  who 
preferred  the  substitution  of  military  for  civil  government,  so  long  as  under  its  bloody 
reign  they  could  make  reprisals  and  wreak  personal  spites  upon  an  unarmed  class  who  had 
incurred  their  dislike.  In  other  words,  they  preferred  a  condition  of  disorder  and  con- 
fusion as  more  favorable  to  rapine,  plunder  and  persecution.  The  very  determined  policy 
of  Gamble's  administration  to  extend  protection  to  noncombatants,  to  life,  liberty  and 
property,  was  made  the  slogan  of  the  rapidly  recruiting  forces  of  radicalism  that  'the 
Gamble  government'  was  but  another  name  for  southern  sympathy.  This  feeling  was  in- 
geniously communicated  to  the  secretary  of  war,  Stanton,  whose  motto  seemed  to  be 
'Aut  Caesar  aut  nihil.' 

"Between  the  two  factions,  the  one  denying  on  every  occasion  the  lawful  authority  of 
his  administration,  and,  therefore,  yielding  him  not  even  needed  moral  support,  and  the 
other  demanding  non-interference  with  predatory  warfare  and  reprisals  on  'rebel  sym- 
pathizers,' to  say  nothing  of  the  machinations  of  ambitious  politicians,  his  soul  was  sorely 
vexed  and  tried.  But  with  a  fortitude  as  sublime  as  his  moral  courage  he  never  hesitated 
nor  halted  in  waging,  with  all  force  and  resources  at  his  command,  an  uncompromising  war 
on  outlawry,  no  matter  under  what  guise  it  masqueraded  or  under  what  banner  it  despoiled. 
He  believed  in  liberty  with  law  and  government  without  unnecessary  oppression. 

"Oppressed  with  the  heavy  burdens  of  such  an  office,  under  such  conditions,  and 
weakened  physically  with  increasing  ill  health.  Governor  Gamble  tendered  his  resig^nation 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  821 

to  the  convention  in  1863,  and  begged  that  it  be  accepted.  But  so  profoundly  impressed 
was  the  convention  with  the  supreme  importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  state  that  he  should 
continue  his  great  work,  it  implored  him  to  withdraw  the  resignation.  I  can  yet  see  his 
pallid  face,  furrowed  with  the  ravages  of  care  and  disease,  his  hair  like  burnished  silver, 
his  eyes  aglow  with  the  fire  of  martyrdom,  his  voice  so  mellow,  yet  perfectly  modulated,  as 
he  stood  before  the  convention  and  said :  'Your  will  be  done  not  mine.'  With  the  harness 
chafing  and  bearing  hard  upon  his  wasting  frame  he  went  to  his  death,  January  31,  1864, 
lamented  and  honored  at  his  funeral  as  I  have  never  before  or  since  witnessed  in  this  state." 

Schofield  and  the  Enrolled  Militia. 

The  Minute  Men  of  the  winter  of  1861  were  enhsted  by  the  southern  rights 
leaders  "to  protect  the  state :"  The  next  year,  under  an  act  of  Congress,  was 
begun  the  organization  of  the  Enrolled  Militia  of  Missouri  for  the  "defense 
of  the  state."  It  had  been  found  by  the  Union  leaders  that  there  were  many  young 
Missourians  who  were  willing  to  enlist  for  service  in  Missouri  on  the  Union 
side.  These  young  men  would  not  go  south  to  fight  against  the  Union.  Neither 
were  they  willing  to  go  outside  the  state  to  fight  against  southern  relatives  and 
friends  in  the  Confederate  armies.  They  were  ready  to  enlist  under  officers 
appointed  by  the  Union  governor  to  preserve  order  in  the  state  and  to  repel 
invasion  of  Missouri  by  Confederates.  General  John  M.  Schofield,  who  had 
been  a  professor  in  Washington  University,  a  major  in  one  of  the  Home  Guard 
regiments  which  took  Camp  Jackson,  and  Lyon's  chief  of  staff  in  the  battle  of 
Wilson's  creek,  was  given  charge  of  the  Missouri  Enrolled  Militia.  He  organized 
into  regiments  13,000  men  who  rendered  the  state  good  service,  making  possible 
the  withdrawal  of  troops  from  other  states. 

Assessments  Stopped  by  Lincoln. 

After  Fremont  came,  in  succession,  Hunter,  Halleck,  Curtis  and  Schofield 
as  military  commanders  to  deal  with  the  confusing  situation  in  Alissouri.  The 
assessment  of  southern  sympathizers  which  President  Lincoln  had  suspended 
in  St.  Louis  on  the  letter  of  Rev.  Dr.  Eliot  showing  that  it  was  doing  great  harm 
to  the  Union  cause,  had  been  continued  in  the  interior  of  Missouri.  One  of  the 
orders  called  for  an  assessment  of  $5,000  for  every  Union  soldier  or  Union 
citizen  killed  and  $1,000  for  every  Union  soldier  or  Union  citizen  wounded  by 
the  bushwhackers  or  guerrilla  bands.  The  President  wrote  to  General  Curtis 
one  of  his  friendly  letters  on  the  Missouri  situation  and  suggested  that  he 
stop  these  assessments.  General  Curtis  wrote  at  considerable  length  in  reply. 
He  told  how  the  assessment  policy  had  begun  under  the  provost  marshal  system 
started  by  Fremont  and  continued  by  Halleck  and  by  himself.  He  argued  in 
favor  of  its  continuance.  Then  by  general  order  the  President  suspended  these 
assessments  in  Missouri. 

In  March  the  quarrel  between  the  factions  had  reached  such  a  stage  that  the 
President  relieved  General  Curtis.  Missourians  calling  at  the  White  House 
found  in  the  President's  welcome  a  note  of  weariness  as  he  referred  to  his  efforts 
to  keep  peace  between  the  discordant  elements.  One  of  these  visitors  returning 
to  St.  Louis  quoted  the  President  as  saying: 

The  dissensions  between  Union  men  in  Missouri  are  due  solely  to  a  fac- 
<ious  spirit,  which  is  exceedingly  reprehensible.  The  two  parties  ought  to  have 
their  heads  knocked  together." 


822  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  President  appointed  General  Schofield  to  the  command  in  Missouri  and 
on  the  27th  of  May  wrote  him  this  letter  for  guidance: 

"Having  relieved  General  Curtis  and  assigned  you  to  the  command  of  the  department 
of  Missouri,  I  think  it  may  be  of  some  advantage  for  me  to  state  to  you  why  I  did  it.  I  did 
not  relieve  General  Curtis  because  of  any  full  conviction  that  he  had  done  wrong  by 
commission  or  omission.  I  did  it  because  of  a  conviction  in  my  mind  that  the  Union 
men  of  Missouri,  constituting  when  united  a  vast  majority  of  the  whole  people,  have  entered 
into  a  pestilent  factional  quarrel  among  themselves — General  Curtis,  perhaps  not  from 
choice,  being  the  head  of  one  faction,  and  Governor  Gamble  that  of  the  other.  After 
months  of  labor  to  reconcile  the  difficulty,  it  seemed  to  grow  worse  and  worse,  until  I 
felt  it  my  duty  to  break  it  up  somehow ;  and  as  I  could  not  remove  Governor  Gamble,  I 
had  to  remove  General  Curtis.  Now  that  you  are  in  the  position,  I  wish  you  to  undo  noth- 
ing merely  because  General  Curtis  or  Governor  Gamble  did  it,  but  to  exercise  your  own 
judgment  and  do  right  for  the  public  interest. 

"Let  your  military  measures  be  strong  enough  to  repel  the  invader  and  to  keep  the 
peace,  and  not  so  strong  as  to  unnecessarily  harass  and  persecute  the  people.  It  is  a 
difficult  role,  and  so  much  greater  will  be  the  honor  if  you  perform  it  well.  If  both  fac- 
tions, or  neither,  shall  abuse  you,  you  will  probably  be  about  right.  Beware  of  being 
assailed  by  one  and  praised  by  the  other. 

"Yours    truly, 

"A.  Lincoln." 

The  Schofield  letter  became  public, — "surreptitiously," — The  President  sub- 
sequently explained.  It  prompted  Governor  Gamble  to  write,  complaining  of  the 
reference  to  him  as  heading  one  of  the  parties  to  a  "pestilent  factional  quarrel." 
Mr.  Lincoln  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  Governor  Gamble's  letter,  but  said  he 
had  not  read  the  letter  and  did  not  intend  to  read  it. 

Lincoln's  Missouri  Problems. 

The  first  day  of  January,  1863,  was  one  of  the  most  momentous  in  the 
administration  of  President  Lincoln.  That  day,  after  receiving  the  suggestions 
of  his  cabinet  and  after  much  consideration  as  to  form  and  effect  of  what  he 
was  about  to  do,  the  President  signed  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  The 
next  day  he  took  up  and,  as  he  evidently  supposed,  solved  a  Missouri  problem. 
This  was  the  Pine  Street  Presbyterian  church  controversy.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Mc- 
Pheeters  had  baptized  a  little  Missouri  baby  with  the  name  of  Sterling  Price. 
This  was  one  of  the  charges  made  against  Dr.  McPheeters  by  some  members 
of  his  congregation  who  admitted  his  piety  but  questioned  his  loyalty.  The 
charges  were  laid  before  the  provost  marshal.  That  functionary  ordered  the 
arrest  of  the  divine  and  took  charge  of  the  church,  relieving  the  trustees.  The 
issue  was  carried  to  the  White  House,  as  was  the  custom,  and  the  President, 
turning  from  weighty  matters,  wrote  to  General  Curtis,  commanding  at  St. 
Louis : 

"The  United  States  must  not,  as  by  this  order,  undertake  to  run  the  churches. 
When  an  individual  in  a  church,  or  out  of  it,  becomes  dangerous  to  the  public 
interest  he  must  be  checked;  but  let  the  churches,  as  such,  take  care  of  them- 
selves." 

Doubtless  Mr.  Lincoln  thought  he  had  laid  down  a  broad  principle  that 
would   relieve  him   of   further  appeals   from   either  party   to   the   Pine   Street 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  823 

Presbyterian  church  differences.  Dr.  McPheeters  was  discharged  from  arrest. 
The  President  was  immediately  asked  to  restore  to  Dr.  McPheeters  his  eccle- 
siastical rights.  His  reply  was  addressed  to  O.  D.  Filley,  the  head  of  the  St. 
Louis  Committee  of  Public  Safety. 

"I  have  never  interfered,"  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote,  "nor  thought  of  interfering, 
as  to  who  shall,  or  shall  not,  preach  in  any  church;  nor  have  I  knowingly  or  be- 
lievingly  tolerated  any  one  to  so  interfere  by  my  authority.  If,  after  all,  what 
is  now  sought  is  to  have  me  put  Dr.  McPheeters  back  over  the  heads  of  a 
majority  of  his  own  congregation,  that,  too,  will  be  declined.  I  will  not  have 
control  of  any  church,  on  any  side." 

Individual,  as  well  as  church  and  state  problems  in  Missouri  were  put  up  to 
Mr.  Lincoln.  On  the  7th  of  January,  the  same  week  that  the  President  had,  as 
he  thought,  disposed  of  the  Pine  Street  Presbyterian  trouble,  he  received  a 
message  from  B.  Gratz  Brown.  The  telegram  was  sent  from  Jefferson  City. 
The  legislature  had  assembled.  Mr.  Brown  was  a  candidate  for  the  United 
States  Senate.  He  was  elected  but  not  until  after  he  had  encountered  some 
difficulties.    He  wired : 

"Does  the  administration  desire  my  defeat;  if  not,  why  are  its  appointees 
working  to  that  end?" 

President  replied  promptly  but  in  language  that  was  diplomatic  and  per- 
haps somewhat  cryptic: 

"Yours  of  today  just  received.  The  administration  takes  no  part  between 
its  friends  in  Missouri,  of  whom  I,  at  least,  consider  you  one,  and  I  never  be- 
fore had  an  intimation  that  appointees  there  were  interfering,  or  were  inclined 
to  interfere."    . 

Charcoals  and  Claybanks  the  two  factions  of  loyal  Missourians  were  called. 
Mr.  Lincoln  tried  to  be  neutral  between  them.  In  spirit,  if  not  in  so  many 
words,  his  attitude  was,  "You  all  look  alike  to  me."  He  would  not  take  sides, 
but  occasionally  he  expressed  himself  vigourously  on  the  unhappy  family  situa- 
tion. In  the  spring  of  1863  a  Charcoal  appeal  was  made  to  the  President.  Mr. 
Lincoln  replied : 

"In  answer  to  the  within  question  'Shall  we  be  sustained  by  you?'  I  have 
to  answer  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  administration  I  appointed  one  whom  I 
understood  to  be  an  editor  of  the  'Democrat'  to  be  postmaster  at  St.  Louis — the 
best  office  in  my  gift  within  Missouri.  Soon  after  this,  our  friends  at  St.  Louis 
must  needs  break  into  factions,  the  Democrat  being,  in  my  opinion,  justly  charge- 
able with  a  full  share  of  the  blame  for  it.  I  have  stoutly  tried  to  keep  out  of 
the  quarrel,  and  so  mean  to  do." 

President  Lincoln  continued  to  preserve  strict  neutrality  between  the  Mis- 
souri factions.  Judge  S.  P.  McCurdy,  of  this  state  was  a  candidate  for  an 
appointment.  The  President,  with  his  own  hand,  endorsed  Judge  McCurdy's 
application : 

"This  is  a  good  recommendation  for  a  territorial  judgeship,  embracing  both 
sides  in  Missouri  and  many  other  respectable  gentlemen. 

"A.  Lincoln." 

The  President  didn't  believe  in  holding  Missourians  to  strict  account  for 
what  they  might  have  said  in  the  heat  of  oratory.    Prince  L.  Hudgins,  a  lawyer 


824  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

quite  well  known  in  the  war  period,  was  charged  with  conspiracy  against  the 
government.  He  wrote  to  President  Lincoln  explaining  that  the  charge  was 
based  on  a  speech  he  had  made  in  St.  Joseph  several  months  before  the  law 
under  which  he  was  being  prosecuted  was  enacted.  Congressman  King  went 
to  the  White  House  and  recommended  a  pardon  for  Hudgins.  The  President 
wrote  on  the  papers : 

"Attorney  General:  Please  see  Mr.  King  and  make  out  the  pardon  he  asks. 
Give  this  man  a  fair  deal  if  possible." 

And  then,  perhaps  after  a  little  more  conversation  with  the  Missouri  Con- 
gressman, Mr.  Lincoln  added  this  to  his  indorsement: 

"Gov.  King  leaves  Saturday  evening  and  would  want  to  have  it  with  him  to 
take  along,  if  possible.  Would  wish  it  made  out  as  soon  as  conveniently  can 
be." 

The  Seveaty  "Radical  Union  Men." 

At  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  last  day  of  September,  1863,  President 
Lincoln,  accompanied  by  one  of  his  secretaries,  came  into  the  great  east  room 
of  the  White  House  and  sat  down. 

"He  bore  the  appearance  of  being  much  depressed,  as  if  the  whole  matter 
at  issue  in  the  conference  which  was  impending  was  of  great  anxiety  and  trouble 
to  him,"  says  one  of  the  St.  Louisans  who  sat  awaiting  the  President's  coming. 

These  were  seventy  "radical  Union  men  of  Missouri;"  they  had  accepted 
that  designation.  They  had  been  chosen  at  mass  convention — "the  largest  mass 
convention  ever  held  in  the  state,"  their  credentials  said.  That  convention  had 
unqualifiedly  indorsed  the  emancipation  proclamation  and  the  employment  of 
negro  troops.  It  had  declared  its  loyalty  to  the  general  government.  It  had 
appointed  these  seventy  Missourians  to  proceed  to  Washington  and  "to  procure 
a  change  in  the  governmental  policy  in  reference  to  Missouri."  The  movement 
had  originated  in  St.  Louis,  and  St.  Louisans  were  at  the  head  of  it. 

This  action  meant  more  than  a  city  or  a  state  movement.  It  was  the  precipi- 
tation of  a  crisis  at  Washington.  It  was  the  voice  of  the  radical  anti-slavery 
clement  of  the  whole  country,  speaking  through  Missouri,  demanding!  that 
the  government  commit  itself  to  the  policy  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  to  the 
policy  of  the  use  of  the  negro  troops  against  Confederate  armies.  It  was  the 
uprising  of  the  element  which  thought  the  administration  at  Washington  had 
been  too  mild.  President  Lincoln  understood  that  the  coming  of  the  Missourians 
meant  more  than  their  local  appeal.  The  Missourians  understood,  too,  the  im- 
portance of  their  mission.  On  the  way  to  Washington  the  seventy  had  stopped 
in  city  after  city,  had  been  given  enthusiastic  reception  by  anti-slavery  leaders; 
they  had  been  encouraged  to  make  their  appeal  for  a  new  policy  in  Missouri 
insistent  and  to  stand  on  the  platform  that  the  border  states  must  now  wipe 
out  slavery  of  loyal  owners.  Hence  it  was  that  immediately  upon  their  arrival 
in  Washington  the  seventy  Missourians  coming  from  a  slave  state  put  into  their 
address  to  the  President  such  an  avowal  as  this: 

"We  rejoice  that  in  j'our  proclamation  of  January  i,  1863,  you  laid  the  mighty  hand  of 
the  nation  upon  that  gigantic  enemy  of  American  liberty,  and  we  and  our  constituents 
honor  you  for  that  wise  and  noble  act.     We  and  they  hold  that  that  proclamation  did,  in 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  825 

law,  by  its  own  force,  liberate  every  slave  in  the  region  it  covered;  that  it  is  irrevocable, 
and  that  from  the  moment  of  its  issue  the  American  people  stood  in  an  impregnable  posi- 
tion before  the  world  and  the  rebellion  received  its  death  blow.  If  you,  Mr.  President,  felt 
that  duty  to  your  country  demanded  that  you  should  unshackle  the  slaves  of  the  rebel 
states  in  an  hour,  we  see  no  earthly  reason  why  the  people  of  Missouri  should  not,  from 
the  same  sense  of  duty,  strike  down  with  equal  suddenness  the  traitorous  and  parricidal 
institution  in  their  midst." 

The  Missouri  Movement. 

Here  was  the  essence  of  the  Missouri  movement  which  gave  it  national  in- 
terest, which  prompted  the  grand  chorus  of  approval,  which  led  to  the  series  of 
indorsing  ovations  concluding  with  the  mighty  demonstration  over  the  seventy 
radical  Union  men  in  Cooper  Institute,  New  York  City,  with  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  editor  and  poet,  presiding.  President  Lincoln,  pursuing  the  course  which 
seemed  to  hiin  necessary  to  keep  the  united  North  w^ith  him.  felt  fully  the  critical 
character  of  the  issue  which  the  Missourians  were  raising. 

Conditions  and  events  wholly  apart  from  what  was  going  on  in  their  state 
added  to  the  significance  and  importance  of  this  conference  between  President 
Lincoln  and  the  radical  Union  men  of  Missouri.  The  week  before  the  seventy 
started  from  St.  Louis  for  Washington  that  bloodiest  battle  of  the  war,  Chicka- 
mauga,  had  been  fought,  and  the  whole  North  was  depressed  by  the  narrow 
escape  of  Rosecrans'  army.  When  the  Missourians  arrived  in  Washington 
Hooker's  army  was  marching  all  night  long  over  the  Long  Bridge  out  of  Vir- 
ginia and  into  ^\  ashington  to  take  trains  for  the  roundabout  journey  to  Chat- 
tanooga to  reenforce  the  penned-up  troops,  that  they  might  not  be  forced  north 
of  the  Tennessee  by  Bragg.  Meade's  failure  to  follow-  up  the  success  at  Getty 
burg  in  July  previous  had  given  great  dissatisfaction.  In  the  cabinet  there  wa  ■ 
division  over  administration  policies.  The  Presidential  campaign  w'as  coming 
on  in  a  few  months.  Perhaps  at  no  other  time  since  the  beginning  of  the  war 
had  President  Lincoln  faced  more  discouraging  criticism  and  more  hostile  opin- 
ion in  the  North. 

And  now  came  these  Missourians  to  add  to  the  burden.  The  address  which 
the  Missourians  had  prepared  was  read  to  the  President.  For  half  an  hour, 
the  chairman,  Charles  D.  Drake,  read  in  a  deep,  sonorous  voice,  slowly  and 
impressively. 

The  address  reviewed  the  origin  and  the  development  of  antagonism  between 
the  Gamble  administration  and  the  radical  Union  men.  It  charged  Gamble  with 
the  intention  to  preserve  slavery  in  Missouri  and  asserted  "the  radicals  of 
Missouri  desired  and  demanded  the  election  of  a  new  convention  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ridding  the  state  of  slavery  immediately."  It  dwelt  at  length  upon  the 
■'proslavery  character"  of  Governor  Gamble's  policy  and  acts. 

"From  the  antagonisms  of  the  radicals  to  such  a  policy,"  the  address  pro- 
ceeded, "have  arisen  the  conflicts  which  you,  Mr.  President,  have  been  pleased 
heretofore  to  term  a  'factional  quarrel.'  With  all  respect  we  deny  that  the  radi- 
cals of  Missouri  have  been  or  are,  in  any  sense,  a  party  to  any  such  quarrel. 
We  are  no  factionists;  but  men  earnestly  intent  upon  doing  our  part  toward 
rescuing  this  great  nation  from  the  assaults  which  slaverj'  is  aiming  at  its 
life." 


826  •  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

With  the  Missourians  affirming  such  a  position,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
the  wave  of  sympathy  from  the  anti-slavery  element  which  spread  over  the  coun- 
try, taking  the  form  of  indorsements  by  newspaper,  speeches  by  leaders  of  the 
anti-slavery  people  and  enthusiastic  public  attentions  to  the  delegation. 

They  Asked  for  Ben  Butler. 

The  climax  of  the  address  of  the  seventy  radical  Union  men  was  the  prayer 
that  Ben  Butler  be  sent  to  succeed  Schofield  at  St.  Louis  to  restore  peace  and 
order  in  Missouri. 

"We  ask,  further,  Mr.  President,  that  in  the  place  of  General  Schofield  a  department 
commander  be  assigned  to  the  department  of  Missouri  whose  sympathies  will  be  with  Mis- 
souri's loyal  and  suffering  people,  and  not  with  slavery  and  proslavery  men.  General 
Schofield  has  disappointed  our  just  e.xpectations  by  identifying  himself  with  our  state 
administration,  and  his  policy  as  department  commander  has  been,  as  we  believe,  shaped 
to  conform  to  Governor  Gamble's  proslavery  and  conservative  views.  He  has  subordinated 
Federal  authority  in  Missouri  to  state  rule.  He  has  become  a  party  to  the  enforcement  of 
conscription  into  the  state  service.  He  has  countenanced,  if  not  sustained,  the  orders 
issued  from  the  state  headquarters,  prohibiting  enlistments  from  the  enrolled  militia  into 
the  volunteer  service  of  the  United  States.  Officers  acting  under  him  have  arbitrarily 
arrested  and  imprisoned  loyal  citizens,  without  assigned  cause,  or  for  daring  to  censure 
Governor  Gamble's  policy  and  acts.  Other  such  officers  have  ordered  loyal  men  to  be 
disarmed,  and  in  some  instances  the  order  has  been  executed,  while,  under  the  pretense  of 
preventing  an  invasion  of  Missouri  from  Kansas,  notorious  and  avowed  disloyalists  have 
been  armed.  He  has  issued  a  military  order  prohibiting  the  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the 
press.  An  officer  in  charge  of  negro  recruits  that  had  been  enlisted  under  lawful  authority, 
as  we  are  informed  and  believe,  was  on  the  20th  inst.  arrested  in  Missouri  by  Brigadier 
General  Guitar,  acting  under  General  Schofield's  orders,  his  commission,  side-arms  and 
recruits  taken  from  him,  and  he  imprisoned  and  sent  out  of  the  state.  And,  finally,  we 
declare  to  you,  Mr.  President,  that  from  the  day  of  General  Schofield's  accession  to  the 
command  of  that  department,  matters  have  grown  worse  and  worse  in  Missouri,  till  now 
they  are  in  a  more  terrible  condition  than  they  have  been  at  any  time  since  the  outbreak 
of  the  rebellion.  This  could  not  be  if  General  Schofield  had  administered  the  affairs  of 
that  department  with  proper  vigor  and  with  a  resolute  purpose  to  sustain  loyalty  and  sup- 
press disloyalty.  We,  therefore,  respectfully  pray  you  to  send  another  general  to  com- 
mand that  department;  and,  if  we  do  not  overstep  the  bounds  of  propriety,  we  ask  that 
the  commander  sent  there  be  Major  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler.  We  believe  that  his 
presence  there  would  restore  order  and  peace  to  Missouri  in  less  than  sixty  days." 

The  Concluding'  Appeal. 

The  closing  paragraph  of  the  address  was  well  calculated  to  impress  Mr. 
Lincoln  with  the  intensity  of  feeling  inspiring  the  delegation.  Perhaps  in  the 
history  of  White  House  conferences  such  strong  language  was  never  before  used 
by  a  delegation  in  declaring  the  personal  responsibility  of  the  chief  executive. 
The  conclusion  was  in  these  words: 

"Whether  the  loyal  hearts  of  Missouri  shall  be  crushed  is  for  you  to  say.  If  you  refuse 
our  requests,  we  return  to  our  homes  only  to  witness,  in  consequence  of  that  refusal,  a 
more  active  and  relentless  persecution  of  Union  men,  and  to  feel  that  while  Maryland  can 
rejoice  in  the  protection  of  the  government  of  the  Union,  Missouri  is  still  to  be  a  victim 
of  proslavery  conservatism,  which  blasts  wherever  it  reigns.  Does  Missouri  deserve  such 
a  fate?  What  border  slave  state  confronted  the  rebellion  in  its  first  spring  as  she  did? 
Remember,  we  pray  you,  who  it  was  that  in  May,  1861,  captured  Camp  Jackson  and  saved 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  827 

the  arsenal  at  St.  Louis  from  the  hands  of  traitors,  and  the  Union  cause  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Mississippi  from  incalculable  disaster.  Remember  the  Home  Guards,  who  sprung  to  arms 
in  Missouri  when  the  government  was  without  troops  or  means  to  defend  itself  there. 
Remember  the  more  than  50,000  volunteers  that  Missouri  has  sent  forth  to  battle  for  the 
Union.  Remember  that,  although  always  a  slave  state,  her  unconditional  loyalty  to  the 
Union  shines  lustrously  before  the  whole  nation.  Recall  to  memory  these  things,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, and  let  them  exert  their  just  influence  upon  your  mind.  We  ask  only  justice  and 
protection  to  our  suffering  people.  If  they  are  to  suffer  hereafter,  as  now,  and  in  time  past, 
the  world  will  remember  that  they  are  not  responsible  for  the  gloomy  page  in  Missouri's 
history,  which  may  have  to  record  the  independent  efforts  of  her  harassed  but  still  loyal 
men  to  defend  themselves,  their  families  and  their  homes  against  their  disloyal  and  mur- 
derous assailants." 

Recollections  of  Enos  Clarke. 

The  names  of  the  seventy  radical  Union  men  of  Missouri  were  signed  to  this 
remarkable  document.  The  signature  of  Charles  D.  Drake  of  St.  Louis,  after- 
wards senator  from  Missouri,  and  still  later  chief  justice  of  the  court  of  claims 
at  Washington,  came  first  as  chairman.  Two  Missouri  Congressmen,  Ben  Loan 
and  J.  W.  McClurg,  the  latter  afterwards  governor,  signed  as  vice  chairmen  of 
the  delegation.  One  of  the  secretaries  was  the  late  Emil  Preetorius  of  the  St. 
Louis  Westliche  Post.  Three  of  the  seventy  signers  were  Enos  Clarke,  Charles 
P.  Johnson  and  David  Murphy.  They  were  among  the  youngest  members  of  the 
delegation.  The  half  cetitury  and  more  gone  by  has  not  dimmed  the  recollec- 
tion of  that  journey  to  Washington  and  of  the  scene  in  the  east  room  of  the 
White  House,  although  time  long  ago  tempered  the  sentiment  and  dissipated  the 
bitterness.  With  some  reluctance  Enos  Clarke  spoke  of  this  historic  occasion, 
explaining  that  it  is  difficult  for  those  who  did  not  live  through  those  trying 
times  in  Missouri  to  comprehend  the  conditions  which  prevailed : 

"The  feeling  over  our  grievances  had  become  intense.  We  represented  the  extreme 
anti-slavery  sentiment.  We  were  the  republicans  who  had  been  in  accord  with  Fremont's 
position.  Both  sides  to  the  controversy  in  Missouri  had  repeatedly  presented  their  views  to 
President  Lincoln,  but  this  delegation  of  seventy  was  the  most  imposing  and  most  formal 
protest  which  had  been  made  to  the  Gamble  state  administration  and  the  national  adminis- 
tration's policy  in  Missouri.  The  attention  of  the  whole  country,  it  seemed,  had  been 
drawn  to  Missouri.  Our  delegation  met  with  a  series  of  ovations.  When  we  reached 
Washington  we  were  informed  that  Secretary  Chase  proposed  to  tender  us  a  reception. 
We  were  entertained  by  him  the  evening  of  the  day  we  were  received  at  the  White  House." 

"Who  was  the  author  of  the  address,  Mr.  Clarke?" 

"The  address  was  the  result  of  several  meetings  we  held  after  we  reached  Washing- 
ton. We  were  there  nearly  a  week.  Arriving  on  Saturday,  we  did  not  have  our  confer- 
ence at  the  White  House  until  Wednesday.  Every  day  we  met  in  Willard's  hall,  on  F 
street,  and  considered  the  address.  Mr.  Drake  would  read  over  a  few  paragraphs,  and  we 
would  discuss  them.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  Mr.  Drake  would  say,  'I  will  call  you 
together  tomorrow  to  further  consider  this  matter.'  In  that  way  the  address  progressed 
to  the   finish." 

"How  did  the  President  receive  you?" 

"There  was  no  special  greeting.  We  went  to  the  White  House  a  few  minutes  before 
nine,  in  accordance  with  the  appointment  which  had  been  made,  and  took  seats  in  the  east 
room.  Promptly  at  nine  the  president  came  in,  unattended  save  by  one  of  his  secretaries. 
He  did  not  shake  hands,  but  sat  down  in  such  a  position  that  he  faced  us.  He  seemed  a  great 
ungainly,  almost  uncouth  man.  He  walked  with  a  kind  of  ambling  gait.  His  face  bore 
the  look  of  depression,  of  deep  anxiety.    Mr.  Drake  stepped  forward  as  soon  as  the  Presi- 


828  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

dent  had  taken  his  seat  and  began  to  read  the  address.  He  had  a  deep,  sonorous  voice 
and  he  read  slowly  and  in  a  most  impressive  manner.  The  reading  occupied  half  an  hour. 
At  the  conclusion  Mr.  Drake  said  this  statement  of  our  grievances  had  been  prepared  and 
signed  by  all  of  those  present." 

"Did  the  President  seem  to  be  much  affected  by  the  reading?" 

"No.  And  at  the  conclusion  he  began  to  discuss  the  address  in  a  manner  that  was 
very  disappointing  to  us.  He  took  up  one  phrase  after  another  and  talked  about  them 
without  showing  much  interest.  In  fact,  he  seemed  inclined  to  treat  many  of  the  matters 
contained  in  the  paper  as  of  little  importance.  The  things  which  we  had  felt  to  be  so 
serious  Mr.  Lincoln  treated  as  really  unworthy  of  much  consideration.  That  was  the  tone 
in  which  he  talked  at  first.     He  minimized  what  seemed  to  us  most  important." 

"Did  he   indulge  in  any  story  telling  or   humorous  comment?" 

"No.  There  was  nothing  that  seemed  like  levity  at  that  stage  of  the  conference.  On 
the  contrar>',  the  President  was  almost  impatient,  as  if  he  wished  to  get  through  with 
something  disagreeable.  When  he  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  things  were  not  so  serious 
as  we  thought  he  began  to  ask  questions,  many  of  them.  He  elicited  answers  from  differ- 
ent members  of  the  delegation.  He  started  argument,  parrying  some  of  the  opinions  ex- 
pressed by  us  and  advancing  opinions  contrary  to  the  conclusions  of  our  Committee  of 
Seventy.  This  treatment  of  our  grievances  was  carried  so  far  that  most  of  us  felt  a  sense 
of  deep  chagrin.  But  after  continuing  in  this  line  for  some  time  the  President's  whole 
manner  underwent  change.  It  seemed  as  if  he  had  been  intent  upon  drawing  us  out. 
When  satisfied  that  he  fully  understood  us  and  had  measured  the  strength  of  our  purpose, 
the  depth  of  our  feeling,  he  took  up  the  address  as  if  new.  He  handled  the  various 
grievances  in  a  most  serious  manner.  He  gave  us  the  impression  that  he  was  disposed  to 
regard  them  with  as  much  concern  as  we  did.  After  a  while  the  conversation  became 
colloquial  between  the  President  and  the  members  of  the  delegation — more  informal  and 
more  sympathetic.  The  change  of  tone  made  us  feel  that  we  were  going  to  get  con- 
sideration." 

"Did  the  President  make  any  reference  to  that  part  of  .the  address  about  the  'factional 
quarrel'?" 

"Yes,  he  did.  And  it  was  about  the  only  thing  he  said  that  had  a  touch  of  humor  in 
that  long  conversation.  In  the  course  of  his  reply  to  us  he  took  up  that  grievance.  "Why," 
he  said,  'you  are  a  long  way  behind  the  times  in  complaining  of  what  I  said  upon  that 
point.  Governor  Gamble  was  ahead  of  you.  There  came  to  me  some  time  ago  a  letter 
complaining  because  I  had  said  that  he  was  a  party  to  a  factional  quarrel,  and  I  answered 
that  letter  without  reading  it.'  The  features  of  the  president  took  on  a  whimsical  look  as  he 
continued :  'Maybe  you  would  like  to  know  how  I  could  answer  it  without  reading  it. 
Well,  I'll  tell  j-ou.  My  private  secretary  told  me  such  a  letter  had  been  received  and  I  sat 
down  and  wrote  to  Governor  Gamble  in  about  these  words :  "I  understand  that  a  letter 
has  been  received  from  you  complaining  that  I  said  you  were  a  party  to  a  factional  quarrel 
in  Missouri.  I  have  not  read  that  letter,  and,  what  is  more,  I  never  will." '  With  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  dismissed  our  grievance  about  having  been  called  parties  to  a  factional  quarrel. 
He  left  us  to  draw  our  own  inference  from  what  he  said,  as  he  had  left  Governor  Gamble 
to  construe  the  letter  without  help." 

"Did  the  conference  progress  to  satisfactory  conclusions  after  the  President's  manner 
changed  ?" 

"We  did  not  receive  specific  promises,  but  I  think  we  felt  much  better  toward  the 
close  than  we  had  felt  in  the  first  hour.  The  President  spoke  generally  of  his  purpose  rather 
than  with  reference  to  conditions  in  Missouri.  Toward  the  close  of  the  conference  he  went 
on  to  speak  of  his  great  office,  of  its  burdens,  of  its  responsibilities  and  duties.  Among 
other  things  he  said  that  in  the  administration  of  the  government  he  wanted  to  be  the 
President  of  the  whole  people  and  no  section.  He  thought  we,  possibly,  failed  to  compre- 
hend the  enormous  stress  that  rested  upon  him.  'It  is  my  ambition  and  desire,'  he  said  with 
considerable  feeling,  'to  so  administer  the  affairs  of  the  government  while  I  remain  Presi- 
dent that  if  at  the  end  I  shall  have  lost  every  other  friend  on  earth  I  shall  at  least  have 
one  friend  remaining  and  that  one  shall  be  down  inside  of  me.' " 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  829 

"How  long  did  the  conference  continue?" 

"Three  hours.  It  was  nearing  noon  when  the  President  said  what  I  have  just  quoted. 
That  seemed  to  be  the  signal  to  end  the  conference.  Mr.  Drake  stepped  forward  and 
addressing  the  President,  who  was  standing,  said,  with  deliberation  and  emphasis :  'The 
hour  has  come  when  we  can  no  longer  trespass  upon  your  attention.  Having  submitted 
to  you  in  a  formal  way  a  statement  of  our  grievances,  we  will  take  leave  of  you,  asking 
privilege  that  each  member  of  the  delegation  may  take  you  by  the  hand.  But,  in  taking 
leave  of  you,  Mr.  President,  let  me  say  to  you  many  of  these  gentlemen  return  to  a 
border  state  filled  with  disloyal  sentiment.  If  upon  their  return  there  the  military  policies 
of  your  administration  shall  subject  them  to  risk  of  life  in  the  defense  of  the  government 
and  their  blood  shall  be  shed — let  me  tell  you,  Mr.  President,  that  their  blood  shall  be  upon 
your  garments  and  not  upon  ours.' " 

"How  did  the  President  receive  that?" 

"With  great  emotion.    Tears  trickled  down  his  face,  as  we  filed  by  shaking  his  hand." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Diagnosis  on  Missouri. 

In  an  old  scrapbook  kept  by  Enos  Clarke  in  the  war  and  reconstruction 
period  is  preserved  the  reply  of  Air.  Lincohi  to  the  "seventy  radical  Union  men 
of  Missouri."  On  the  evening  of  the  day  that  the  seventy  were  at  the  White 
House  they  were  given  a  reception  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  Mr.  Chase. 
This  was  considered  significant.  At  that  time  there  was  much  talk  of  Chase  for 
the  Presidential  nomination  by  the  radical  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  secre- 
tary was  alleged  to  be  intriguing  for  the  nomination. 

From  Washington  the  seventy  Missourians  went  to  New  York  City  to  be 
honored  by  the  anti-slavery  people  at  a  great  mass  meeting  in  Cooper  Institute. 
Charles  P.  Johnson  was  the  orator  chosen  by  the  Missourians  to  reply  to  the 
welcome. 

On  the  5th  of  October,  only  five  days  after  he  received  the  Missourians,  the 
President  sent  his  reply.  There  are  few  letters  by  Mr.  Lincoln  as  long  as  this 
one  on  the  Missouri  situation.  The  analysis  of  causes  and  conditions  in  this 
state,  when  the  war  was  half  over,  has  no  equal  in  print.  It  showed  complete 
comprehension  of  the  troubles  and  suggested  common  sense  remedies.  It  is  a 
revelation  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  clear  vision  in  the  midst  of  the  most  conflicting  and 
confusing  reports.  This  letter,  in  its  entirety,  deserves  prominent  place  in  the 
war  period  of  the  history  of  Missouri: 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,    October    5,    1863. 
Hon.  Charles  D.  Drake  and  others,  Committee: 

Gentlemen :  Your  original  address,  presented  on  the  30th  ultimo,  and  the  four  sup- 
plementary ones  presented  on  the  3rd  instant,  have  been  carefully  considered.  I  hope  you 
will  regard  the  other  duties  claiming  my  attention,  together  with  the  great  length  and  im- 
portance of  these  documents,  as  constituting  a  sufficient  apology  for  my  not  having  re- 
sponded sooner.  These  papers,  framed  for  a  common  object,  consist  of  things  demanded, 
and  the  reasons  for  demanding  them.    The  things  demanded  are — 

~      First.     That   General    Schofield    shall    be    relieved,    and    General    Butler    be    appointed 
commander  of  the  Military  Department  of  Missouri;  • 

Second.  That  the  system  of  Enrolled  Militia  in  Missouri  may  be  broken  up,  and  na- 
tional forces  substituted  for  it ;  and 

Third.  That  at  elections,  persons  may  not  be  allowed  to  vote  who  are  not  entitled  by 
law  to  do  so. 


830  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Among  the  reasons  given,  enough  of  suffering  and  wrong  to  Union  men  is  certainly, 
and  I  suppose  truly,  stated.  Vet  the  whole  case  as  presented  fails  to  convince  me  that 
General  Schofield,  or  the  Enrolled  Militia,  is  responsible  for  that  suffering  and  wrong. 
The  whole  can  be  explained  on  a  more  charitable,  and,  as  I  think,  a  more  rational  hypothesis. 

We  are  in  civil  war.  In  such  cases  there  always  is  a  main  question;  but  in  this  case 
that  question  is  a  perplexing  compound— Union  and  slavery.  It  thus  becomes  a  question 
not  of  two  sides  merely,  but  of  at  least  four  sides,  even  among  those  who  are  for  the 
Union,  saying  nothing  of  those  who  are  against  it.  Thus  those  who  are  for  the  Union 
with  but  not  without  slavery,  those  for  it  without  but  not  with,  those  for  it  with  or  with- 
out but  prefer  it  with,  those  for  it  with  or  without  but  prefer  it  without.  Among  these,  again, 
is  a  subdivision  of  those  who  are  for  gradual  but  not  for  immediate,  and  those  who  are 
for  immediate  but  not  for  gradual  extinction  of  slavery. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  all  these  shades  of  opinion,  and  even  more,  may  be  sincerely 
entertained  by  honest  and  truthful  men.  Yet  all  being  for  the  Union,  by  reason  of  these 
differences  each  will  prefer  a  different  way  of  sustaining  the  Union.  At  once  sincerity 
is  questioned  and  motives  assailed.  Actual  war  coming,  blood  grows  hot  and  blood  is 
spilled.  Thought  is  forced  from  old  channels  into  confusion.  Deception  breeds  and 
thrives.  Confidence  dies,  and  universal  suspicion  reigns.  Each  man  feels  an  impulse  to 
kill  his  neighbor  lest  he  be  killed  by  him.  Revenge  and  retaliation  follow.  And  all  this,  as 
before  said,  may  be  among  honest  men  only.  But  this  is  not  all.  Every  foul  bird  comes 
abroad  and  every  dirty  reptile  rises  up.  These  add  crime  to  confusion.  Strong  measures, 
deemed  indispensable  but  harsh  at  best,  such  men  make  worse  by  maladministration. 
Murder  for  old  grudges  and  murders  for  pelf  proceed  under  any  cloak  that  will  best  cover 
for  the  occasion.  These  causes  amply  account  for  what  has  occurred  in  Missouri,  without 
ascribing  it  to  the  weakness  or  wickedness  of  any  general. 

The  newspaper  files,  those  chroniclers  of  current  events,  will  show  the  evils  now  com- 
plained of  were  quite  as  prevalent  under  Fremont,  Hunter,  Halleck,  and  Curtis,  as  under 
Schofield.  If  the  former  had  greater  force  opposed  to  them,  they  also  had  greater  force 
with  which  to  meet  it.  When  the  organized  army  left  the  state,  the  main  Federal  force 
had  to  go  also,  leaving  the  department  commander  at  home,  relatively  no  stronger  than 
before.  Without  disparaging  any,  I  affirm  with  confidence,  that  no  commander  of  that 
department  has,  in  proportion  to  his  means,   done  better  than   General   Schofield. 

The  first  specific  charge  against  General  Schofield  is,  that  the  Enrolled  Militia  was 
placed  under  his  command,  whereas  it  had  not  been  placed  under  the  command  of  General 
Curtis.  The  fact  I  believe  is  true ;  but  you  do  not  point  out,  nor  can  I  conceive,  how  that 
did  or  could  injure  loyal  men,  or  the  Union  cause. 

You  charge  that  upon  General  Curtis  being  superseded  by  General  Schofield,  Franklin 
A.  Dick  was  superseded  by  James  O.  Broadhead  as  provost  marshal  general.  No  very 
specific  showing  is  made  as  to  how  this  did  or  could  injure  the  Union  cause.  It  recalls, 
however,  the  condition  of  things,  as  presented  to  me,  which  led  to  a  change  of  com- 
mander for  that  department. 

To  restrain  contraband  intelligence  and  trade,  a  system  of  searches,  seizures,  permits 
and  passes  had  been  introduced,  I  think,  by  General  Fremont.  When  General  Halleck 
came  he  found  and  continued  this  system,  and  added  an  order,  applicable  to  some  parts 
of  the  state,  to  levy  and  collect  contributions  from  noted  rebels  to  compensate  losses,  and 
relieve  destitution  caused  by  the  rebellion.  The  action  of  General  Fremont  and  General 
Halleck,  as  stated,  constituted  a  sort  of  system,  which  General  Curtis  found  in  full  opera- 
tion when  he  took  command  of  the  department.  That  there  was  a  necessity  for  some- 
thing of  the  sort  was  clear;  but  that  it  could  only  be  justified  by  stern  necessity,  and  that 
it  was  liable  to  great  abuse  in  administration,  was  equally  clear.  Agents  to  execute  it, 
contrary  to  the  great  Prayer,  were  led  into  temptation.  Some  might,  while  others  would 
not,  resist  that  temptation.  It, was  not  possible  to  hold  any  to  a  very  strict  accountability; 
and  those  yielding  to  the  temptation  would  sell  permits  and  passes  to  those  who  would  pay 
most,  and  most  readily  for  them ;  and  would  seize  property,  and  collect  levies  in  the  aptest 
way  to  fill  their  own  pockets.  Money  being  the  object,  the  man  having  monej',  whether 
loyal  or  disloyal,  would  be  a  victim.     This  practice  doub^Jess  existed  to  some  extent,  and 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  831 

it  was  a  real  additional  evil  that  it  could  be,  and  was  plausibly,  charged  to  exist  in  greater 
extent  than  it  did. 

When  General  Curtis  took  command  of  the  department,  Mr.  Dick,  against  whom  I 
never  knew  anything  to  allege,  had  general  charge  of  this  system.  A  controversy  in  re- 
gard to  it  rapidly  grew  into  almost  unmanageable  proportions.  One  side  ignored  the 
necessity  and  magnified  the  evils  of  the  system,  while  the  other  ignored  the  evils  and 
magnified  the  necessity;  and  each  bitterly  assailed  the  motives  of  the  other. 

I  could  not  fail  to  see  that  the  controversy  enlarged  in  the  same  proportion  as  the 
professed  Union  men  there  distinctly  took  sides  in  two  opposing  political  parties.  I  ex- 
hausted my  wits,  and  very  nearly  my  patience,  also,  in  efforts  to  convince  both  that  the 
evils  they  charged  on  each  other  were  inherent  in  the  case,  and  could  not  be  cured  by 
giving  either  party  a  victory  over  the  other. 

Plainly  the  irritating  system  was  not  to  be  perpetual ;  and  it  was  plausibly  urged  that 
it  could  be  modified  at  once  with  advantage.  The  case  could  scarcely  be  worse  and  whether 
it  could  be  made  better  could  only  be  determined  by  a  trial.  In  this  view,  and  not  to  ban 
or  brand  General  Curtis  or  to  give  a  victory  to  any  party,  I  made  the  change  of  commander 
for  the  department.  I  now  learn  that  soon  after  this  change  Mr.  Dick  was  removed,  and 
that  Mr.  Broadhead,  a  gentleman  of  no  less  good  character,  was  put  in  the  place.  The 
mere  fact  of  this  change  is  more  distinctly  complained  of  than  is  any  conduct  of  the  new 
officer,  or  other  consequences  of  the  change. 

I  gave  the  new  commander  no  instructions  as  to  the  administration  of  the  system 
mentioned  beyond  what  is  contained  in  the  private  letter,  afterwards  surreptitiously  pub- 
lished, in  which  I  directed  him  to  act  solely  for  the  public  good,  and  independently  of 
both  parties.  Neither  anything  you  have  presented  me,  nor  anything  I  have  otherwise 
learned,  has  convinced  me  that  he  has  been  unfaithful  to  this  charge. 

Imbecility  is  urged  as  one  cause  for  removing  General  Schofield,  and  the  late  massacre 
at  Lawrence,  Kansas,  is  passed  as  evidence  of  that  imbecility.  To  my  mind,  that  fact 
scarcely  tends  to  prove  the  proposition.  That  massacre  is  only  an  example  of  what  Grier- 
son,  John  Morgan  and  many  others  might  have  repeatedly  done  on  their  respective  raids 
had  they  chosen  to  incur  the  personal  hazard,  and  possessed  the  fiendish  heart  to  do  it. 

The  charge  is  made  that  General  Schofield,  on  purpose  to  protect  the  Lawrence  mur- 
derers, would  not  allow  them  to  be  pursued  into  Missouri.  While  no  punishment  could  be 
too  sudden  or  too  severe  for  those  murderers,  I  am  well  satisfied  that  the  preventing  of 
the  threatened  remedial  raid  into  Missouri  was  the  only  safe  way  to  avoid  an  indiscriminate 
massacre  there,  including  probably  more  innocent  than  guilty.  Instead  of  condemning,  I 
therefore  approve  what  I  understand  General  Schofield  did  in  that  respect. 

The  charges  that  General  Schofield  has  purposely  withheld  protection  from  loyal  peo- 
ple and  purposely  facilitated  the  objects  of  the  disloyal  are  altogether  beyond  my  power  of 
belief.  I  do  not  arraign  the  veracity  of  gentlemen  as  to  the  facts  complained  of ;  but  I  do 
more  than  question  the  judgment  which  would  infer  that  those  facts  occurred  in  accord- 
ance with  the  purpose  of  General  Schofield. 

With  my  present  views,  I  must  decline  to  remove  General  Schofield.  In  this  I  decide 
nothing  against  General  Butler.  I  sincerely  wish  it  were  convenient  to  assign  him  a 
suitable   command. 

In  order  to  meet  some  existing  evils,  I  have  addressed  a  letter  of  instruction  to  Gen- 
eral Schofield,  a  copy  of  which  I  enclose  to  you.  As  to  the  Enrolled  Militia,  I  shall  en- 
deavor to  ascertain,  better  than  I  now  know,  what  is  its  exact  value.  Let  me  say  now, 
however,  that  your  proposal  to  substitute  national  force  for  the  Enrolled  Militia,  implies 
that  in  your  judgment  the  latter  is  doing  something  which  needs  to  be  done;  and,  if  so, 
the  proposition  to  throw  that  force  away  and  to  supply  its  place  by  bringing  other  forces 
from  the  field  where  they  are  urgently  needed,  seems  to  me  very  extraordinary;  whence 
shall  they  come?     Shall  they  be  drawn  from  Banks,  or  Grant,  or  Steele,  or  Rosecrans? 

Few  things  have  been  so  grateful  to  my  anxious  feelings  as  when,  in  June  last,  the 
local  force  in  Missouri  aided  General  Schofield  to  so  promptly  send  a  large  general  force 
to  the  relief  of  General  Grant,  then  investing  Vicksburg,  and  menaced  from  without  by 
General   Johnston.     Was    this  all   wrong?     Should    the   Enrolled    Militia   then   have   been 


832  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

broken  up,  and  General  Heron  kept  from  Grant,  to  police  Missouri?  So  far  from  finding 
cause  to  object,  I  confess  to  a  sympathy  for  whatever  relieves  our  general  force  in  Mis- 
souri, and  allows  it  to  serve  elsewhere. 

I  therefore,  as  at  present  advised,  cannot  attempt  the  destruction  of  the  Enrolled 
Militia  of  Missouri.  I  may  add,  that  the  force  being  under  the  national  military  control, 
it  is  also  within  the  proclamation  with  regard  to  the  habeas  corpus. 

I  concur  in  the  propriety  of  your  request  in  regard  to  elections,  and  have  as  you  see, 
directed  General  Schofield  accordingly.  I  do  not  feel  justified  to  enter  upon  the  broad 
field  you  present  in  regard  to  the  political  differences  between  Radicals  and  Conservatives. 
From  time  to  time  I  have  done  and  said  what  appeared  to  me  proper  to  do  and  say.  The 
public  knows  it  well.  It  obliges  nobody  to  follow  me,  and  I  trust  it  obliges  me  to  follow 
nobody. 

The  Radicals  and  Conservatives  each  agree  with  me  in  some  things  and  disagree  in 
others.  I  could  wish  both  to  agree  with  me  in  all  things ;  for  then  they  would  agree  with 
each  other,  and  would  be  too  strong  for  any  foe  from  any  quarter.  They,  however,  choose 
to  do  otherwise,  and  I  do  not  question  their  rights.  I  hold  whoever  commands  in  Mis- 
souri or  elsewhere  responsible  to  me,  and  not  to  either  Radicals  or  Conservatives.  It  is 
my  duty  to  hear  all;  but,  at  last,  I  must,  within  my  sphere,  judge  what  to  do  and  wTiat 
to  forbear. 

Your   obedient   servant,  A.   Lincolk. 

A  Prescription  for  Peace. 

Mr.  Lincoln  enclosed  in  this  long  letter  to  the  committee  a  copy  of  the  in- 
structions to  General  Schofield  as  the  result  of  the  address  of  the  Missourians. 

(Copy.) 

E.xecutive   Mansion, 
Washington,  D.  C,  Oct.   i,   1863. 
General  John  M.  Schofield  : 

There  is  no  organized  military  force  in  avowed  opposition  to  the  general  government 
now  in  Missouri ;  and  if  any  such  shall  reappear,  your  duty  in  regard  to  it  will  be  too  plain 
to  require  any  special  instruction.  Still,  the  condition  of  things,  both  there  and  elsewhere, 
is  such  as  to  render  it  indispensable  to  maintain,  for  a  time,  the  United  States  military 
establishment  in  that  state,  as  well  as  to  rely  upon  it  for  a  fair  contribution  of  support 
to  that  establishment  generally.  Your  immediate  duty  in  regard  to  Missouri  now  is  to 
advance  the  efficiency  of  that  establishment,  and  to  so  use  it,  as  far  as  practicable,  to  com- 
pel the  excited  people  there  to  leave  one  another  alone. 

Under  your  recent  order,  which  I  have  approved,  you  will  only  arrest  individuals,  and 
suppress  assemblies  or  newspapers,  when  they  may  be  working  palpable  injury  (Mr. 
Lincoln  underscored  the  word  palpable)  to  the  military  in  your  charge ;  and  in  no  other 
case  will  you  interfere  with  the  expression  of  opinion  in  any  form,  or  allow  it  to  be  inter- 
fered with  violently  by  others.  In  this  you  have  a  discretion  to  exercise  with  great  cau- 
tion, calmness  and  forbearance. 

With  the  matters  of  removing  the  inhabitants  of  certain  counties  en  masse,  and  of 
removing  certain  individuals  from  time  to  time,  who  are  supposed  to  be  mischievous,  I  am 
not  now  interfering,  but  am  leaving  to  your  discretion. 

Nor  am  I  interfering  with  what  may  still  seem  to  you  to  be  necessary  restrictions 
upon  trade  and  intercourse.  I  think  proper,  however,  to  enjoin  upon  you  the  following: 
Allow  no  part  of  the  military  under  your  command  to  be  engaged  either  in  returning 
fugitive  slaves,  or  in  forcing  or  enticing  slaves  from  their  homes ;  and  so  far  as  practicable, 
enforce  the  same  forbearance  upon  the  people. 

Report  to  me  your  opinion  upon  the  availability  for  good  of  the  Enrolled  Militia  of 
the  state.  Allow  no  one  to  enlist  colored  troops,  except  upon  orders  from  you,  or  from 
here  through  you.  Allow  no  one  to  assume  the  function  of  confiscating  property,  under 
the  law  of  Congress,  or  otherwise,  except  upon  orders  from  here. 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  833 

At  elections,  see  that  those,  and  only  those,  are  allowed  to  vote,  who  are  entitled  to 
do  so  by  the  laws  of  Missouri,  including  as  of  those  laws  the  restrictions  laid  by  the  Mis- 
souri Convention  upon  those  who  may  have  participated  in  the  rebellion. 

So  far  as  practicable,  you  will,  by  means  of  your  military  force,  expel  guerrillas, 
marauders  and  murderers,  and  all  who  are  known  to  harbor  or  abet  them.  But  in  like 
manner  you  will  repress  assumptions  of  unauthorized  individuals  to  perform  the  same 
service,  because  under  pretence  of  doing  this  they  become  marauders  and  murderers  them- 
selves. 

To  now  restore  peace,  let  the  military  obey  orders;  and  those  not  of  the  military  leave 
each  other  alone,  thus  not  breaking  the  peace  themselves. 

In  giving  the  above  directions,  it  is  not  intended  to  restrain  you  in  other  e.xpedient 
and  necessary  matters  not   falling  within  their   range. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.   LiKCOLN. 

Blair  on  the  Permit  System. 

President  Lincoln  .spoke  of  the  evils  and  abuses  of  the  permit  system  which 
had  been  applied  by  successive  commanders  to  Missouri.  Blair,  on  the  floor  of 
Congress,  illustrated  the  operation  of  the  system. 

"Until  within  the  last  six  months  a  man  living  in  Missouri,  twenty  miles  from  St. 
Louis,  could  not  get  a  barrel  of  salt  or  flour  from  the  city  without  paying  for  a  permit.  I 
am  told  that  a  judge  of  our  supreme  court  living  in  the  adjoining  county  of  St.  Charles 
paid  for  a  permit  in  St.  Louis  to  take  a  picture  of  General  Washington  to  his  home  as  a 
Christmas  present  to  his  child.  This  thing  has  been  continued  to  within  the  last  twenty 
days ;  and  for  the  last  six  months  no  organized  force  of  the  enemy  has  penetrated  north 
of  the  Arkansas  river.  The  permit  system  has  finally  been  abandoned  in  Missouri,  but 
the  agents  and  the  officials  who  formerly  spread  this  network  over  our  desolated  state  and 
pinched  its  ruined  inhabitants  still  remain." 

To  leave  St.  Louis  by  train  or  boat  or  by  other  vehicle  or  afoot,  during  the 
continuance  of  martial  law,  a  passport  was  necessary.  Between  August  14  and 
November  20,  1861.  there  were  issued  85,000  of  these  passes.  On  the  back  of 
the  first  issues  was:  "It  is  understood  that  the  within  named  subscriber  accepts 
this  pass  on  his  word  of  honor  that  he  is  and  will  ever  be  loyal  to  the  United 
States;  and  if  hereafter  found  in  arms  against  the  Union,  or  in  any  way  aiding 
tlie  enemy,  the  penalty  will  be  death."  When  Capt.  George  E.  Leighton  suc- 
ceeded Gen.  Justus  McKinstry  as  provost  marshal  he  changed  this  form  to  a 
pledge  and  omitted  the  death  penalty. 

Charcoals  Gain  Control. 

The  Radicals,  as  the  Charcoals  had  come  to  be  niore_  commonly  called,  car- 
ried Missouri  in  the  general  election  of  1864.  The  vote  was  not  large.  Not 
only  were  thousands  away  fighting  in  the  South,  but  many  more  who  were 
living  quietly  and  peaceably  at  their  homes  could  not  or  would  not  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  required  of  voters.  The  Radicals  elected  their  state  ticket,  of 
which  Thomas  C.  Fletcher  was  the  head.  They  controlled  the  legislature  by  a 
large  majority.  They  carried  eight  of  the  nine  Congressional  districts  and 
eighty  of  the  counties.  Lincoln  had  about  40,000  majority  and  the  state  ticket 
nearly  as  much.  Many  Conservatives  or  Claybanks  remained  away  from  the 
polls  because,  while  they  could  truthfully  have  taken  the  strict  oath  of  allegiance, 


834  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

they  resented  ilu-  i)racticc  of  the  Charcoals  in  challenging  and  rigidly  questioning 
any  one  with  whom  they  disagreed. 

Thomas  K.  Skinker,  in  a  very  interesting  address  before  the  Missouri  His- 
torical Society  on  February  20,  1914,  gave  this  origin  of  the  names  applied  to 
the  two  factions :  "To  the  dominant  element  in  Missouri  all  democrats  were 
rebels,  and  they  were  commonly  called  by  that  name,  or  something  worse.  The 
other  party  was  at  first  called  the  Union,  or  Unconditional  Union  party;  but 
that  soon  split  into  wings,  or  branches,  the  Conservatives  and  the  Radicals. 
These  were  commonly  called,  respectively,  the  Claybanks  and  the  Charcoals. 
The  republicans  had  long  been  called  by  their  political  adversaries  'Black  Re])ub- 
licans.'  This  was  easily  converted  into  'Charcoals';  and  these  latter  gave  their 
conservative  fellow-unionists  the  name  of  'Claybanks,'  as  denoting  a  colorless 
sort  of  politics,  which  did  not  much  distinguish  them  from  out-and-out  rebels; 
or  else  Copperheads,  after  the  deadly  snake  of  that  name,  which  strikes  without 
warning.  It  was  meant  to  be  a  synonym  of  hidden  danger  and  secret  hostility 
to  the   Union  cause." 

The  Ousting  Ordinance. 

Delegates  to  the  constitutional  coiuention  were  chosen  at  thi.s  election  of 
1864.  Tlie  Radicals  had  won  over  the  legislature.  The  act  providing  for  the 
convention  conferred  extraordinary  powers  upon  the  delegates.  The  convention 
passed  an  ordinance  for  immediate  emancipation  and  framed  a  new  constitution 
containing  a  test  oath,  or  as  it  was  called  an  "oath  of  loyalty."  The  constitution 
not  only  limited  the  franchise  and  the  holding  of  public  ofifice  of  any  kind  to 
those  who  could  take  this  oath,  but  it  re(|uired  preachers  and  lawyers-  as  well 
as  teachers  to  take  the  oath  before  they  were  allowed  to  practice  their  profes- 
sions. There  was  provision  for  repentance  and  forgiveness  of  those  who  could 
not  immediately  subscribe  to  the  oath.  The  twenty-fifth  section  said  that  the 
general  assembly  might  repeal  the  oath  so  far  as  it  related  to  voters  after  1871. 
But  the  test  oath  must  apply  to  lawyers,  preachers  and  teachers  tintil  after  1876, 
when  the  legislature  might  extend  amnesty  to  these  classes  if  it  saw  proper. 

In  order  that  the  work  of  the  convention  might  not  be  undone  by  the  courts 
the  delegates  proceeded  to  enact  what  was  called  the  "ousting  ordinance."  The 
title  declared  that  the  purpose  of  the  ordinance  was  "to  vacate  certain  civil 
ofifices,  to  harmonize  the  workings  of  the  government,  and  to  protect  citizens 
from  injury  and  harassment  from  persecution  for  acts  done  by  them  in  support 
of  the  government."  A  committee  headed  by  Henry  A.  Clover  of  St.  Louis 
reported  this  ousting  ordinance  and  made  a  long  report  in  support  of  it. 

"The  committee  is  of  opinion  that,  to  harmonize  the  working  of  the  state  government 
in  all  its  departments,  it  is  necessary  to  vacate  throughout,  and  in  detail,  all  the  judicial 
ofiices  of  the  state.  The  convention  has  already  enacted  an  ordinance  emancipating  slaves. 
Should  the  judicial  department  of  the  state  government  be  held  at  liberty  to  impeach  the 
entire  lawfulness  of  this  act?  Property  in  man  exists  and  has  always  heretofore  been 
recognized  in  this  state,  and  if  rightfully  existing  at  one  time,  it  may  always  rightfully 
exist.  The  convention,  or  the  majority  of  the  people,  have  no  right  or  lawful  authority  to 
deprive  a  citizen  of  property  without  compensation,  not  even  pretended  to  be  taken  for 
public  use.  The  right  or  authority  so  to  do  is  denied  in  the  very  nature  of  the  social  con- 
tract. Upon  this  plea  the  lawfulness  of  this  act  of  the  convention  may  be  dented  by  the 
judges.     Should  it  be  permitted,  if  it  can  be  prevented? 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  835 

"Again,  the  convention  has  considered  a  measure  for  preserving  in  purity  the  elective 
franchise,  and,  in  so  doing,  to  disfranchise  the  rebel  and  rebel  sympathizer.  Shall  the 
eflfect  of  this  measure  be  allowed  to  be  frittered  away  by  unfavorable  and  hostile  construc- 
tion and  interpretation  of  term   and  phrase?" 

This  ousting  ordinance  was  suggested  to  the  convention  in  a  resolution 
offered  by  Mr.  Green  of  Marion  county,  which  declared  that  to  carry  out  the 
progressive  spirit  of  the  people  of  Missouri  it  was  necessary  to  reorganize  the 
judicial  system  and  to  vacate  all  judicial  offices  from  the  supreme  bench  down. 

One  Thousand  Offices  Vacated. 

The  ordinance  applied  to  about  i.ooo  office  holders.  It  included  the  judges 
and  clerks  of  all  courts  in  the  .state,  the  county  recorders,  the  circuit  attorneys 
and  their  assistants  and  all  sherilifs.  These  offices  were  to  be  vacated  on  May 
I.  1865.  The  governor  was  to  appoint  successors.  In  his  address,  Mr.  Skinker 
said : 

"It  is  plain  from  the  report  Judge  Clover  and  his  committee  fully  realized  that  in 
declaring  the  abolition  of  slavery  they  were  committing  an  act  of  revolution  and  con- 
fiscation. Property  in  negro  slaves  had  always  been  recognized  by  the  law  of  the  land; 
there  was  not  a  single  state  in  the  Union  in  which  this  was  not  true  at  some  time  in  its 
history.  In  Missouri  it  was  distinctly  recognized  at  that  very  time,  and  the  very  con- 
stitution, which  the  convention  was  then  submitting  to  the  people  for  adoption,  contained 
a  provision,  the  same  as  in  the  earlier  constitution,  and  in  all  the  constitutions  of  all  the 
states  in  this  country,  both  before  and  since  that  time,  declaring  that  no  private  property 
ought  to,  be  taken  by  the  state  without  just  compensation  to  the  owners.  In  violation  of 
this  accepted  principle,  this  convention  was  undertaking  to  take  away  from  their  owners 
this  kind  of  property  without  making  compensation.  At  the  time  this  was  denounced  by 
a  large  element  of  the  people  as  the  extreme  of  lawlessness.  Today  it  is,  to  socialists  and 
communists,  the  supreme  precedent  in  favor  of  their  theory  that  the  state  may  do  as  it 
will  with  all  private  property. 

"Fully  realizing  all  of  this,  as  their  report  candidly  shows,  Mr.  Clover  and  his  com- 
mittee also  knew  that  no  lawj'er  c6uld  be  trusted  to  depart  from  this  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, who  was  not  schooled  or  pledged  in  advance  to  overthrow  it.  Hence  they  were 
determined  to  reorganize  the  judiciary,  as  they  called  it,  by  putting  into  the  courts  men 
who  could  be  depended  upon  to  approve  the  action  of  the  convention,  at  all  cost,  and  in 
spite  of  all  principle.  That  is  what  the  committee  meant  when  it  spoke  of  'harmonizing 
the  government.'  " 

The  ousting  ordinance  had  easy  going  in  the  convention.  It  was  passed  after 
some  debate.  Isidor  Bush  tried  to  put  through  an  amendment  by  which  the 
governor  would  be  authorized  to  vacate  any  of  the  1,000  offices  when  it  was 
proven  to  him  that  the  holder  was  disloyal.  He  obtained  only  four  votes  for 
his  proposition.  He  tried  another  amendment  which  provided  that  no  member 
of  the  convention  should  be  eligible  to  any  one  of  the  offices  to  be  vacated.  That 
suggestion  received  only  five  votes.  The  ordinance  was  carried  by  a  vote  of 
forty-three  to  five. 

Supreme  Court  Judges  Removed  by  Force. 

The  application  of  the  ousting  ordinance  reached  its  revolutionary  climax 
when  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court  were  removed  from  the  bench  by  force 


836  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  taken  before  a  police  justice.  This  was  done  with  the  street  full  of  soldiers 
to  suppress  any  riotous  demonstration.  Governor  Fletcher,  acting  under  the 
ordinance,  appointed  David  \^''agne^  and  Walter  L.  Lovelace  to  take  the  places 
of  William  \'.  X.  Bay  and  John  D.  S.  Dryden.  Mr.  Skinker's  account  of  the 
proceeding.s  and  description  of  the  scenes  constitutes  a  very  valuable  contribution 
to  the  history  of  Missouri: 

"On  the  13th  of  June.  Messrs.  Wagner  and  Lovelace  met  and  made  an  order  requiring 
Andrew  W.  Mead,  then  clerk  of  the  supreme  court,  to  surrender  the  records  of  the  court 
to  their  clerk,  Mr.  Bowman.  Mr.  Mead  declined  to  comply,  and  immediately  applied  to 
the  circuit  court  for  an  injunction  against  Wagner,  Lovelace  and  their  associates  to  pre- 
vent them  from  meddling  with  the  records  of  the  court.  Circuit  Judge  Moodey,  an  original 
republican,  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  ousting  ordinance  was  void,  and  accordingly  issued 
the  injunction.  He  had  already  decided  the  identical  question  in  the  case  of  Alfred  C. 
Bernoudy,  whose  office  of  recorder  of  deeds  fell  within  the  same  ordinance,  and  was  claimed 
by  Mr.  Conrad,  an  appointee  of  Governor  Fletcher.  On  the  next  day,  June  14th,  the  gov- 
ernor issued  an  order  to  Gen.  David  C.  Coleman  of  the  state  militia,  to  be  served  by  him 
upon  Judges  Bay  and  Dryden,  warning  them  that  they  were  usurpers  and  that  he  would 
deal  with  them  summarily  if  they  failed  to  vacate.  The  general  went  to  the  court  house 
in  St.  Louis,  found  Judges  Bay  and  Dryden  holding  court,  and  presented  this  order.  They 
declined  to  yield  to  the  governor's  threat,  declaring  that  he  had  no  authority  of  law  for 
interrupting  them  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  They  claimed  that,  as  they  had  been 
elected  pursuant  to  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  state,  they  had  a  right  to  remain  in 
office  until  their  terms  expired.  They  denied  that  the  convention  had  power  to  pass  the 
ousting  ordinance,  because  it  was  not  one  of  the  matters  named  as  a  subject  of  legislation 
in  the  act  of  the  legislature  calling  the  convention.  They  denied  its  validity  because  it  had 
not  been  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people.  They  insisted  that  it  was  in  effect  an  abolish- 
ment, as  far  as  it  went,  of  the  old  constitution,  without  the  consent  of  the  people ;  that  it 
was  the  business  of  the  courts  to  pass  on  the  constitutionality  of  laws,  and  not  of  the 
governor,  that  it  therefore  belonged  to  the  old  court,  and  not  to  the  appointees  of  the  gov- 
ernor, constituting  the  new  court,  to  decide  the  question;  else  the  whole  theory  of  liberty 
based  on  a  constitutional  judiciary  was  at  an  end.  The  argument  of  Messrs.  Bay  and 
Dryden  was  undoubtedly  strong  in  point  of  law,  but  in  practice  it  was  weak  because  it 
had   no  bayonets  to  back  it. 

The  Show  of  Force. 

"After  the  refusal  of  the  judges  to  submit  to  the  governor's  order.  General  Coleman 
withdrew,  but  shortly  returned  with  another  order  from  the  governor,  again  declaring  Bay 
and  Dryden  to  be  usurpers,  directing  Coleman  to  put  the  new  appointees  in  possession  of 
the  supreme  court  room,  with  all  the  records,  seals,  furniture,  books  and  papers  of  the  court, 
and  also  directing  him  to  use  such  force  as  he  might  deem  necessary,  and  to  arrest  all 
persons  who  might  oppose  him.  The  judges  refused  to  recognize  the  authority  of  this 
order  also,  and  again  protested  against  any  interruption  of  the  business  of  the  court. 
General  Coleman  then  informed  them  that  as  an  officer  he  must  obey  the  orders  of  his 
superior,  and  asked  them  to  consider  themselves  removed  by  force.  They  declined  this. 
He  then  proceeded  to  lay  his  hands  upon  them  and  asked  that  they  should  consider  this  an 
arrest.  This  was  also  declined,  and  he  was  told  that  they  would  only  yield  to  the  presence 
and  command  of  a  force  which  they  could  not  successfully  resist.  Coleman  then  called 
in  a  detachment  of  police  who  were  held  in  readiness,  and  at  his  order  the  judges  were 
taken  from  their  seats  by  the  police  and  were  escorted  as  prisoners  to  the  office  of  Recorder 
Wolff,  a  police  justice.  A  complaint  was  there  lodged  against  them  as  having  disturbed 
the  peace  by  interfej-ing  with  the  supreme  court.  Fletcher,  Wagner.  Lovelace,  Holmes  and 
Bowman  were  named  as  witnesses.  The  case  was  set  for  trial  next  morning,  but  nobody 
appeared  to  prosecute,  and  so  the  complaint  was  dismissed. 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  837 

Bayonets  in  the  Street. 

"After  the  judges  were  removed  from  the  court  room  the  police  remained  in  and 
about  the  room  for  several  hours.  A  military  force  also  was  stationed  outside  the  court 
house,  consisting  of  the  .48th  Regiment  of  Missouri  Infantry,  some  600  or  700  men.  These 
were  posted  in  Chestnut  street,  from  Tenth  street  eastward,  and  were  under  the  command 
of  our  genial  friend,  Col.  Wells  H.  Blodgett,  then  a  young  warrior,  but  now  and  for  many 
years  past  known  to  us  all  as  the  bland,  wise  and  efficient  general  counsel  of  the  Wabash 
railroad  company. 

"It  also  appears  from  the  Republican  of  June  13th  and  15th  that  a  company  of  the 
Seventh  Regiment  of  Enrolled  Militia  was  called  out  and  stationed  at  their  armory  on 
Walnut  street  on  the  12th,  and  that  Company  A  of  the  Third  Ward  Militia  relieved  the 
other  company  after  two  days'  service.  It  would  seem  that  the  authorities  either  expected 
forcible  opposition  to  their  measures  or  were  determined  to  forestall  and  prevent  opposi- 
tion. The  Democrat  of  June  15th  mentioned  that  a  large  military  force  was  held  in 
readiness  'in   case  of   an   outbreak.' 

"Judge  Dryden  promptly  sued  Governor  Fletcher  for  $50,000  damages.  His  attorneys 
were  Thomas  T.  Gantt  and  Samuel  T.  Glover.  These  had  been  among  the  staunchest  and 
promptest  supporters  of  the  Union  from  the  beginning.  But  they  had  not  kept  pace  with 
the  growth  of  radical  sentiment,  and  so  they  had  been  sent  to  the  back  seat,  ne.xt  to  the 
out-and-out  rebels.  As  might  have  been  expected  with  such  lawyers  for  his  counsel,  the 
petition  in  Judge  Dryden's  suit  was  a  model  of  good  pleading.  But  the  cards  were  stacked ; 
the  judges  before  whom  the  case  was  to  come  owed  their  positions  to  the  very  ordinance 
whose  validity  the  petition  attacked.  The  case  lingered  for  a  while  in  court  and  was  then 
dismissed. 

"The  radicals  had  the  military  power  under  their  control,  and  they  had  used  it — 
with  the  skill  of  experts,  as  they  thought ;  with  the  brutality  of  bandits,  as  their  adver- 
saries  thought." 

Lincoln  and  Blair  Still  in  Accord. 

As  early  as  18C14  there  was  talk  of  the  reconstruction  measures  when  the 
was  war  over.  Some  were  advocating  that  the  freedmen  be  given  the  ballot  and 
be  armed  in  large  numbers  that  the  franchise  might  be  secured  to  them.  In  his 
address  to  the  House  on  the  25th  of  l'"ebruary,  18O4.  Mr.  Blair  referred  to  these 
propositions.  "Can  any  American  citizen  find  in  his  heart  to  inaugurate  such  a 
contest?"  ;\Ir.  Blair  asked.     And  then  he  outlined  the  position  of  the  President: 

"I  prefer  Mr.  Lincoln's  humane,  wise,  and  benevolent  policy  to  secure  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  both  races;  and  until  that  can  be  accomplished,  and  while  both  races  are  be- 
ing prepared  for  this  great  change,  I  shall  repose  in  perfect  confidence  in  the  promise  of 
the  President  given  in  his  last  message,  in  which  he  proposes  to  remit  the  control  of  the 
freedmen  to  the  restored  states,  promising  to  support  any  provisions  which  may  be 
adopted  by  such  state  government  in  relation  to  the  freed  people  of  such  state  which  shall 
recognize  and  declare  their  permanent  freedom,  provide  for  their  education,  and  which 
may  yet  he  consistent  as  a  temporary  arrangement  with  their  present  condition  as  a  labor- 
ing, landless  and  homeless  class." 

Restoration,  not  Reconstruction. 

What  were  Mr.  i.incdln's  views  resjiecting  the  future  of  the  freedmen? 
\\'hat  wa.-  his  plan  of  reconstruction?  Was  Frank  Blair  as  accurate  in  his  state- 
ment of  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  in  those  directions  as  he  was  in  his  forecast  of  the 
purposes  of  the  radicals  to  defeat  the  renoniination  ?  In  the  collection  of  Lincoln 
papers,  pdfesessed  by  William  K.  Bixby  of  St.  Louis,  is  the  original  letter  of  the 
President  upon  the   restoration  of   state  government   in   Arkansas.     It   was  ad- 


838  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

dressed  to  General  Steele,  at  Little  Rock.  It  was  wriiten  in  the  winter  of  1864, 
not  far  distant  from  the  time  Frank  Blair  outlined  the  President's  policy  toward 
the  states  which  had  seceded.  Residents  of  .Arkansas  petitioned  for  authority 
to  hold  an  election  and  to  set  up  a  state  government  which  would  be  recognized 
at  Washington.'  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  owti  hand,  wrote  to  General  Steele,  in  charge 
of  the  military  division  which  included  .Arkansas.  lie  gave  e.xpiicit  instructions. 
He  stipulated  that  the  new  state  government  must  come  into  existence  with  the 
full  recognition  of  the  principle  embraced  in  what  afterwards  became  the  thir- 
teenth amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  That  there  might 
be  no  misunderstanding  Mr.  Lincoln  copied  into  his  letter  the  language  of  the 
condition  upon  which  the  new  state  government  was  to  be  recognized.  The  let- 
ter illustrated  the  earnest  desire  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  rehabilitate  state  govern- 
ments in  the  Confederacy.  Thus,  more  than  twelve  months  before  the  final 
surrender,  the  President  laid  the  foundation  for  restoration  of  civil  authority 
in  Arkansas.  Restoration  was  the  word,  not  reconstruction.  The  letter  con- 
cluded : 

"You  will  please  order  an  election  immediately  and  perform  the  other  parts 
assigned  you  with   necessary   incidentals,  all  according  to   the    foregoing." 

Lincoln's  Plan  for  the  South 's  Return. 

In  his  own  words,  written  by  himself,  the  President  expressed  his  purpose 
10  make  the  way  for  the  Confederate  states  to  get  back  into  the  Union  simple 
iind  expeditious. 

The  thirteenth  amendment  submission  bill  did  not  pass  the  Senate  until  the 
8th  of  .April.  1864.  It  did  not  obtain  the  necessary  two-thirds  in  the  House  until 
the  next  session  of  Congress.  It  was  ratified  by  thirty-one  states  and  proclaimed 
in  force  in  December,  1865.  .And  yet  nearly  two  years  before,  Mr.  Lincoln 
incorporated  the  language  with  his  own  hand  as  the  principal  condition  of  the 
creation  of  a  new  state  government  for  .Arkansas.  Tlie  language  made  no  stipu- 
lation as  to  negro  suffrage.  It  only  required  that  Arkansas  organize  with  a  pro- 
vision against  slavery  in  these  words : 

"There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  in  the 
punishment  of  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  but  the 
general  assembly  may  make  such  provision  for  the  freed-people  as  shall  rec- 
ognize and  declare  their  permanent  freedom,  provide  for  their  education,  and 
which  may  yet  be  consistent,  as  a  temporary  arrangement,  with  their  present 
condition  as  a  laboring,  landless  and  homeless  class." 

This  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  of  state  restoration.  The  other  conditions  im- 
posed upon  the  southern  states,  of  which  negro  suffrage  was  chief,  came  after 
the  death  of  the  President. 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington.  D.   C,  Jan.  20,  1864. 
Major  General  Steele: 

Sundry  citizens  of  the  State  of  Arkansas  petition  me  that  an  election  may  be  held  in 
that  state;  that  it.be  assumed  at  said  election,  and  thenceforward,  that  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  state,  as  before  the  rebellion,  are  in  full  force,  excepting  that  the  constitu- 
tion is  so  modified  as  to  declare  that  "There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servi- 
tude, except  in  the  punishment  of  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted; 


RECONSTRUCTION  THROES  839 

but  the  general  assembly  may  make  such  provision  for  the  f  reed-people  as  shall  recognize 
and  declare  their  permanent  freedom,  provide  for  their  education,  and  which  may  yet  be 
consistent,  as  a  temporary  arrangement,  with  their  present  condition  as  a  laboring,  land- 
less, and  homeless  class ;"  ever  also  except  that  all  now  existing  laws  in  relation  to  slaves 
are  inoperative  and  void  ;  that  said  election  be  held  on  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  March  next 
at  all  the  usual  voting  places  of  the  state,  or  all  such  as  voters  may  attend  for  that  purpose; 
that  the  voters  attending  at  each  place,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  said  day,  may 
choose  judges  and  clerks  of  election  for  that  place;  that  all  persons  qualified  by  said 
constitution  and  laws,  and  taking  the  oath  prescribed  in  the  President's  proclamation  of 
December  the  8th,  186.I,  either  before  or  at  the  election,  and  none  others,  may  be  voters 
provided  that  persons  having  the  (|ualifications  aforesaid,  and  being  in  the  volunteer  mili- 
tary service  of  the  United  States,  may  vote  once  wherever  they  may  be  at  voting  places; 
that  each  set  of  judges  and  clerks  may  make  return  directly  to  you,  on  or  before  the 
eleventh  day  of  April  next ;  that  in  all  other  respects  said  election  may  be  conducted  ac- 
cording to  said  modified  constitution,  and  laws ;  that,  on  receipt  of  said  returns,  you  count 
said  votes,  and  that,  if  the  number  shall  reach,  or  exceed,  five  thousand  four  hundred  and 
six,  you  canvass  said  votes  and  ascertain  who  shall  thereby  appear  to  have  been  elected 
governor ;  and  that  on  the  eighteenth  day  of  April  next,  the  person  so  appearing  to  have 
been  elected,  and  appearing  before  you  at  Little  Rock,  to  have,  by  you,  administered  to  him 
an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  said  modified  constitution  of 
the  State  of  Arkansas,  and  actually  taking  said  oath,  be  by  you  declared  qualified,  and  be 
enjoined  to  immediately  enter  upon  the  duties  of  the  office  of  governor  of  said  state;  and 
that  you  thereupon  declare  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Arkansas  to  have  been 
modified  and  assumed  as  aforesaid,  by  the  action  of  the  people  as  aforesaid. 

You  will  please  order  an  election  immediately,  and  perform  the  other  parts  assigned 
you,   with   necessary   incidentals,   all   according  to   the   foregoing. 

Yours  truly, 
A.   Lincoln. 

One  of  Lincoln's  Longest  Letters. 

The  original  of  this  letter  is  entirely  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
Painstaking  is  not  the  word  that  applies  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  writing.  The  pen  or 
pencil  moved  over  the  page  easily,  naturally,  readily.  That  is  apparent  from 
the  style  of  writing.  Even  stronger  evidence  is  found  in  the  volume  of  written 
matter  which  Mr.  Lincoln  turned  out.  From  the  beginning  of  his  career  as  a 
lawyer  down  through  the  busiest  days  in  the  White  House.  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote 
and  wrote.  There  are  in  existence  letters  and  papers  of  his  penmanship  in 
greater  number,  probably  than  any -other  President  wrote.  The  letters  number 
thousands.  Many  of  thetTi  bear  the  evidence  that  they  were  not  answers  and 
need  not  have  been  written,  and  would  not  have  been  written  by  one  to  whom 
writing  was  irksome,  or  in  any  sense  a  task.  Mr.  Lincoln  liked  to  write  so  well 
that  he  seldom  dictated. 

In  the  extensive  and  varied  collection  of  Lincoln  letters  and  manuscripts 
owned  by  Mr.  Rixby  are  many  interesting  revelations  of  this  strong  penmanship 
habit  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Whether  in  letter,  or  law  paper  or  state  document,  the 
composition  was  simple  and  condensed.  But  this  did  not  mean  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
wished  to  get  through  as  quickly  as  possible.  It  indicated  the  concise  habit  of 
mind.  There  are  few  letters  of  Mr.  Lincoln  which  exceed  a  page.  The  longest 
writing  in  the  Bixby  collection  is  the  letter  to  General  Steele  setting  forth  the 
complete  plan  of  restoration  of  civil  government  for  Arkansas.  It  is  of  nearly 
four  pages  and  written  on  one  side  of  the  paper.    The  date  is  significant,  taken 


840  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

in  connection  with  Blair's  speech   in  Congress.    The  President  dated  his  letter 
the  24th  of  January.    Blair  spoke  on  the  24th  of  February. 

Lincoln's  Farewell  Message  to  Missonriana. 

Not  two  months  before  his  death,  fifty-one  days  before  the  surrender  of  Lee, 
President  Lincoln  sent  to  Missouri  what  was  to  be  his  farewell  message.  The 
letter  was  dated  the  latter  part  of  February.  1865.  The  Missouri  constitutional 
convention  had  abolished  slavery.  The  delegates  were  preparing  that  ill-advised 
proscriptive,  short-lived  organic  act,  with  its  test  oaths  which  were  to  create 
turmoil  for  a  generation  in  the  state,  which  passed  into  history  as  the  Drake 
constitution.  Mr,  Lincoln  wrote,  entreating  Governor  Fletcher  to  get  together 
the  contending  factions  and  to  harmonize  the  people  irrespective  of  what  they 
had  "thought,  said,  or  done  about  the  war  or  about  anything  else."  He  even 
suggested  a  plan  of  detail  by  which  he  believed  this  niiglit  be  accomplished. 
The  Hon.  Benjamin  B.  Cahoon.  Sr.,  of  Fredericktown,  lifelong  student  of 
Lincoln  who  stopped  and  sympathized  with  him  as  he  lay  wounded  after  Gettys- 
burg, said  of  this  farewell  message  to  Missouri: 

"In  no  document  of  Lincoln's  is  his  kindness  and  humanity  better  exhibited. 
It  can  be  classed  with  his  first  and  second  inaugural  addresses  and  his  Gettys- 
burg oration." 

The  Plea  to  Get  Together. 

A  fitting  conclusio!!  to  the  close  relationship  of  Lincoln  and  Missouri  is  this 
letter  of  the  President  to  Governor  Fletcher : 

Executive   Mansion, 
Washington,    February    20,    1865. 
His  Excellency.  Governor  Fletcher : 

It  seems  that  there  is  now  no  organized  military  force  of  the  enemy  in  Missouri,  and 
yet  that  destruction  of  property  and  life  is  rampant  everywhere.  Is  not  the  cure  for  this 
within  easy  reach  of  the  people  themselves?  It  cannot  be  but  that  every  man.  not  naturally 
a  robber  or  cutthroat,  would  gladly  put  jn  end  to  this  state  of  things.  A  large  majority 
in  every  locality  must  feel  alike  upon  this  subject;  and  if  so  they  only  need  to  reach  an 
understanding  one  with  another.  Each  leaving  all  others  alone  solves  the  problem ;  and 
surely  each  would  do  this  but  for  his  apprehension  that  others  will  not  leave  him  alone. 
Cannot  this  mischievous  distrust  be  removed?  Let  neighborhood  meetings  be  everywhere 
called  and  held  of  all  entertaining  a  sincere  purpose  for  mutual  security  in  the  future, 
whatever  they  may  heretofore  have  thought,  said,  or  done  about  the  war  or  about  any- 
thing else.  Let  all  such  meet,  and,  waiving  all  else,  pledge  each  to  cease  harassing  others, 
and  to  make  common  cause  against  whoever  persists  in  making,  aiding,  or  encouraging 
further  disturbance.  The  practical  means  they  will  best  know  how  to  adopt  and  apply. 
At  such  meetings  old  friendships  will  cross  the  memory,  and  honor  and  Christian  charity 
will  come  in  to  help.  Please  consider  whether  it  may  not  be  well  to  suggest  this  to  the 
now  afflicted  people  of   Missouri. 

Yours   Truly, 

A.   Lincoln. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

-MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY 

Secrets  .of  State — The  Unpublished  Memoirs  of  Thomas  C.  Reynolds — Missouri  "A  Sov- 
ereign, free  and  Independent  Republic" — Democratic  Differences  at  Jefferson  City — The 
Lieutenant-Governor's  Animus — Price's  Hesitation  to  Take  Command — The  Secret  Plan 
of  Campaign — Reynolds  Starts  for  Richmond — The  Harney-Price  Agreement — Major 
Cabell  Commissioned  by  Governor  Jackson — The  First  Interznew  with  Jefferson  Davis — 
Refusal  to  Send  an  Army  to  Missouri — Price's  Call  for  50,000  Men — McElroy's  Analysis 
of  Price's  Leadership — A  Great  Name  to  Conjure  With — Admission  of  Missouri  into  the 
Confederacy — The  Meeting  at  Neosho- — Pirst  Congressional  Delegation — The  Movement 
against  Davis — A  Proposed  Xorthuest  Confederacy — Price's  Disclaimer — The  Alleged 
Quarrel  with  Davis — Shelby's  Promotion — Quantrell  jind  Laurence — Recollections  of  a 
Participant  in  the  Attack — The  Palmyra  Affair — An  Account  Written  at  the  Time — 
Jefferson  Davis'  Demand  for  the  Surrender  of  McNeil — Execution  of  Ten  Federal  Offi- 
cers Threatened — Gen.  Curtis'  Reply — Narroiv  Escape  of  General  Cockrell — A  Letter 
from  John  B.  Clark — The  Days  of  Rapid  Reconciliation — Shelby  atid  the  United  States 
Marshalship — Frost  and  Davis  on  the  Confederate  Policy. 

The  acts  of  President  Lincoln  having  been  indorsed  by  Congress  and  the  people  of  the  northern 
states,  the  war  thus  commenced  by  him  has  been  made  the  act  of  the  government  and  nation  over  which 
he  ruled;  therefore,  by  the  acts  of  the  people  and  government  of  the  United  States,  the  political  connec- 
tion heretofore  existing  between  said  states  and  the  people  and  government  of  Missouri  is  and  ought  to 
be  totally  dissolved;  and  the  State  of  Missouri,  as  a  sovereign,  free  and  independent  republic,  has  full 
power  to  levy  war,  conclude  peace,  contract  alliance,  establish  commerce,  and  to  do  all  other  acts  which 
independent    states    may   of    right    do. — Proctantation    of    Claibort:e    F.    Jack'Son,    August,    1S61. 

In  midsummer  of  1861  the  addresses  and  proclamations  to  the  people  of  Mis- 
souri came  in  rapid  succession.  The  convention  which,  on  the  30th  of  July,  set 
up  a  provisional  state  government  issued  an  address.  About  the  same  time 
Lieutenant-Governor  Revnolds  issued  at  New  Madrid  a  proclamation  in  which 
he  said:  "I  return  to  the  state  to  accompany  in  my  official  capacity  one  of  the 
armies  which  the  warrior,  whose  genius  now  presides  over  one-half  of  the 
Union,  has  prepared  to  advance  against  the  common  foe." 

He  said  that  the  authority  of  Missouri  as  a  sovereign  and  independent  state 
would  be  exercised  with  a  view  to  "her  speedy  regular  union  with  her  southern 
sisters."  He  announced  that  a  Confederate  army  under  command  of  General 
Pillow  had  entered  Missouri  "to  aid  in  expelling  the  enemies  from  the  state." 

Immediately  following  the  proclamation  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Reynolds, 
Brigadier-General  Jefferson  Thompson  issued  a  proclamation,  also  "to  the  peo- 
ple of  Missouri."  The  picturesque  personality  among  the  brigadiers  of  the  Mis- 
souri State  Guard  was  Jeff  Thompson.  He  was  called  the  "Missouri  swamp 
fox."   His  division  of  the  state  was  the  southeast  comer.   The  fox  was  a  writer 

841 


842  CENTi:.\.\IAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  poetry  and  of  proclamations.  .\t  tlie  same  time  he  had  courage  and  did  some 
good  fighting.  He  is  said  to  have  been  "a  tall,  lank,  wirj-  man,  at  least  six  feet 
high,  about  thirty-five  years  old,  with  a  long  sharp  face  and  a  prominent  nose, 
blue  eyes  and  a  mane  of  yellow  hair  which  he  combed  back  behind  his  cars.  His 
uniform  was  a  white,  soft  hat  with  a  feather,  a  short  coat  or  jacket,  short  trousers 
and  high  boots.  On  all  occasions  the  swamp  fo.x  wore  a  white-handled  bowie- 
knife  stuck  through  his  belt  at  the  middle  of  his  back." 

The  proclamation  of  "the  swamp  fox''  appeared  on  the  ist  of  August.  About 
the  same  time  Provisional  Governor  Gamble  sent  out  from  Jeflferson  City  a 
proclamation  notifying  citizens  that  the  so-called  "military  law"  passed  by  the 
legislature  a  few  weeks  previously  had  been  abrogated,  the  troops  disbanded  and 
the  commissions  to  officers  annulled.  The  proclamation  further  warned  Con- 
federate troops  to  depart  at  once  from  the  state. 

Two  days  later  Governor  Claiborne  Jackson  returned  from  Richmond  to 
the  southern  part  of  the  state  and  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  Missouri 
independent  of  the  United  States,  "a  sovereign,  free  and  independent  republic." 

The  Memoir  of  Thomas  C.  Re3naolds. 

In  what  he  called  a  "Memoir,'  Thomas  C.  Reynolds  wrote  certain  "secrets 
of  state"  in  the  relations  of  Missouri  to  the  Confederacy.  The  manuscri]>t 
of  this  Memoir  was  found  among  the  papers  of  Governor  Reynolds  after  his 
death.  It  passed  into  the  possession  of  his  nephew,  George  Savage,  of  Baltimore, 
and  was  sent  to  the  Alissouri  Historical  Society  in   1898  "for  preservation." 

John  McElroy,  the  writer  of  "The  Struggle  for  Missouri,"  said:  "Next  to 
Governor  Jackson — surpassing  him  in  intellectual  acuteness  and  fertile  energy 
— was  I-ieutenant-Governor  Thomas  C.  Reynolds,  then  in  his  40th  year,  a  short 
full-bodied  man.  with  jet-black  hair  and  eyes  shaded  with  gold-rimmed  glasses. 
He  boasted  of  being  born  of  Virginia  parents  in  South  Carolina.  He  was  a  man 
of  more  than  ordinary  ability,  and  had  accomplishments  quite  unusual  in  that 
day.  He  spoke  French,  German  and  Spanish  fluently,  wrote  profusely  and  with 
considerable  force,  and  prided  himself  on  being  a  diplomat.  He  had  seen  some 
service  as  secretary  of  legation  and  charge  d'affaires  at  Madrid.  He  had  been 
elected  as  a  Douglas  democrat,  but  was  an  outspoken  secessionist,  and  as  he  was 
ex-officio  jjresident  of  the  senate,  he  had  much  power  in  forming  committees 
and  shaping  legislation." 

The  Memoir  is  a  revelation  of  the  efforts  to  take  Missouri  into  the  Con- 
federacy. .\t  the  same  time  it  shows  the  wide  divergence  in  sentiment  on  the 
subject  of  secession  that  prevailed  among  the  democratic  officials  and  leaders  in 
the  state,  especially  at  Jeflferson  City  that  winter  of  i86t.  Many  of  those  who 
subsequently  went  into  the  Confederate  armv  were  still  clinging  to  the  hope  that 
the  Union  would  be  preserved.  Reynolds  had  no  patience  with  them.  He  worked 
incessantly  to  have  Missouri  declare  for  the  South.  When  Mr.  Russell  came 
from  ^Mississippi  as  a  commissioner  to  urge  secession,  the  lieutenant-governor 
gave  a  dinner  to  him  having  General  Sterling  Price.  Governor  Claiborne  F.  Jack- 
son and  Speaker  McAfee  present  to  hear  the  commissioner's  views.  To  the 
great  disappointment  of  Mr.  Reynolds  and  those  who  were  with  him  in  advocat- 
ing secession  before  Lincoln's  inauguration,  the  convention  called  by  act  of  the 


MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY  843 

legislature  and  presided  over  by  General  Sterling  Price,  voted  in  March,  1861, 
in  favor  of  the  Union.  Price  was  bank  commissioner,  a  state  office  at  the  tjme. 
Reynolds  had  counted  on  him  as  favorable  to  the  secession  movement.  He  is  bit- 
ter in  his  comments  on  Price.  He  .says  in  his  Memoir:  "The  high  officer,  who 
alone  had  it  in  his  power  to  exercise  any  control  over  the  vast  power  of  the  banks 
of  the  state,  had  on  the  very  battlefield  conspicuously  gone  over  to  the  enemy. 
The  'money  power,'  now  perfectly  secure,  was  exercised  against  the  southern 
rights  party."' 

Xot  until  the  Camp  Jackson  affair  did  Reynolds  find  his  opportunitj'.  Up  to 
that  time,  his  Memoir  shows,  the  secession  following  was  too  small  to  be  ef- 
fective in  any  radical  step  proposed. 

"After  the  Civil  war  began,  the  Missouri  legislature  met  in  special  session  May  I, 
1861.  On  Friday,  May  loth,  the  Camp  Jackson  affair  took  place.  The  tone  of  the  press 
of  Missouri  and  all  accounts  of  the  feeling  throughout  the  state,  on  account  of  that  high- 
handed move,  placed  it  beyond  all  doubt,  that  for  the  moment  fully  four-fifths  of  the  popu- 
lation were  ready  to  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States.  On  the  afternoon  of  Satur- 
day, May  nth,  or  Sunday.  May  I2th.  I  visited  Governor  Jackson  at  his  office  adjoining  that 
of  the  secretary  of  state  in  the  capitol,  and,  to  my  surprise  and  gratification,  met  General 
Price  in  conference  with  him.  General  Price  had  been  in  St.  Louis  on  May  loth,  and  had 
just  arrived  from  there  in  the  train  of  that  morning.  An  interchange  of  a  few  words 
between  us  indicated  that  he  had  determined  to  come  back  to  the  southern  rights  party.  I 
at  once  advised  Governor  Jackson  to  give  him  supreme  military  command,  especially  as 
armed  volunteers  were  pouring  into  Jefferson  City,  and  a  commander  of  experience  and 
reputation  was  indispensable.  Governor  Jackson  was  evidently  reluctant,  and  urged  that 
the  military  bill  giving  him  power  to  organize  the  militia  and  appoint  general  officers  had 
not  yet  become  a  law.  I  answered  that  the  'rebellion  act,'  which  I  had  drafted  and  which 
had  been  passed  on  May  loth  immediately  after  receipt  of  news  of  the  Camp  Jackson 
affair,  gave  him  discretionary  powers:  that  under  it  he  could  commission  General  Price 
merely  to  command  troops,  and,  on  the  passage  of  the  military  bill,  give  him  definite  rank 
under  it ;  that  I  would  agree  to  be  'military  secretary'  under  General  Price  and  aid  him 
to  the  extent  of  my  ability.  After  some  further  persuasion,  I  pointed  out  the  advantage 
of  having  General  Price  publicly  and  irrevocably  with  us,  the  prestige  of  his  position  as 
president  of  the  state  convention,  his  reputation  in  the  Mexican  war.  Governor  Jackson 
authorized  me  to  draw  up  a  commission  in  accordance  with  my  views  and  said  that  he 
would  sign  it.  I  accordingly  at  once  drew  up  a  commission  under  the  'rebellion  act'  ap- 
pointing General- Price  to  command  in  chief  all  the  forces  to  be  called  out  to  suppress  the 
rebellion  begun  by  Lyon  and  Blair  at  St.  Louis." 

.\fter  preparing  the  commission.  Mr.  Reynolds  had  considerable  difficulty 
in  getting  it  signed.  Governor  Jackson  showing  much  hesitation  about  ''so  im- 
portant a  step."    ^^'ith  the  commission  in  hand  Reynolds  sought  General  Price. 

"I  had  arranged  with  General  Price  to  meet  me  at  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state 
and  I  immediately  proceeded  thither.  Ascending  the  steps  of  the  capitol,  I  encountered 
General  Robert  Wilson,  state  senator  from  .Andrew  county,  a  member  of  the  state  con- 
vention, and  a  public  man  of  deservedly  great  weight  in  Missouri.  I  told  him  about  the 
commission  and  asked  him  to  accompany  me  to  present  it  to  General  Price.  He  promptly 
consented  and  remarked:  'I  am  glad  Price  is  to  take  command.  If  these  hot-headed  boys 
who  are  now  commanding  are  left  to  themselves,  they  will  carry  us  all  to  the  devil.'  He 
alluded  to  Parsons,  Peyton,  Colton  Green  and  others  who  were  taking  charge  of  the 
volunteers  arriving.     We  entered   the  office  of   the  secretary   of  state  and   found  General 


844  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Price  there.     The  srcat  seal  was  attached  to  the  commission  and  on   behalf  of  Governor 
Jackson,  I  tendered  it  to  General  Price. 

"As  he  had  previously  promised  me  to  accept,  I  was  somewhat  taken  aback  by  his  re- 
maining silent  and  seeming  to  be  in  a  deep  study.  I  thereupon  stated  to  him  that  as  his 
personal  and  political  friend,  and  as  lieutenant-governor  of  Missouri,  I  urged  his  acceptance 
of  the  commission.  Turning  to  General  Robert  Wilson,  I  requested  him  as  a  senator  and 
member  of  the  convention,  and  a  leading  public  man  to  express  his  opinion.  General  Wil- 
son in  a  few  words  said  that  he  considered  it  General  Price's  duty  to  the  state  to  accept 
the  commission.  .'Kfter  a  pause  of  a  few  moments.  General  Price  said,  in  a  tone  as  if  he  had 
come  to  a  sudden  decision  :  'Well,  gentlemen,  I  accept  and  rely  on  your  support  to  the  best 
y    of  my  ability.'     General  Wilson  and  I  each  responded:     'You  can  count  on  our  support.'" 

A  Call  to  Arms. 

LieuteIlant-Go^■crn()^  Reynolds'  next  step  wa.s  to  prepare  an  address,  or 
proclamation,  to  the  people  of  Alissouri.  This  was  to  be  signed  by  Governor 
Jackson,  and,  Mr.  Reynolds  says,  was  prepared  at  the  governor's  request.  This 
address,  according  to  the  Memoir,  raised  no  question  of  secession  but  called  on 
the  entire  i)eo])le  of  the  state  to  form  military  organizations  and  arm  themselves, 
and  then  await  further  orders  of  the  state  government.  General  Price  was 
with  Governor  Jackson  when  the  lieutenant-governor  read  the  draft  of  the 
address  to  them : 

"I  explained  that  its  policy  was  to  impress  the  universal  indignation  about  the  Camp 
Jackson  outrage,  and  have  every  neighborhood  commit  itself  to  sustain  by  arms  the  state 
government;  tliat  the  universal  ferment  we  could  reasonably  expect  would  probably  confine 
Lyon,  who  could  not  count  on  over  eight  thousand  men,  to  St.  Louis,  and'^ counterbalance 
the  unionist  excitement  in  Central  Illinois,  as  well  as  encourage  the  southern  proclivities 
of  Southern  Illinois ;  that  if  Lyon  should  venture  to  leave  St.  Louis  to  advance  on  Jefiferson 
City,  we  could  make  the  country  swarm  in  insurrection  around  him,  until,  if  he  ventured 
too  far,  he  would  be  lost;  and  that  we  could  also  make  St.  Louis  rise  in  his  rear;  that  if 
compelled  to  leave  Jefferson  City,  we  should  retreat  along  the  valley  of  the  Osage,  drawing 
him  towards  the  southwest  and  setting  the  populous  .secession  counties  on  the  upper  Mis- 
souri to  rise  in  his  rear;  that  on  the  extent  of  the  response  to  the  call  in  the  proclamation, 
our  future  course  should  depend;  that  if  as  general  as  everything  indicated  it  would  be, 
we  could  hold  nearly  the  entire  st^te  and  perhaps  even  St.  Louis,  call  together  the  con- 
vention and  have  the  state  secede.  An  additional  reason  was  that  if  we  should  at  once 
begin  war,  I  did  not  believe  Lyon  had  enough  troops  to  do  us  harm,  and  that  one  certam 
result  at  least  would  be  to  produce  a  most  powerful  diversion  to  gain  time  for  the  defense 
of  Virginia,  and  possibly  determine  Kentucky  to  abandon  her  'neutrality.'" 

Mr.  Reynolds  left  the  draft  of  the  address,  under  the  impression  that  it  was 
ppproved  by  the  governor  and  by  General  Price,  and  that  it  would  be  issued  at 
once.  But  several  days  passed  without  the  appearance  of  the  proclamation.  Mr, 
Reynolds  conferred  with  General  Price: 

"I  stated  my  ajiprehension  that  Governor  Jackson  was  inclined  to  temporize 
and  gain  time,  and  even  adopt  the  neutrality  .system  of-  his  native  state,  Ken- 
tucky ;  that  I  considered  delay  fatal  and  leading  to  transactions  and  compromises 
which  would  end  in  giving  the  Federals  possession  of  the  .state;  that  for  that 
reason  I  intended  to  proceed  at  once  to  the  Confederate  States  and,  treating 
the  governor  as  morally  under  duress,  ask  as  lieutenant-governor  from  Mr. 
Davis  the  entry  of  Confederate  troops  into  Missouri  to  protect  the  government." 


MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY  845 

The  Appeal  to  Richmond. 

Mr.  Reynolds  says  his  proposition  met  with  the  approval  of  General  Price 
and  that  he  left  Jefferson  City  on  this  errand  to  Richmond,  not  telling  Governor 
Jackson  of  the  application  to  be  made.  He  went  by  way  of  Arkansas.  En 
route  he  saw  in  the  press  dispatches  that  General  Harney  and  General  Prici 
had  entered  into  an  agreement  "which  was  so  astonishing  that  I  doubted  th 
accuracy  of  the  telegram."  \\Mieii  he  reached  Memphis.  Mr.  Reynolds  learned 
of  the  removal  of  Harney,  the  reinstatement  of  Lyon,  and  the  practical  abroga- 
tion of  the  Harney-Price  agreement.  He  wrote  to  President  Davis  asking  that 
Confederate  troops  be  sent  to  Missouri  and  later,  receiving  no  answer,  went  to 
Richmond,  where  he  joined  Major  E.  C.  Cabell,  who  had  come  from  Missouri  as 
Governor  Jackson's  commissioner  to  the  Confederate  states  with  a  request  that 
Confederate  troops  be  sent : 

"In  June,  1861,  I  saw  Governor  Jackson's  proclamation  announcing  the  breaking  out 
of  hostilities  between  the  United  States  authorities  and  those  of  the  State  of  Missouri.  Soon 
after  Major  E.  C.  Cabell  telegraphed  me  from  Richmond  to  come  there  at  once.  I  arrived 
there  and  from  Major  Cabell's  reports  and  my  own  conversation  with  Mr.  Toombs,  secretary 
of  state;  Mr.  Benjamin,  attorney-general,  and  Mr.  Memminger,  secretary  of  the  treasury 
of  the  Confederate  states,  discovered  a  marked  indisposition  to  grant  the  aid  asked  by  the 
authorities  of  Missouri,  although  in  addition  to  the  application  of  General  Price  and  my- 
self, one  had  been  made  for  troops  by  the  governor  through  Major  Cabell,  his  commis- 
sioner to  the  Confederate  states,  with  full  power  under  tlie  great  seal  of  the  state  and  by 
authority  of  the  'rebellion  act.' 

"Finally  Mr.  Davis  gave  an  audience  to  Major  Cabell  and  myself,  Mr.  Toombs  and  Mr. 
Walker,  Confederate  secretary  of  war,  being  the  only  other  persons  present.  After  hear- 
ing the  reasons  urged  by  Major  Cabell  and  myself  in  favor  of  intervention  of  the  Con- 
federacy in  Missouri,  and  combating  them  by  arguments  drawn  from  the  armory  of 
straight-laced  state  sovereignty  doctrines  (as  in  the  subsequent  official  answer  to  our  appli- 
cations), he  finally,  with  the  air  of  a  man  conscious  of  the  weakness  of  those  arguments, 
and  suddenly  resolving  to  give  his  ruling  reasons  at  whatever  risk  of  offending,  drew 
himself  up  in  his  chair,  and  compressing  his  lips,  said  to  us:     'I  find,  gentlemen,  by  your 

governor's  proclamation  of  June  ,  which   I   have   in  my  hand,  that   in  the  conference 

between  General  Price  and  himself  and  General  Lyon  at  St.  Louis,  he  offered  to  use  his 
state  troops  to  drive  out  of  Missouri  any  Confederate  troops  entering  it.  Now  at  the 
very  moment  when  he  made  this  offer  you.  Mr.  Cabell,  were  here  with  a  commission  from 
him  to  me,  and  presenting  his  request  for  these  Confederate  troops  to  be  sent  into  Mis- 
souri. So  that,  had  I  assented  to  the  request,  those  troops,  even  though  with  your  lieuten- 
ant-governor at  the  head  of  them,  might  have  had  to  fight  against,  instead  of  with  General 
Price's  army.  Now  I  think  General  Lyon  acted  very  unwisely  in  not  accepting  Governor 
Jackson's  proposals,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  may  send  him  orders  to  accept  them.  Governor 
Jackson,  in  his  proclamation,  makes  a  merit  of  having  proposed  them.  Now,  if  I  agree 
to  send  Confederate  troops  into  Missouri  at  your  request,  can  you  give  me  any  guarantee 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  may  not  propose  and  Governor  Jackson  assent  to  the  agreement  rejected 
by  General  Lyon  and  compel  those  troops  to  retire  before  their  joint  forces?' 

"Of  course  no  answer  could  be  made  to  this,  especially  as  the  President's  whole  tone 
and  manner  showed  a  fixed  resolution  and  great  disgust  at  what  he  evidently  considered 
double  dealing  and  an  insult  to  his  dignity  in  setting  a  trap  for  Confederate  troops  to  be 
used  or  opposed,  according  as  the  Missouri  authorities  might  succeed  or  fail  in  making 
terms  with  the  United  States.  Major  Cabell  and  I  remained  silent,  or  at  best  contented  our- 
selves with  arguing  feebly  that  whatever  the  previous  vacillation.  Governor  Jackson  and 
General  Price  had  taken  the  final  leap  into  the  secession  camp  and  could  be  trusted  ac- 
cordingly.    But  President  Davis'  mind  was  evidently  made  up  and  the  audience  soon  ended. 


846  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

A  day  or  two  afterwards,  Major  Cabell  and  I  received  the  official  answer  to  our  respective 
applications  rejecting  them  on  the  mere  technicality  (and  an  erroneous  one)  that  only  a 
convention  representing  the  sovereignty  of  the  state  could  be  treated  with  by  the  Con- 
federate states." 

Sterling  Price,  the  Leader. 

About  this  time  General  Price  issued  a  proclamation  from  Marshall,  appeal- 
ing to  those  Missoiirians  who  syrnpathized  with  the  South : 

"Leave  your  property  at  home.  What  if  it  be  taken — all  taken?  We  have  $200,000,000 
worth  of  northern  means  in  Missouri  which  cannot  be  removed.  When  we  arc  once  free 
the  state  will  indemnify  every  citizen  who  may  have  lost  a  dollar  by  adhesion  to  the  cause 
of  his  country.     We  shall  have  our  property,  or  its  value,  with  interest. 

"But,  in  the  name  of  God  and  the  attributes  of  manhood,  let  me  appeal  to  you  by  con- 
siderations infinitely  higher  than  rnoney !  Are  we  a  generation  of  driveling,  sniveling, 
degraded  slaves?  Or  are  we  men  who  dare  assert  and  maintain  the  rights  which  cannot 
be  surrendered,  and  defend  those  principles  of  everlasting  rectitude,  pure  and  high  and 
sacred,  like  God.  their  author?  Be  yours  the  office  to  choose  between  the  glory  of  a  free 
country  and  a  just  government,  and  the  bondage  of  your  children!  I  will  never  see  the 
chains  fastened  upon  my  country.  I  will  ask  for  six  and  one-half  feet  of  Missouri  soil  in 
which  to  repose,  but  will  not  live  to  see  mj'  people  cn.slaved. 

"Do  I  hear  your  shouts?  Is  that  your  war-cry  which  echoes  through  the  land?  Are 
you  coming?  Fifty  thousand  men  I  Missouri  shall  move  to  victory  with  the  tread  of  a 
giant !  Come  on,  iny  brave  boys,  50,000  heroic,  gallant,  unconquerable  southern  men  !  We 
await  your  coming.   '  Stkri.ing  Price, 

"Maj  or-General  Commanding." 

John  McElrciy,  in  "ihc  Struggle  for  Missouri,"  said  of  Sterling  Price: 
"He  was  a  man  of  the  tincst  physique  and  presence,  six  feet  two  inches  high, 
with  small  hands  and  feet  and  unusually  large  body  and  limbs ;  a  superb  horse- 
man;  with  a  broad,  bland,  kindly  face  framed  in  snow-white  hair  and  beard. 
His  name  would  indicate  Welsh  origin,  but  his  face,  figure  and  mental  habits 
seemed  rather  Teutonic.  He  had  a  voice  of  much  sweetness  and  strength,  and 
a  paternal  way  of  addressing  his  men,  who  speedily  gave  him  the  sobriquet  of 
'Pap  Price.'  He  appeared  on  the  field  in  a  straw  hat  and  linen  duster  in  sum- 
mer, and  with  a  blanket  thrown  over  his  shoulders  and  a  tall  hat  in  winter. 
These  became  standards  which  the  Missourians  followed  into  the  thick  of  the 
fight,  as  the  French  did  the  white  plume  of  Henry  of  Navarre. 

"General  Price  was  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  indefinable  quality  of  leadership.  This 
is  something  that  does  not  seem  to  depend  upon  intellectual  superiority,  upon  greater  cour- 
age or  devotion,  or  even  upon  clearer  insight.  A  man  leads  his  fellows — many  of  whom 
are  his  superiors  in  most  namable  qualities — simply  because  of  something  unnamable  in  him 
that  makes  him  assume  the  leadership,  and  they  accept  it.  There  was  hardly  a  prominent 
man  in  Missouri  that  was  not  Price's  superior  in  some  quality  usually  regarded  as  essential. 
For  example,  he  was  a  pleasing  and  popular  speaker,  but  Missouri  abounded  in  men  much 
more  attractive  to  public  assemblages.  He  was  a  fair  politician,  but  rarely  got  more  than 
the  second  prize.  He  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  Mexican  war,  but  Claiborne  Jackson 
made  more  capital  out  of  his  few  weeks  of  inconsequential  service  in  the  Black  Hawk  war 
than  Price  did  out  of  the  conquest  of  New  Mexico  and  the  capture  of  Chihuahua. 

"He  served  one  term  in  Congress,  but  failed  to  secure  a  renomination.  He  had  been 
elected  governor  of  Missouri  while  his  Mexican  laurels  were  yet  green,  but  when  he  tried  to 
enter  the  Senate  he  was  easily  defeated  by  that  able  politician  and  orator,  James  S.  Green. 


MISSOURI  A\D  THE  CONFEDERACY  847 

"Though  he  belonged  to  the  dominant  anti-Benton  faction  nf  the  Missouri  democracy 
and  the  Stephen  A.  Donglas  wing,  he  never  was  admitted  to  the  select  inner  council,  or 
secured  any  of  its  higher  rewards,  except  one  term  as  governor. 

"At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  was  holding  the  comparatively  unimportant  place  of 
bank  commissioner.  For  all  that  he  was  to  become  and  remain  throughout  the  struggle 
the  central  figure  of  secession  in  the  trans-Mississippi  country. 

"Officers  of  high  rank  and  brilliant  reputation  like  Ben  AlcCulloch,  Earl  Van  Dorn, 
Richard  Taylor  and  E.  Kirby  Smith  were  to  be  put  over  him,  yet  his  fame  and  influence 
outshone  them  all.  Unquestionably  able  soldiers,  such  as  Marmaduke,  Shelby.  Bowen,  Jeff 
Thompson,  Parsons,  M.  L.  Clark  and  Little,  were  to  serve  him  with  unfaltering  loyalty  as 
subordinates. 

"Yet  from  first  to  last  liis  was  a  name  to  conjure  with.  No  other  than  his  in  the  South 
had  the  spell  in  it  for  Missourians  and  the  people  west  of  the  Mississippi.  They  flocked  to 
his  standard  wherever  it  was  raised,  and  after  three  years  of  failures  they  followed  him 
with  as  much  eager  hope  in  his  last  disastrous  campaign  as  in  the  first,  and  when  he  died  in 
St.  Louis,  two  years  after  the  war,  his  death  was  regarded  as  a  calamity  to  the  state,  and 
he  had  the  largest  funeral  of  any  man  in  the  history  of  Missouri," 

Missouri  Admitted  into  the  Confederacy. 

The  rirst  appeal  for  a  Cdiifederatt'  army  to  he  .sent  ha\ing  failed,  E.  C.  Cabell 
and  Thomas  I..  .Siiead  were  made  commissioners  by  (jovernor  Jackson  to  go  to 
Richmond  and  negotiate  for  the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Confederacy. 
They  were  acting  for  the  "executive  power  of  the  state."  On  the  31st  of 
October  they  signed  an  agreement  with  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  the  Confederate  secre- 
tary of  state,  by  which  Missouri  was  to  be  admitted  into  the  Confederacy.  A 
call  was  sent  out  to  members  of  the  legislature  which  had  been  abolished  by  the 
convention  in  July.  On  the  2d  of  November  those  who  responded  to  the  call 
met  at  Neosho.  They  ratified  the  agreement  with  Secretary  Hunter.  Thus 
Missouri  secured  her  recognition  as  one  of  the  Confederate  states.  The  Neosho 
body  elected  John  B.  Clark  and  R.  S.  T.  Peyton,  senators,  and  Thomas  A. 
Harris,  Casper  W.  Ball,  .•\.  H.  Conrad,  George  G.  Vest,  Dr.  Hyer,  Thomas 
Freeman  and  William  M.  Cooke,  representatives  of  Missouri  in  the  Confed- 
erate Congress. 

In  his  Memoir,  Reynolds  tells  of  the  next  negotiations  at  Richmond : 

".About  the  beginning  of  December,  1861,  the  newly  elected  Missouri  delegation  to  the 
Confederate  Provisional  Congress  arrived  in  Richmond,  bringing  a  letter  from  Governor 
(Claib.)  Jackson  to  President  Davis,  suggesting  the  union  of  the  troops  in  .Arkansas  and 
Missouri  under  one  commander,  expressing  a  preference  for  General  Price  for  the  position. 
The  governor  also  wrote  me  a  letter  asking  me  to  see  the  President  and  urge  the  appoint- 
ment of  General  Price  to  the  command. 

"Before  I  saw  the  delegates,  or  received  Governor  Jackson's  letter,  they  had  had  an 
interview  with  Mr.  Davis,  in  which  according  to  their  own  accounts  to  me,  they  had  with 
importunity  amounting  almost  to  ovcrbearingness  demanded,  as  a  'mark  of  proper  respect 
to  the  popular  wish,  the  assignment  of  General  Price  to  command  all  of  the  troops  in  .Vr- 
kansas  and  Missouri.  The  President  finally  ended  the  conference  by  drawing  himself  up 
haughtily  and  saying.  'Gentlemen,  I  am  not  to  be  dictated  to.'  They  promptly  declared  they 
had  no  wish  to  dictate,  but  they  .soon  left. 

"During  the  siege  of  Richmond  by  McClellan,  General  Price  had  come  on  there  with 
his  staff.  Major  Snead  and  others,  and  had  not  made  a  favorable  impression.  The  object 
of  his  visit  was  to  get  himself  assigned  to  command  an  expedition  to  Missouri,  and  on 
this  being  postponed  rather  than  denied,  his  chief  of  staff.  Major  Snead,  publicly  in  front  of 
the  Spottiswood  Hotel,  made  a  great  fuss  over  it,  tore  from  his  uniform  the  insignia  of 


848  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

his  Confederate  rank,  and  declared  that  General  Price  would  go  to  Missouri  anyhow, 
and  fight  again — under  the  'bear  flag"  (of  Missouri).  The  accuracy  of  the  statement  was 
subset|utiitly  admitted  to  me  by  Major  Sncad,  who  regretted  his  excitement.  But  the 
notoriety  of  the  occurrence  and  Major  Snead  remaining  in  his  confidential  position  near 
General  Price,  as  well  as  the  frequent  intimations,  by  way  of  threats,  by  his  friends,  that 
General  Price  would  resign  unless  his  demands  should  be  complied  with  occasioned  the 
general  to  be  regarded  as  tacitly  approving  that   turbulent  escapade  of   his   chief  of   staff. 

The  Movement  to  Make  Price  President. 

"During  the  dark  period  of  the  siege  of  Richmond  a  scheme  was  formed,  though  I  do 
not  know  that  it  ever  ripened  into  a  regular  plot,  to  -displace  Mr.  Davis  by  a  popular  move- 
ment or  pronunciamento  and  proclaim  General  Price  President  or  generalissimo.  I  had 
heard  some  whisperings  of  it  when  in  Richmond  the  previous  winter;  but  according  to  Ihe 
accounts  I  received  in  January,  1863,  from  Major  Cabell  and  Mr.  Vest,  Congressman  from 
Missouri,  the  movement  had  assumed  formidable  dimensions,  and  but  for  our  success  at 
the  battle  of  Seven  Pines  would  probably  have  broken  out.  They  described  Senator  Clark 
of  Missouri  as  one  of  the  most  forward  in  it.  Major  Cabell  relating  to  me  a  conversation 
he  had  with  that  senator  to  combat,  though  without  success,  his  intention  to  join  so  wild  a 
project.  Mr.  Davis,  in  a  conversation,  also  in  January,  1863,  spoke  of  Mr.  William  M. 
Cooke,  Congressman  from  Missouri,  as  one  of  the  most  active  in  it,  'going  around  in  the 
streets  and  talking  for  it  while  the  enemy  was  in  front  of  Richmond.'  General  Price,  leav- 
ing his  command  in  the  West  and  coming  to  Richmond  at  the  time  when  this  project  was  on 
foot,  e.\cited  remark.  Col.  William  Preston  Johnston,  an  aid  of  President  Davis,  also 
mentioned  to  me  some  turbulent  remarks  of  General  Price  in  a  speech  to  a  crowd  from  a 
balcony  of  the  Spottiswood  Hotel,  but  I  forget  the  precise  tenor  of  them,  except,  like 
General  Price's  speeches  usually,  that  they  indicated  a  disposition  to  plan  an<l  act  for  him- 
self, not  very  subordinate  towards  his  official  superiors,  nor  very  respectfnl  towards  the 
President.  It  was  also  stated  and  generally  believed  that  he  had  had  a  high  quarrel  with 
"Mr.  Davis  at  the  latter's  house  after  dining  together. 

"Another  matter  also  had  great  effect  on  Gen.  Sterling  Price's  position.  In  the  pre- 
ceding year  (1862)  began  the  so-called  'Copperhead'  movement  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and 
Illinois.  Its  precise  object  and  extent  was  a  mystery  to  the  Confederate  government  and 
people.  It  appeared  sometimes  as  a  'reconstruction'  movement  to  restore  the  old  Union, 
and  at  other  times  as  one  looking  to  a  'North  West  Confederacy'  to  include  Missouri,  and 
to  remain  independent  and  allied  with,  or  to  be  united  to  the  Southern  Confederacy.  On 
one  point,  however,  all  reports  agreed,  viz.,  that  General  Price  had  some  connection  with  it 
and  was  to  be  its  military  leader.  The  tone,  if  not  direct  statements,  of  General  Price's 
organ,  the  Jackson  (Miss.)  Argus  and  Crisis,  edited  by  his  confidential  friend,  Mr.  J.  W. 
Tucker  (sometimes  called  Deacon  Tucker)  of  St.  Louis,  and  some  articles  in  it  on  that 
subject  by  a  Methodist  clergyman.  Dr.  R.  T.  Kavanagh,  also  confidentially  connected  with 
■General  Price,  tended  to  confirm  these  reports.  But  nothing  was  known  from  General 
Price  himself  by  the  Confederate  government. 

"Soon  after  my  reaching  Richmond  in  January,  1863,  General  Price  telegraphed  to  me 
a  request  to  await  his  arrival  there.  I  answered  that  I  would  do  so.  He  soon  came  on, 
accompanied  by  Major  Snead,  and  I  had  a  very  cordial  meeting  with  both.  I  explained  to 
General  Price  in  the  course  of  our  various  conversations,  my  desire  that  the  Confederate 
states  should  as  soon  as  practicable  send  an  army  into  Missouri,  and  that  he  should  com- 
mand it.  but  tliat  there  were  many  obstacles  in  the  way,  including,  as  far  as  delicacy  per- 
mitted my  mentioning  them  to  him,  the  matters  heretofore  mentioned  as  having  impaired 
his  influence. 

"With  regard  to  the  movement  in  1862  for  a  pronunciamento  against  Mr.  Davis,  he  as- 
sured me  that  he  had  not  even  heard  of  it,  still  less  of  any  suggestion  of  himself  as  the 
leader  in  whose  favor  the  movement  was  begun.  He  expressed  surprise  at  it,  and  con- 
demnation of  it,  but  remarked  that  it  explained  an  incident  which  had  somewhat  surprised 
him,  and  which  he  related.  On  Mr.  Davis'  visit  to  Mississippi  in  1862,  he  (General  Price) 
had  had  an  agreeable  interview   with  him,  but  in  it  the  President,  after  remarking  on  the 


MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERAC^'  849 

gigantic  efforts  of  the  United  States,  very  pointedly  inquired  about  as  follows:  'Under 
such  circumstances,  General  Price,  would  it  not  be  folly  for  us  to  have  divisions  among 
ourselves?'  General  Price  answered:  'Most  assuredly.  Mr.  President.'  And  thereupon 
Mr,  Davis,  with  an  air  of  relief,  said  markedly:  'I  am  delighted  to  hear  you  say  so.'  Gen- 
eral Price  remarked  to  me  that  after  learning  from  me  the  existence  of  the  pronunciamento 
project,  he  understood  what  had  puzzled  him  at  the  time  in  that  conversation,  and  now 
thought  it  designed  to  sound  him  as  to  that  project.  Soon  afterwards  1  took  occasion  to 
assure  Mr.  Davis  of  General  Price's  disclaimer,  and  related  the  above  incident.  Mr.  Davis 
had  forgotten  it,  but  supposed  he  may  have  made,  as  he  frequently  did  in  his  conversations 
on  his  visits  to  the  country,  some  general  remarks  on  the  necessity  of  union  and  harmony. 
He  smiled  at  General  Price's  imagining  that  he  designed  sounding  him  on  his  intentions  of 
'pronouncing  as  a  revolutionary  president:'  indeed  in  all  his  remarks,  which  we-e  not  many, 
about  that  movement,  Mr.  Davis  spoke  of  it  more  as  an  insult  and  a  silly  attempt  to  create 
internal  divisions  of  feeling,  than  as  a  serious  project  to  displace  him  from  authority.  Yet 
such   it   was. 

The  North  West  Confederacy. 

"In  regard  to  the  'North  West'  revolutionary  scheme,  I  stated  to  General  Price  that 
the  connection  of  his  name,  as  a  leader,  with  it  had  done  him  harm ;  that  no  executive, 
especially  one  leading  a  revolution,  could  look  witliout  jealousy  on  a  military  officer  con- 
necting himself  while  in  its  service  with  another  revolution  to  occur  within  the  enemy's 
lines;  that  it  was  not  only  a  species  of  military  insubordination,  but  an  interference  with  the 
foreign  policy  of  the  Confederate  government;  and  that  opinion  at  the  South  was  much 
divided  as  to  the  real  nature  of  the  North  West  movement  (whether  for  joining  us,  for 
separate  independence,  or  for  reconstruction  of  the  Union),  as  to  the  expediency  of  our 
encouraging  it  if  disguised  reunion,  and  even  as  to  the  extent  to  which  we  could  trust  its 
good  faith,  many  considering  it  a  mere  political  manoeuvre  designed  solely  to  affect  north- 
e:n  elections.  At  the  very  opening  of  my  conversation  and  before  my  presenting  the  fore- 
going considerations  (in  which  he  fully  concurred).  General  Price  disclaimed  any  direct 
connection  with  the  North  West  movement  and  said  :  'I  really  know  no  more  of  it  than 
what  I  learn  from  the  newspapers  and  from  common  talk  in  the  Confederacy.'  I  alluded  to 
the  statement  in  the  Richmond  papers  of  those  days  that  a  lady  had  come  through  the 
Federal  lines  to  his  camp  with  communications  for  him  from  the  North  West  revolution- 
ists, and  was  at  Richmond  at  the  Spottiswood,  his  hotel.  He  stated  as  an  illustration  of  his 
proper  respect  to  the  Confederate  government  in  the  matter  that  he  had  merely  heard  from 
the. lady  her  statement  on  her  coming  to  him  in  Mississippi  in  Jaiuiary,  1863,  and  had  merely 
referred  her  to  the  President  and  facilitated  her  journey  to  Richmond.  I  decidedly  ap- 
plauded that  course  and  advised  his  leaving  that  whole  North  West  business  to  the  Presi- 
dent ;  he  agreed  with  me  in  the  propriety  of  that  course. 

"As  Major  Snead  was  inclined  to  promote  harmony  between  the  President  and  Mis- 
sourians  generally,  I  did  not  bring  up  his  escapade  at  the  Spottiswood  in  1862,  in  my  con- 
versation with  General  Price.  But  I  pointed  out  to  him  the  disturbing  influence  of  Mr. 
J.  W.  Tucker  in  his  journal,  the  Argus  and  Crisis,  published  at  Jackson.  Mississippi,  and 
universally  regarded  as  the  'organ'  of  General  Price;  that  its  blind  hostility  to  the  Pres- 
ident and  its  interlarding  that  hostility  with  advocacy  of  so-called  'justice  to  General  Price' 
placed  him  in  the  seeming  attitude  of  factious  opposition  to  the  President.  General  Price 
warmly  protested  his  disapproval  of  Mr.  Tucker's  tone,  and  said  he  had  written  him, 
urging  him  to  drop  or  change  it ;  Mr.  Tucker  had  answered  rather  truculently  that  he 
would  edit  his  journal  according  to  his  own  notions.  General  Price  disclaimed  it  being 
his  organ. 

The  Alleged  Quarrel  with  Mr.  Davis. 

"In  regard  to  his  alleged  (piarrel  with  Mr.  Davis  at  the  latter's  house  in  Richmond, 
General  Price  explained  to  me  as  follows :  After  dinner  he  stated  at  some  length  to 
Mr.  Davis  his  project  of  a  campaign  in  Missouri  and  his  grounds  for  asking  the  command 

Vol.  1—54 


850  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  the  forces  employed  in  it ;  mentioning,  among  others,  that  be  had  fought  forty  battles 
and  lost  none  of  them;  that  he  could  raise  an  army  of  50,000  men,  etc.,  etc.  The  President 
listened  very  patiently  and  at  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks,  instead  of  entering  into  the 
question  of  a  military  campaign,  abruptly  asked  General  Price :  'Is  it  true.  General,  that 
in  i86i,  on  some  one's  reporting  to  you  that  I  intended  to  offer  you  a  commission  of  Con- 
federate brigadier,  you  said  that  you  would  trample  it  under  your  feet?'  General  Price 
denied  having  made  such  a  remark;  but,  continued  he  in  his  relation  of  the  matter  to  me: 
'I  had  been  gravely,  earnestly  giving  him  my  reasons,  which  my  experiences  in  Missouri 
entitled  me  to  consider  not  unworthy  of  respectful  consideration,  for  a  campaign  in  that 
state.  His  contemptuously  dismissing  them  in  silence  and  questioning  me  about  a  stale 
slander  thoroughly  incensed  me  and  I  then  skinned  him.'  I  could  not  get  from  General 
Price  the  precise  particulars  of  what  he  himself  called  his  'skinning*  Mr.  Davis  further 
than  that  he  gave  very  free  vent  to  his  feelings  and  opinions.  General  Price  added  that 
during  Mr.  Davis'  subsequent  visit  in  1862  to  Mississippi  cordial  relations  were  entirely 
restored  between  them. 

"But  fearful  that  some  ill  feeling  remained  in  Mr.  Davis  on  account  of  this  'skinning' 
of  the  commander-in-chief  in  his  own  parlor  by  a  military  subordinate,  I  cautiously  sounded 
him  on  the  subject,  without  giving  General  Price's  version,  but  only  stating  that  he  was 
said  to  have  been  rather  discourteous  on  the  occasion.  The  President,  who  did  not  enter 
into  particulars  and  evidently  attached  no  importance  to  the  incident,  said  he  remembered 
nothing  discourteous  in  General  Price's  conversation  or  deportment ;  but  that  they  made 
on  him  the  impression  that  he  was  the  'vainest  man  he  ever  met.'  " 

Shelby  and  His  Men. 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  that  the  Confederate  Congress  made  him  a 
brigadier  general,  Shelby  was  preparing  to  attack  Steele's  army.  With  15.000 
men  Steele  was  marching  south  through  .\rkansas  to  join  Banks  who  was 
coming  up  Red  river  in  the  movement  against  Shreveport.  Shelby  had  i.ooo 
men.  He  decided  to  make  the  attack  on  Steele  at  midnight.  To  inspire  his  men 
he  issued  this  address : 

"Soldiers  of  Shelby's  Brigade  :  You  mairch  in  four  hours  to  attack  the  enemy.  He  is 
strong,  well  equipped  and  not  deficient  in  courage,  but  I  intend  that  you  shall  ride  down 
his  infantry  and  scatter  his  battalions  by  the  splendor  of  your  charge.  You  have  just  four 
hours  in  which  to  say  your  prayers,  make  your  needful  preparations  and  nerve  your  hearts 
for  the  onset.  It  will  be  desperate,  because  you  are  brave ;  bloody,  because  you  are  reck- 
less, and  tenacious  because  I  am  today  a  brigadier-general.  I  have  told  you  often  about 
our  homes,  our  country  and  our  glorious  cause.  Today  I  simply  appeal  to  your  ambition, 
your  fame,  your  spotless  reputation  and  your  eternal  renown." 

The  plan  was  carried  out.  Shelby  sent  his  thousand  Missouri  troopers  against 
Steele's  rear  guard  in  charge  after  charge  until  daylight  came. 

^^'hen  Price  made  his  1864  expedition  into  Missouri,  Marmaduke's  cavalry 
was  on  the  right,  nearest  the  Mississippi ;  Pagan,  with  five  brigades,  held  the 
center;  Shelby,  with  three  brigades,  was  on  the  left.  The  army  moved  at  the 
rate  of  fifteen  miles  a  day,  which  was  not  half  fast  enough  for  Shelby.  The 
campaign  which  Shelby  urged  was  a  forced  march  upon  St.  Louis.  He  thought 
the  citv  could  be  taken.  Thence  he  proposed  that  the  army  cross  the  Missis- 
sippi and  march  through  Southern  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Ohio,  and  by  way  of 
Eastern  Kentucky  to  the  relief  of  Richmond.  After  getting  into  Southeastern 
Missouri,  Price  decided  to  turn  westward  and  march  through  Missouri. 


MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY  851 

The  Raid  on  Lawrence. 

Between  the  sessions  of  a  republican  Congressional  convention  in  Missouri 
Capt.  William  II.  Gregg  told  the  story  of  Quantrell's  raid  upon  Lawrence.  The 
presence  in  the  republican  convention  of  J.  C.  Horton,  a  wholesale  merchant, 
of  Kansas  City,  who  in  1863  was  one  of  the  Lawrence  business  men  marked  for 
death  and  who  escaped  by  being  overlooked  in  the  hurry  of  the  raid,  was  the 
occasion  of  the  revival  of  the  memories.  Captain  Gregg  and  Mr.  Horton  were 
quietly  sharing  reminiscences  when  the  former  was  led  to  tell  how  it  all  came 
about.  When  Quantrell  formed  his  band  to  operate  on  the  Kansas  border. 
Gregg  was  the  eighth  man  to  join  it.  He  became  the  first  lieutenant,  the  officer 
closest  to  the  leader.  He  was  the  first  of  Quantrell's  men  into  Lawrence  and 
the  last  out  of  it,  named  by  Quantrell  to  lead  the  van  and  later  to  command 
the  rear  in  the  jetreat  back  to  Missouri. 

"There  were  just  294  in  the  force  which  Quantrell  led  to  Lawrence,"  Capt. 
Gregg  said.  "We  crossed  the  border  between  the  states  of  Missouri  and  Kansas 
near  Aubrey.  It  was  well  understood  that  the  purpose  of  the  raid  was  to  attack 
Lawrence.  But  the  first  intention  was  to  capture  Gen.  Jim  Lane.  We  had  sent 
a  spy  into  Lawrence,  a  negro  named  John  Lobb,  to  come  back  and  report  how 
he  found  things.  Lobb  did  not  get  back  before  we  had  started.  He  met  us  on 
the  way  and  told  us  that  Lane  had  left  to\vn.  That  was  a  fact,  but  Lane  had  re- 
tiu-ned  later  in  the  evening.  We.  however,  did  not  learn  this  until  afterwards. 
We  went  to  Lawrence  with  the  understanding  that  we  would  not  find  Lane,  and 
therefore,  we  did  not  look  for  him.  Lane,  we  were  told  afterwards,  was  in 
Lawrence,  but  escaped  by  going  out  to  a  pond  and  getting  under  water,  all  but 
the  tip  of  his  nose."' 

As  an  illustration  of  the  discrepancies  between  the  truth  and  the  way  the 
history  of  the  Lawrence  affair  has  been  preserved,  Capt.  Gregg  recalled  what 
happened  as  the  raiders  crossed  into  Kansas  near  Aubrey. 

"If  you  look  in  the  war  records  published  by  the  government."  he  said,  "you 
will  find  the  ofiicial  report  of  the  Federal  officer  who  was  stationed,  with  200 
soldiers,  at  Aubrey.  In  that  report  the  officer  states  that  he  heard  a  command 
had  crossed  the  line,  going  from  Missouri  into  Kansas,  somewhere  near  his  post. 
Now,  the  fact  is,  that  officer  saw  us  enter  Kansas  on  our  way  to  Lawrence.  He 
got  out  his  200  men  and  formed  them  on  the  prairie  as  if  to  give  battle.  We 
marched  by  them  in  full  view  not  over  half  a  mile  away.    Quantrell's  order  was : 

"  "Make  no  attack  unless  fired  upon.' 

"The  Federals  did  not  fire,  and  we  did  not.  We  rode  along,  leaving  them 
drawn  up   in  line  looking  at  us." 

The  surprise  of  Lawrence  was  complete.  Capt.  Gregg  told  how  the  entrance 
was  made. 

"Five  miles  to  the  southeast  of  Lawrence  is  a  little  town  called  Franklin.  When  we 
went  through  there  it  was  just  light  enough  in  the  morning  to  tell  the  difference  between 
a  soldier  and  a  citizen  on  the  streets.  We  did  not  stop.  There  was  no  fighting.  As  we 
passed  out  of  Franklin  Quantrell  said  to  me : 

"'Gregg,  take  five  men  and  go  ahead  to  see  if  there  is  anything  in  the  way. 

"I  did  so,  and  as  we  moved  in  advance  Quantrell  put  the  command  in  column  of  fours 
and  followed  on  a  gallop.     At  that  gait  we  went  all  of  the  way  to  Lawrence.     The  main 


852  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

body  followed  so  closely  that  we  five  men  were  only  250  or  300  yards  in  advance  most  of 
the  time.  We  rode  into  the  town  from  the  south  by  the  main  street,  Massachusetts.  Just 
before  we  came  to  the  business  portion  there  was  a  large  open  space  with  about  forty  large 
tents.  I  don't  know  how  many  soldiers  were  in  them.  The  five  men  with  me  halted  there 
for  the  main  body  to  come  up.  As  we  sat  on  our  horses  we  saw  soldiers  sleeping  on  the 
porches  of  the  nearest  houses,  and  opened  fire  on  them  with  our  revolvers.  As  soon  as 
Quantrell  reached  me — he  was  riding  at  the  head  of  the  column — I  pointed  to  the  forty 
tents  arranged  in  the  open  space.  Without  a  word  of  command  being  given,  and  without 
a  halt  being  made,  the  command  divided  and  charged  through  that  camp.  Men  and  horses 
were  wrought  up  to  a  pitch  of  frenzy  by  the  all-night  riding  and  by  the  final  gallop. 
The  horses  made  no  effort  to  go  between  the  tents.  They  plunged  right  through  them.  In 
three  minutes  there  wasn't  a  man  alive  or  a  tent  standing  in  the  camp.  We  could  see  the 
tents  flying  as  the  command  went  through.  I  had  fallen  in  on  the  right  of  Quantrell,  who 
had  remained  in  the  road  when  the  command  charged  the  tents.  We  started  on  without 
waiting  for  the  command  to  reform,  and  rode  down  Massachusetts  street  into  the  busi- 
ness part  of  the  town.  As  we  went  along  he  fired  to  the  left  and  I  to  the  right.  We 
didn't  stop  until  we  came  to  the  river  bank.  When  we  came  to  the  end  of  the  street 
we  were  entirely  alone." 

The  lieutenant  of  the  gtierrillas  checked  his  narration  and  mused  a  moment. 
As  if  recalling  .some  statements  that  pas.sed  for  history  of  the  massacre,  he  said: 

"The  raid  was  soon  over.  We  waged  no  war  on  women  and  children.  If 
any  women  or  children  were  ever  hurt  by  Quantrell's  men  it  was  accidental.  I 
have  always  believed  that  most  of  the  men  killed  at  Lawrence  were  soldiers.  As 
we  rode  ?way.  Quantrell  told  me  to  take  sixty  men  and  hold  the  rear.  The  news 
had  spread  rapidly.  Federal  troops  began  to  close  iu  on  us.  and  we  had  steady 
skirmishing  all  of  the  way  back  to  the  border.  Once  my  rear  guard  was  driven 
right  in  upon  the  main  body.  I  told  Quantrell  that  if  he  would  overlook  it  that 
time  it  shouldn't  happen  again,  and  it  didn't.  We  lost  just  one  man  in  Lawrence 
— Milt  Scaggs." 

Not  a  semblance  of  the  feeling  which  made  such  things  possible  was  in  the 
tones  or  the  manner  of  Capt.  Gregg  as  he  talked.  He  was  moved  to  speak  be- 
cause of  the  presence  of  men  who  had  participated  in  the  events.  One  who 
heard  him  was  Col.  R.  H.  Hunt,  who  served  with  Blunt  and  with  the  other 
L'nion  generals  in  the  fierce  campaigning  in  those  times  in  the  Southwest.  Col. 
Hunt  was  the  officer  sent  to  Lawrence  to  batter  down  the  walls  of  the  Eldridge 
House,  left  standing  in  a  dangerous  condition  after  the  burning  by  Quantrell's 
men.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost  republicans  of  Kansas  City,  and  was  con- 
spicuous in  the  convention  which  brought  Capt.  Gregg  to  Fairmount. 

"I  can  say  this  for  Capt.  Gregg,"  said  Col.  Hunt,  "that  in  so  far  as  his 
memory  serves  him  his  statements  can  be  depended  upon  absolutely.  He  is  a 
man  who  would  not  willfully  misrepresent." 

Quantrell's  Band. 

Quantrell  who  organized  these  lads  of  Western  Missouri  into  rough  riders 
of  the  Civil  war,  was  not  to  the  border  born.  Capt.  Gregg  knew  him  more  in- 
timately, perhaps,  thau  any  other  of  the  young  Missourians  who  flocked  to  him. 

"The  first  we  knew  of  Quantrell  was  when  he  came  into  Missouri  with  five  other 
Kansans  to  rob  Morgan  Walker's  house.  As  we  learned  afterward,  Quantrell  came  from 
Ohio.     He   was   raised   in   Canal   Dover.     I  have   been   told   of   recent   years   that   when   he 


MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY  853 

left  Canal  Dover  he  was  an  abolitionist,  his  people  being  so  known.  He  moved  to  Kansas, 
took  up  a  claim  and  taught  school.  He  came  out  with  the  Ohio  people  who  were  going 
to  make  Kansas  a  free  soil  state.  Something  of  Quantrell's  history  in  Kansas  I  have 
had  from  ex-Senator  Johnson  Clark,  of  Kansas,  who  afterward  moved  to  Kansas  City. 
Mr.  Clark  once  told  me  that  he  assisted  Quantrcll  to  perfect  his  land  claim.  I  think  the 
claim  was  near  Osawatomie,  where  John  Brown  lived.  Quantrell,  as  we  got  the  story  after 
he  came  among  us,  had  a  difficulty  with  some  of  his  associates  in  Kansas  and  was  shot 
and  wounded.  He  joined  the  five  Kansans  who  came  over  to  rob  Morgan  Walker,  and 
when  he  got  into  Missouri  he  gave  away  his  companions  because  of  what  he  had  suf- 
fered in  Kansas.  After  that  he  remained  here.  What  drew  attention  to  him  first  was  a 
good  piece  of  work  he  did  in  recovering  several  head  of  fine  breeding  stock.  The  animals 
had  been  run  off  from  the  owner  in  this  county.  Quantrell  followed  the  parties  who  took 
them,  located  them  in  another  Missouri  county.  The  owner  offered  him  a  handsome 
reward,  but  he  refused  to  accept  more  than  $2  a  head.  He  said  that  was  all  the  work 
was  worth,  .\fter  that  some  trouble  was  made  over  the  manner  in  which  Quantrell  had 
recovered  and  returned  the  property.  There  were  threats  that  he  was  to  be  arrested  and 
taken  to  the  place  where  he  had  found  the  stock.  When  he  heard  of  them  he  said  that 
he  would  try  to  make  things  interesting  if  it  was  proposed  to  punish  him  for  returning 
stolen  property.  He  went  into  the  brush  and  began  to  organize  a  company.  I  was  the 
eighth  man  to  join  him.  I  took  three  others  into  the  camp,  making  eleven  in  all.  Quantrell 
made  me  lieutenant.     That  was  the  beginning  of  the  organization." 

What  was  the  secret  of  Quantrell's  success  as  a  leader?  Captain  Gregg  re- 
membered him  as  a  man  of  about  5  feet  9  inches,  having  hght  blue  eyes  and  very 
hght  hair.  His  mustache  and  small  imperial,  for  that  was  the  way  he  wore  what 
hair  he  permitted  on  his  face,  were  red.  There  was  nothing  striking  about  the 
appearance  of  this  man  of  24  as  his  lieutenant  remembered.  His  aspect  had 
iiothing  of  fierceness  or  magnetism  about  it.  He  was  a  man  of  few  words.  He 
usually  restrained  the  ardor  of  his  followers,  and  never  sacrificed  a  man  need- 
lessly. He  had  no  black  flag  with  "Quantrell"  in  red  silk  in  the  center.  "We 
never  carried  a  black  flag,"  said  Captain  Gregg. 

All  through  this  Missouri  border  country-  was  an  intense  desire  for  revenge 
upon  Kansas.  Quantrell  with  a  grievance  of  his  own.  furnished  the  oppor- 
tunity to  feed  it.  Captain  Gregg  told  how  the  organization  grew  upon  this  basis. 
A  single  incident  will  illustrate : 

"On  one  occasion,"  he  said,  "the  Kan.sans  came  into  Jackson  county  and 
visited  the  houses  of  Mr.  Crawford  and  J\Ir.  Sanders.  They  took  the  two  men 
prisoners,  robbed  the  hou.ses  and  then  burned  tliem.  When  they  did  so  they 
refused  to  let  any  of  the  women  folks  put  on  so  much  as  a  bonnet,  although  it 
was  in  the  winter.  After  making  the  destruction  as  complete  as  they  could  they 
took  Mr.  Crawford  and  Mr.  Sanders  to  Blue  Springs  and  killed  them.  Not  long 
after  that  Mrs.  Crawford  came  to  Quantrell's  camp,  bringing  three  boys.  The 
youngest   was  not  more  tlian    14. 

'■  'Here  are  all  I  have  left.'  she  said  to  Quantrell.  'I  want  you  to  take  them 
rind  make  soldiers  of  them.' 

"That  was  the  way  Quantrell's  men  were  recruited.  Most  of  them  were 
scarcely  boys.     All  of  them  had  family  wrongs  to  avenge." 

The  Palmyra  Aflfair. 

Shortly  after  the  execution  at  Palmyra.  President  Davis  sent  the  following 
letter  threatening  retaliation : 


854  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"ExKcuTivE  Office,  Richmond,  November  17,  1862. 
"Lieut.  Gen.  T.  H.  Holmes, 

"Commanding   Trans-Mississippi   Department. 
"General : — Inclosed  you  will  find  a  slip   from  the  Memphis   Daily  Appeal  of  the  3d 
instant  containing  an  account,  purporting  to  be  derived  from  the  Palmyra   (Mo.)    Courier, 
a  Federal  journal,  of   the   murder  of   ten   Confederate   citizens   of   Missouri,  by  order   of 
General  McNeil,  of  the  United  States  army. 

"You  will  communicate,  by  flag  of  truce,  with  the  Federal  officer  commanding  that  de- 
partment, and  ascertain  if  the  facts  are  as  stated.  If  they  be  so,  you  will  demand  the  im- 
mediate surrender  of  General  McNeil  to  the  Confederate  authorities,  and  if  this  demand 
is  not  complied  with,  you  will  inform  said  commanding  officer  that  you  are  ordered  to 
execute  the  first  ten  United  States  officers  who  may  be  captured  and  fall  into  your  hands. 

"Very   respectfully  yours, 

"Jefferson  Davis." 

The  Newspaper  Account. 

The  article  from  the  Palmyra  Courier,  which  JMr.  Davis  enclosed,  read : 

"Saturday  last,  the  l8th  inst.,  witnessed  the  performance  of  a  tragedy  in  this  once  quiet 
and  beautiful  city  of  Palmyra  which,  in  ordinary  and  peaceful  times,  would  have  created 
a  profound  sensation  throughout  the  entire  country,  but  wliich  now  scarcely  produces  a 
distinct  ripple  upon  the  surface  of  our  turbulent  social  tide. 

"It  will  be  remembered  by  our  readers  that  C'U  tlie  occasion  of  Porter's  descent  upon 
Palmyra,  he  captured,  among  other  persons,  an  old  and  highly  respected  citizen  of  this 
city,  named  Andrew  .Mlsman.  This  person  formerly  belonged  to  the  3d  Missouri  Cavalry, 
though  too  old  to  endure  all  the  hardships  of  very  active  duty.  He  was,  therefore,  detailed 
as  a  kind  of  special  or  extra  provost  marshal's  guard  cicerone,  making  himself  generally 
useful  in  a  variety  of  ways  to  the  military  of  the  place.  Being  an  old  resident,  and  widely 
acquainted  with  the  people  of  the  place  and  vicinity,  he  was  frequently  called  upon  for 
information  touching  the  loyalty  of  men,  which  he  always  gave  to  tlie  extent  of  his  ability, 
though  acting,  we  believe,  in  all  such  cases  with  great  candor,  and  actuated  solely  by  a  con- 
scientious desire  to  discharge  his  whole  duty  to  his  government.  His  knowledge  of  the 
surrounding  country  was  the  reason  he  was  frequently  called  upon  to  act  as  a  guide  to 
scouting  parties  sent  out  to  arrest  disloyal  persons.  So  efficiently  and  successfully  did  he 
act  in  these  various  capacities,  that  he  won  the  bitter  hatred  of  all  the  rebels  in  this  city 
and  vicinity,  and  they  only  waited  the  coming  of  a  favorable  opportunity  to  gratify  their 
desire  for  revenge.     The  opportunity  came  at  last,  when  Porter  took  Palmyra. 

"That  the  villains,  with  Porter's  assent,  satiated  their  thirst  for  his  blood  by  the  delib- 
erate and  predetermined  murder  of  their  helpless  victim  no  truly  loyal  man  doubts.  Wlien 
they  killed  him,  or  how,  or  where,  are  items  of  the  act  not  yet  revealed  to  the  public. 
Whether  he  was  stabbed  at  midnight  by  the  dagger  of  the  assassin,  or  shot  at  midday  by 
rifle  of  the  gruerrilla ;  whether  he  was  hung  and  his  body  hidden  beneath  the  scanty  soil 
of  some  oak  thicket,  or  left  as  food  for  hogs  to  fatten  upon,  or  whether,  like  the  ill-fated 
Wheat,  his  throat  was  severed  from  ear  to  ear,  and  his  body  sunk  beneath  the  wave,  we 
know  not.     But  that  he  was  causelessly  murdered  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to  deny. 

"When  McNeil  returned  to  Palmyra,  after  that  event,  and  ascertained  the  circum- 
stances under  which  Allsman  had  been  abducted,  he  caused  to  be  issued,  after  due  delib- 
eration, the   following  notice: 

"  'Palmyra,  Mo.,  October  8,  1862. — John  C.  Porter :  Sir — Andrew  Allsman,  an  aged 
citizen  of  Palmyra,  and  a  non-combatant,  having  been  carried  from  his  home  by  a  band  of 
persons  unlawfully  arrayed  against  the  peace  and  good  order  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  and 
which  band  was  under  your  control,  this  is  to  notify  you  that  unless  said  Andrew  Allsman 
is  returned,  unharmed,  to  his  family  within  ten  days  from  date,  ten  men,  who  have  belonged 
to  your  band,  and  unlawfully  sworn  by  you  to  carry  arms  against  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  and  who  are  now  in  custody,  will  be  shot  as  a  meet  reward  for  their  crimes, 


MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDER.\CY  855 

among  which  is  the  illegal  restraining  of  said  AUsman  of  his  liberty  and,  if  not  returned, 
presumptively  aiding  in  his  murder. 

"  'Your  prompt  attention  to  this  will  save  much  suffering.     Yours,  etc., 

"'W.  R.  Strachan, 

"  'Provost  Marshal  General,  District  of  Northeastern  Missouri. 

"'Per  order  of  Brigadier  General  commanding  McNeil's  column.' 

"A  written  duplicate  of  this  notice  he  caused  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  wife  of 
Joseph  C.  Porter,  at  her  residence  in  Lewis  county,  who  it  was  well  known  was  in  fre- 
quent communication  with  her  husband.  The  notice  was  published  widely,  and  as  Porter 
was  in  Northern  Missouri  during  the  whole  of  the  ten  days  subsequent  to  the  date  of 
this  notice,  it  is  impossible  that,  with  all  his  varied  channels  of  inforruation,  he  remained 
unapprised  of  General  McNeil's  determination  in  the  premises. 

"Many  rebels  believed  the  whole  thing  was  simply  intended  as  a  scare,  declaring  that 
McNeil  did  not  dare  (?)  to  carry  out  the  threat.  The  ten  days  elapsed,  and  no  tidings  came 
of  the  murdered  AUsman.  It  is  not  our  intention  to  dwell  at  length  upon  the  details  of 
this  transaction.  The  tenth  day  expired  with  last  Friday.  On  that  day  ten  rebel  prison- 
ers, already  in  custody,  were  selected  to  pay  with  their  lives  the  penalty  demanded.  The 
names  of  the  men  so  selected  were  as  follows :  Willis  Baker,  Lewis  county ;  Thomas 
Humston,  Lewis  county;  Morgan  Bi.xler,  Lewis  county;  Herbert  Hudson,  Ralls  county; 
Marion  Lair,  Ralls  county;  Capt.  Thomas  A.  Sidner,  Monroe  county;  Eleazer  Lake,  Scot- 
land county,  and  Hiram  Smith,  Kno.x  county.  These  parties  were  informed  on  Friday 
evening  that  unless  Mr.  AUsman  was  returned  to  his  family  by  l  o'clock  on  the  following 
day  they  would  be  shot  at  that  hour. 

"Most  of  them  received  the  announcement  with  composure  or  indifference.  The 
Rev.  James  S.  Green,  of  this  city,  remained  with  them  during  that  night,  as  their  spiritual 
adviser,  endeavoring  to  prepare  them  for  their  sudden  entrance  into  the  presence  of  their 
Maker.  A  little  after  ii  a.  m.  the  next  day  three  government  wagons  drove  to  the  jail. 
One  contained  four  and  each  of  the  others  three  rough  board  coffins.  The  condemned 
men  were  conducted  from  the  prison  and  seated  on  the  wagons,  one  upon  each  coffin.  A 
sufficient  guard  of  soldiers  accompanied  them,  and  the  cavalcade  started  for  the  fatal 
grounds.  Proceeding  east  to  Main  street,  the  cortege  turned  and  moved  slowly  southward 
as  far  as  Malone's  livery  stable ;  thence  turning  east,  it  entered  the  Hannibal  road,  pursu- 
ing it  nearly  to  the  residence  of  Col.  James  Culbertson  ;  there,  throwing  down  the  fences, 
they  turned  northward,  entering  the  fair  grounds,  on  the  west  side,  and  driving  within  the 
circular  amphitheatrical   ring,  paused   for  the  final  consummation  of   the  scene. 

"The  ten  coffins  were  removed  from  the  wagons  and  placed  in  a  row  six  or  eight  feet 
apart,  forming  a  line  north  and  south,  about  fifteen  paces  east  of  the  central  pagoda  or  music 
stand  in  the  center  of  the  ring.  Each  coffin  was  placed  upon  the  ground,  with  its  foot 
west  and  head  east.  Thirty  soldiers  of  the  2d  Missouri  State  Militia  were  drawn  up  in  a 
single  line,  extending  north  and  south,  facing  the  row  of  coffins.  This  line  of  executioners 
ran  immediately  at  the  east  base  of  the  pagoda,  leaving  a  space  between  them  and  the 
coffins  of  twelve  or  thirteen  paces.  Reserves  were  drawn  up  in  line  upon  either  flank  of 
these  executioners. 

"The  arrangements  completed,  the  doomed  men  knelt  upon  the  grass  between  their 
coffins  and  the  soldiers,  while  the  Rev.  R.  M.  Rhodes  offered  up  a  prayer.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  this,  each  prisoner  took  his  seat  upon  the  foot  of  his  coffin,  facing  the  muskets 
which  in  a  few  moments  were  to  launch  them  into  eternity.  They  were  nearly  all  firm  and 
undaunted,  two  or  three  only  showing  signs  of  trepidation. 

"The  most  noted  of  the  ten  was  Capt.  Thomas  A.  Sidner.  of  Monroe  county,  whose 
capture  at  Shelbyville.  in  the  disguise  of  a  woman,  we  related  several  weeks  since.  He 
was  now  elegantly  attired  in  a  suit  of  black  broadcloth,  with  a  white  vest.  A  luxurious 
growth  of  beautiful  hair  rolled  down  upon  his  shoulders,  which,  with  his  fine  personal 
appearance,  could  not  but  bring  to  mind  the  handsome  but  vicious  Absalom.  There  was 
nothing  especially  worthy  of  note  in  the  appearance  of  the  others.     One  of   them,  Willis 


856  CF.XTI'.XXIAI.  [1IST(1RV  OI'  MTSSOURI 

Baker,  of  Lewis  county,  was  proven  to  be  the  man  who  last  year  shot  and  killed  Mr.  Ezckiel 
Pratt,  his  Union  neighbor,  near  Williamstown,  in  that  county.  All  of  the  others  were 
rebels  of  lesser  note,  the  particulars  of  whose  crimes  we  are  not  familiar  with. 

"A  few  minutes  after  i  o'clock,  Colonel  Strachan,  provost  marshal  general,  and  Rev- 
erend Rhodes  shook  hands  with  the  prisoners,  two  of  them  accepting  bandages  for  their 
eyes.  All  the  rest  refused.  A  hundred  spectators  had  gathered  about  the  amphitheater  to 
witness  the  impressive  scene.  The  stillness  of  death  pervaded  the  place.  The  ofTicer  in 
command  now  stepped  forward,  and  gave  the  words  of  command:  'Ready — aim— fire.' 
The  discharges,  however,  were  not  made  simultaneously,  probably  througli  want  of  a  pre- 
vious understanding  of  the  orders  and  of  the  time  at  which  to  fire. 

"Two  of  the  rebels  fell  backward  upon  their  coffins  and  died  instantly.  Captain  Sid- 
ner  sprang  forward,  and  fell  with  his  head  toward  the  soldiers,  his  face  upward,  his  hands 
clasped  upon  his  breast  and  the  left  leg  drawn  halfway  up.  He  did  not  move  again,  but 
died  immediately.  He  had  requested  the  soldiers  to  aim  at  his  heart,  and  they  obeyed  but 
too  implicitly.  The  other  soldiers  were  not  killed  outright,  so  the  reserves  were  called  in, 
who  dispatched  them   vvitli  their  revolvers. 

"It  seems  hard  that  ten  men  should  die  for  one.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  it 
would  hardly  be  justified,  but  severe  diseases  demand  severe  remedies.  The  safety  of  the 
people  is  the  supreme  law.  It  overrides  all  other  considerations.  The  madness  of  rebellion 
has  become  so  deep-seated  that  ordinary  methods  of  cure  are  inadequate.  To  take  life  for 
life  would  be  little  intimidation  to  men  seeking  the  heart's  blood  of  an  obno.xious  enemy. 
They  could  well  aflford  to  make  even  exchanges  under  many  circumstances  It  is  only  by 
striking  the  deepest  terror  in  them,  causing  them  to  thoroughly  respect  the  lives  of  loj-al 
men,  that  they  can  be  taught  to  observe  the  obligation  of  humanity  and  of  law." 

Gen.  Curtis'  Reply. 

Generr.l  Curtis  wrote  two  letters  in  re])ly  to  Cieneral  Holmes'  request,  for 
information.  One  was  a  letter  of  considerable  length,  and  was  dated  December 
24th.  'Ihis  was  never  sent.  Three  days  later  (ieneral  Curtis  wrote  a  second 
and  a  shorter  letter,  and  sent  it.  General  Holmes  never  replied.  Indeed,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  he  could  have  replied.  General  Curtis'  short  letter  left  no 
loom   for  controversy.     It  was  as  follows: 

"Headquarters  Department  of  the  Missouri,  St.  Louis,  December  27,  1862. — Maj.  Gen. 
T.  H.  Holmes,  Commanding  Trans-Mississippi  Department,  C.  S.  Army:  General — Yours 
of  the  7th  inst.,  containing  a  slip  from  the  Memphis  Daily  Appeal,  of  the  3d  of  November, 
concerning  what  you  denominate  'an  account  of  the  murder  of  ten  Confederate  citizens  of 
Missouri,  by  order  of  General  McNeil,  of  the  United  States  .'Krmy,'  and  asking  full  in- 
formation in  regard  to  the  'circumstances  related,'  is  duly  received. 

"The  matters  of  correspondence  between  us  must  be  confined  to  the  operations  of 
belligerents  and  the  exchange  of  prisoners. 

"The  idea  of  'Confederate  citizens  of  Missouri'  in  Missouri,  is  inconsistent  with  a  state 
of  war  between  opposing  sections,  and  utterly  repugnant  to  the  attitude  heretofore  allowed 
you  as  a  belligerent,  which  I  have  cordially  approved  for  the  sake  of  preserving  the  im- 
munities recognized  by  civilized  warfare.  You  have  no  military  power  in  Missouri,  and 
have  had  none  in  Northern  Missouri  for  a  year  past,  much  less  a  civil  organization  which 
would  induce  any  man  to  call  himself  a  'Confederate  citizen.'  There  is  but  one  class  of 
'citizens  of  Missouri ;'  they  are  Federal  citizens,  not  Confederate.  They  universally  ac- 
knowledge allegiance  to  Federal  and  state  authority.  The  rights  of  such  citizens  cannot 
be  adjudicated  by  appeal  through  the  military  authorities  of  the  so-called  Confedertae 
states. 

"I  have  no  disposition  to  overlook  tlie  conduct  of  any  officer  in  my  command  or  shift 
any  responsibility  which  may  attach  to  me;  but  while  the  State  of  Missouri  can  guard  her 
own  citizens,  through   the   regularly  constituted   autliorities,   I  cannot,   even   by  implication. 


MISSOURI  AXl)  TMF.  CONFEDERACY  857 

justify  any   interference  by  you   with   wliat,  by  your  own   showing,   relates   to   her   'citizens 
in  Missouri.' 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  General,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"Samvei.  R.  Curtis.  Major  General." 


The  Narrow  Escape  of  General  Cockrell. 

A  \(T_v  narrow  escape  uf  i  iencral  Idckrcll  occurred  when  Fort  lilakely  was 
taken  on  almost  the  la.st  day  of  the  war.  Capt.  I'.  H.  Petitzer,  of  the  97th 
Illinois  \'oltinteers.  told  of  llie  incident: 

"By  the  chance  of  battle,  after  a  most  bloody  and  obstinate  contest  at  the  rebel 
works,  I  came  upon  General  Cockrell,  who  surrendered  to  me  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  hand- 
ing me  his  headquarter  colors  himself.  Here  I  may  state  that  I  saved  his  life  by  snatch- 
ing a  musket  from  Private  Nathaniel  Bull,  of  my  own  company,  just  as  he  was  in  the  act 
of  shooting  the  general.  I  had  command  of  the  skirmish  line  on  forlorn  hope  on  the 
extreme  right  of  the  line  of  white  troops  and  joined  the  left  of  General  Hawkins'  line 
of  colored  troops.  We  met  a  terrific  fire;  ran  over  torpedoes,  one  of  which  took  off  a 
leg  for  Ca|)tain  Wisner,  of  my  regiment.  We  had  a  hand-to-hand  fight  on  the  rebel  works 
where  my  color-bearer  and  a  number  of  my  line  were  killed,  and  when  I  came  upon  Gen- 
eral Cockrell  the  men  were  very  much  exasperated  and  ready  to  kill  on  sight  the  com- 
mander of  these  troops  and  the  author  of  the  torpedo  business. 

"By  direction  of  General  Steele,  I  kept  General  Cockrell  some  two  or  tliree  days,  and 
when  ordered  away  I  sent  him  in  charge  of  Corporal  George  Bull,  of  my  company,  to 
the  headquarters  of  Gen.  E.  R.  S.  Canby." 


John  B.  Clark  on  Reynolds'  Charges. 

In  (jei-.eral  Cockrell's  po.ssession  was  a  letter  from  Gen.  John  B.  Clark,  then 
in  the  Confederate  Congress.  This  letter  is  of  extraordinary  interest  when  read 
in  connection  with  the  Reynolds  Memoir : 

"HousK  OF  Reprkskntatives,  February  13,  iS6.i. — Gen.  F.  Cockrell :  Mv  Dear  Sir — I 
understand  that  you  are  at  Columbus,  Miss.,  and  that  you  are  fast  recovering  from  your 
wounds  received  in  Tennessee.  I  am,  in  common  with  your  numerous  friends,  greatly 
rejoiced  at  the  intelligence.  Our  first  information  was  that  you  were  killed,  and  the  next 
we  heard  that  you  we'c  mortally  wounded.  From  the  list  of  casualties  published  of 
the  battle  of  Franklin,  the  Missouri  brigade  suffered  most  severely.  It  appears  that  in  all 
the  hard-fought  battles  during  the  campaign  under  Hood  your  command  has  suffered  more 
than  any  other  of  the  same  size.  While  such  a  result  speaks  well  for  the  boldness  and 
daring  of  the  Missourians,  it  nevertheless  shows  that  the  daring  and  hard  work  is  placed 
upon  them.  I  suppose  it  is  because  they  are  regarded  most  reliable.  If  so,  it  is  a  high 
compliment,  but  a  very  costly  one. 

"I  would  like  to  know  how  Colonel  Gates  is  doing.  T  understand  that  he  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  badly,  if  not  mortally,  wounded. 

"Who  are  the  field  officers  now  left  in  your  brigade,  and  how  many  rank  and  file  are 
now  in  the  brigade  fit  for  duty  in  the  field?  I  would  like  to  know,  and  also  where  they 
are  located. 

"It  is  thought  that  Congress  will  adjourn  about  the  first  of  next  month.  I  wish  to  visit 
the  brigade  soon  after  the  adjournment,  if  my  health  will  permit. 

"Since  our  peace  commissioners  failed  to  open  negotiations  with  Mr.  Lincoln  for  peace 
upon  any  honorable  tertns.  our  people  everywhere  seem  more  resolute  and  determined  to 
resist  to  the  bitter  end.  if  need  be.  until  our  independence  is  acknowledged.  All  sections 
of  the  Confederacy  seem  to  think  now,  as  I  always  thought,  that  the  surest  and  quickest 


858  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

way  to  obtain  peace  was  to  beat  back  the  enemy,  or  at  least  show  a  resolute  will  and  united 
effort  to  resent  his  advance.  This  we  are  certain  to  do  ere  long,  if  we  remain  united  and 
true  to  ourselves.  We  have  had  heavy  reverses,  it  is  true,  but  we  have  also  had  some 
brilliant  successes,  and  are  destined  to  have  more  if  we  will  but  act  with  spirit  and  '" 
harmony  of  purpose.  Just  at  this  time  we  are  in  gloom  here  in  consequence  of  Sher- 
man's repeated  successes  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  but  we  still  hope  that  his  end 
is  near. 

"There  is  no  material  change  in  the  armies  of  Lee  and  Grant  for  the  last  several  weeks. 
You  have  doubtless  seen  that  Lee  has  been  appointed  general-in-chief  of  all  the  Confed- 
erate armies  in  the  field  and  that  General  Breckenridge  is  now  Secretary  of  War. 

"What  is  going  on  west  of  the  river?  I  perceive  that  Reynolds  has  published  a  long 
and  very  abusive  piece  against  General  Price,  charging  the  general  with  general  incom- 
petency, drunkenness  and  neglect  of  his  army,  etc.  He  even  charges  him  with  being  timid 
and  over-cautious,  which  I  believe  in  military  parlance  means  cowardice.  I  would  like  to 
know  how  this  matter  is,  whether  the  general  after  a  long  life  of  sobriety  has  turned 
drunkard,  and  whether  he  has  turned  cozvard  at  this  late  day. 

"I  would  like  for  you  to  write  me  frequently  and  fully.  No  part  of  my  constituency 
feels  nearer  to  me  than  your  command,  and  their  martial  deeds  and  heroic  achievements 
place  them,  not  only  in  my  mind,  but  in  that  of  all  who  know  them,  in  the  highest  niche  of 
fame.     I  love  to  honor  them  and  feel  proud  to  be  honored  by  them. 

"Please  give  my  regards  to  friends  aiid  accept  yourself  my  highest  regards. 

(Signed)"       "John  B.  Ci.ark." 

A  Speech  by  Cockrell  in  Wax  Time. 

.\nother  of  the  possessions  of  General  Cockrell  was  the  manuscript  of  an 
address  by  him  in  accepting  the  gift  of  a  flag  to  the  Missourians : 

"With  no  ordinary  feelings  in  behalf  of  the  Missouri  brigade,  of  which  I  am  the  unwor- 
thy commander,  I  accept  from  the  hands  of  the  fair  donor,  through  you,  Lieutenant  Brevard, 
this  most  beautiful  and  tastefully  wrought  flag,  the  emblem  of  our  young  and  loved  Confed- 
eracy's sovereignty,  in  peace,  in  glory,  in  war.  And  through  you  we  return  to  her  the 
grateful  tribute  of  our  hearts — the  soldier's  noblest  offering — with  the  assurance  vouched 
for  by  the  conduct  of  this  brigade  in  the  past  upon  so  many  ensanguined  fields  and  by  the 
sacred  remembrance  of  our  many  fallen  comrades  in  arms — our  precious  slain — that  in  the 
face  of  the  foe  it  shall  be  borne  to  victory  or  crimsoned  with  the  gushing,  richest  treasures 
of  our  pierced  hearts.  Assure  her  that  it  affords  us  peculiar  pleasure  and  satisfaction,  sit- 
uated as  we  have  been  for  the  past  two  years,  and  now  are — battling  on  the  soil  of  sister 
Confederate  states  for  one  common  cause  and  country,  and  far  distant  from  the  sacred 
scenes  and  endearing  associations  of  our  loved  Missouri — our  own  home — and  deprived  of 
all  communication  with  and  reception  of  material  aid  and  expressions  of  kindly  sympathy 
and  love  from  fathers,  mothers,  sisters,  wives  and  loved  ones,  who  have  been  and  now  are 
harassed  and  tortured  in  mind  and  body  in  a  manner  unprecedented  in  the  annals  of  civilized 
warfare  by  the  fanatical  northmen,  the  real  Goths  and  Vandals  of  America — clad  in  the 
livery  of  the  United  States  soldiery — to  accept  this  color,  made  and  presented  by  her,  now 
in  many  respects  similarly  situated.  As  long  as  time  itself  shall  breathe  on  earth  and  bear 
witness  of  the  actors  in  this  revolution  to  future  generations,  even  so  long  will  the  sublime 
patriotism  of  the  daughters  of  the  South,  their  fidelity  and  constancy  to  and  sacrifices  for 
our  common  cause  and  country,  their  smiles  and  tears,  their  sympathy  and  love  for  the 
care  and  war-worn  veterans  of  our  armies,  be  impressed  in  gilded  letters  on  the  bosom  of 
time,  and  known,  admired,  honored  and  sung  by  all  who  may  live. 

"Was  anything  aside  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  a  consciousness  in  our  bosoms  of  the 
sacredness  and  justness  of  our  cause  and  its  approbation  by  our  Father  in  Heaven,  neces- 
sary to  nerve  our  hearts  and  strengthen  our  arms  and  to  lead  us  to  endure  with  cheerful- 
ness  greater  and  more   numerous   sacrifices,  hardships   and   deprivations,  and   to  court   the 


MISSOURI  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY  859 

passage  at  arms,  and  then  and  there  to  move  into  activity  within  us  that  peculiar,  indescrib- 
able feeling — the  battle-field's  inspiration — which  lulls  to  sleep  the  sense  of  fear,  surely  the 
noble,  praiseworthy  actions  and  patriotic,  heaven-inspired  bearing  of  the  ladies  amid  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  this  protracted  war  and  amid  our  victories  and  our  reverses,  at  all  times 
and  places  and  under  all  circumstances,  would  be  more  than  sufficient." 


A  Talk  with  John  B.  Clark, 

What  the  war  meant  to  Gen.  John  1!.  Clark,  he  told  in  a  conversation  with 
the  writer  at  Fayette  twenty  years  after  the  close : 

"When  tlie  question  of  secession  was  up,  I  came  back  here  from  Washington  and  the 
court  house  yard  wouldn't  hold  the  people  who  came  to  hear  the  issue  discussed.  We 
took  a  vote  for  or  against  the  Union.  I  declared  myself  in  favor  of  standing  by  the  Union. 
I  opened  the  gates,  the  people  took  sides.  There  were  ten  thousand  of  them  assembled  and 
I  carried  the  vote  for  the  Union  by  several  hundred  majority.  The  very  day  I  did  that, 
up  here  in  Howard  county,  the  massacre  at  St.  Louis, — the  Camp  Jackson  affair, — occurred. 
I  went  to  my  home  in  the  country  that  night  and  found  a  commission  as  brigadier-general 
from  Governor  Jackson  awaiting  me.  I  sat  down  and  wrote  my  affidavit  on  the  commission 
accepting  it.  My  wife  had  left  home  on  a  visit.  I  wrote  her  a  note  saying  the  war  had 
come  at  last  and  I  must  go.  While  insisting  that  the  best  course  was  to  stand  by  the 
Union,  I  had,  nevertheless,  always  said  that  when  war  did  come  I  would  go  with  the  South. 
After  writing  that  letter  to  my  wife,  I  got  on  my  horse,  and  with  only  a  negro  boy  I  rode 
away  that  night  for  Boonville.  It  was  five  years  from  that  time  before  I  saw  my  wife 
again.  That  spring  I  had  paid  ta.xes  on  property  in  Howard  county  assessed  at  $365,000. 
I  was  worth  a  million.  On  my  place  there  were  160  slaves,  seventy  of  them  men.  My  law- 
practice  was  worth  $10,000  to  $15,000  a  year.  When  I  came  back  after  the  war  was  over, 
I  hadn't  a  bed  to  sleep  on.  My  wife  had  been  forced  to  find  a  temporary  home  with 
friends." 

There  wasn't  a  tremor  in  the  old  general's  voice.  No  appeal  for  sympathy 
was  impressed  by  his  manner.  Not  a  word  of  regret  was  added.  The  simple 
summary  of  what  the  war  had  cost  him  was  given  in  the  most  concise  form  and 
with  unimpassioned  tone.  He  ceased  speaking  a  few  inoments  and  then  took 
up  the  narrative  again : 

"I  went  into  the  rebellion  and  was  badly  wounded  at  Springfield.  They  sent  me  to  the 
Confederate  Senate  in  Richmond,  and  there  I  remained  until  the  surrender.  When  the 
war  came  to  an  end,  the  United  States  Government  offered  a  reward  of  $10,000  for  my 
capture.  I  never  knew  why  they  had  picked  me  out  unless  it  was  because  I  had  been 
thoroughly  in  earnest  in  my  course.  There  were  four  of  us  on  whom  this  price  was  put — 
Hunter  of  Virginia,  Watson  of  Georgia,  Oldham  of  Texas  and  myself.  Hunter  and 
Watson  surrendered ;  Oldham  and  I  determined  to  escape  if  it  was  possible.  I  had  my 
whiskers  cut  off,  dyed  my  hair  red  and  took  my  mother's  name,  that  for  which  the  middle 
letter  of  my  name  stands — Bullock.  With  some  papers  prepared,  letters  and  documents 
forged  to  show  that  I  was  known  by  that  name.  I  started  out  and  made  my  way  success- 
fully through  the  Federal  lines  about  Richmond.  My  intention  was  to  get  to  Cuba,  but  I 
failed  in  that,  and  went  to  Mexico,  where  I  remained  until  the  Federal  authorities  rescinded 
the  offer  of  reward  for  me.  Thinking  there  was  no  further  danger,  I  came  across  into 
Texas.  Andrew  Johnson  was  a  personal  friend  of  mine.  I  was  arrested  by  United  States 
soldiers  under  the  old  order,  and  heard  that  the  government  actually  paid  the  reward. 
The  arrest  was  made  at  the  instance  of  Stanton,  who  was  bitterly  hostile  to  me.  They  took 
me  to  Galveston  and  then  to  New  Orleans.  Sheridan  was  in  command  and  telegraphed  to 
Stanton  to  know  what  should  be  done.    The  answer  came  back  to  send  me  to  Fort  Jackson, 


860  CEXTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  Sheridan  said  it  was  an  outrage,  but  he  could  do  nothing  but 
obey  orders.  At  the  fort  I  found  myself  guarded  by  negro  soldiers,  among  them  some 
who  had  been  my  slaves.  After  a  good  deal  of  trouble  I  persuaded  a  surgeon  to  smuggle 
out  a  letter  for  me  addressed  to  Andrew  Johnson.  That  gave  the  President  the  first 
knowledge  he  had  of  my  imprisonment.  He  telegraphed  Sheridan  to  have  me  placed  on  a 
vessel  and  sent  north.  When  I  got  to  Washington  I  wanted  Johnson  to  remove  Stanton, 
but  he  said  he  daren't  do  it;  they  would  assassinate  him  if  he  did.  I  told  him  if  I  was 
President  I'd  do  what  I  wanted  to,  and  if  they  assassinated  me  I  couldn't  help  it.  He 
thought  it  was  better  to  be  prudent  and  save  h!s  life.  He  gave  me  a  full  pardon,  and  after 
more  than   five  years'  absence   I  got  back  to   Missouri." 

A  Family  Division. 

r.ithetic  was  the  (livi.sion  in  the  family  ut  Maj.  Gcii.  Philip  St.  George 
Cooke.  I'Or  a  con.siderable  period  of  his  army  career  General  Cooke  hved  in 
Missouri.  He  was  stationed  at  Jefferson  Barracks  and  left  an  entertaining  pen 
picture  of  life  there  in  tlie  early  days.  When  the  Civil  war  came  General  Cooke, 
although  a  \'irginian  by  birth,  was  loyal  and  became  one  of  the  most  conspicu- 
ous cavalry  generals.  His  son,. John  D.  Cooke,  born  in  Missouri,  joined  the 
Confederate  army  and  was  made  a  general.  Another  son,  T.  Esten  Cooke,  went 
witli  liis  brother.  .\  daughter  of  ( ienenil  Cooke,  was  the  wife  of  General  Jeb 
Stuart,  the  Confederate  cavalr\-  leader.  In  1862,  while  McClellan  was  con- 
ducting the  Peninsula  cam])aign.  Gen.  Philip  St.  George  Cooke  commanded 
the  Federal  cavalry.  At  the  same  time  General  Stuart  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Confederate  cavalry.  In  one  of  the  cavalry  charges  General  Cooke  narrowly 
escaped  capture  by  his  son-in-law,  much  to  the  amusement  of  the  latter.  From 
his  two  sons  and  a  daughter  on  the  Confederate  side.  Major  General  Cooke 
became  estranged.     Reconciliation  did  not  take  place  until  long  after  the   war. 

The  Confederate  Policy  Toward  Missouri. 

Before  the  Southern  Historical  Society  in  1886,  Gen.  D.  M.  Frost  read  a 
paper  regarding  the  relations  between  the  Confederacy  and  Missouri  in  1861. 
He  told  of  his  call  upon  Confederate  generals  just  at  the  time  of  Sterling  Price's 
great  success — the  battle  of  Lexington.  His  purpose  was  to  present  the  oppor- 
tunity  for  the   Confederates  to   send   an   army  to   Missouri. 

"These  arguments  seemed  to  produce  a  decided  effect  upon  both  General  Johnston  and 
General  Polk;  and  after  a  little  consideration  the  former  remarked  that  the  State  of 
Missouri  had  not  seceded,  and  therefore  was  not  entitled  to  the  aid  of  Confederate  troops. 
To  this  it  was  replied  that  Missouri  and  the  Confederate  troops  were  fighting  a  common 
enemy,  and  that  the  success  of  one  was  necessarily  equally  beneficial  to  the  other;  that 
the  longer  the  fighting  could  be  kept  on  the  soil  of  Missouri  the  better  for  the  Confederacy. 
This  statement  of  the  case  seemed  to  be  unanswerable,  and  then  it  was  that  General  John- 
ston said  that  although  he  had  full  powers  to  order  as  he  chose,  yet  he  felt  himself  bound 
to  respect  the  policy  of  the  government,  and  that  it  did  not  accord  with  that  policy  to  so 
complicate  itself  with  Missouri,  as  to  make  it  a  sine  qua  iwn  that  she  should  insist  upon  an 
impossible  boundary  line  when  the  time  should  come  for  her  to  make  peace.  This  state- 
ment was  made  with  the  understanding  that  for  obvious  reasons  it  should  not  be  repeated 
and  then  I  gave  up  all  hope  of  seeing  Confederate  troops  ordered  into  Missouri,  at  least  until 
she  had  gone  through  some  form  of  secession — and  acknowledged  the  propriety  of  General 
Johnston's   course,   whilst   regretting   its   necessity." 


MISSOURI  AXl)  THR  CONFEDERACY  861 

To  Return  I.  liolcoinbe,  then  living  in  Chillicothe,  Jefferson  Davis  wrote 
from  lieauvoir,  a  letter  respecting  his  relations  with  the  Missourians  in  1861. 
His  attention  had  been  called  to  the  paper  of  General  Frost. 

"Accustomed  to  much  misrepresentation  and  misapprehension,  I  was  not  prepared  for 
the  existence  of  a  report  that  I  was  opposed  to  receiving  Missouri  into  the  Confederacy. 
The  story  would  be  absurd;  even  if  there  was  no  evidence  to  disprove  it;  but  my  efforts 
to  aid  Missouri  before  she  had  entered  the  Confederacy  and  before  her  troops  would  agree 
to  be  mustered  into  the  Confederate  service  were  so  well  known  that  I  could  not  suppose 
anyone  would  at  this  day  assert  that  I  had  anything  else  than  the  most  friendly  feeling  for 
the  people  of  the  state. 

"While  I  desired  both  Missouri  and  Kentucky,  to  whom  we  had  every  bond  of  affinity, 
to  join  us  in  the  organization  of  a  separate  government,  I  deemed  that  a  matter  entirely 
for  their  own  decision  and  took  no  measures  to  influence  their  action.  I  then  believed,  and 
still  believe,  that  if  the  people  of  those  states  had  been  left  to  the  free  exercise  of  their 
sovereign  will,  they  would,  with  great  unanimity  have  placed  Missouri  and  Kentucky  by  the 
side  of  their  sisters  of  the  South,  and  in  that  belief  I  did  ardently  desire  the  cooperation 
of  both. 

"When  all  my  acts  and  utterances  are  on  one  side,  it  is  hard  to  comprehend  the  cir- 
culation of  a  storf  so  utterly  opposed  to  what  I  did,  said  and  thought. 

"Very  respectfully  yours, 

"Jekff.rson   Davis." 

Bapid  Reconciliation. 

Major  William  Warner,  afterwards  re|)rfsentative  in  Congress  and  United 
States  senator,  performed  his  part  in  the  policy  of  reconstrttction  and  recon- 
ciliation immediately  following  the  war.  This  tribute  was  paid  him  by  an  ex- 
Confederate  : 

"When  we  straggled  home  some  time  after  tlie  war  closed  and  began  to  settle  down 
there  was  a  very  bitter  feeling  in  Western  Missouri.  Tutt  was  on  the  bench  in  that  circuit. 
Warner  was  prosecuting  attorney.  The  grand  jury  brought  in  a  lot  of  indictments  against 
ex-Confederates.  They  revived  charges  of  horse  stealing  and  other  offenses  based  on  what 
had  taken  place  during  the  war.  I  think  there  were  at  least  150  of  these  indictments,  and 
I  am  not  sure  but  one  of  them  was  against  Jo  Shelby  himself.  I  was  not  indicted,  but  some 
of  the  boys  in  my  command  were.  John  Ryland,  Henry  Wallace  and  several  of  the  old 
lawyers  volunteered  to  defend  the  cases.  It  was  agreed  that  all  of  them  should  be  tried 
at  once.  When  the  day  came  Major  Warner  got  up  in  court  and  said  the  war  was  over 
and  these  men  had  come  home  to  settle  down  in  good  faith.  He  did  not  believe  in  raking 
up  th6  old  troubles.  He  considered  the  surrender  as  wiping  out  the  offenses  that  had 
preceded  it.  and,  therefore,  he  moved  that  the  cases  be  dismissed.  .-Knd  that  was  the  end 
of  them.     It  was  the  only  sensible  thing  to  do." 

United  States  Marshal  Shelby. 

Some  of  the  iCastern  newspapers  had  a  good  deal  to  say  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  General  Shelby  for  United  States  marshal  in  Missouri.  They  seemed 
to  think  that  he  belonged  to  those  whose  course  in  the  war  was  unpardonable. 
One  republican  senator  was  quoted  as  saying : 

'"Nearly  thirty  years  have  elapsed  since  the  termination  of  the  war.  All 
that  one  can  ask — even  the  most  loyal  Unionist — is  that  the  governiuent  shall 
not  be  confided  to  men  who,  during  that  awful  tiiue,  represented  not  fair  battle, 
but  rajjiue,  cruelty  and  chaos.  \\'e,  or  most  of  us,  believe  that  Jo  Shelby  be- 
longed to  the  latter  class.     Still,  we  can  do  nothing  to  prevent  the  consummation 


862  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  the  outrage  involved  in  making  such  a  man  the  representative  of  law  and 
order.    All  we  can  do  is  to  enter  our  solemn  protest." 

This  was  only  interesting  as  going  to  show  how  little  the  rest  of  the  country 
even  yet  appreciated  the  fierceness  and  savagery  of  the  warfare  of  the  border, 
and  particularly  that  which  was  waged  within  the  limits  of  Missouri.  Perhaps 
there  never  was  a  country  so  divided  against  itself  and  so  continuously  drenched 
in  blood  as  was  the  State  of  Missouri.  Certainly  no  other  state  came  out  with 
such  scars.  \'irginia  was  fought  over,  but  the  Virginians  were  on  one  side. 
To  the  other  horrors  the  Old  Dominion  did  not  have  to  add  fratricidal  strife 
and  neighborhood  contention. 

As  far  as  General  Shelby  was  personally  concerned  sufficient  answer  to 
what  was  printed  about  him  was  found  in  the  fact  that  ex-Commander-in-Chief 
William  Warner,  of  the  Grand  Army,  wrote  a  letter  indorsing  him  for  this 
appointment,  and  then  tendered  hearty  congratulations  on  success,  while  ex- 
Gov.  Thomas  C.  Fletcher,  the  war  governor  of  Missouri,  went  in  person  to 
the  attorney  general  to  say  that  no  mistake  would  be  made  in  the  selection 
of  General  Shelby.  Union  veterans  vied  with  ex-Confederate?  in  their  mani- 
festation of  good  will  to  Shelby. 


CHAPTER   X.WII 
MIGHTV  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI 

Strategy  in  Elk  Stampedes — Turkey  Slaughter  in  the  Osarks— "Shining  Their  Eyes" — Game 
Tallies  Along  the  Iowa  Border — Wild  Turkey  Sausage — Bear  Homes  in  the  Grass — 
Abner  Smith's  Sled  Load  from  One  Shot — A  Missouri  Esau — Millions  of  Pigeons — A 
Suit  of  Panther  Skins — Squirrels  by  the  Bushel — Coonee  and  "Old  Betsy" — Sam  Cole's 
Recollections — The  Bandana  Ruse — When  Fish  Clogged  the  Mill — David  Bowles'  Win- 
ter Record — Three  Deer  at  One  Fire — Dr.  Graham's  Nerve — Boys  Chased  by  Angry 
Deer — Major  Daniel  Ashby — A  Record  of  Official  Integrity — Stories  of  Three  Expedi- 
tions— When  Game  Abounded  along  Grand  River — Bee  Trails  at  "The  Forks" — The 
Annual  Harvests  of  Sweetness — Honey  by  Wagon  Loads — Law  of  Bee  Tree  Titles — 
How  Morrow  Saved  a  Swarm — Madame  Chouteau  and  the  First  Hive — "Yellow  Boys" 
in  Pioneer  Commerce — The  Tallow  Fork  of  Beeswax — Barter  at  Glasgow,  Richmond 
and  Brunswick — Poor  Tom's  Creek — An  Expert  on  Honey  Hunting — Amos  Burdine, 
the  Missouri  Muncliausen — Eccentric  Customs  and  Amacing  Stories— "Jimps"  Dysart's 
Temptation — Norman  J.  Caiman  and  Charles  G.  Gcmter. 

I  am  now  eighty-five  years  of  age,  but  if  I  knew  there  was  another  country  in  the  wide  world  lik« 
Missouri  was  when  I  came  here.  I  would  go  there  to  spend  the  balance  of  my  days,  even  if  I  knew 
1    only   would   live   six   months. — From    the  Journal   of   Major   Daniel   Ashby,    Mighty    Hunter   of   Missouri. 

Upon  the  Missouri  prairies  large  herds  of  elk  pastured  but  in  the  hunting 
of  them,  the  first  settlers  made  use  of  strategy-  in  which  the  forests  on  the 
streams  were  utilized.  It  was  the  custom  to  ride  on  one  side  of  a  herd  and 
start  it  toward  the  timber.  The  hunters  followed  until  the  elk  were  among  the 
trees  and  then  closed  up  on  them.  The  antlers  of  the  bucks  caught  in  the  low 
branches  and  made  progress  slow.  In  this  way  the  herd  was  overtaken  within 
rifle  range. 

For  many  years  turkeys  were  so  plentiful,  especially  in  the  Ozarks.  that  the 
hunting  of  them  could  hardly  be  called  sport.  They  had  roosts  which  they  fre- 
quented. It  was  no  trouble  to  slip  up  on  a  roost  at  night  and  slaughter  the 
birds ;  but  recovering  them  was  another  matter.  Wolves  followed  the  hunters, 
keeping  in  the  dark  and  circling  around  to  the  vicinity  of  the  roost.  As  a 
turkey  was  dropped  by  the  shot,  the  wolves  would  rush  in  and  seize  the  game 
before  the  hunter  could  get  to  it. 

The  Staflfords.  of  Cyclone,  in  McDonald  county,  were  a  pioneer  family. 
When  Claib.  Stafford  was  a  small  boy  his  father  sent  him  out  into  the  field  on 
some  errand  and  allowed  him  to  take  the  family  gun.  The  boy  heard  a  noise 
in  the  corn  near  a  log  and  a  sapling.  There  was  a  patch  of  black  in  sight, 
which  the  boy  guessed  was  a  coon.  He  rested  the  gun  on  the  fence  and  fired. 
On  his  way  back  home,  without  investigating,  the  boy  met  his  father.     The  two 

863 


864  CENTENXIAF.  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Weill   t(i  llic  log  and   found  a  large  hear  dead.      The  i)atch  of   fur  exposed  had 
been  the  breast.     The  shot  had  gone  through  the  heart. 

Daniel  Boone  bestowed  the  name  on  Bear  creek  in  Montgomery  county  he- 
cause  of  the  number  of  bears  he  found  there.  North  Bear  creek  in  the  same 
county  was  named  by  Presley  Anderson,  a  newcomer  of  1817.  Anderson  saw 
two  cubs  up  a  tree,  laid  down  his  gun  and  climbed  up  to  take  them  alive.  Hear- . 
ing  a  great  coniniotion  below,  Anderson  looked  down  and  saw  the  mother  bear 
coming  up  after  him.  He  couldn't  climb  higher.  Measuring  with  his  eyes 
the  nearest  tree  he  made  a  desperate  leap  and  landed  safely,  and  just  in  time 
for  he  could  feel  the  breath  of  the  she-bear  on  his  ankles.  Sliding  down  the 
second  tree,  he  ran  to  the  one  from  which  he  had  jumped,  got  his  gun  and  killed 
all  of  the  bears. 

".Shining  their  eyes"  was  a  phrase  used  by  the  early  hunters  of  Missouri 
when  they  went  out  after  dark  to  get  deer.  Two  men  went  together.  One 
carrying  a  torch  and  the  other  the  gun.  Making  their  way  slowly  and  quietly 
in  the  Ozark  country  the  pair  would  come  within  range  of  a  deer,  Mr-ually  at  a 
salt  lick  or  spring.  The  deer,  instead  of  running,  would  turn  and  stare  in  wonder- 
ment toward  the  light.  Then  the  hunter  would  aim  with  his  rifle  between  the 
eyes  which  glistened  in  the  distance,  and  which  were  all  that  could  be  distin- 
guished in  the  surrounding  darkness.  Occasionally  bear  or  panther  would 
stand  and  be  brought  down  by  the  "shining  the  eyes"  device. 

Colonel  Jc^hn  Shaw  told  of  a  hunt  in  the  Ozarks,  in  which  he  collected  "fifty 
beaver  and  otter  skins,  300  bear  skins  and  800  gallons  of  bear  oil."  He  col- 
lected these  products  at  the  headwaters  of  White  river,  built  boats  and  floated 
down  to  New  Orleans  expecting  to  ship  to  Europe  and  get  good  prices.  The 
"embargo."  he  said,  was  in  force  and  the  sale  of  all  of  the  pelts  and  oil  yielded 
only  $3''). 

Great  Sport  Along  the  Iowa  Line. 

Clark  county  pioneers  near  the  Iowa  line  handed  down  some  of  the  almost 
incredible  tales  of  game  and  honey.  Uncle  Joe  Bennings  told  a  younger  genera- 
tion that  his  wife  found  fault  with  him  for  bringing  to  the  cabin  home  so 
many  wild  turkeys.  Deer  were  seen  in  herds  of  fifty.  John  Wade  kept  a  tally 
until  it  showed  he  had  killed  500  deer  and  then  gave  up  counting. 

Robert  P.  Mitchell.  John  Montgomery  and  George  K.  Biggs  started  on  a 
wolf  hunt,  one  winter  morning  with  the  snow-a  foot  deep.  They  found  a  pack 
which  broke  up  and  started  in  different  directions.  Each  man  picked  a  wolf 
and  went  after  it.  Biggs'  wolf  ran  towards  the  Mississippi  river.  Biggs  over- 
took it,  pulled  one  of  his  stirrup  .straps  loose  and  struck  at  the  wolf.  He  missed, 
but  the  saddle  turned,  throwing  him  on  top  of  the  wolf.  Biggs  got  the  wolf 
down  and  held  it  with  both  hands  to  keep  it  from  biting  him.  Then  loosen- 
ing one  hand  he  got  his  knife  and  opened  it  with  his  teeth  and  cut  the  wolf's 
throat.  .-Xs  he  made  the  thrust,  the  wolf  jumped  at  his  throat  and  caught  his 
coat  collar. 

An  old  black  she-wolf  became  the  pest  of  the  extreme  northeast  corner  of 
the  state.     She  carried  off  pigs  weighing  as  much  as  eighty  pounds.     She  stuck 


FOX  HOUNDS  FROM  A  MISSOURI  KENNEL 


LIFE  IN  MISSOURI 
In  the  days  of  the  mighty  hunters,  the  log  houses  were  built  without  nails.     Oiled  paper  served 

for  window  panes 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  867 

her  nose  into  the  cabin  door  of  a  settler  named  Stillwell  and  would  have  made 
off  with  a  baby  but  for  the  quick  action  of  the  father. 

Harvey  Coombs,  his  brothers  and  two  companions,  William  Price  and  Brad- 
ford Hanan,  in  a  single  day's  hunt  along  the  Wyaconda  got  thirty-five  coons  and 
left  five  more  treed.     They  were  too  tired  to  continue  the  hunt. 

William  G.  Mills  and  Andrew  G.  Darby  of  Scotland  county  kept  their  rifles 
with  them  while  husking  corn.  In  one  day  Mills  killed  sixty-five  and  Darby 
killed  sixty  wild  turkeys.  They  saved  only  the  white  meat,  mixed  it  with  pork 
and  made  sausages. 

Bears  were  so  numerous  in  Missouri  that  they  hibernated  in  queer  places. 
When  Captain  W.  K.  Ramey  was  a  boy,  in  Pettis  county,  he  came  on  a  heap  of 
grass  one  March  day,  before  spring  had  fairly  opened.  He  pushed  his  hand  in 
and  felt  a  bear.  Drawing  away  to  a  safe  distance,  he  fired  and  killed  the  old 
she-bear.  Two  others,  one  a  year  old  and  the  other  a  cub,  came  out  of  their 
winter  home.  While  Ramey  was  loading  the  dog  held  the  attention  of  the  young 
bears.  The  yearling  fell  at  the  first  shot  and  then  the  cub  was  brought  down 
from  the  tree  which  it  had  succeeded  in  reaching. 

Audrain  County's  Modem  Esau. 

What  is,  probably,  the  most  marvelous  story  of  turkey  hunting  in  the  early 
days  was  told  by  Abner  Smith.  This  mighty  hunter  said  he  discovered  a  place 
where  turkeys  had  been  roosting.  He  cleared  the  brush  and  grass  from  a 
small  piece  of  ground  and  scattered  shelled  corn  there.  This  he  did  several 
times  and  noted  that  the  turkeys  came  regularly  to  eat  the  com.  His  next  move 
was  to  drive  two  sticks  in  the  ground  with  a  small  space  between  them.  Be- 
yond the  .sticks  he  dropped  some  wheat.  Smith  had  an  old  army  musket.  He 
loaded  this  with  slugs,  a  heavy  charge,  and  fastened  it  in  the  forks  of  the  4;wo 
sticks  so  that  it  would  cover  the  spot  where  the  wheat  had  been  dropped.  To 
the  trigger  he  attached  a  string  and  concealed  himself  in  the  branches  of  a  tree 
which  had  fallen  not  far  away.  Smith  kept  in  hiding  until  daylight.  Then 
the  turkeys  began  to  fly  down  from  their  roost.  They  found  the  little  heap 
of  wheat  and  began  to  crowd  around  and  eat.  When  there  were  as  many  as 
could  reach  the  bait.  Smith  fired.  He  said  the  old  musket  sounded  as  loud  as 
a  cannon.  A  glance  showed  there  were  more  dead  turkeys  on  the  ground  than 
a  man  could  carry.  Smith  went  home,  hitched  his  horse  to  a  sled  and  came 
back.  He  put  fourteen  turkeys  on  the  sled,  making  as  much  of  a  load  as  the 
horse  could  well  pull. 

Abner  Smith  gained  further  local  fame  by  trapping  a  wolf  which  had 
had  one  experience  with  the  steel  trap,  losing  a  fore  leg,  and  which  had  defied 
all  of  the  ordinary  devices  of  the  farmers  of  Audrain  county.  Smith  jumped 
a  deer  and  killed  it  near  the  haunts  of  the  wolf.  He  took  the  best  part  of  the 
carcass  home.  The  next  day  he  visited  the  place,  and,  as  he  expected,  found 
the  tracks  of  the  three-legged  wolf  in  the  snow.  He  located  his  trap  in  the 
water  of  the  creek,  hung  the  carcass  over  it,  put  some  moss  on  the  apron  of 
the  trap,  so  arranged  that  it  appeared  above  the  surface  of  the  water.  He  did 
this  because  a  wolf  never  wets  his  feet  if  he  can  help  it.  The  next  morning  the 
wary  wolf  was  in  the  trap. 


868  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Smith  was  a  story  teller  as  well  as  a  hunter.  One  of  his  tales  was  at  the  ex- 
pense of  a  neighbor,  W.  R.  Cook,  who  had  recently  come  to  Alissouri.  Smith 
had  taken  Cook  out  to  show  him  some  hunting.  They  started  three  deer 
which  jumped  up  within  twenty  feet  of  Cook.  Smith  fired  and  killed  one. 
Cook  was  seized  with  buck  ague  and  didn't  shoot.  "Why  didn't  you  shoot?" 
Smith  says  he  shouted.  Cook,  according  to  Smith,  replied:  "Oh,  I'm  hunting 
snipe,  I  am.    A  deer  looks  too  innocent  to  be  shot  down  in  that  way." 

Smith  delighted  to  refer  to  himself  as  the  modem  Esau.  When  he  first  came 
to  Audrain,  he  was  oflfered  a  cabin,  a  fenced  field  and  a  land  claim  for  $300. 
But  he  was  so  filled  with  the  love  of  hunting  that  he  had  no  idea  of  settling  in 
one  place.  He  said  he  wouldn't  give  $300  for  "all  of  the  land  within  the  sound 
of  a  bugle  blown  from  his  cabin  door  on  a  calm  morning."  He  hunted  for 
years,  went  down  to  Texas  and  came  "back  with  new  ideas  about  the  value  of 
Missouri  land  and  secured  a  claim. 

Pigeon  Roosts. 

In  October,  1874,  2,500  pigeons  were  killed  at  the  roost  near  Marionville  in 
one  night.  J.  S.  Drake  thought  there  were  25,000,000  at  the  time,  for  he  remem- 
bered seeing  the  flying  flocks  shut  off  the  very  sunlight  like  a  vast  cloud. 

When  all  of  the  country  between  Missouri  and  the  Osage  rivers  was  one 
county  a  settler  named  Fisher,  living  in  what  is  now  Johnson  county,  killed  two 
deer  before  breakfast.  After  eating  he  went  out  to  bring  in  his  game.  On  the 
way  he  killed  another  deer  within  quarter  of  a  mile  of  the  house.  In  twenty- 
one  consecutive  shots  he  killed  twenty  deer. 

Nicholas  Houx,  another  of  the  settlers  in  that  part  of  Missouri,  killed 
nine  panthers  in  one  week.  From  the  skins  he  made  a  suit  of  clothes  and  a 
cap.  He  hung  one  tail  from  his  cap  and  the  other  eight  tails  from  the  border 
of  his  coat.  The  suit  made  such  an  impression  on  the  neighbors  that  Houx 
was  offered  $150  for  it.  Houx  made  another  record.  He  could  get  out  250 
rails  in  a  day  and  then  visit  with  the  neighbors  until  ten  o'clock.  He  built  the 
first  brick  residence  in  Johnson  county. 

Peter  Cooper  told  the  story  of  a  hunting  match  in  Callaway  county.  Two 
of  the  pioneers,  David  P.  Calvine  and  Gabriel  May,  organized  the  match  with 
three  hunters  on  a  side.  This  match  followed  a  preliminary  contest  at  killing 
squirrels  with  poles  when  the  squirrels  came  to  plunder  the  corn  cribs.  One 
side  killed  176  squirrels  and  the  other  side  got  286.  It  was  then  decided  to 
hunt  for  twenty-five  cents  worth  of  whiskey,  the  hunting  to  be  limited  to  a 
given  number  of  hours.  The  game  brought  in  was  too  much  to  be  counted.  It 
was  decided  to  measure.  May  produced  five  pecks  and  Calvine  nearly  a  bushel. 
Calvine  paid  the  wager. 

Reconstruction  of  Betsy. 

As  early  as  1827  Jacob  Coonce  was  a  mighty  hunter  along  the  upper  Osage 
and  the  Sac  rivers.  In  1831,  according  to  the  local  tradition,  he  built  the  first 
cabin  in  what  is  now  the  county  of  St.  Clair.  There  were  so  many  attractive 
locations  in  this  hunter's  paradise  that  Coonce  found  it  hard  to  make  a  choice. 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  869 

He  built  first  near  the  Sac  river  and  later  moved  to  a  new  location  near  Brush 
creek.  Coonce  hunted  with  the  old  flintlock  until  some  one  told  him  of  the  new 
fangled  percussion.  He  started  on  horseback  for  St.  Louis  to  have  "Betsy,"  as 
he  affectionately  called  his  rifle,  changed.  He  wore  moccasins,  buckskin  leggings, 
a  coonskin  cap  and  carried  a  blanket.  On  the  way  he  stopped  at  the  place  of 
Robert  H.  Sproull  in  Henry  county  and  told  of  his  purpose  in  going  to  St. 
Louis.  Sproull  was  a  locksmith  and  convinced  Coonce  that  he  could  do  the  job. 
"Betsy"'  was  left  with  Sproull  but  Coonce  having  started  decided  that  he  must 
go  on  to  the  metropolis.  Coming  back  Coonce  received  his  remodeled  rifle, 
patted  it  fondly  and  said  to  it,  "Old  Bet,'you  and  I  have  never  been  parted  so 
long  and  we  won't  be  again."  Putting  a  load  in  the  rifle  and  a  cap  in  the  new 
lock,  Coonce  looked  about  him  for  a  mark.  He  saw  a  squirrel  on  the  top  of  a 
tree.  Raising  the  rifle,  he  sprung  the  new  lock  and  brought  down  the  squirrel. 
Turning  to  Sproull  and  smiling,  Coonce  said,  "She  is  all  right,"  and  rode  away 
to  his  home  in  the  hills  of  the  Osage  country.  '  Other  white  men  came,  the 
Waldos,  the  Culbertsons,  the  Gardners,  the  Burches  and  scores  more,  but  the 
hunting  continued  good.  As  late  as  1840  it  was  possible  to  see  herds  of  deer 
every  two  or  three  days  in  traveling  through  that  part  of  Missouri.  The  settler 
who  was  a  good  shot  could  go  out  any  time  and  bring  back  a  buck  for  dinner. 

Samuel  Cole,  Mighty  Hunter. 

Samuel  Cole,  who  came  to  Central  Missouri  a  boy,  told  these  hunting  stories: 

"When  I  was  about  twelve  years  old,  I  started  one  morning  to  hunt  for  game.  My 
brothers  had  an  old  flintlock  rifle,  which  I  carried  with  me.  It  was  a  large  and  heavy 
gun,  and  was  so  heavy  that  I  could  not  shoot  it  without  taking  a  rest.  I  came  up  the  river, 
keeping  near  the  bank,  until  I  got  to  where  the  courthouse  now  stands  in  Boonville.  Under 
the  trees,  which  then  covered  the  ground  in  the  courthouse  yard,  I  saw  five  deer  standing 
together.  I  selected  one  of  the  finest  looking  ones  and  fired.  At  the  crack  of  my  gun  he 
fell;  but  when  I  went  up  to  where  he  was,  he  jumped  to  his  feet,  and  would  have  followed 
the  other  deer  towards  the  river,  had  I  not  rushed  up  and  caught  hold  of  him,  putting  my 
arms  around  his  neck.  He  pawed  me  with  his  sharp  hoofs  and  horned  me — his  hoofs 
making  an  ugly  gash  on  my  thigh  and  his  horns  striking  me  on  the  forehead.  The  marks 
of  both  hoofs  and  horns  I  carry  with  me  today.  I  held  the  deer  until  my  dog  came  up. 
I  then  loaded  the  gun  and  shot  him  again,  this  time  killing  him.  This  was  the  first  deer 
I  ever  killed,  and  although  it  was  a  dangerous  undertakmg,  the  experience  only  spurred 
me  on  to  gather  trophies  of  a  similar  character. 

"I  killed  five  bears  just  below  the  town — where  Boonville  now  stands — and  killed 
twenty-two  bears  in  three  days.  I  killed  four  elks  in  less  than  one  hour's  time.  There  were 
a  few  buffaloes  in  the  county  when  I  came,  but  these  were  soon  killed  or  driven  further 
westward.  I  never  killed  a  buffalo,  but  caught  five  calves  of  a  small  herd  near  the  Pettis 
county  line.  I  have  seen  as  many  as  thirty  deer  at  one  sight  at  Prairie  lick.  One  day  I 
went  out  upon  the  prairie,  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  and  saw  about  twenty  deer — all  lying 
down  except  one;  this  one  was  a  sentinel  for  the  herd.  I  approached  within  about  three 
hundred  yards  of  them  and  took  my  handkerchief,  which  was  a  large  red  bandana,  and 
fastened  it  to  the  end  of  a  stick  and  shook  it  a  little  above  my  head,  when  they  all  sprang 
to  their  feet  and  came  towards  me.  A  deer  has  much  curiosity,  and  they  were  determined 
to  find  out,  if  they  could,  what  the  red  handkerchief  meant.  When  one  of  the  largest  of  the 
number  came  within  gunshot  distance,  I  shot  and  killed  it.  I  often  repeated  the  handker- 
chief ruse  with  great  success.  I  have  killed  and  carried  to  the  house  three  deer  before 
breakfast." 


870  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Marvelous  Stories  of  Fish  and  Game. 

One  of  the  most  marvelous  fish  stories  of  pioneer  times  is  about  the  Moreau 
in  Cole  county.  It  was  told  by  the  owner  of  a  mill  who  was  sent  to  the  legis- 
lature. The  fish  of  the  Moreau  were  so  numerous  at  the  time,  about  1835,  that 
the  wheels  of  the  mills  were  not  infrequently  choked  with  them  and  the  machin- 
ery was  stopped  until  the  gates  were  shut  dowi.  and  were  cleared  of  the 
wriggling  masses.  Some  of  the  exploits  of  the  mighty  hunters  have  been  told 
by  Waiter  Williams: 

"Joseph  Petley,  a  Kentuckian  by  birtln  an  early  resident  of  Audrain  county,  was  the 
greatest  hunter  and  trapper  of  his  day.  He  is  said  to  have  killed  more  bears,  deer,  panthers, 
wildcats,  raccoons,  and  wild  turkeys  than  any  two  men  in  Missouri.  He  was  very  stout  and 
was  often  seen  carrying  two  deer,  one  strapped  to  each  shoulder,  and  his  gun  at  the  same 
time.  He  would  carry  such  a  load  as  this  for  miles  without  appearing  to  become  tired.  He 
lived  to  a  very  old  age  and  died  in  1874.  While  he  was  lying  on  his  deathbed  he  had  his 
gun  and  powder  horn,  a  set  of  buck's  antlers  and  the  skins  of  wildcats,  raccoon  and  bear 
hung  where  he  could  gaze  upon  them  as  he  died. 

"Of  David  Bowles,  a  Virginian,  who  was  a  pioneer  in  Montgomery  county,  it  is  related 
that  during  one  winter  he  killed  120  deer,  three  elk  and  four  raccoons,  besides  taking  350 
gallons  of  honey  from  the  various  bee  trees  that  he  found.  The  same  year  he  killed  the 
famous  buck  which  the  hunters  had  named  Gen.  Burdine,  and  which  had  thirty-three  prongs 
on  his  horns.  When  his  favorite  dog  was  hung  by  a  grapevine  in  the  woods  he  quit  hunt- 
ing. Bowles  was  twice  married.  The  story  is  told  that  when  the  second  marriage  ceremony 
was  performed  he  was  so  overjoyed  that  he  danced  about  the  room,  waving  his  hat  over 
his  head  in  his  excess  of  delight,  struck  a  lamp  on  the  mantel  and  dashed  it  to  the  floor. 
In  a  moment  the  house  was  on  fire  and  was  soon  partly  destroyed  by  the  flames. 

"John  Kiser,  a  Tennessean,  who  came  to  Montgomery  county,  is  said  to  have  killed 
forty-five  deer  in  a  single  day.  At  another  time  he  killed  three  deer  at  one  shot.  Dr.  Robert 
Graham,  whose  grandchildren  yet  live  in  Montgomery  county,  settled  there  coming  from 
Kentucky.  He  bought  a  Spanish  grant  of  land  situated  on  Loutre  creek  from  Daniel  M. 
Boone  and  built  an  elm  bark  tent  upon  it,  in  which  he  lived  for  four  years.  He  was  a  very 
small  man,  but  of  a  very  determined  will,  and  a  nerve  that  could  not  be  shaken.  He  was 
a  voluminous  reader  and  a  great  admirer  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  Dr.  Graham  was,  as 
were  most  pioneer  Missourians,  very  fond  of  hunting,  and  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  it. 
One  day  a  large  wolf  got  caught  in  one  of  his  steel  traps,  broke  the  chain  and  dragged  the 
trap  away  with  him.  With  two  companions,  he  tracked  the  wolf  and  came  upon  it  where 
it  had  gone  into  the  creek  and  was  struggling  in  the  water.  Dr.  Graham  waded  into  the 
creek  with  the  purpose  of  killing  the  wolf  with  his  knife,  when  it  caught  one  of  his  hands 
and  bit  it  nearly  off,  but  he  finally  succeeded  in  killing  the  animal.  On  another  occasion, 
the  doctor  and  a  party  of  hunters  ran  a  large  bear  into  a  cave  and  tried  to  smoke  it  out, 
but  did  not  succeed,  and  finally  shot  him.  After  the  bear  was  dead.  Dr.  Graham  was  the 
only  one  of  the  party  who  had  nerve  enough  to  crawl  into  the  cave  and  drag  the  dead 
animal  out.  Wolves  were  plentiful  in  the  woods  in  those  days,  and  one  day  Dr.  Graham 
killed  thirteen  of  them." 

Chased  by  Deer. 

An  old  settler  of  Montgomery  county,  H.  E.  Scanland  of  Mineoia  Springs, 
remembered  when  he  and  his  brother  were  chased  out  of  a  field  by  deer  because 
they  ventured  too  near  the  fawns.  In  his  boyhood  he  built  traps  to  catch  quails 
which  he  sold  for  fifteen  cents  a  dozen.  Rabbit  skins  brought  fifty  cents  a 
dozen  at  the  hatter's  shop. 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  871 

"I  recall  also  in  those  days  we  killed  our  hogs  in'  the  woods,  where  they  fattened  on 
acorns,  and  we  could  have  all  the  honey  we  wanted  by  going  into  the  timber  and  chopping 
down  a  bee  tree.  And,  just  think  of  it!  There  was  a  rise  in  the  price  of  wheat,  and  it  got 
to  be  worth  three  bits  (37!-'2  cents)  a  bushel,  struck  measure.  Good  horses  were  worth  $20 
to  $24  and  oxen  $15  to  $20  a  yoke.  Milch  cows  from  $7  to  $13  each.  The  kind  of  rails  Abe 
Lincoln  made  cost  yj\''  cents  per  100 — that  was  the  price  paid  for  'making  them.'  A  negro 
would  hire  by  the  year  for  $40  for  the  12  months  and  two  suits  of  cotton  or  linen  clothing 
and  two  blankets.  The  best  class  of  work  hands  got  $8  a  month  and  the  common  ones 
$3  to  $4  a  month.  All  of  our  shoes  and  clothing  were  home-made,  and  yet  those  were  our 
happiest  days,  even  if  we  did  have  biscuit  only  once  a  week,  and  that  on  Sunday  morning. 
Venison  and  wild  turkey  with  old-fashioned  corn-bread  johnny-cake  and  trimmings  were 
good  enough  for  us  and  made  life  worth  the  living." 

Major  Daniel  Ashby's  Journal 

For  a  period  of  more  than  eight  years  Major  Daniel  Ashby  had  charge  of  the 
United  States  land  office  at  Lexington.  He  was  not  called  upon  to  make 
settlement  with  the  government  until  he  went  out  of  office.  He  had  taken  in 
$1,650,000  from  the  settlers  to  whom  he  had  sold  land.  When  his  books  were 
closed  it  was  found  that  the  government  owed  him  $34.25.  The  settlers  paid 
for  their  land  in  silver  dollars  as  a  rule.  This  money  Major  Daniel  Ashby  put 
in  kegs  loosely,  like  nails.  Periodically  the  major  loaded  these  kegs  in  a  wagon 
and  drove  to  St.  Louis,  having  with  him  two  negroes.  The  drive  was  made 
over  many  long  stretches  of  road  where  there  were  no  settlers.  In  his  journal, 
kept  with  wonderful  fidelity.  Major  Ashby  said  he  was  never  disturbed  on  these 
journeys.  For  six  years  this  notable  pioneer  was  a  member  of  the  house  of 
representatives  and  for  the  same  length  of  time  he  was  a  state  senator,  at  one 
time  president  of  the  senate.  He  closed  his  journal  with  this  quaint  summing 
up  of  his  sixty-two  years  of  Missouri  citizenship: 

"I  am  now  eighty-five  years  of  age,  but  if  I  knew  there  was  another  country 
in  the  wide  world  like  Missouri  was  when  I  came  here,  I  would  go  there  to 
spend  the  balance  of  my  days  even  if  I  knew  that  I  only  would  live  six  months." 

Major  Daniel  Ashby  by  his  will  left  his  journal  to  his  wife  who  in  turn  be- 
queathed it  to  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Perry  S.  Rader. 

As  a  mighty  hunter.  Daniel  Ashby  was  ranked  one  hundred  years  ago  with 
Daniel  Boone.  Ashby,  however,  had  the  advantage  of  Boone  in  that  he  could 
tell  with  fascinating  detail  his  adventures  of  the  pioneer  days.  Coming  with 
his  party  from  the  vicinity  of  Harrodsburg.  Ky.,  Major  Ashby  pushed  the 
picket  line  of  settlement  beyond  the  Boone's  Lick  country.  He  brought  vividly 
to  the  attention  of  newcomers  the  attractive  opp>ortunities  of  the  Chariton  and 
Grand  river  sections.  Of  three  of  his  many  hunting  expeditions,  Major  Ashby 
left  these  narratives: 

A  Hunt  Along  the  Chariton. 

"In  September,  1821,  Colonel  John  M.  Bell,  John  Harris  and  myself  went  to  explore 
the  country  north  of  us.  None  of  us  had  ever  been  any  great  distance  in  that  direction  and 
it,  so  far  as  we  knew,  had  never  been  traveled  except  by  the  Indians  or  an  occasional  trader. 
We  started  early  in  the  morning  and  traveled  all  day  long  until  about  sunset ;  we  then 
turned  down  a  branch  of  the  Muscle  fork  of  the  Chariton  river  to  find  a  suitable  camping 
ground.  Just  as  we  entered  the  timber  I  saw  in  the  head  of  the  hollow,  three  deer  feeding 
very  unconcernedly.     I  motioned  to  Harris  and  Bell,  who  were  a  short  distance  to  my  left, 


872  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

for  them  to  stop ;  at  the  first  motion  they  halted  and  I  dismounted,  and  stepping  a  few  steps 
forward  fired  at  a  large  doe  which  stood  in  fair  view.  At  the  crack  of  the  rifle  she  jumped 
and  ran  a  few  yards  across  the  gully  and  fell.  The  other  two,  which  were  fawns,  stood 
still,  apparently  at  a  loss  what  to  do.  As  quickly  as  possible  I  reloaded  my  rifle  and  shot 
one  of  them,  which  also  gave  a  few  jumps  and  fell  dead.  The  other  one  stood  quiet,  looking 
a  little  alarmed,  and  I  again  reloaded  and  killed  it.  Bell  and  Harris  rode  up  and  said:  'You 
surely  must  have  some  camp  meat  from  the  shooting  you  have  been  doing?'  'Yes,'  I  replied, 
'I  have  a  deer  apiece  if  that  will  suffice.' 

"The  next  morning  we  started  early  and  went  on  to  the  Chariton  river.  While  riding 
through  some  timber  in  the  forks  of  a  branch  I  happened  to  see  bees  working  in  a  small 
tree  not  over  a  foot  in  diameter.  I  called  Bell  and  Harris  and  we  stopped  and  cut  the  tree 
down  with  a  large  hatchet.  After  it  was  felled  we  found  in  it  a  large  quantity  of  most 
excellent  honey,  upon  which  we  dined. 

"After  leaving  this  place  about  a  mile  or  so,  I  heard  Colonel  Bell  hallooing,  and  went 
to  him  as  soon  as  possible.  Upon  arrival  I  found  he  had  ridden  into  a  yellow  jacket's  nest 
and  they  had  gone  for  him  and  his  horse,  which  had  thrown  him  into  the  midst  of  the 
infuriated  insects,  and  they  were  stinging  at  a  lively  rate,  I  can  assure  you ;  his  eyes  were 
almost  closed  from  the  effect  of  the  stings  he  had  received  on  the  face,  head  and  neck,  and 
plenty  of  yellow  jackets  were  -still  buzzing  around  him  ready  and  willing  for  some  more. 

"By  the  Waxs!" 

"The  Colonel  never  swore  worse  than  'by  the  wars'  and  as  I  came  up  near  him  he 
said:  'By  the  wars,  don't  come  here,  for  see  how  I  am  stung  all  over.'  'Why,  Colonel,' 
said  I,  'your  horse  has  shown  more  sagacity  than  you ;  why  don't  you  run  away  from  the 
devilish  things?'  'By  the  wars,'  blurted  out  the  Colonel,  'I  never  thought  of  that,  I  was 
so  busy  killing  and  brushing  them  off  of  me  that  I  did  not  think  of  running'  away  from 
the  place ;  but  they  have  all  been  killed  or  have  gone  back  to  their  nests,  so  there  is  no 
need  of  running  now.'  The  Colonel  left  his  coat  he  had  been  riding  on  near  the  nest, 
which  he  dragged  away  with  a  long  stick.  We  then  took  the  track  of  his  horse  and  found 
him  down  on  a  small  creek,  grazing  as  quietly  as  if  he  had  never  seen  a  yellow  jacket. 

"We  then  took  our  course  and  after  going  about  a  mile  up  the  creek  we  saw  two  large 
buck  elk  that  had  been  lying  down  in  some  hazel  brush.  At  our  approach  they  ran  off  in 
a  westerly  direction.  Harris  and  I  pursued  them  at  full  speed.  I  was  riding  a  very  fleet 
horse,  and  after  running  about  two  miles  I  overtook  the  elk  and  ran  between  them,  but 
Harris'  horse  being  slower  than  mine  he  was  so  far  behind  that  the  elk  turned  back  and 
ran  into  the  timber,  which  put  a  stop  to  the  race.  After  resting  our  horses  a  few  minutes 
we  turned  back  to  hunt  Colonel  Bell  whom  we  had  not  seen  for  over  an  hour. 

"At  last  we  found  the  Colonel  and  saw  that  he  had  been  riding  round  and  round  in 
a  small  compass,  and  on  going  to  him  asked  him  what  was  the  matter.  'By  the  wars,'  he 
said,  'I  have  lost  all  the  bread  I  was  carrying  in  the  bag  on  my  saddle.'  We  separated  and 
after  hunting  around  for  a  while  found  the  bag  of  bread.  We  then  pursued  our  journey 
and  after  going  a  mile  or  more  discovered  about  two  hundred  elk,  but  they  saw  us  and 
ran  east.  We  followed  the  trail  which  was  very  plain,  there  being  so  many  of  them  in  a 
fresh   country. 

Trailing  a  Herd  of  Two  Hundred  Elk. 

"We  kept  on  the  trail  to  the  main  Muscle  fork  where  they  crossed  it.  The  trail  was 
about  two  hundred  yards  wide  at  the  crossing  with  the  banks  very  steep  and  high,  but  the 
elk  went  plunging  in  wherever  they  could  get  across  and  happened  to  come.  I  expected  to 
find  some  of  them  with  their  legs  or  necks  broken,  but  they  seemed  to  have  got  safely  over 
and  galloped  away.  We  followed  the  trail  for  many  miles,  but  could  never  come  up  with 
them  again.  Late  in  the  evening  we  turned  west  for  the  Muscle  fork  and  when  we  came 
to  it  we  encamped  for  the  night.  Being  away  from  our  meat,  we  had  nothing  to  eat  but 
bread  and  water  for  supper. 

"All  of  us  started  out  in  the  evening  to  hunt   for  squirrels.     Colonel  Bell  killed   two 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  873 

shortly  after  starting,  but  I  went  down  on  the  east  side  of  the  creek  and  when  about  a  half 
mile  below  the  camp  I  heard  something  run  out  of  the  high  weeds  in  the  bottom,  which  I 
supposed  to  be  deer,  but  to  my  surprise  I  saw  out  on  the  high  lands  five  elk.  They  stopped 
on  a  point  of  the  ridge.  One  large  buck,  which  seemed  to  be  the  leader,  stood  with  the 
point  of  his  shoulder  towards  me.  I  fired  at  him  as  I  would  have  done  at  a  deer  standing 
in  the  same  position.  The  ball  struck  him  where  I  aimed,  but  the  bone  was  so  large  that  it 
stopped  the  ball  from  going  into  the  cavity  of  the  chest,  yet  it  broke  the  bone,  for  I  saw 
the  point  of  his  shoulder  swing  out  as  he  started  to  run  off.  I  followed  his  trail  with  the 
full  expectation  of  finding  him  dead  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  where  I  shot  him, 
which  would  have  been  the  case  if  it  had  been  a  deer,  but  I  soon  found  it  would  not  do  to 
shoot  at  a  big  buck  elk  as  if  he  were  a  deer,  for  he  travelled  on  away  ahead  of  me.  I 
followed  his  trail  by  the  blood  about  a  half  mile,  when  night  came  on ;  I  turned  back  for 
our  camp  which  I  reached  a  little  after  dark.  Next  morning  Harris  went  with  me  and  we 
tracked  the  elk  I  shot  the  evening  before,  but  tracking  was  all  the  good  it  did,  as  we  never 
found  him.  We  returned  to  camp  and  helped  to  eat  the  four  squirrels  that  Colonel  Bell 
had  killed  and  cooked.  After  breakfast  all  of  us  went  out  hunting.  Bell  went  up  the 
creek,  while  Harris  and  I  went  east  as  far  as  the  great  Chariton  river,  along  which  we 
hunted  with  poor  success  until  late  in  the  evening.  As  we  were  drawing  near  camp  a 
black  cloud  rose  in  the  west,  which  looked  like  a  heavy  rain  storm  was  close  at  hand,  when 
I  saw  a  large  buck  standing  on  a  ridge  to  our  left.  I  jumped  from  my  horse  and  fired  at 
him,  a  distance  of  over  a  hundred  yards.  At  the  crack  of  my  rifle,  Harris,  who  was  stand- 
ing close  by  me,  said,  "You  certainly  hit  him.'  I  replied  that  'I  knew  I  had  if  the  distance 
was  not  too  great.'  We  rode  over  to  where  the  buck  had  been  standing  and  found  blood, 
which,  after  tracking  some  seventy  or  eighty  yards,  led  us  to  where  the  buck  lay  dead. 
We  butchered  him  as  fast  as  we  could,  but  the  rain  came  upon  us  before  we  reached  camp. 
On  arriving  at  our  camping  place  we  were  very  much  gratified  to  find  Colonel  Bell  sitting 
by  the  fire  with  the  side  of  a  large,  fat,  barren  doe  roasted,  and  only  awaited  our  arrival 
to  enjoy  a  hearty  meal  of  roasted  venison. 

The  Monster  Buck. 

"The  next  morning  we  started  up  the  ridge  leading  to  the  east,  and  did  not  go  over  a 
half  mile  until  we  came  upon  over  thirty  dry  beds,  where  elk  had  lain  during  the  rain. 
We  hunted  around  and  found  the  trail  leading  to  the  west,  which  we  followed.  It  crossed 
the  Muscle  fork  not  over  300  yards  above  our  camp.  After  crossing  the  creek  I  followed 
the  trail  on  foot,  with  the  others  behind  me  on  their  horses  and  leading  mine.  I  trailed 
them  out  to  the  high  prairie  and  at  last  discovered  them  leisurely  feeding  across  the  steep 
hills.  After  taking  a  good  look  at  the  country  I  went  back  to  meet  the  men,  mounted  my 
horse  and  told  them  to  follow  me.  We  rode  north  to  a  branch  that  headed  close  to  where 
the  elk  were  feeding.  From  there  we  rode  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  up  the  branch,  then 
stopped  and  tied  our  horses  and  went  on  foot  up  a  small  ravine  to  its  head,  and  on  gaining 
the  top  of  the  main  ridge  we  saw  the  elk  about  200  yards  from  us.  I  had  a  very  good 
rifle  which  carried  a  half-ounce  ball  on  a  level  nearly  200  yards.  We  remained  where 
we  were  and  watched  the  elk  nearly  an  hour.  They  were  on  a  hillside  in  fair  view  of 
us,  but  we  kept  behind  the  bushes  which  were  very  plentiful,  but  low.  Colonel  Bell 
became  quite  restless  and  wanted  me  to  shoot  a  very  large  buck  whose  horns  I  yet 
believe  were  between  six  and  seven  feet  long.  He  insisted  that  I  could  kill  him,  but  I  told 
him  to  wait  until  the  elk  passed  over  the  top  of  the  ridge  of  the  ne.xt  hill,  and  in  this  way 
we  would  be  able  to  get  quite  near  them. 

"So  we  sat  still  and  watched  them  until  the  last  elk  had  passed  over  the  hill ;  we  then 
broke  and  ran  down  the  hill  and  up  the  other  as  fast  as  we  could.  It  was  agreed  that  I 
should  make  the  first  shot,  at  a  doe,  for  at  that  season  the  bucks  were  not  good  to  eat. 
Upon  arriving  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  we  crouched  down  in  a  stooping  position.  I  saw  some 
of  the  elks  not  over  twenty-five  yards  from  me,  with  the  large  buck  I  spoke  of  not  over 
thirty  yards  from  me.  I  was  tempted  to  break  the  arrangement  entered  into  and  shoot 
him,  and  I  have  regretted  ever  since  that  I  did  not,  for  it  was  the  only  chance  I  ever  had 
of  shooting  such  a  monster  of  a  buck.    However,  I  kept  the  agreement,  and  looking  around 


874  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

I  saw  a  large  doe  about  sixty  yards  from  me,  so  I  determined  to  shoot  her ;  I  up  with  my 
rifle  and  fired,  and  at  the  report  of  my  gun  the  elks  collected  in  a  body  and  made 
off,  slowly  at  first.  Bell  and  Harris  ran  up  and  fired  at  the  group  which  was  crowded 
into  a  little  steep  hollow  so  it  was  impossible  to  miss,  for  you  could  not  see  the  ground 
for  a  space  of  twenty  yards  square  where  the  crowd  of  elks  were,  and  not  over  sixty  yards 
from  us.  They  began  to  realize  what  the  difficulty  was  and  away  they  went  at  a  full  run. 
We  concluded  to  run  over  the  ne.xt  hollow  and  get  on  the  other  hill  to  see  what  they  would 
do.  In  running  over  the  hollow  I  discovered  a  doe  elk  lying  down  with  her  leg  under  her. 
I  stopped  long  enough  to  turn  her  over  on  her  side  and  plunge  my  butcher  knife  into  her 
breast.  The  blood  flowed  as  it  would  from  a  stuck  beef.  I  then  ran  on  and  overtook  the 
other  two  men,  and  after  watching  the  gang  going  about  a  mile  and  a  half  we  returned 
to  Uic  two  docs  we  had  killed.  The  one  I  had  shot  lay  down  in  the  branch  about  a  hun- 
dred yards  from  the  other.  It  was  very  lucky  that  I  stopped  long  enough  to  stick  the  other 
doe,  for  upon  examination  we  found  that  Harris  had  shot  her  in  the  big  bone  of  the  neck 
and  had  only  made  a  small  hole  in  it,  from  which  she  had  bled  very  little  and  the  shot 
had  only  stunned  her  for  a  few  moments ;  and  upon  recovery,  if  I  had  not  stabbed  her, 
she  would  have  jumped  up  and  run  off,  but  the  stab  had  saved  her  to  us.  We  skinned  the 
two  does  and  cut  off  as  much  of  the  best  meat  as  we  wanted  and  returned  to  camp  where 
we  salted  the  meat  on  the  hides.  The  next  morning  we  made  a  scaffold  and  laying  the 
meat  on  small  sticks  built  a  fire  under  it  and  dried  it.  We  also  stretched  the  hides  and 
dried  them. 

A  Supper  on  Marrow. 

"I  remember  one  mess  we  had  that  first  evening  at  the  camp.  I  cut  out  six  or  eight 
of  the  large  bones  of  the  elk  and  threw  them  on  the  fire,  letting  them  roast  well;  we  then 
broke  them  and  filled  a  tin  cup  with  marrow,  salted  it,  and  ate  very  heartily. 

"The  third  day  after  killing  the  elks  we  broke  up  our  camp  and  started  homeward. 
In  passing  along  near  some  timber  we  saw  a  small  buck  deer  standing  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  steps  from  us.  I  said  to  the  others  that  I  could  kill  him  from  where  I  was;  they 
said  it  was  too  far  for  a  sure  shot.  I  answered  that  I  would  show  them.  So  jumping  down 
off  of  my  horse  I  fired  off-hand.  The  buck  ran  about  seventy  or  eighty  yards  and  fell 
dead.  We  took  his  hide  which  was  a  fine  one,  leaving  his  carcass  where  he  fell.  After 
riding  four  or  five  miles  we  discovered  two  buck  elks  feeding  very  contentedly  on  the 
prairie  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  distant.  We  passed  on  to  the  right  until  we  came 
to  the  head  of  a  branch  that  led  down  near  the  elk.  We  got  down  on  the  branch  and 
knew  by  some  trees  which  we  had  notched,  that  the  elk  were  not  far  from  us.  We  hobbled 
our  horses, — a  common  thing  when  we  left  them  for  any  time, — and  proceeded  cautiously 
to  the  top  of  a  high  prairie.  We  soon  saw  the  two  elks,  one  of  which  was  very  large,  the 
other  a  size  smaller.  We  agreed  upon  our  course  of  action.  We  crawled  abreast  close 
together,  and  on  getting  in  what  we  considered  short  range  for  our  rifles,  we  sat  up  and 
rested  our  guns  on  our  knees ;  I  was  in  the  center  and  was  to  shoot  the  large  elk ;  Bell 
was  to  shoot  the  small  one.  We  were  within  two  feet  of  each  other  and  it  was  understood 
that  when  I  gave  the  click  or  whistle  all  were  to  fire.  Giving  ample  time  for  preparation 
I  gave  the  signal  and  we  all  fired  at  once,  or  rather  attempted  to,  for  my  gun  snapped  or 
missed  fire.  The  others  fired  together.  I  ran  about  fifteen  yards  to  where  the  elks  were 
passing  over  a  short  hollow.  Soon  as  they  reached  the  high  ground  they  stopped  in  good 
range,  but  my  gun  again  missed  fire.  On  examination  I  found  that  the  flint  had  broken 
or  melted  nearly  off.  When  I  shot  the  last  buck  the  flint  snapped  off  about  half  way  to 
the  jaws  of  the  hammer  and  I  had  failed  to  notice  it.  By  this  accident  or  blunder  we  lost 
the  big  elk  and  probably  both,  for  the  little  one  we  thought  was  wounded,  but  it  kept  up 
with  its  mate  which  seemed  a  kind  of  a  leader.  I 

Bees  and  Bears. 

"In  the  spring  of  1820,  in  company  with  my  oldest  brother,  Benjamin,  I  started  on  the 
first  of  March  with  the   intention  of   finding  some  bees,  which  were  very  plentiful.     We 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  875 

took  some  corn  for  our  horses,  intending  fo  camp  out  for  two  or  three  nights.  The  day 
we  started  was  very  beautiful  until  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  at  which  time  we  had 
found  seven  bee  trees  in  the  forks  of  a  creek  called  Turpin's  branch,  where  there  was 
plenty  of  timber.  We  had  become  separated,  depositing  our  camp  equipment  on  the  banks 
of  the  creek  before  starting  to  prospect.  The  wind  in  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  began 
blowing  very  high  from  the  northwest,  and  it  turned  so  cold  that  the  bees  quit  working. 
"I  started  north  to  gain  some  information  of  the  country,  never  having  been  in  that 
part  before.  I  had  eight  or  ten  dogs  with  me,  though  I  could  not  depend  on  but  one  to 
start  a  bear.  The  rest  would  run  bear  well  enough  when  started,  but  they  would  also  run 
wild  cats,  deer  and  turkeys  well,  of  which  there  were  plenty.  However,  the  dogs  were 
brought  along  in  the  hopes  of  starting  a  bear.  After  going  about  two  miles  I  came  to  a 
thicket  in  the  forks,  which  was  about  such  an  one  as  a  bear  would  likely  stay  in.  Finding 
a  very  dense  part  of  the  thicket  I  called  my  start  dog,  Ring,  intending  to  set  him  out  to 
hunt  through  and  keep  the  rest  of  the  dogs  behind  me.  On  calling  the  dog  which  was 
behind  me,  a  large  bear  that  had  been  lying  within  twenty  yards  of  me,  ran  out  over  a 
small  branch.  The  bear  kept  up  the  branch  and  I,  keeping  her  in  sight,  ran  up  the  side  of 
the  branch  with  the  dogs  all  running  after  me,  but  yet  they  had  not  seen  anything  of  the 
bear.  At  last  we  came  to  an  open  prairie  and  I  was  within  fifty  steps  of  the  bear.  The 
dogs  seeing  her  broke  for  her  with  all  speed,  and  as  the  foremost  dog  came  up  the  bear 
stopped  in  the  open  prairie,  and  in  a  few  moments  a  fight  was  begun  between  all  the  dogs 
and  the  bear.  The  mare  I  was  riding  was  untrained  and  would  not  go  near.  After  trying 
to  ride  her  up,  I  jumped  ofif  and  tried  to  lead  her  near  enough  to  shoot  the  bear,  but  she 
would  not  go.  Hearing  one  of  the  dogs  hallooing  for  help,  I  let  the  mare  go  and  ran  up 
and  shot  the  bear  in  the  breast,  the  powder  burning  her,  the  shot  killing  her  instantly. 
E.xamining  the  dog  which  I  heard  yelping  for  help,  I  found  the  bear  had  caught  him  by 
the  head  with  its  teeth,  one  of  the  teeth  piercing  his  eye-ball,  bursting  it. 

A  Pack  Load  of  Bear  Meat. 

"After  the  fight  was  over  I  looked  for  my  mare,  but  she  was  nowhere  to  be  seen.  I 
found  her  track  and  following  it  for  about  a  mile  and  a  half  I  found  her  hung  by  the 
bridle  in  some  shrubs.  I  mounted  and  ran  her  at  full  speed  back  to  the  place  where  the 
bear  was  lying,  hoping  it  would  gentle  her,  but  not  so ;  I  could  not  lead  her  within  twenty 
yards  of  the  carcass.  I  then  jumped  down,  pulled  off  my  leather  hunting  shirt,  tied  the 
sleeves  around  her  neck  so  as  to  let  the  body  of  the  coat  hang  in  front  of  her  eyes  and 
while  thus  blinded  I  dashed  her  over  gopher  hills  until  she  would  stand  still  wherever  I 
would  leave  her.  I  then  skinned  the  bear  down  each  side  and  broke  its  back,  cut  off  its 
head  and  neck,  so  as  to  lighten  the  load  as  much  as  possible,  for  I  think  it  weighed  500 
pounds. 

"It  was  a  solitary  situation  after  all,  as  I  was  alone  in  the  open  prairie,  with  a  wild 
mare  fifteen  hands  high  and  the  sun  almost  down,  with  over  two  miles  to  the  camp  through 
a  strange  country.  I  led  the  mare  up  by  the  bear,  unbuckled  the  stirrup  leather  on  the  left 
side  and  let  it  down  on  the  ground.  I  then  got  down  and  put  my  shoulder  under  the  bear 
where  the  back  was  broken,  took  hold  of  the  stirrup  leather  and  climbed  up  hand  over 
hand  until  I  stood  straight  with  the  bear  on  my  shoulder,  which  was  a  considerable  task, 
as  I  was  six  feet  three  inches  high.  I  then  shoved  one-half  of  the  animal  over  the  saddle, 
slipped  my  arm  out  and  adjusted  it  in  the  saddle  as  well  as  I  could,  .^fter  this  I  took  my 
rifle  and  jumped  on  the  mare  and  rode  of?  with  her  still  blindfolded.  After  riding  this 
way  about  half  a  mile  I  got  into  the  timber.  It  was  now  getting  dark,  and  I  began  getting 
cold  with  nothing  on  my  shoulders  but  a  shirt,  so  I  reached  down  and  untied  my  hunting 
shirt  and  pulled  it  off  the  mare's  eyes.  She  scared  a  little,  but  the  weight  on  her  being  at 
least  700  pounds  she  concluded  to  get  along  as  easily  as  she  could. 

"At  last  I  rode  up  to  the  camp  where  brother  Ben  had  a  good  fire.  I  handed  him  my 
gun  and  jumped  down,  when  he  looked  astonished  and  said,  'How  did  you  get  that  huge 
animal  on  the  mare?'  I  replied,  'I  got  it  on  like  the  fellow  got  the  hen  off  the  nest,  by  main 
strength  and  awkwardness,  and  did  it  on  open  prairie.'    'Well,'  said  he,  'I  would  never  have 


876  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

undertaken  the  job,  but  you  were  made  for  such  feats  as  no  common  man  could  have  done 
what  you  did.' 

"We  took  the  bear,  got  some  scaly  bark,  and  Ben  held  the  light  until  I  skinned  it  and 
cut  it  up.  There  were  at  least  four  inches  of  fat  on  the  ribs.  The  next  morning  I  told 
brother  Ben  that  we  would  go  back  to  the  thicket  where  I  found  the  bear.  So  we  went 
back  and,  while  we  were  riding  through  the  thicket,  one  of  the  unruly  dogs  (Tige)  took 
off  after  a  turkey  which  flew  up  near  us.  After  the  dog  had  been  gone  some  little  time  I 
heard  him  barking.  'Ah!'  said  I,  'that  turkey  has  lit  in  some  of  those  saplings,' — for  I  could 
see  there  were  no  trees  where  he  was  barking.  Soon  I  heard  another  dog  barking  at  the 
same  place,  and  then  I  heard  the  old  start  dog,  who  never  lied,  give  tongue.  They  were  in 
a  detached  thicket  on  the  bank  of  a  prong  of  the  branch. 

"I  jumped  down,  took  Ben's  rifle,  gave  him  my  horse  to  hold,  and  with  a  rifle  in  each 
hand  started  across  a  small  prairie  bottom  between  two  thickets.  When  I  got  about  half-way 
across  I  saw  a  bear  aiming  to  cross  the  little  prairie  below  me.  I  drew  up  my  rifle,  and  as 
the  bear  ran  past  me  I  fired  and  broke  one  of  her  shoulders,  when  she  turned  into  the 
branch.  The  dogs  were  all  around  her.  I  picked  up  Ben's  rifle  which  I  had  lain  down 
when  I  fired  my  own,  and  ran  to  the  branch  and  fired,  killing  the  bear.  We  then  pulled 
her  out  of  the  branch,  skinned  her,  cut  her  in  quarters,  and  laid  the  skin  on  some  bushes 
to  dry. 

"I  had  observed  another  branch  about  half  a  mile  north  of  us,  and  I  said  to  Ben : 
'Let  us  go  up  to  that  branch  and  see  what  sort  of  a  place  it  is,  while  the  bear  skin  is  dry- 
ing.' On  arriving  at  the  branch  the  same  dog  that  had  run  after  the  turkey  and  found 
the  bear  that  I  had  just  killed,  set  off  after  another  turkey  that  flew  up  at  the  edge  of 
the  brush.  'Now,'  said  I,  'it  may  be  that  Tige  will  find  another  bear.'  He  had  been  gone 
but  a  few  moments  when  I  heard  him  bark,  and  then  another  and  yet  another  until  all 
the  dogs  had  joined  in  the  barking. 

"We  rode  out  to  the  edge  of  the  brush  and  took  up  the  prairie  until  we  got  ahead  of 
the  dogs,  when  I  dismounted,  handed  Ben  my  bridle  and  took  his  gun.  Then  I  ran  into 
the  thicket,  which  was  narrow  at  that  place,  took  my  stand  and  awaited  the  slow  coming 
of  the  dogs.  On  their  approach,  I  saw  a  monstrous  bear,  the  largest  I  had  ever  seen, 
coming  slowly  towards  me,  throwing  his  head  first  to  one  side,  and  then  to  the  other, 
trying  to  keep  off  the  dogs  which  were  all  around  him.  When  within  twenty  or  thirty  steps 
of  me  the  bear  sat  down.  I  laid  Ben's  gun  on  the  ground  and  shot  at  the  bear  with  my  own 
gun.  He  got  up  at  the  shot,  walked  down  a  small  descent  and  sat  down  again,  with  his 
breast  towards  me.  I  then  raised  Ben's  gun,  which  carried  a  smaller  ball  than  mine,  and 
took  aim  at  his  heart,  but  the  dogs  pressing  so  close  on  his  sides  made  him  keep  his  head  in 
constant  motion  to  keep  them  off,  and  as  I  fired  his  head  came  in  the  way,  and  the  ball 
struck  him  in  the  nose,  which  made  him  snort  and  charge  around  at  a  terrible  rate.  I  then 
reloaded  my  gun,  and  as  he  stood  broadside  to  me,  shot  him  through  the  heart.  He 
certainly  was  the  largest  animal  of  the  bear  kind  I  ever  saw,  and  I  yet  think  he  would 
have  weighed  600  pounds.    He  had  eight  inches  solid  fat  on  the  ribs. 

"We  skinned  and  quartered  him,  carried  him  to  our  camp,  then  carried  in  the  she  bear 
we  had  killed  on  the  branch,  hung  up  all  our  meat,  went  home  after  a  wagon,  and  hauled 
home  about  sixteen  hundred  pounds  of  the  finest  meat  I  ever  saw  in  one  heap.  We  for- 
got the  bees  and  made  a  bear  hunt  of  it  that  time,  although  we  afterwards  camped  at 
the  same  place  and  got  a  barrel  of  honey. 

A  Hunt  for  Young  Elks. 

"In  May,  1822,  James  Leeper,  Henry  Ashby  and  myself  started  with  four  milch  cows 
and  calves,  intending  to  catch  young  elks.  The  first  day  while  driving  along  a  high  prairie 
ridge  we  saw  a  large  red  buck  on  a  low  bottom  near  a  branch,  feeding  quietly  about  a  half 
mile  distant.  I  told  the  boys  to  stay  there  and  I  would  go  and  try  to  kill  him.  I  left  my 
horse  for  them  to  bring  on  as  the  deer  was  on  the  way  we  were  going.  I  went  down  the 
side  of  the  ridge  out  of  sight  of  the  deer,  and  went  behind  the  ridge  and  crept  up  in 
close  shot  of  him,  about  sixty  yards.  The  buck  having  lain  down  I  stamped  the  ground 
until  he  arose,  when  I  shot  him,  and  he  ran  some  seventy  or  eighty  yards  and  fell  dead. 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  877 

"I  was  behind  the  ridge  from  my  companions  when  I  shot  and  when  they  came  up 
they  exclaimed  that  it  was  the  'best  shot  they  had  ever  seen.'  'Nothing  extra,'  said  I.  "Why," 
said  one,  'the  deer  was  over  one  hundred  yards  away  from  you  and  running  as  fast  as  he 
could,  and  you  brought  him  down  at  the  crack  of  the  gun.  Do  you  not  call  that  an  extra 
shot?'  I  then  understood  it.  The  distance  to  them  was  so  far  that  they  did  not  hear  the 
report  of  the  gun  until  they  saw  the  buck  fall.  This  explained  it.  The  buck  was  fat  and 
we  skinned  him,  taking  the  greater  part  of  him  with  us.  The  ne.xt  day  as  we  were  going 
through  a  large  prairie,  we  saw  a  buck  lying  on  a  hillside,  and  I  said  I  could  kill  him  from 
where  we  were.  The  others  thought  it  too  far.  I  jumped  off  my  horse  and  sat  down  in 
the  grass  and  shot  off  of  my  knee.  At  the  crack  of  my  rifle,  which  carried  a  half-ounce 
ball,  the  deer  kicked  over.  We  went  over  to  skin  it  and  while  there  we  discovered  a 
bear  coming  toward  us.  The  other  two  proposed  that  they  would  run  it  on  their  horses, 
as  it  was  some  distance  to  the  timber.  I  told  them  that  I  would  not  run  my  horse  after  it, 
but  as  it  was  coming  toward  us  and  had  a  large  hollow  to  cross,  I  would  go  and  try  to 
get  a  shot  at  it,  and  they  might  run  it  as  much  as  they  wanted  to.  When  I  saw  the  bear 
was  coming  toward  us,  I  went  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  and  waited  until  it  came  within 
about  eighty  yards  of  me.  when  I  gave  a  sharp  whistle,  at  which  it  stopped  and  I  fired.  At 
the  shot  he  ran  about  too  yards  up  the  creek  and  fell.  The  boys  had  in  the  meantime 
stripped  their  horses  of  all  their  baggage  and  were  mounted  ready  for  the  race;  at  the 
crack  of  the  rifle,  here  they  came  at  full  speed.  I  pointed  up  the  branch  the  way  the  bear 
had  run  and  away  they  went  until  they  came  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  that  overlooked  all  the 
ground  about  them,  stopped,  looked  every  way  but  saw  no  bear.  After  muttering  awhile 
they  turned  and  rode  slowly  back  to  me,  where  I  was  reloading  my  rifle.  'You  stopped 
the  race,  didn't  you?'  said  one  of  them.  'Ah,'  said  I,  'I  did  not  like  to  see  you  run  your 
horses.'    We  then  went  down  to  the  bear,  which  was  a  two-year-old  in  good  order. 

A  Hospital  in  the  Woods. 

"The  third  day  we  got  to  a  grove  on  a  small  branch  which  to  this  day  is  called  Henry's 
grove.  We  remained  here  ten  days  finding  plenty  of  old  elks,  but  no  fawns,  as  we  were 
too  early.  We  decided  to  remain  there  until  we  could  get  fawns,  but  my  brother,  Henry 
Ashby,  was  taken  violently  ill  with  bilious  fever.  I  saw  he  was  going  to  have  a  bad  spell, 
his  fever  depriving  him  of  his  reason.  I  got  Leeper  to  go  home,  some  eighty  miles,  and 
bring  a  wagon  in  which  to  haul  brother  Henry  home.  I  happened  to  have  a  thumb  lance 
in  my  pocket  and  when  the  fever  would  get  very  high  I  would  bleed  him  freely  in  the  arm, 
which  had  a  tendency  to  allay  the  fever.  I  spent  as  lonesome  nights  as  any  poor  fellow 
ever  did.  There  lay  my  brother  out  of  his  head;  I  had  no  person  to  speak  to  and  did  not 
know  what  moment  he  might  die.  I  shall  never  forget  those  lonely  nights.  In  fact  I 
would  have  been  glad  to  have  seen  the  wildest  Indian  come  to  my  camp.  The  ground  had 
got  so  hard  that  I  made  a  cot  for  my  brother  out  of  a  bear  skin,  by  driving  down  four 
forks  and  placing  poles  in  them,  and  with  bark  lashed  in  between  these  poles  I  stretche-i 
the  bear  skin  and  made  a  very  comfortable  cot,  which  afforded  brother  Henry  great  relief. 

"There  was  a  very  small  bluish  opossum  that  lived  in  a  hollow  hickory  tree  about 
forty  yards  from  my  camp,  that  would  come  creeping  up  to  the  camp  once  or  twice  a  day 
to  get  some  bacon  rinds  I  would  throw  him.  He  would  look  at  me  very  cunningly  and 
walk  to  the  rind  cautiously,  pick  it  up  and  retrace  his  steps  slowly  to  his  hole,  where  he 
would  eat  the  meat  skins. 

"One  day  before  Henry  was  taken  sick  I  walked  up  a  bushy  ridge.  It  was  slowly 
raining,  and  while  I  walked  along  I  espied  before  me  a  huge  bear,  coming  directly  toward 
me.  I  jerked  my  rifle  up  to  my  face  and  just  then  the  bear  discovered  me  and,  raising  on 
his  hind  feet,  he  stood  as  straight  as  a  man.  I  drew  my  sight  at  his  side  and  fired.  He 
let  himself  down,  ran  some  sixty  yards  and  fell  dead.  When  I  came  to  him  I  found  he 
was  poor,  with  his  skin  a  yellowish  color,  and  for  some  reason  smelt  bad.  The  carcass 
was  utterly  worthless. 

"While  Leeper  was  gone  I  concluded  to  milk  one  of  our  cows  that  we  had  with  us, 
but  having  never  done  such  a  thing  I  feared  I  would  make  a  failure.  Leeper  and  my 
brother  were  both  good  milkers  and  attended  to  that  work,  but  though  I  could  not  milk. 


878  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

yet  I  was  very  fond  of  the  milk,  and  so  one  morning  I  decided  to  milk  at  least  our  gentlest 
cow.  So  I  took  the  bridle  which  had  steel  bits  and  a  small  tin  bucket  and  went  out  to 
the  pen  where  we  had  them.  I  had  one  old  cow  that  I  knew  was  quite  gentle,  so  I  let  her 
calf  out  of  the  pen,  and  while  it  was  sucking  put  the  bridle  about  its  neck  and  pulled  it 
away,  fastening  it  to  a  bush.  I  then  began  milking,  but  I  suppose  I  squeezed  the  old  cow's 
teat  the  wrong  way,  as  she  kicked  the  tin  bucket,  nearly  filled  with  milk,  out  of  my  hand. 
This  vexed  me  so  that  I  took  the  bridle  from  the  calf  and  struck  the  cow  a  hard  blow 
with  it,  doing  no  damage  except  to  break  the  steel  bits  in  two.  I  gave  up  the  milking 
business  in  disgust. 

"On  the  third  day  Leeper  returned  with  a  wagon,  in  which  he  had  a  bed  and  bed 
clothing.  I  was  very  glad  to  see  him,  for  I  had  not  slept  an  hour  during  the  three  nights 
he  was  absent. 

"The  next  morning  by  sunrise  we  started  home,  traveling  as  fast  as  the  team  could 
stand,  and  on  the  second  day  got  to  my  house,  where  we  found  Dr.  Folger  awaiting  our 
arrival.  He  had  with  him  jugs,  mugs  and  bottles,  but  whether  they  did  any  good  or  not, 
Henry  soon  recovered,  with  no  serious  results  except  to  have  spoiled  our  elk  hunt." 

Land  of  the  Bee  Trails. 

"The  Forks''  of  Grand  river  was  a  country  abounding  in  wild  honey.  When 
the  first  frosts  came,  people  living  along  the  Missouri  river  put  barrels  and 
buckets  into  their  wagons  and  started  up  the  Grand  river  valley  for  the  annual 
harvest  of  sweetness.  So  many  of  them  came  that  they  made  roads  which 
were  known  as  "bee  trails."  Arriving  at  the  Forks  the  hunters  went  into  camp 
and  remained  until  their  barrels  were  full.  One  party  told  of  finding  six  trees 
within  300  feet  of  their  camp  on  West  Grand  river.  In  a  single  day  they  filled 
their  barrels  and  had  fifty  gallons  left  over.  They  made  a  trough  for  the 
surplus,  covered  it  with  another  trough  and  buried  the  honey  in  the  ground  in- 
tending to  come  after  it  in  the  spring,  but  did  not  return. 

The  finder  of  a  bee  tree  cut  his  initials  on  it,  or  made  his  mark  with  notches. 
That  established  ownership.  To  cut  down  a  bee  tree  thus  claimed  was  no  better 
than  theft.     The  trees  yielded  from  one  to  twenty  quarts  of  honey. 

The  best  bee  story  told  in  Macon  county  came  from  the  experience  of  Wil- 
liam Morrow,  from  whom  Morrow  township  derived  its  name.  Mr.  Morrow 
was  riding  in  the  Chariton  bottom  when  he  came  on  an  unusually  fine  swarm  of 
bees  hanging  to  the  limb  of  an  elm.  He  had  plenty  of  bees  at  home  but  he 
could  not  resist  the  temptation  and  let  this  swarm  escape  him.  Without  any- 
thing of  ordinary  character  in  which  to  carry  the  bees,  Mr.  Morrow  hit  upon  an 
extraordinary  expedient.  He  stripped  himself  of  his  trousers,  tied  the  bottoms 
of  the  legs  together,  held  the  seat  open  and  gently  lowered  the  branch  to 
M'hich  the  bees  were  attached  into  the  trousers.  Then  he  closed  the  waistband 
and  carried  the  bees  home. 

Coming  of  the  Bees. 

A  story  told  of  Madame  Chouteau  is  that  she  received  a  present  of  a  comb 
of  honey  from  a  friend  in  Kaskaskia.  At  that  time  bees  were  not  known  in 
St.  Louis.  Madame  Chouteau,  with  her  usual  enterprise,  made  inquiries  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  honey  was  produced.  She  was  told  that  the  bees  were 
a  kind  of  fly.  Thereupon  she  sent  a  faithful  negro  man  to  Kaskaskia  with  a 
small  box  in  which  to  bring  a  pair  of  the  bees  that  she  might  raise  others  and 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  •  879 

produce  honey.  John  Bradbury,  the  scientist,  heard  this  story  in  St.  Louis  in 
1810.  He  says  before  1797  bees  were  scarcely  known  west  of  the  Mississippi 
but  in  181 1  the  wild  swarms  had  spread  as  far  west  as  six  hundred  miles  up  the 
Missouri  from  St.  Louis.  The  Indians  had  a  theory  that  the  bees  preceded 
white  settlements  and  that  wherever  the  bees  were  found,  white  settlers  might 
be  expected  shortly.  Madame  Chouteau  was  persistent.  She  did  not  rest  satis- 
fied until  there  were  bees  in  her  garden.    She  had  the  first  colony  in  St.  Louis. 

The  "Yellow  Boys"  of  Grand  River. 

Honey  was  so  plentiful  in  the  Harrison  county  section  of  the  Grand  river 
country  that  it  became  a  leading  article  of  barter.  The  pioneers  loaded  a  wagon 
with  honey  and  beeswax  and  sent  it  eighty  miles  to  Liberty  to  trade  for  coffee, 
tea,  salt,  calico  and  ammunition.  Beeswax  was  made  into  cakes  and  given  the 
name  of  "yellow  boys."  These  cakes  passed  as  currency  among  the  settlers, 
usually  on  a  basis  of  twenty-five  cents  a  pound.  It  is  tradition  that  occa- 
sionally these  beeswax  cakes  were  adulterated.  A  settler  came  to  trade  one 
day  and  offered  a  beeswax  cake,  the  corner  of  which  broke  off  exposing  a  filling 
of  tallow.  His  counterfeit  was  handed  back  to  the  settler  who  was  boycotted 
by  his  neighbors,  none  of  whom  would  handle  his  beeswax.  Worse  than  that, 
the  small  creek  on  which  the  counterfeiter  of  beeswax  lived  was  given  the  name 
of  "The  Tallow  Fork  of  Beeswax." 

Of  entirely  different  stripe  were  most  of  these  Grand  river  settlers.  When 
.St.  Joseph  came  into  its  own  as  a  trading  point,  the  settlers  went  there  with 
their  honey  and  beeswax  and  pelts.  It  was  twenty-five  miles  nearer  than  Liberty. 
The  Grand  river  currency  soon  established  itself  in  the  new  trade  center,  and 
St.  Joseph  merchants  came  to  have  complete  confidence  in  the  settlers.  In  the 
days  when  Robert  W.  Donnell,  afterwards  a  banker  in  New  York,  kept  store 
in  St.  Joseph  one  of  these  Grand  river  settlers  wanted  more  goods  than  the 
produce  he  had  brought  with  him  would  cover.  He  said  to  "Bob"  Donnell  that 
if  he  would  let  him  take  the  goods  then  he  would  agree  to  bring  him  at  a  cer- 
tain time  a  barrel  of  honey.  Donnell  trusted  the  settler  who  told  his  wife  of  his 
good  fortune  and  began  to  hunt  for  the  honey.  He  had  undertaken  a  contract 
that,  as  he  went  from  hollow  tree  to  hollow  tree  listening  for  the  humming 
of  bees,  he  found  was  going  to  be  hard  to  fill.  He  kept  up  the  search  by 
moonlight.  He  got  his  barrel  of  honey  but  was  so  long  about  it  that  he  could 
not  get  to  St.  Joseph  until  the  time  was  up  and  that  was  on  Sunday.  As  he 
entered  the  town  and  found  the  stores  closed  he  made  inquiry  for  Donnell  and 
was  told  the  merchant  had  gone  to  church.  There  the  settler  followed  and 
entered  just  as  the  minister  was  beginning  his  sermon.  He  stood  at  the 
door  and  called  out  to  the  minister,  "Halloo,  stranger,  will  you  just  hold  for  a 
minute,  I  want  to  inquire  if  Bob  Donnell  is  in  the  house."  Donnell  heard  and 
walked  to  the  door.  The  settler  addressed  him  loudly,  "Well  Bob,  I  have 
brought  you  that  barrel  of  honey." 

The  authority  for  this  Harrison  county  tradition  adds:  "At  this  every 
one  in  the  house  laughed,  but  the  honest  settler  felt  a  proud  consciousness  of 
having  made  good  his  financial  obligation  that  no  mirth  could  remove.     Since 


880  .  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

that  time  the  reputation  of  the  Grand  river  settlers   for  promptness  and  the 
punctual  performance  of  promises  had  been  good." 

The  Export  of  Beeswax. 

In  the  Grundy  county  section  of  the  Grand  river  country  the  export  of 
beeswax  became  of  such  importance  to  the  early  settlers  that  whole  neighbor- 
hoods would  join  in  bee  tree  hunts.  For  a  considerable  period,  the  beeswax 
was  of  more  value  than  the  honey.  The  method  was  to  locate  a  hollow  tree  and 
listen  to  the  buzzing.  If  this  indicated  a  large  colony  of  bees,  the  tree  was  cut 
down,  the  wax  was  squeezed  out  of  the  comb  and  the  honey  was  allowed  to 
run  out  on  the  ground.  Large  quantities  of  honey  were  left  on  the  ground  for 
the  bees  to  gather  and  store  in  another  tree.  The  wax  was  made  into  cakes  of 
what  became  a  standard  size  in  the  trade.  These  cakes  were  hauled  to  various 
trading  posts  and  used  in  barter  for  goods  wanted  by  the  settlers.  Glasgow, 
Richmond  and  Brunswick  were  among  the  places  to  which  the  Grand  river 
beeswax  was  taken  for  trade.  Horses  were  scarce  in  the  forties.  These  pioneers 
used  oxen  and  the  farmer  of  that  generation  prided  himself  on  having  yokes  of 
oxen  well  matched. 

The  departure  of  an  ox  team  with  a  load  of  beeswax,  pehs  and  vension  for 
one  of  these  Missouri  river  towns,  perhaps  one  hundred  miles  away,  was  a  great 
event  for  the  neighborhood  from  which  the  start  was  made.  The  hogs  intended 
for  market  were  driven  slowly  behind  the  wagon  and  allowed  to  feed  on  acorns 
along  the  way.  In  good  seasons  they  brought  as  much  as  two  cents  a  pound 
when  they  reached  the  market  town.  On  the  return  trip  the  wagon  brought 
a  load  of  sugar,  whiskey,  turpentine,  powder,  tin  cups  and  other  household 
goods.  From  si.xty  to  seventy-five  cents  a  hundred  was  the  rate  for  hauling 
these  goods  up  the  Grand  river  valley  from  Glasgow,  Richmond  and  Brunswick. 

In  Caldwell  county  there  is  a  stream  of  water  known  as  "Poor  Tom's 
Creek."  A  party  of  honey  hunters  in  the  early  days  found  an  unusual  number 
of  bee  trees.  They  had  come  a  considerable  distance  from  Ray  county  and 
were  hungry  for  the  sweet.  One  of  them  over-indulged  and  had  an  attack  of 
what  was  then  called  "honey  founder."  He  made  so  much  disturbance  through- 
out the  night  that  his  father  sat  up  with  him,  and  as  the  young  man  groaned 
the  father  would  say  sympathetically,  "Poor  Tom."  The  other  hunters  were 
kept  awake  most  of  the  night.  They  suggested  a  dose  of  turkey  oil  and  other 
remedies.  But  "Poor  Tom's"  suffering  went  on  all  night.  In  the  morning  he 
was  better.  When  the  party  broke  camp,  somebody  with  a  view  to  subse- 
quent visits  asked  the  name  of  the  creek  and  was  told  it  had  never  been  named. 
"Well,  let's  call  it  'Poor  Tom's  Creek,'  and  that  was  the  christening. 

Secret  of  Honey  Hunting. 

Sam  Cole,  the  son  of  the  historic  Hannah  Cole  of  Hannah's  Fort  had  his 
own  way  of  locating  bee  trees.  He  could  find  honey  even  in  winter,  when  there 
was  no  buzzing  to  guide  the  hunter.  On  a  Christmas  day,  Sam  came  to  the 
camp  of  Joseph  Stephens  near  what  is  now  Bunceton  and  was  invited  to 
stay  to  dinner.  He  asked  Mrs.  Stephens  if  she  had  some  honey  and  when  she 
said  she  didn't  Sam  said  he  couldn't  eat  dinner  without  honey.     Larry  and 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  881 

Joseph,  two  of  the  Stephens  boys,  with  Basil,  a  negro,  came  in  from  cutting 
wood.  Sam  asked  them  to  go  with  him  and  get  some  honey  for  dinner.  They 
thought  he  was  joking  but  finally  agreed  to  go.  Sam  guided  them  out  into 
the  woods  about  six  hundred  feet  and  pointed  to  a  tree  to  be  cut  down. 
There  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  it  was  a  bee  tree  so  far  as  the  boys  could 
tell,  but  they  cut  it  down  and  found  the  hollow  part  filled  with  honey.  While 
the  boys  were  at  work  on  the  first  tree  Sam  showed  them  another  which  turned 
out  as  well.  The  boys  took  back  to  the  house  six  buckets  of  honey.  And  then 
Sam  gave  them  the  secret.  He  said  the  way  was  to  examine  carefully  the 
ground  at  the  bottom  of  a  tree.  If  there  were  found  small  bits  of  bee  bread, 
and,  perhaps,  a  dead  bee  or  two,  that  was  a  sure  sign  of  a  bee  tree.  The  Stephens 
boys  applied  this  rule  and  found  thirteen  bee  trees  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
their  camp.  It  has  been  handed  down  as  a  family  tradition  that  the  Stephens 
family  had  as  much  as  400  pounds  of  honey  at  a  time  in  their  cabin. 

A  Missouri  Munchausen. 

Missouri  hunting  stories  were  niar\elous  enough  without  invasion  of  the 
realm  of  fiction,  but  General  Amos  Burdine  of  St.  Charles  county  did  not  seem 
to  think  so.  He  lived  on  Dog  Prairie.  He  said  he  shot  a  buck  one  day  and  that 
the  animal  was  killed  so  suddenly  it  did  not  fall  down  but  remained  standing 
until  the  general  went  up  and  pulled  it  over  by  the  ear.  He  said  he  was  on 
Cuivre  river  one  day  when  he  saw  a  fine  deer  across  the  river  and  a  fine 
turkey  sitting  in  a  tree  just  over  the  deer.  He  had  a  single-barreled  gun  and 
wanted  to  get  both  the  turkey  and  the  deer;  so  he  dropped  another  bullet  into 
the  gun,  fired  at  the  turkey  and  instantly  dropped  the  barrel  so  that  the 
other  bullet  brought  down  the  deer.  As  he  waded  the  creek  to  get  his  game, 
he  caught  a  mess  of  fish  in  the  seat  of  his  trousers  and  went  home  with  venison, 
turkey  and  fish.  Another  time,  the  general  said  he  found  himself  out  of 
bullets  while  hunting.  He  had  in  his  pocket  several  shoemaker's  awls.  He 
dropped  these  into  the  gun  and  shot  at  three  deer  in  a  group.  Two  of  the  deer 
he  killed  and  the  third  he  pinned  to  a  tree  with  one  of  the  awls.  This  deer 
he  took  home  alive.  Burdine  told  of  having  killed  one  of  the  last  of  the 
buffaloes  in  Missouri.  It  was  a  cold  day.  He  skinned  the  buffalo,  rolled  the 
fresh  hide  about  him  and  took  a  nap.  When  he  awoke  the  hide  had  frozen 
and  the  general  was  a  prisoner  until  he  rolled  down  hill  and  stmck  a  warm 
spring  which  thawed  him  out. 

General  Burdine  once  gave  his  theory  as  to  the  manner  in  which  to  survey 
the  distance  across  Cuivre  river.  He  said :  "The  surveyor  first  gets  an  obliga- 
tion across  the  stream  and  sticks  down  his  compass.  Then  he  leanders  up  or 
down  the  river,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  gits  anuther  obligation  from  that ;  then 
he  leanders  back  to  the  first  obligation  and  works  it  out  by  figgers.  It's  simple 
enough,  and  I  could  do  it  myself,  although  I  don't  know  a  thing  about  figgers." 

Notwithstanding  his  inclination  to  romance,  Burdine  got  the  reputation  of 
being  a  very  successful  hunter.  His  home  was  equipped  with  fur  beds  as  well 
as  fur  clothing.  He  was  so  good  a  mimic  of  the  screams  of  panthers  and  the 
howls^of  wolves  that  he  used  them  to  scare  deer  from  the  thickets  and  hiding 
places  when  he  was  hunting.     He  even  deceived  people  with  these  imitations 


882  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  scared  a  party  of  hunters  on  one  occasion  so  that  they  ran  their  horses 
from  his  vicinity.  The  story  is  told  that  the  tremors  from  the  New  Madrid 
earthquake  rattled  the  boards  on  the  roof  of  Burdine's  cabin  in  St.  Charles  so 
that  the  general  thought  the  Indians  were  up  there  trying  to  get  in.  The  gen- 
eral aroused  his  sons  and  they  fired  through  the  roof  until  they  riddled  it. 
Burdine  had  a  custom  of  branding  his  cattle-in  the  forehead  with  a  hot  shoe 
hammer  and  when  neighbors  questioned  him  about  the  selection  of  this  imusual 
place  to  apply  the  brand  he  told  them  that  it  kept  the  witches  from  killing  the 
cattle. 

The  Temptation  of  "Jimps." 

Uncle  James  Dysart  of  North  Missouri  was  a  famous  hunter  and  at  the 
same  time  a  religious  man.  He  would  go  out  with  the  young  fellows  for  a 
hunt  but  would  insist  on  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  Uncle  James  had  a 
son  familiarly  known  as  "Jimps,"  who  inherited  his  father's  love  of  the  chase 
and  who  became  a  widely  known  Presbyterian  preacher.  On  one  of  the  hunt- 
ing trips  Sunday  came  and  Uncle  James,  as  usual,  conducted  devotions.  While 
his  father's  eyes  were  closed,  Jimps  heard  the  hounds  give  note  of  a  trail. 
He  believed  he  knew  just  where  the  deer  would  cross  the  branch  and  stole  away 
leaving  his  father  at  prayer.  There  was  the  sound  of  a  rifle.  After  awhile 
Jimps  came  back  into  camp  and  hung  up  on  a  limb  a  fresh  saddle  of  venison. 
The  father  looked  at  him  reproachfully  and  said:     "Jimpsy !  Jimpsy!  Jimpsy !" 

"Father,"  said  Jimps,  "No  deer  is  going  to  run  over  me  in  the  path  if  it  is 
Sunday  morning." 

The  story  lived  and  followed  the  young  preacher  wherever  he  went. 

Setting  sharpened  stakes  where  the  trails  showed  that  deer  jumped  the 
fences  was  a  way  the  boys  had  to  secure  fresh  meat  when  age  or  scarcity  of 
ammunition  forbade  the  use  of  the  rifle.  It  was  effective,  too.  Many  a  supply 
of  venison  was  laid  in  by  this  device  which  impaled  the  deer. 

Major  William  J.  Morrow,  an  old  settler  of  Macon,  said  that  from  the  early 
frosts  until  springtime,  his  smokehouse  was  never  without  from  two  to  six 
saddles  of  venison. 

Good  Sport  After  a  Century. 

Good  bunting  in  Missouri  has  outstayed  the  century  of  statehood.  At  eighty- 
three  years,  Nomian  J.  Colman  was  still  taking  his  annual  hunt.  He  had  not 
missed  the  sport  in  forty  years  except  for  the  four  years  he  was  secretary  of 
agriculture  at  Washington.  And  he  was  still  finding  game  in  plenty.  Along 
the  Gasconade  he  had  shot  deer  until  about  1890.  Then  he  had  been  in  suc- 
cessful drives  on  the  Osage,  and  still  later  the  sport  was  fine  in  Butler,  Ripley, 
Oregon  and  adjacent  counties.  Mr.  Colman  said  his  party  had  never  shot  less 
than  six  deer  on  one  of  their  hunts  and  from  that  the  number  had  run  up  to 
fifteen  in  the  two  or  three  weeks  given  to  the  hunt.  "Down  on  the  borders 
of  Arkansas,-"  he  said,  "along  the  Black  river,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Big 
Eddy,  in  the  Irish  Wilderness,  everywhere  there  is  game  to  be  found,  we 
have  hunted.    From  what  I  hear  about  our  old  stamping  grounds,  the  deer  are 


MIGHTY  HUNTERS  OF  MISSOURI  883 

just  as  plentiful  this  fall  as  ever,  and  the  game  law  is  being  observed  in  a  way 
that  will  provide  Missourians  with  lots  of  sj)ort  in  the  years  to  come." 

Sixty-five  years  of  successful  hunting  nearly  all  of  it  in  Missouri,  Charles 
G.  Gonter,  veteran  newspaper  man,  had  to  his  credit.  He  had  nature  stories 
without  number  based  on  his  experiences  in  the  Missouri  woods.  Once  he 
was  on  a  stand  waiting  for  the  hounds  to  bring  a  deer  his  way  when  a  flock 
of  wild  turkeys  came  close  by  to  feed  on  the  grapes  in  a  wild  grape  arbor. 

"I  was  just  making  up  my  mind  that  I  would  take  a  shot  at  the  big  gobbler, 
and  also  gather  in  some  of  the  others  so  as  to  make  sure  of  game  even  if  the 
deer  did  not  come  my  way,  when  that  old  gobbler  did  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able things  I  ever  saw..  The  turkeys  had  eaten  all  the  grapes  on  the  ground 
and  within  reach  on  the  vines,  but  apparently  they  were  not  satisfied.  Mr. 
Gobbler  looked  about  as  if  studying  the  matter  over  as  to  what  he  ought  to 
do.  He  finally  flew  up  into  the  grapevines,  and  almost  immediately  there  was 
the  greatest  fluttering  you  ever  heard.  What  do  you  suppose  that  gobbler  was 
doing?  He  was  in  the  thickest  part  of  the  grape  bunches  and  beating  them  with 
his  wings  until  he  had  knocked  dowm  more  than  enough  for  all  of  the  birds  he 
bad  with  him.  I  was  so  amazed  at  it  that  I  didn't  think  about  shooting  at 
them  until  they  had  had  their  fill  and  had  flown  away.  I  told  you  I  didn't  expect 
vou  to  believe  it  but  I  saw  it  and  I  know  it." 


MONUMENT  ON  THE  PASEO  AT  KANSAS  CITY 
'In  memory  of  August  Robert  Meyer,  first  president  of  Park  Commission  of  Kansas  City" 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
THE  :\IAKING  OF  A  CITY 

IVestport  Landiiiij — Pioneer  McCoy's  Recollections — A  Germination  That  Was  Unique — 
Kansas  City  Just  Sixty-five  Years  Ayo — The  First  Business  Review — Wonderful  Stride 
of  a  Four-Ycar-Old — As  a  Woman  Saw  the  Bluffs — The  Year  of  the  Boom — Specula- 
tive Conditions  Without  Precedent — And  Then  the  Days  of  Depression — After  that 
Rational  Philosophy — Two  Pillars  of  Lasting  Prosperity — Packing  House  and  Park 
System — Amazing  Sights  in  the  Bottom — Fascinating  Scenes  on  the  Bluffs — //  Remi- 
niscence of  "P.  D." — Beginning  of  Boulevards — Topographical  Eccentricities — "Little 
Hyde  Park,  a  Primary  Lesson" — Policy  of  Maximum  Frontage — The  Financial  Plan 
— Years  of  Legislation  and  Litigation — Defeat  of  the  First  Project — The  Taxpayer 
Converted — Penn  Valley  and  Roanoke  Park — The  Problem  of  Cliff  Drive — Gillham 
Road  and  the  Kesslcr  Idea — Natural  Grades  Disturbed  as  Little  as  Possible — Effect, 
on  Population  and  Values — The  Kansas  City  Principle  of  Assessments — Cost  and  Profit 
— Congestion  Banished — Development  of  the  Playgrounds — What  Recreation  Centers 
Have  Done  for  Neighborhoods — Effect  of  the  System  on  Expansion — A  Gridiron  of 
Boulevards — Kansas  City  by  Night — Standard  of  Residential  .Irchitccture  Raised — 
7/u'  Local  Nomenclature — Ambassador  Bryce  on  Sxvope  Park — Thomas  H.  Benton's 
Prophecy— Kesslcr  on  the  Ideal  City  Plan — The  Community  United — Kansas  City  Still 
in  the  Making — Epics  in  Prose  and  Rhyme. 

You  have  developed  a  site  of  natural  charm  into  a  beautiful  city.  *  *  *  If  I  c<  nclude  to  write 
a  book  on  American  cities  I  will  get  my  inspiration  from  this  beautiful  city  of  yours. — -James  Bryce,  Ambas- 
sador to  lite   United  States  from   Great  Britain. 

The  first  paj>er  read  before  the  Old  Settlers  Historical  Society  in  187 1  was 
by  John  C.  McCoy.     It  described  the  site  and  the  beginning  of  Kansas  City : 

"A  clearing  or  old  field  of  a  few  acres  lying  on  the  high  ridge  between  Main  and 
Wyandotte,  and  Second  and  Fifth  streets,  made  and  abandoned  by  a  momitain  trapper. 
A  few  old,  girdled,  dead  trees  standing  in  the  field,  surrounded  by  a  dilapidated  rail  fence. 
Around  on  all  sides  a  dense  forest,  the  ground  covered  with  impenetrable  brush,  vines, 
fallen  tiinber  and  deep,  impassable  gorges.  A  narrow,  crooked  roadway  winding  from 
Twelfth  and  Walnut  streets,  along  down  on  the  west  side  of  the  deep  ravine  toward 
the  river,  across  the  public  square  to  the  river  at  the  foot  of  Grand  avenue.  A  narrow, 
difficult  path,  barely  wide  enough  for  a  single  horseman,  running  up  and  down  the  river 
under  the  blufT,  winding  its  way  around  fallen  timber  and  deep  ravines.  An  old  log  house 
on  the  river  bank  at  the  foot  of  Main  street,  occupied  by  a  lank,  cadaverous,  specimen  of 
humanity,  named  Ellis,  with  one  blind  eye  and  the  other  on  the  lookout  for  stray  horses, 
straggling  Indians  and  squatters,  with  whom  to  swap  a  tincup  of  whisky  for  a  coonskin. 
Another  old,  dilapidated  log  cabin  below  the  Pacific  depot.  Two  or  three  small  clearings 
and  cabins  in  the  Kaw  bottom,  now  called  West  Kansas  City,  which  were  houses  of 
French  mountain  trappers.  The  rest  of  the  surroundings  was  the  still  solitude  of  the 
native  forest,  unbroken  only  by  the  snort  of  the  darting  deer,  the  barking  of  the  squirrel, 
the  howl  of  the  wolf,  the  settler's  cow-bell  and  mayhap  the  distant  baying  of  the  hunter's 
dog,  or  the  sharp  report  of  his  rifle. 

887 


888  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"The  treaties  between  the  United  States  government  and  the  Osage  and  Kansas  Indians, 

ratified  in  1825,  extinguished  the  Indian  title  to  all  the  country  lying  in  Western  Missouri, 
and  what  is  now  the  State  of  Kansas,  except  the  reservation  for  these  two  tribes  situated 
in  the  latter  state.  These  treaties  opened  the  border  counties  lying  in  Missouri  territory 
for  the  settlements  of  the  whites,  and  the  people  were  not  slow  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
privilege.     Consequently  in   1825  the  first  settlers  entered  this  county. 

"Fort  Osage  (Sibley),  situated  on  the  river  near  the  northeast  corner  of  the  county 
of  Jackson,  was  established  in  1803  by  Meriwether  Lewis,  the  first  governor  of  Louisiana 
after  its  purchase,  and  continued  as  a  military  and  trading  post  until  the  country  was 
settled.  Before  1825,  Francis  Chouteau,  father  of  P.  M.,  and  brother  of  Cyprien  Chouteau, 
both  now  of  Kansas  City,  had  a  trading  post  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river  about  three 
miles  below  the  city.  In  1826  every  vestige  of  his  improvements  was  swept  away  by  the 
great  flood  which  occurred  in  the  Missouri  river  that  year.  This  flood  made  a  clear  sweep 
of  all  the  improvements  situated  in  the  bottoms,  but  was  no  higher  than  that  of  1844 — 
and  this  reminds  me  that  perhaps  P.  M.  Chouteau,  the  present  city  collector,  is  the  oldest 
resident,  still  living,  in  this  county,  although  not  an  old  man.  The  county  seat  was 
located,  and  the  town  of  Independence  begun  in  1827.  When  I  passed  through  the  town  four 
years  afterward,  the  square  was  thickly  studded  with  stumps  of  trees.  Westport  was 
laid  off  into  lots  in  1833,  J.  C.  McCoy,  proprietor.  Westport  Landing  was  situated  about 
three  miles  north  of  the  town,  on  the  river,  and  has  grown  to  be  a  place  of  considerable 
importance.  A  town  was  laid  off  there  which  was  named  Kansas  City  first  in  the  year 
1839,  but  the  proprietors  of  the  ground  disagreed  in  some  particulars  and  the  town  made 
but  little  progress  until  1847,  when  it  was  laid  out  on  a  larger  scale  a  second  time  (not 
with  a  grapevine),  since  which  time  it  has  been  increasing  with  varying  prospects." 

Archives  of  the  Missouri  Valley  Historical  Society  establish  quite  clearly 
that  Kansas  City  did  not  receive  its  title  from  either  the  territory  or  the  state 
of  that  name.  The  settlement  was  at  first  "The  Town  of  Kanzas";  next,  "The 
City  of  Kansas,"  and  finally  "Kansas  City."  What  is  now  the  state  of  Kansas 
was  a  part  of  Nebraska  territory  when  "The  Town  of  Kanzas"  had  its  begin- 
ning. "KawsiTiouth"  was  the  name  bestowed  by  the  early  and  unofficial  geog- 
raphers on  the  group  of  cabins  in  what  is  now  "West  Bottoms." 

Kansas  City's  Unbounded  Faith  in  1867. 

Alliert  D.  Richardson,  in  his  "Beyond  the  Mississippi,"  pictured  Kansas  City 
as  he  saw  it  in  1857.  He  traveled  to  Jefferson  City  by  rail  and  from  there  by 
boat,  the  journey  requiring  two  days. 

"Kansas  City  perching  on  a  high  bluff,  commanding  a  fine  view  of  the  river  for  miles 
below,  was  a  very  important  point — in  a  neck-and-neck  race  with  Leavenworth  and  St. 
Joe  for  the  rich  prize  of  the  great  commercial  metropolis. of  the  Far  West.  In  front  of 
the  town  the  broad  bowldered  landing  sloping  down- to  the  water's  edge  presented  a  con- 
fused picture  of  immense  piles  of  freight,  horse,  ox  and  mule  teams  receiving  merchandise 
from  the  steamers,  scores  of  immigrant  wagons,  and  a  busy  crowd  of  whites,  Indians,  half- 
breeds,   negroes  and  Mexicans. 

"There  were  solid  brick  houses  and  low  frame  shanties  along  the  levee,  and  scat- 
tered unfinished  buildings  on  the  hill  above,  where  'the  Grade'  was  being  cut  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet  deep,  through  abrupt  bluffs.  Carts  and  horses  wallowed  in  the  mud  of  these 
deep  excavations;  and  the  houses  stood  trembling  on  the  verge  as  if  in  fear  of  tumbling 
over.  Drinking  saloons  abounded,  and  everything  wore  the  accidental,  transition  look  of 
new  settlements. 

"But  there  was  much  stir  and  vitality,  and  the  population,  numbering  two  thousand, 
had  unbounded,  unquestioning  faith  that  here  was  the  city  of  the  Future.  A  mile  and  a 
half   from  the  river  building  lots  one  hundred  feet  by  fifty  were  selling  at  from  $300  to 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  889 

$700.     Lots  three  blocks  from  the  landing  commanded  $1,000,  and  a  single  warehouse  on 
the  levee  rented  for  $4,000  per  annum." 

Of  the  original  thirteen  Kansas  City  townsite  owners  in  1838,  sons  or 
daughters  of  three  were  still  living  in  the  city  in  1920.  They  were  the  descend- 
ants of  John  C.  McCoy,  John  Campbell  and  Jacob  Ragan.  This  was  the  record 
as  kept  by  Mrs.  Nettie  Thompson  Grove,  secretary  of  the  Missouri  Valley  His- 
torical Society. 

In  the  hall  of  the  Missouri  Valley  Historical  Society  hang  the  portraits  of 
"The  Fighting  Ragans."  Jacob  Ragan,  one  of  the  original  thirteen  townsite  in- 
corporators of  Kansas  City,  was  a  soldier  in  the  War  of  1812.  His  father  was 
a  soldier  in  the  Revolution.  Stephen  Carter  Ragan  was  in  the  Confederate 
army.  Stephen  H.  Ragan  was  in  the  Spanish-American  war.  Walter  and  Ste- 
phen Ragan  were  in  the  World  war. 

The  Germination  of  Kansas  City. 

Kansas  City  had  its  germination  after  a  manner  wholly  its  own.  Its  be- 
ginning was  a  first  movement  of  the  get-together  spirit  which  has  been  char- 
acteristic of  the  community  and  to  which  it  owes  its  greatness. 

"You  see,"  said  Dr.  W.  L.  Campbell,  bom  in  Westport,  son  of  the  commo- 
dore of  a  fleet  of  prairie  schooners  which  navigated  the  Santa  Fe  Trail  in  1855, 
"Kansas  City  didn't  originate  as  a  country  crossroads  town  with  a  store  and  a 
blacksmith  shop  and  a  couple  of  houses.  It  missed  that  sort  of  history  which 
attaches  to  most  frontier  towns.  Standing  here  at  the  junction,  it  was  always 
a  wholesale  center,  not  just  a  growing  retail  town.  Rents  were  high,  too.  What 
a  rent  Colonel  Titus  must  have  paid  for  his  gambling  house — a  big  three-story 
place  furnished  like  a  palace,  down  at  Main  street  and  the  Alton  tracks ! 

"There's  another  thing,"  Dr.  Campbell  went  on,  talking  to  the  Star  reporter, 
some  years  ago.  "This  never  was  known  as  Westport  Landing.  That's  an 
erroneous  impression  that  has  gotten  abroad.  It  was  Kansas  City.  That's  the 
way  the  founders  named  it.  The  founders,  fourteen  of  them,  met  in  the  tavern 
of  William  D.  Evans,  Lot  i,  Block  i.  Old  Town, — that's  the  germinal  lot  of 
Kansas  City.  That's  where  the  town  was  born  really.  There  the  tavern  stood 
on  the  southeast  corner  of  Main  street  and  the  Levee.  It  ought  to  be  marked. 
One-eyed  Ellis  was  the  chairman  of  the  meeting.  That  was  his  only  claim  to 
celebrity,  too,  except  that  he  sold  remarkably  bad  whisky  to  the  Indians." 

Kansas  City,  Just  Sixty-five  Years  Ago. 

What  Kansas  City  was  in  1855  and  how  it  had  grown  in  four  years,  the 
Journal  of  Commerce  told  in  May,  1859.  The  retrospect  was  presented  with 
that  spirited  humor  and  community  pride  characteristic  of  Kansas  City  news- 
papers from  the  beginning: 

"In  October,  1855,  when  we  first  took  charge  of  this  paper,  there  was  a  population 
of  478,  all  told,  within  the  city.  The  levee  consisted  of  a  'chute'  dug  in  the  bank  in  front 
of  the  warehouses  of  W.  H.  Chick  &  Co.  and  McCarty  &  Buckley.  The  Eldridge  house 
(now  old  Gillis  House)  ground  entrance  was  in  the  present  second  story,  and  the  only 
Street   in  the  'city'  was  a  common   country   road,  which   wound  round   the   bluff   into  the 


890  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

ravine  below  Market  street  (Grand  avenue),  and  followed  the  windings  until  it  struck  the 
divide  south  of  McNees'  mill.  The  principal  products  of  the  city  were  dog  fennel  and 
Jamestown  weed. 

"The  business  consisted  solely  of  the  Santa  Fe  shipping  trade  and  the  like  business  for 
the  annual  trains  of  the  mountain  men  and  Indian  traders.  The  local  trade  was  carried 
on  principally  with  the  Wyandotte  Indians  and  the  people  living  in  the  classic  shades  of 
'Gooseneck.' 

"The  citj'  authorities  consisted  of  mayor,  our  present  active  officer,  assisted  by  a  board 
of  city  fathers,  who  had  the  delectable  task  of  disposing  of  the  contents  of  an  empty 
treasury  at  the  rate  of  $0.00  per  day.  The  august  assemblage  was  waited  upon  in  the  real 
Kentucky  style  of  doing  the  dignified,  by  ex-Marshal  Howe,  who  carried  the  financial 
budget  of  the  city  in  his  hah 

"It  was  thus  we  entered  the  campaign  of  1856.  At  this  date,  Michael  Smith,  street 
contractor,  had  straiglitened  the  river  end  of  the  road  into  Market  street,  and  under  one 
of  the  cornfield  engineers,  of  whom  we  have  had  such  bright  examples,  had  commenced 
excavating  at  the  bottom  of  the  ravine  on  Main  street — but  still  there  was  no  street. 

"In  1856  a  brief  season  of  activity  set  in  which  was  soon  stopped  by  the  frosts  of  the 
Kansas  troubles,  which  paralyzed  all  business  and  enterprise  and  stagnated  every  branch 
of  trade.  This  state  of  affairs  continued  until  the  close  of  the  season,  and  when  the  spring 
of  1857  opened  there  had  been  but  little  if  any  real  advances  made  in  the.  city. 

"The  bluffs  still  towered  over  the  landing;  np  streets  were  cut  through;  no  cross 
streets  were  contemplated.  Under  all  these  depressing  circumstances,  with  no  foreign 
capital  to  assist  us,  with  active  competition  above,  below  and  behind  us,  with  an  empty 
exchequer  and  no  resources  from  which  to  replenish  it  to  any  extent,  our  citizens  boldly 
entered  upon  a  system  of  improvements  of  a  magnitude  never  equaled  by  any  city  built  in 
the  world.  It  is  now  twenty-four  months  since  the  work  begun,  eight  of  which  were 
closed  to  operations  by  frosts  of  winter  and  twelve  of  them  under  the  financial  pressure 
occasioned  by  the  crisis  of  1857,  and  what  is  the  result? 

"A  city  of  eight  thousand  inhabitants,  a  list  of  mercantile  houses  surpassing  that  of 
any  Missouri  river  town,  a  trade  larger  than  any  city  of  her  size  in  the  world;  with  four 
streets  cut  through  the  bluffs,  cross  streets  opened  and  opening  for  eight  squares  from  the 
river;  a  whole  town  built  up  outside  of  her  original  limits  (McGee's  addition),  containing 
the  longest  continuous  block  of  buildings  west  of  St.  Louis;  an  entire  new  business  locality 
excavated  out  of  the  bluff,  and  built  up  with  solid  and  substantial  buildings  in  the  center 
of  the  city ;  the  crest  of  our  'seven  hills'  covered  with  private  residences ;  roads  constructed 
into  the  interior,  and  the  best  levee  on  the  Missouri  river.  All  this  has  been  done  since 
the  first  day  of  May,  1857,  without  a  dollar  of  outside  capital  to  assist  us,  and  with  the 
money  made  by  the  business  of  the  city  itself. 

"We  will  have  in  operation  in  a  short  time  a  bank  with  a  capital  of  $250,000,  and 
before  August  a  second  with  like  capital ;  insurance  offices  that  do  a  larger  business  than 
any  institution  of  the  kind  in  the  upper  country;  a  city  treasury  able  by  the  present 
assessment  to  pay  every  dollar  held  against  it;  private  bankers  that  have  their  drafts 
honored  in  any  city  of  the  Union  or  Europe,  and  a  solid  and  substantial  mercantile  credit 
from  Boston  to  New  Orleans.", 

Such  was  Kansas  City's  first  woiuk-rful  stride  in  municipal  progress. 

A  Woman's  First  Impression. 

Her  first  impression  of  Kansas  City,  as  she  saw  it  in  1857,  Mrs.  Percival 
Gaugh.  widow  of  tlie  pioneer  architect,  gave  a  newspaper  man  in  1897:  "Well, 
when  I  landed  from  the  boat  and  gazed  at  the  frowning  blufifs,  I  thought  it  was 
the  most  forlorn  and  uninviting  spot  I  had  ever  seen.  The  levee  was  crowded 
with  white  covered  wagons,  to  which  were  harnessed  the  most  dimunitive  mules, 
while  the  hideous  faces  of  the  Mexican  'greasers'  made  me  shudder.     There  was 


HOME  OF  JAMES  McGEE,  FIRST  BRICK  HOUSE  IX  JACKSON'  COUNTY 


•.*     -^7^  i.-^^.  -'C:^- 


KANSAS  CITY  IX  1852 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  893 

only  one  road  that  led  up  to  the  top  of  the  bluff.  The  first  house  that  I  lived 
in  was  on  the  bluff  overlooking  the  river,  and  we  climbed  up  there  on  long 
steps.  My  only  neighbor  was  Mrs.  Chouteau,  who  had  lived  on  the  frontier  all 
her  life  and  seemed  quite  contented.  I  wondered  what  Mr.  Gaugh  would  ever 
accomplish  in  his  profession  here.  It  surely  would  be  many  years  before  a 
building  of  any  size  would  be  built.  But  it  was  not  long  before  I  was  sur- 
rounded with  neighbors,  avenues  were  opened,  stores  began  to  multiply,  churches 
were  erected  and  the  dream  of  the  Kansas  City  enthusiast  seemed  a  fixed  fact. 
Then  the  war  came  on  and  there  was  a  gloomy  outlook  for  a  few  years,  but 
when  it  ended  houses  sprang  up  as  if  by  magic,  hills  and  hollows  began  to  dis- 
appear and  the  whole  contour  of  the  city  soon  changed." 

The  Year  of  the  Whereas. 

About  1 89 1  an  expressive  phrase  was  coined  to  meet  a  situation  in  Kansas 
City  almost  without  a  parallel.  Somebody  inquired  after  the  financial  standing 
of  John  Smith.  "John  Smith?"  somebody  else  replied.  "Oh,  he  is  a  'whereas.' " 
The  phrase  was  in  common  use.  A  whereas  was  a  man  who  had  had  a  mortgage 
on  a  piece  of  real  estate  foreclosed.  Sales  as  advertised  under  the  mortgage 
began,  "Whereas,  John  Smith,  by  his  certain  deed  of  trust,"  and  so  on  and  so 
on.  The  man  who  had  become  a  whereas  had  no  occasion  to  feel  lonesome  in 
Kansas  City.  There  were  many  "whereases."  For  Kansas  City  was  going 
through  the  process  of  settlement  after  one  of  the  greatest  real  estate  booms 
in  the  history  of  this  country. 

In  the  winter  and  spring  of  1887  the  transactions  were  enormous.  Kansas 
City  had  1,500  real  estate  agents.  Everybody  dabbled  in  the  business.  Fifty 
dollars  capital  was  enough  to  begin  with.  Options  flew  about  thicker  than  snow- 
flakes.  Who  would  sit  on  a  stool  and  add  up  long  columns  of  figures,  sell  goods 
behind  a  counter  or  drive  a  street  car  when  there  were  hundred  dollar  snaps 
to  be  picked  up  every  day  ?  Speculation  was  in  the  air.  The  city  had  gone  mad. 
"If  you  went  around  to  a  lawyer's  office  to  see  him  about  a  case  the  chances 
were  you  found  his  head  was  full  of  some  real  estate  deal,"  said  ex-Senator 
Warner.  Everybody  caught  it,  and  almost  ever\-body  "caught  on"  for  more  or 
less  profit.  But  in  May  and  June  of  1887  the  speculative  demand  began  to 
diminish.  In  July  the  real  estate  market  of  Kansas  City  was  dead.  People  who 
held  property  encouraged  each  other  by  saying:  "This  is  only  the  summer 
dullness."  They  forgot  that  the  fever  had  run  its  course  through  the  previous 
years  without  regard  to  seasons.  In  August  there  was  general  anticipation  that 
the  coming  of  President  Cleveland  would  be  the  signal  for  the  revival  of  the 
boom.  But  October  brought  a  crowd  without  any  interest  in  corner  lots.  The 
winter  opened  and  still  there  was  no  real  estate  market.  The  sanguine  said: 
"It  will  be  all  right  in  the  spring."  But  it  wasn't.  The  year  of  '88  wore  away, 
and  then  another  and  another  without  any  more  boom. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  speculation  quite  like  this  stand  against 
adversity  made  by  Kansas  City  real  estate  holders.  Rents  fell  off.  A  building 
which  was  good  for  an  income  of  $24,000  during  the  boom  was  doing  well  if 
it  held  up  to  $17,000.  With  each  succeeding  six  months  the  meeting  of  the  inter- 
est on  mortgages  became  more  difficult.    These  were  the  best  men  of  Kansas  City 


894  CEXTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

who  then  ckmg  to  their  holdings,  and  wore  themselves  out  waiting  for  the  up- 
ward rise.  If  ever  hope  sprang  eternal  in  the  human  breast  it  was  right  here 
in  Kansas  City  from  '87  to  '91.  Ex-Mayor  R.  H.  Hunt  said  that  to  him  the 
most  deplorable  feature  of  the  four  years  of  hard  times  in  Kansas  City  real 
estate  had  been  the  spectacle  of  men  heroically  holding  back  the  onward  march 
of  the  sheriff's  red  flag.  "The  most  enterprising  and  the  most  public  spirited  of 
our  citizens,"  he  said,  "sufFered  most  during  this  period.  They  refused  to  let 
go  of  property,  and  met  their  interest  charges  even  while  it  was  a  certain  loss 
to  do  so.     They  grew  old  and  broken  in  carrying  their  burdens. 

\\'hen  the  Kansas  City  boom  was  in  its  wildest  stage  Matt  St.  Clair  went 
abroad,  leaving  behind  him  this  prophecy :  "We've  got  a  good  many  men  in 
this  city  who  think  they  are  rich.  I  predict  that  when  the  winds  blow  next 
March  there  will  be  more  ragged  millionaires  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kaw  than 
anywhere  else  on  the  continent."  Mr.  St.  Clair  miscalculated  the  nerve  of  his 
fellow-citizens.  The  boom  collapsed.  But  the  holders  of  alleged  business  prop- 
erty still  wanted  as  much  for  it  as  they  did  in  1887.  The  government  bought  a 
block  of  ground  for  a  new  Federal  Building.  The  site  was  about  three  hundred 
feet  square.     The  government  paid  $450,000  for  the  block. 

The  Philosophical  Spirit. 

Kansas  City  doesn't  want  another  boom.  Dr.  Munford,  at  the  time  of  the 
collapse,  put  it  tersely:  "The  boom,"  said  he,  "brought  an  immense  amount 
of  money  to  Kansas  City.  It  left  us  w^ith  magnificent  buildings,  paved  streets 
and  transportation  facilities.  But  it  was  not  a  good  thing  for  us.  The  city's 
true  growth  is  where  you  find  the  banker  in  his  bank,  the  attorney  at  his  office, 
the  merchant  with  his  store:  not  where  everybody  is  wild  over  real  estate. 
Kansas  City  ought  never  to  think  of  another  boom." 

The  editor  was  philosophical  and  in  a  measure  hopeful.  "1  think,"  he  said, 
"we  are  going  through  the  same  process  that  all  cities  have  to  go  through.  We 
are  settling  down." 

Born  of  the  boom's  collapse  was  the  indomitable  spirit  which  led  to  the 
physical  transformation  of  Kansas  City.  In  those  days  of  discouragement  the 
movement  for  parks  and  boulevards  received  its  early  impetus. 

The  fever  comes  and  rages.  It  burns  itself  out.  A  deadening  chill  ensues. 
The  raiiv  follows  and  the  patient's  condition  is  again  normal.  .After  delirium 
is  depression,  and  after  that  health  returns.  Kansas  City  had  her  feverish 
dreams,  and  they  were  wild  ones,  as  aspiring  as  her  hills.  Her  plunge  into 
despondency  was  like  a  slide  down  the  bluff  into  a  pall  of  smoke  which  hangs 
over  the  great  network  of  railroad  tracks  in  "the  bottom"  when  the  wind  does 
not  blow.  And  then  Kansas  City  became  normal.  She  was  more  than  conva- 
lescent.    She  was  able-bodied. 

Sometimes  a  boy  grows  so  fast  it  makes  him  weak.  He  has  a  tired  feeling 
long  before  night.  He  wobbles  after  a  short  run.  The  watchful  mother  soaks 
the  legs  of  such  a  boy  in  salt  water  before  he  goes  to  bed.  She  resorts  to  various 
measures  to  restrain  nature's  excess  of  zeal  in  building  bone  and  tissue  ahead  of 
the  supply  of  nourishing  blood.  Kansas  City  overgrew  until  she,  too,  was  weak. 
There  was  more  city  than  the  developing  arteries  of  trade  could  supply  with 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  895 

vitality.  It  was  necessary  to  stop  and  rest.  But  that  period  was  fulfilled.  Kansas 
City  began  to  grow  again.  It  wasn't  a  boom.  If  there  was  a  word  in  the  English 
language  for  which  Kansas  City  had  no  further  use  it  was  "boom."  As  the 
reformed  man  referred  to  the  time  when  he  sowed  the  wind  and  reaped  the 
whirlwind,  so  Kansas  City  spoke  of  boom  days,  not  boastingly  nor  yet  with  top 
poignant  regret,  but  as  an  experience  which  had  been  a  warning  and  was  not  to 
be  repeated. 

How  Kansas  City  Came  into  Her  Own.  * 

A\  liate\er  the  Kansas  City  seal  is,  it  ought  to  show  a  steer  and  a  pig  rampant 
in  a  feed  lot  on  the  obverse  and  a  fine  collection  of  packing  house  products  on 
its  reverse.  It  ought  to  be  the  business  of  every  public  spirited  citizen  of  Kansas 
City  to  see  that  the  stranger  within  the  gates  goes  through  a  typical  packing 
house  before  he  leaves  town.  A  man  may  think  he  knows  something  of  this 
industry  from  observations  in  other  cities,  but  lie  is  mistaken  until  he  has  visited 
the  largest  building  in  the  world  devoted  to  the  livestock  business  and  tramped 
over  ninety  acres  of  floors  and  followed  a  long  legged,  fifteen-year-old  guide 
through  countless  doors,  up  and  down  stairways  and  along  chutes  and  inclines  by 
the  mile,  for  three  hours  in  an  attempt  to  see  it  all. 

These  packing  house  people  are  immensely  fond  .of  their  plants,  of  the  variety 
of  their  products,  of  the  ingenious  labor-saving  contrivances,  but  more  than  all  . 
of  the  scrupulou*  cleanliness  from  bottom  to  top.     My  lady  can  see  everything 
save  the  bloodletting — she  will  not  care  for  that — from  the  live  calf  to  the  twenty 
varieties  of  soup,  and  she  will  not  soil  the  hem  of  her  garment. 

One  great  mistake  Kansas  City  made  in  the  days  of  her  boom  was  in  reach- 
ing out  for  things  other  cities  had,  while  she  neglected  things  other  cities  had  not, 
and  which  were  hers  by  virtue  of  natural  advantages.  Her  citizens  decided  they 
must  have  a  Manchester,  a  Sheffield,  and  a  Birmingham.  The  fact  that  the  coal 
fields  were  many  miles  away  and  the  ore  still  more  remote  did  not  deter.  Having 
agreed  that  destiny  would  not  be  achieved  until  there  were  furnaces  and  rolling 
mills  and  foundries  in  the  suburbs,  the  boomers  proceeded  to  lay  off  sites,  to 
erect  buildings  and  to  ofter  bonuses.  Money  was  thrown  away  on  such  schemes 
and  much  good  gray  matter  was  exhausted  in  abortive  plans  to  make  of  Kansas 
City  what  her  location  and  surroundings  never  intended  her  to  be.  Had  the 
energy  and  capital  thus  expended  been  directed  to  the  upbuilding  of  industries 
in  which  Kansas  City  is  now  almost  without  competition,  she  would  have  been 
bigger  than  she  is  today. 

Kansas  City  is  to  be  considered  the  natural  center  of  the  meat  industries  of 
the  United  States.  She  is  an  easy  second  to  Chicago  and  year  by  year  creeps 
closer  to  the  first  place.  Chicago  from  the  beginning  has  fostered  her  live  stock 
and  packing  interest  in  every  way.  To  Kansas  City  the  discovery  of  her  posses- 
sion of  this  trump  card  in  the  game  of  western  cities  has  been  almost  a  surprise. 
The  development  has  come  largely  by  force  of  circumstances,  not  altogether  as 
the  result  of  judicious  and  persistent  encouragement.  The  impetus  is  not  forced. 
It  is  natural,  and  nothing  can  prevent  Kansas  City  from  becoming  the  live  stock 
market  of  this  country.    It  is  the  center  from  which  a  radius  of  250  miles  sweeps 


896  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

a  meat-producing  territory  which  has  no  equal,  and  will  have  none  in  generations 
to  come. 

Amazing  Sights  of  the  Packing  Houses. 

What  sense  is  there  in  telling  one  that  a  Kansas  City  packing  house  has  a 
capacity  of  so  many  thousand  hogs  a  day,  unless  he  can  stand  by  the  chute  and 
see  the  carcasses  come  up  through  a  hole  in  the  floor  dangling  by  their  hind 
legs  to  an  endless  chain — big  hogs,  little  hogs  and  medium-sized  hogs,  coming 
into  view  at  the  rate  of  one  every  fifteen  seconds?  As  they  reach  a  certain  height 
down  they  flop  in  quick  succession  between  two  black  giants.  A  blow  of  the 
cleaver  and  they  are  in  halves.  Another  blow  and  they  are  in  quarters,  going  in 
four  different  direction  to  as  many  tables  and  under  the  keen-edged  knives. 
Down  a  half  dozen  chutes  disappears  the  hog,  divided  into  hams,  shoulders, 
sides,  jowls,  feet  and  sausage  meat. 

How  without  a  visit  to  the  room  of  the  "silver  churn"  can  any  one  appre- 
ciate what  it  is  to  make  100,000  pounds  of  butterine  in  a  day?  One  may  think 
this  is  a  queer  kind  of  dairy,  but  the  maids  who  wrap  the  rolls  and  prints  and 
pats  in  the  whitest  of  cloths  are  as  plump  as  any  who  ever  sat  on  a  three-legged 
milking  stool  and  counted  her  chickens  before  they  were  hatched.  What's  the 
use  of  kicking  after  seeing  2,000  gallons  of  genuine  milk  worked  into  the  product 
to  give  it  the  true  flavor?  After  seeing  and  smelling,  the  average  man  will  take 
his  bread  thankfully  and  never  ask  what  side  of  it  is  butterined. 

It  is  another  sight  to  see  printing  presses  which  use  paint  instead  of  ink  and 
sheets  of  tin  instead  of  sheets  of  paper,  putting  on  the  brands  before  the  cans 
and  buckets  are  made.  The  automatic  machines  which  do  all  but  finish  the  little 
air-tight  receptacles  for  the  deviled  and  potted  meats  are  interesting.  And  the 
comedy  of  all  is  furnished  by  the  sausage  stuffer.  From  the  spout  of  the  great 
tub  of  ground  meat  the  sausage  leaps  half  a  dozen  feet  like  a  thing  of  life.  It 
squirms  and  coils  and  wriggles  as  it  passes  through  the  deft  fingers  which  divide 
it  into  links. 

To  those  who  have  never  been  within,  a  packing  house  is  a  packing  house 
and  nothing  more.  To  those  who  know,  it  is  where  roast  quail  and  roast  plover 
are  prepared,  where  beef  is  braised  as  well  as  dried,  where  bouillon  is  put  up 
in  jugs  and  lamb  tongues  in  jars.  It  means  canned  meats  as  well  as  butterine 
and  twenty  kinds  of  soups.  Starting  in  to  kill  chickens  for  soups,  the  packers 
gradually  drifted  into  the  business  of  killing  and  dressing  chickens  at  the  rate  of 
many  thousands  a  day. 

On  the  pay  rolls  of  the  packing  companies  of  Kansas  City  are  thousands  of 
people.  A  better  civil  service  system  than  the  government  has  yet  devised  op- 
erates in  this  army  of  employes.  The  doors  are  open  to  boys.  Every  year  hun- 
dreds are  taken  in.  They  are  given  a  trial.  If  in  twelve  months  they  show 
capacity  and  ambition  they  are  advanced.  If  they  appear  to  be  mere  human 
machines,  drudges  or  drones,  they  are  promptly  turned  adrift.  This  is  the 
principle  which  runs  through  the  employment  of  all.  It  is  a  rigid  application  of 
the  rule  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  There  is  room  near  the  top  for  every  one 
who  enters  the  service. 


KANSAS    riTV    AT    AX    KAKLV    DAV 


MAIN   sil;i:|.  r,  KANSAS  OTTY.  IN"  lSl!7 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  899 

A  Reminiscence  of  "P.  D." 

The  packing  district  has  its  traditions.  Time  was  when  there  were  several 
members  of  the  Armour  family  active  in  the  conduct  of  the  plant.  Each  Armour 
was  known  familiarly  to  employes  by  his  initials.  "P.  D."  was  the  head  of  the 
house.  One  day,  in  a  distant  city,  he  went  into  an  exposition  building  and  saw 
an  array  of  exhibits  from  his  Kansas  City  plant.  A  young  woman  demonstrator 
was  giving  samples  of  soup  to  a  crowd.  The  old  packer  watched  the  process. 
Seeing  he  was  not  recognized  he  said  to  the  young  woman : 

"It  can't  be  very  good  or  you  wouldn't  be  giving  it  away." 

"We  do  that  for  humanity."  was  the  quick  reply. 

"H'm,"  commented  Mr.  Armour.  "What's  that?"  he  asked,  pointing  to  an 
enlarged  autograph  of  his  own  signature  over  the  booth. 

"That's  Mr.  Armour's  signature,"  replied  the  demonstrator. 

"Why,  I  thought  old  Armour  couldn't  write,"  urged  "P.  D.,"  in  apparent 
surprise. 

"Well,  he's  got  brains,"  retorted  the  young  woman.  "If  I  had  P.  D.'s  brains 
I  wouldn't  care  whether  I  could  write  or  not." 

"P.  D."  smiled  and  passed  on.  In  a  few  minutes  the  Rev.  Dr.  Frank  W. 
Gunsaulus,  who  helped  Mr.  Armour  find  good  ways  to  spend  his  money,  came 
back  to  the  booth  and  handed  the  young  lady  an  envelope  with  a  $50  bill  and 
"P.  D.'s"  compliments. 

The  packing  house  seen  from  the  outside  is  not  a  thing  of  beauty.  It  is  usually 
a  growth.  The  visitor  who  looks  down  from  the  bluff  at  Kansas  City  upon 
the  bottom  may  feel  repelled  by  the  lack  of  architectural  symmetry.  He  sees 
a  white  city,  but  is  depressed  by  the  want  of  esthetic  surroundings.  Once  within, 
the  bad  impression  is  lost  in  admiration  for  the  utility  of  everything.  Out  of  the 
stock  yards  rise  by  easy  inclines  the  covered  driveways.  These  go  to  each  of  the 
packing  houses.  Some  of  them  cross  the  Kaw  river.  Others  are  elevated  above 
the  tops  of  the  houses.  Looking  up  a  street  in'  "the  bottom"  the  visitor  will 
see  through  the  sides  of  the  driveways  the  bunches  of  cattle  moving  slowly  along 
hour  after  hour  from  the  yards  to  the  packing  houses.  At  one  place  a  driveway 
passes  over  not  only  the  street  car  line,  but  the  elevated  road  as  well.  With  each 
bunch  of  cattle  goes  a  driver.  A  complete  record  is  kept  of  all  the  stock  bought, 
and  the  meat  in  the  carcass  can  be  traced  back  to  the  ranch  or  range  whence  it 
was  shipped. 

The  Remakingf  of  Kansas  City. 

When,  in  1893,  Kansas  City  in  earnest  inaugurated  the  movement  to  estab- 
lish a  park  and  boulevard  system  the  first  park  board  said  in  the  report  to  the 
city  government : 

"There  is  not  within  the  city  a  single  reservation  for  public  use. 

"There  has  been  in  our  city  thus  far  no  public  concession  to  esthetic  con- 
sideration. 

"It  would  be  difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  locality  that  can  rival  the  topo- 
graphical eccentricities  of  our  city." 

rhis  indictment  was  sweeping  but  the  counts  were  almost  literally  true.    There 


!)i;o  ci'X'ii'.wi  \i.  iiisrom'  oh'  Missouri 

had  been  some  agitatiun  of  city  improvcmeiii.  There  had  been  sporadic  effort 
toward  what  might  be"  called  landscape  treatment.  Nothing  had  been  accom- 
plished. Overlooking  the  old  Union  depot  site  is  a  very  high  IjIuIT.  Ibc  l«i> 
of  this  was  a  bare  limestone  cliff.  Toward  the  base  a  steep  slope  was  covered 
with  broken  rock  and  soil.  Over  the  edge  of  the  bluff  at  least  two  generations 
of  householders  had  dumped  cinders  and  refuse.  The  cliff'  was  covered  in 
])laces  with  signs  either  painted  upon  the  rock  or  upon  boards  suspended  from 
the_  upper  edge.  The  slope  was  dotted  with  disreputable  looking  shanties  front- 
ing on  narrow  trails.  Such  was  the  face  which  Kansas  City  presented  to  every 
comer  into  the  Union  depot.  The  community  took  note  of  this  condition.  Some 
public  spirited  citizens  asked  George  E.  Kessler  to  design  an  improvement  of 
this  West  Bluff'  in  order  that  the  city  might  present  a  better  first  appearance  to 
the  traveler.  From  the  top  of  the  Union  depot  the  i)lace  was  studied  and  sug- 
gcstions  were  put  on  paper.  But  the  effort  to  redeem  the  West  Bluff  went  no 
farther  until  the  general  plan  of  the  park  and  boulevard  system  was  designed  for 
the  first  park  board  in  1893.  Then  those  early  sk'etchcs  were  utilized  to  make 
the  West  Bluff  what  is  now  West  Terrace. 

P.efore  the  general  plan  of  a  park  and  boulevard  s\steni  was  designed,  Kansas 
City  was  given  two  object  lessons  in  landscaping.  One  illustrated  what  could  be 
done.  The  other  demonstrated  what  was  not  adapted  to  local  conditions.  The 
latter  was  a  restricted  residence  place,  with  gates  at  both  ends,  with  lots  facing 
upon  a  boulevard  controlled  by  the  lot  owners.  This  form  of  improvement  had 
shown  its  popularitv  in  St.  Louis  and  some  other  places.  It  met  with  no  encour- 
agement in  Kansas  City.  The  exclusiveness  did  not  appeal  to  enough  people  to 
till  the  first  of  these  places  and  realty  owners  projected  no  new  ones. 

\'ery  different  was  the  impression  which  "Little  Hyde  Park"  made  on  Kansas 
City.  On  the  South  Side  was  a  tract  of  ground  lying  well  lor  residence  pur- 
poses except  that  near  the  center  of  it  was  a  badly  broken  strip  of  a  few  acres. 
From  the  depression  arose  steep  hillsides,  in  places  showing  the  bare  ledges  of 
limestone.  The  danger  was  that  this  piece  of  bad  ground  would  become  the 
nucleus  of  cheap  improvements  which  would  exercise  a  damaging  influence  on 
the  prices  and  the  settlement  of  surrounding  plateaus.  Several  holders  of  the 
good  ground  combined,  got  control  of  the  broken  place,  and  asked  Mr.  Kessler  to 
design  a  plan  of  treatment  which  would  protect  the  whole  neighborhood.  The 
result  was  the  transformation  of  the  ra\ine  and  its  slopes  into  a  narrow  park  two 
or  three  blocks  long.  The  natural  features. — the  rock  cliff's  and  the  trees  were 
preserved.  W'alks  were  laid  out.  Shrubbery  was  planted.  Seats  were  furnished. 
Roadways  were  built  close  to  the  edges  of  the  narrow  park  so  that  no  houses  pre- 
sented their  rears  to  it.  The  result  was  that  both  frontages  on  "Little  Hyde 
Park"  were  taken  quickly  as  especially  attractive  sites  for  homes  of  good  class 
and  the  whole  surrounding  territory  was  made  desirable  for  the  better  grades  of 
improvements. 

In  a  modest  and  experimental  way  this  improvement  of  one  of  many  broken 
parts  of  Kansas  City  was  the  pioneer  to  the  present  system.  Hyde  Park  was 
designed  as  a  private  enterprise  about  1888.  It  was  taken  into  the  system  and  is 
today  one  of  the  many  "eccentricities"  of  Kansas  City  topography  which  have 
been  chained  together  by  boulevards.     These  rugged  places  have  been  made  little 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  tITV  !i01 

park  centers  from  two  hundred  to  h\e  hundred  feet  wide,  increasing  instead  of 
endangering  the  desirability  and  value  of  all  tlii^ilile  residence  ground  near  them. 
The  miles  of  (lillham  Road  and  the  I'aseo  illustrate  the  influence  of  the  "Little 
Hyde  Park"  object  lesson. 

The  first  board  of  commissioners  described  very  well  the  manner  of  growth 
of  Kansas  City  during  the  period  when  beautification  was  given  very  little  thought. 
The  board  said,  "Our  better  residences  are  largely  planted  in  groups  or  colonies, 
on  certain  sightly  streets  and  in  particularly  charming  localities ;  but  these  colonies 
have  not  spread  out  and  have  not  grown  together.  Between  them  and  around 
them  there  exists  much  land  utilized  for  small  residences,  small  stores  and  mis- 
cellaneous purposes." 

The  Pioneer  Policy. 

Deliberate  judgment  of  those  who  jjlanned  the  original  system  was  for  small 
parks,  for  long  narrow  parks.  The  policy  was  to  obtain  at  the  minimum  of  cost 
the  greatest  possible  length  of  park  and  boulevard  frontage.  Thereby  the  bene- 
fits were  generally  distributed.  The  first  board  and  the  land.scape  architect 
believed  that  such  a  policy  would  bestow  the  greatest  good  on  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  people.  The  Paseo,  Gillham  Road,  the  several  parkways  are  illustrations 
of  this  pioneer  park  and  boulevard  policy. 

The  first  president  of  the  first  park,  board  of  Kansas  City  was  a  practical 
man  with  a  vision.  He  was  August  R.  Meyer.  He  continued  to  head  the  board 
nine  years,  until  he  died.  His  associates  were  Simeon  B.  Arinour.  Adriance  Van 
Brunt,  Louis  Hammerslough,  and  William  C.  Glass.  Fortunately  for  Kansas 
City,  this  board  was  not  disturbed  until  its  work  was  laid  out  and  well  under  way. 
Admitting  all  that  could  be  said  of  its  ruggeclness,  Mr.  Meyer  saw  great  possibil- 
ities in  Kansas  City's  bluiifs  and  valleys.     In  his  first  report  he  said  :   ' 

"Possessing  an  irregular  and  diversified  topograph)'  that  would  lend  itself  readily  to 
improvement  under  the  hand  of  the  landscape  architect,  and  abounding  within  her  own 
limits  in  charming  and  not  infrequently  beautiful  spots,  our  city  has  not  only  so  far  failed 
to  make  use  of  these  advantages,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  desire  on  the  part  of  the  owners 
of  the  land  to  bring  their  lands  into  market  has  resulted  in  destroying  much  of  the 
natural  beauty  of  our  city.  Localities  and  land  that  possess  natural  beauty  of  a  high  order, 
and  there  are  many  such  within  the  city,  points  that  command  rare  and  distant  views  into 
and  beyond  tlie  great  and  fertile  valley  of  the  Missouri,  are  in  the  hands  of  private  in- 
dividuals. Handsome  cliffs  and  bluff's,  interesting  and  charming  ravines,  characteristic  of 
the  country  around  us,  and  which  under  the  treatment  of  the  skillful  landscape  architect 
would  be  susceptible  of  inexpensive  conversion  into  most  valuable  public  reservations, 
becau.se,  by  preserving  in  them  features  of  great  natural  beauty,  they  would,  in  a  measure, 
blend  the  artificial  structure  of  the  city  with  the  natural  beauty  of  its  site,  and  at  the 
same  time  would  supply  recreation  grounds,  are  now  themselves  disfigured  by  shanties  and 
worthless  structures,  and  in  turn  exercise  a  depressing  eflfect  upon  the  value  of  adjoining 
lands,  better  suited  than  they  for  private  uses." 

Today  Kansas  City  realizes,  in  the  words  of  the  landscape  architect,  Mr. 
Kessler,  "that  these  very  topographical  eccentricities  afforded  the  basis  upon 
which  to  form  her  diversified  system  of  parks  and  boulevards.  The  principle 
which  was  adopted  in  the  very  beginning  was  td  follow  nature  as  closely  as 
possible,  to  adapt  the  planning  to  the  natural  conditions." 


902  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

In  his  first  report  Mr.  Meyer  appealed  to  the  moral  sense  of  his  fellow  citi- 
zens: "To  make  tlie  most  of  life  is  the  highest  duty  of  the  individual,  and  to 
permit  and  advance  its  fullest  development  and  enjoyment  is  clearly  the  first  and 
greatest  duty  of  every  nnmicipal  corporation  towards  its  citizens.  Life  in  cities 
is  an  unnatural  life.  It  has  a  tendency  to  stunt  physical  and  moral  growth.  The 
monotony  of  brick  and  stone,  of  dust  and  dirt ;  the  absence  of  colors  with  which 
nature  paints;  the  lack  of  a  breath  of  fresh  air,  write  despair  on  many  a  face  and 
engrave  it  upon  many  a  heart.  How  is  a  poor  man's  boy  to  grow  into  a  cheerful, 
industrious  and  contented  man,  unless  he  can  play  where  play  alone  is  possible, — 
that  is  on  the  green  turf  and  under  waving  trees,  can  take  with  him  into  man- 
hood the  recollections  of  an  innocent,  joyous  boyhood,  instead  of  the  impressions 
of  dirty,  white-faced  and  vicious  gamins,  and  their  and  his  acquaintance  with 
immorality  and  vice." 

Others  who  served  on  the  park  board  during  the  trying  years  until  the  system 
was  fairly  in  operation  and  showing  its  splendid  results  were  Charles  Campbell, 
Robert  Gillham,  William  Barton,  James  K.  Burnham,  J.  V.  C.  Karnes. 

The  park  board  has  had  as  presidents :  J.  J.  Swoflford  from  1901  to  1904 ; 
Franklin  Hudson  from  1905  to  1908;  A.  J.  Dean,  in  1909;  D.  J.  Haff  from  1910 
to  1912;  Henry  D.  Ashley  in  the  year  1912-13;  Cusil  Lechtman,  1913-14. 

Years  of  Legislation  and  Litigation. 

Eight  years  of  legislation  and  twelve  years  of  litigation  carried  the  park  and 
boulevard  system  over  the  paper  stage.  Kansas  City  people  were  talking  about 
parks  and  other  public  improvements  in  1888.  They  formed  a  board  of  free- 
holders and  submitted  the  draft  of  a  new  charter.  The  old  charter  dating  back 
to  1875  was  very  restrictive;  it  tied  the  hands  of  the  people.  The  new  charter 
was  submitted  and  defeated.  Next  year,  in  1889,  another  trial  was  made  and 
a  new  charter  was  adopted.  It  had  an  article  on  "parks,"  but  that  was  not 
effective.  At  the  next  session  of  the  legislature  Kansas  City  tried  to  get  a 
park  law.  But  because  the  law  was  included  in  the  revised  statutes  without  a 
title  it  was  declared  unconstitutional  in  1890. 

The  next  step  was  the  formation  of  the  Municipal  Improvement  Association 
of  Kansas  City  in  1891.  Fifty  public  spirited  citizens  banded  themselves  to- 
gether with  August  R.  Meyer  as  president.  The  definite  purpose  was  the  "im- 
provement of  Kansas  City."  This  body  proposed  amendments  to  the  city  char- 
ter which  were  adopted  in  1892.  The  first  park  board  was  appointed  and 
entered  upon  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  field.  A  report  was  made.  It  looked 
well  on  paper  and  was  highly  commended  by  the  press.  But  the  power  to  go 
ahead  with  practical  work  was  wanting.  Kansas  City  could  not  issue  any  more 
bonds.  The  debt-making  power  of  the  city  under  the  constitution  of  the  state 
was  exhausted  and  more.  A  judgment  against  the  city  had  been  obtained  by 
the  National  Waterworks  company  for  payment  of  the  waterworks  system. 
By  the  old  contract  the  city  had  bound  itself  to  reimburse  the  company  at  the 
termination  of  the  franchise  of  twenty  years  and  the  United  States  court  had 
held  the  city  liable  and  had  given  judgment. 

The  only  way  to  acquire  boulevards  and  parks  was  through  special  assess- 
ment or  taxation  against  benefited  property.    The  supporters  of  the  park  move- 


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THE  MAKIXG  OF  A  CITY  DOS 

mcnt  went  to  the  legislature  a  second  time  and  prucined  the  passage  of  an  elal)- 
orate  act  giving  the- city  power  to  form  districts  and  to  assess  lienefits.  The 
act  went  far  beyond  the  new  city  charter  framed  by  freeholders  under  section 
i6,  article  IX.  of  the  state  constitution.  It  was  practically  an  amendment  of  a 
freeholders'  charter."  Would  it  stand  in  the  courts?  The  park  board  didn't 
know.  .\  friendly  suit  was  brought  under  the  first  attempt  to  condemn  land. 
This  test  was  of  far-reaching  importance  not  alone  to  Kansas  City.  It  involved 
construction  of  the  state  constitution  as  regarded  all  freeholders'  charters. 

"Up  to  tliat  time."  said  Delbert  j.  Haff.  who  had  charge  of  the  litigation  for 
the  park  board,  "our  supreme  court  had  held  uniformly  that  notwitlistanding 
jhe  provisions  of  the  constitution  of  the  state  which  authorized  St.  Louis  to 
frame  a  charter  for  its  own  government  and  which  authorized  other  cities  of  the 
state  having  a  population  of  loo.ooo  or  more  to  frame  and  adopt  similar  char- 
ters and  to  amend  such  charters  in  the  same  manner,  this  constitutional  pro- 
vision did  not  prohibit  the  legislature  from  passing  laws  which  would  repeal 
or  amend  the  charters  of  such  cities,  known  as  'freeholders'  charters.'  In  other 
words,  the  supreme  court  had  established  a  doctrine  that  the  constitutional  pro- 
visions did  not  intend  to  establish  an  imperium  in  imperio,  that  is,  did  not  intend 
to  establish  a  kingdom  within  a  kingdom,  or  a  separate  government  that  would 
be  independent  of  the  legislature  of  the  state. 

"There  was  always  a  difference  of  oi)inion  among  tlic  inember.s  of  the  .'iuprenie  court 
as  to  the  meaning  of  this  provision  of  the  constitntion.  and  Mr.  James  O  Broadhead  of 
St.  Louis,  who  framed  this  provision,  and  under  which  St.  Louis  adopted  its  charter  inde- 
pendent of  other  cities  of  the  state,  always  maintained  that  the  purpose  of  said  constitu- 
tional provision  was  to  make  such  cities  self-governing — to  give  them  local  self-government 
— and  that  the  legislature  had  no  authority  to  tamper  with  the  charter  of  St.  Louis  and 
for  the  same  reason  could  .not  amend  or  repeal  provisions  of  the  charter  of  Kansas  City, 
in  matters  of  purely  local  and  municipal  concern.  As  soon  as  the  act  of  1893  was  adopted, 
the  park  board  of  Kansas  City  brought  a  suit  for  the  condemnation  of  park  lands  in  order 
to  test  the  validity  of  the  act.  This  case  reached  the  supreme  court  at  the  same  time 
and  at  the  same  session  as  did  the  case  of  Murnane  vs.  City  of  St.  Louis  and  was  argiicd 
and  submitted  on  the  same  day.  Shortly  afterward,  the  supreme  court  handed  down  an 
opinion  definitely  deciding,  by  a  vote  of  four  to  three,  that  the  legislature  of  the  State  of 
Missouri  is  prohibited  by  sections  16  and  20  of  article  IX  of  the  constitution  of  Missouri 
from  enacting,  amending  or  repealing  any  charter  provisions  of  the  cities  of  St.  Louis  and 
Kansas  City  relating  to  their  local  affairs  and  that  special  acts  of  the  legislature  of  the 
state  for  the  improvement  of  streets  and  to  condemn  or  otherwise  obtain  land  for  park 
roads,  boulevards,  etc..  are  incompatible  with  the  charters  of  said  cities  and,  therefore, 
unconstitutional  and  void,  and  that  such  matters  can  only  be  regulated  by  the  charters  of 
said  cities  adopted  by  the  people  in  the  manner  pointed  out  in  article  IX  of  the  con- 
stitution." 

Genesis  of  the  Kansas  City  Park  Law. 

This  decision  of  the  supreme  court  seemed  on  its  face  like  a  knockout  for 
the  park  board.  In  reality  it  was  the  best  thing  that  could  have  hapix-ned.  It 
cleared  the  way  for  the  next  step  and  furnished  the  legal  foundation  on  which 
Kansas  City  proceeded  to  create  the  system,  meeting  and  overcoming  the  great- 
est opposition  ever  put  up  in  Missouri  against  public  improvements.  The  coun- 
sel  for  the  park   board   immediately  drafted   an   amendment   to   the   charter  of 


906  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Kansas  City.  He  made  it  broad  and  comprehensive,  embodying  the  powers 
which  the  park  board  had  learned  by  long  study  were  necessary  if  their  elabo- 
rate plans  on  paper  were  to  be  spread  all  over  Kansas  City.  This  amendment 
went  through  at  a  special  election  in  the  spring  of  1895.  It  has  become  known 
all  over  the  country  as  "the  Kansas  City  park  law."  It  has  been  pronounced 
by  jurists  to  be  "the  most  complete  practice  act  ever  adopted  in  Missouri."  It 
has  stood  the  test  of  all  the  courts,  for  as  soon  as  the  park  board  began  to  con- 
demn property  suit  after  suit  was  brought  against  it  and  carried  lo  the  highest 
court.  Some  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the  state  were  retained  by  property  own- 
ers before  the  opposition  was  overcome.  They  tried  by  every  means  known  to 
the  profession  to  invalidate  the  law  and  failed.  It  was  well  said  of  Mr.  Haflf 
by  an  expert,  "He  took  as  an  ingredient  a  crystallized  public  sentiment  in  favor 
of  a  park  system  and  made  an  adamantine  law  which  withstood  all  attacks." 

The  property  owners  kept  up  the  litigation  five  years  until  at  last  the  fruits 
of  the  movement  became  apparent  when  all  opposition  died  out  and  other  parts 
of  the  city  began  to  call  insistently  for  extension  of  the  system.  Up  to  1914 
Kansas  City  had  expended  $13,813,929  in  the  acquisition,  improvement  and 
maintenance  of  these  parks  and  parkways,  every  dollar  of  which  had  been  raised 
by  special  assessment,  with  the  single  exception  of  one  bond  issue  of  $500,000, 
which  was  used  in  improvements,  and  an  annual  appropriation  by  the  city 
treasury  for  the  payment  of  the  general  expenses  of  the  board.  This  latter 
appropriation  has  varied  in  amount  from  $25,000  to  $75,000  per  year. 

The  litigation  was  even  carried  into  the  United  States  courts,  in  the  effort  to 
upset  the  charter  amendment  or  park  law.  The  decision  there  sustained  the 
Kansas  City  principle.  The  Federal  judges  held  that  parks  were  local  improver 
ments  for  public  use  of  a  character  recognized  as  conferring  such  benefits  in 
the  increased  value  of  lands  within  the  neighborhood  or  locality  of  the  park  as 
to  justify  special  assessments  against  the  private  property  to  pay  for  the  land 
condemned  for  such  purpose.  Such  assessments  were  not  taxes  within  the 
meaning  of  the  constitution  establishing  a  maximum  rate  of  taxation. 

The  litigation  was  in  the  end  beneficial  to  the  park  movement.  It  resulted 
in  establishing  the  validity  of  every  proceeding.  When  the  assessments  became 
collectible,  every  recourse  against  them  had  been  exhausted.  Naturally,  there- 
fore, the  certificates  which  were  offered  in  the  market  found  ready  purchasers  at 
a  high  premium,  yielding  not  only  enough  funds  to  pay  the  purchase  price  of  the 
park  lands,  but  a  large  surplus  in  each  case  which  went  into  the  park  fund  of 
each  district  for  the  improvement  of  the  parks  as  they  were  acquired. 

Mr.  Hafif  was  a  Michigan  University  graduate.  President  Angell  liked  to 
keep  his  vision  on  the  young  men  he  turned  out  of  Ann  Arlror.  Mr.  Haff  had 
written  him  of  the  early  efforts  to  make  Kansas  City  a  better  place  for  residence. 
One  day  President  Angell  stopped  off  between  trains.  He  didn't  notify  Mr. 
Haff,  but  he  hired  a  cabman  to  give  him  a  two  hours'  view  of  the  boulevards. 
The  cabman  had  learned  the  city  in  the  pre-park  era.  The  only  boulevard  he 
knew  was  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  city.  This  boulevard  was  so-called 
because  it  was  a  few  feet  wider  than  the  average  street.  Away  went  the  cab 
with  the  university  president  uphill  and  downhill  until  he  reached  this  alleged 
boulevard  bordered  by  feed  stores,  belt  line  switches,  coal  yards  and  a  varied 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  907 

assortment  of  small  business  enterprises.  The  limestone  dust  was  a  half-inch 
thick.  The  occasional  struggling  trees  were  gray  with  it.  Some  months  later  the 
good  president  and  the  energetic  counsel  for  the  park  board  met.  The  short 
stopover  was  mentioned. 

Had  the  president  seen  the  boulevard  system,  Mr.  Hafif  asked. 

Yes,  the  president  had  seen — a  boulevard. 

Mr.  Haff  waited  for  conmients.  The  president  was  reticent.  It  required 
effort  to  reach  an  understanding.  Since  that  time  things  have  changed.  No 
visitor  to  the  city  could  now  repeat  President  Angell's  experience. 

Sturdy  continuous  support  by  the  press  of  the  city  helped  in  the  attainment 
of  present  results.  But  when  all  factors  are  considered  there  is  one  which  is 
accorded  a  very  higii  place.  It  is  the  genius  of  George  E.  Kesslcr  for  this  kind 
of  work.  Kessler  made  Kansas  City  beautiful.  Kansas  City  made  Kessler 
famous. 

Born  in  Frankenhausen,  Germany,  Kessler  received  his  early  educational 
training  in  public  and  private  schools  of  the  United  States.  He  finished  under 
private  tutors  in  the  polytechnic  schools  at  Charlottenburg.  The  Art  School  at 
Weimar  and  the  University  of  Jena  gave  him  proficiency  in  engineering,  for- 
estry and  botany.  Returning  to  this  country,  Kessler  engaged  in  the  general 
practice  of  his  chosen  profession, — landscape  engineering.  For  ten  years  he 
developed  private  estates  and  residential  districts  in  Baltimore,  Cleveland  and 
other  cities.  He  took  up  the  forestry  experiments  and  kindred  lines  for  Mr. 
Nettleton  and  his  associates  in  the  Kansas  City,  Fort  Scott  and  Gulf  Railroad, 
now  part  of  the  Frisco  system.  Such  was  the  foundation  which  Kessler  laid  for 
his  great  work  in  Kansas  City.  For  ten  years  before  his  real  work  there  was 
begun  he  was  studying  and  talking  the  possibilities  of  making  Kansas  City^ 
something  more  than  a  commercial  metropolis  on  hills  and  hollows.  Kessler 
was  born  to  landscape  art,  just  as  James  B.  Fads  was  to  the  engineering  pro- 
fession. Kessler  had  much  the  temperament  of  Eads.  He  was  suave  under  try- 
ing circumstances,  tireless,  original  in  his  ideas,  a  mixer  with  scientists,  with  cap- 
italists and  with  officials  of  every  degree,  inspiring  all  with  confidence  in  his 
judgment  on  landscape  matters.  He  was  in  at  the  first  of  the  park  and  boule- 
vard movement.  He  was  the  landscape  architect  of  the  park  board.  At  later 
dates  twelve  cities  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  from  Cincinnati  to  Denver,  re- 
tained Kessler  in  an  advisory  capacity  for  their  developing  park  and  boulevard 
work. 

The  Landscape  Theory  Which  Wrought  Wonders. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  fact  about  Kessler's  work  was  the  ready  use  he 
made  of  conditions  as  he  found  them.  Another  landscape  architect  might  have 
moved  small  mountains  to  make  levels  and  gentle  slopes  in  these  Kansas  City 
parks.  Kessler  took  clifT  and  bluflf  as  the  master  landscape  architect  made  them. 
He  even  accepted  the  abandoned  quarry  and  storm-worn  gully.  He  encour- 
aged grass  and  foliage  to  grow.  He  moved  not  a  cubic  yard  of  dirt  if  he  could 
avoid  it.  Penn  Valley  was  one  of  the  most  rugged  patches  on  the  topography 
of  Kansas  City.  The  real  estate  owner  had  added  raggedness  to  ruggedness. 
Kessler  came  with  his  covering  of  sod  for  the  bare  places,  his  artistic  screens  of 


f)08  CEXTHXXIAL  HISTORY  Ol'  MISSOURI 

shrubbery  and  his  clumps  of  trees.  He  created  vistas  and  emphasized  view- 
points. He  found  room  for  nearly  five  miles  of  park  drives,  without  crowding 
or  paralleling,  in  a  space  one-tenth  that  of  Forest  Park  in  St.  Louis. 

A  depression,  part  ravine  and  part  valley,  divided,  disfigured  and  depre- 
ciated the  southern  residence  section.  It  wj\s  somebody's  "branch"  when  there 
was  no  Kansas  City.  The  depression  was  taken  out  of  private  possession  by 
condemnation.  At  a  cost  of  half  a  million  dollars  the  park  board  acquired  this 
strip  of  irregular  width,  including  the  bottom  and  sides  of  the  depression  from 
summit  to  summit.  Where  200  feet  width  would  do  this,  no  more  was  con- 
denmed.  U'here  600  feet  was  necessary  to  include  all  of  the  depression,  so 
much  was  condemned.  The  cheap  houses  and  shacks  were  swept  out.  Keeping 
away  the  graders,  preserving  the  natural  lines,  Kessler  laid  out  winding  drive- 
ways the  two  and  one-half  miles"  length  of  the  strip.  .\nd  this  became  (iillham 
Road.  On  the  map  it  is  the  oddest-shaped  combinatit)n  of  park  and  boulevard 
to  be  found.  It  extends  from  the  edge  of  the  business  district  in  a  zigzag, 
winding  course  southward  through  some  of  the  best  residence  neighborhoods  to 
a  connection  with  the  Swope  Parkway.  From  the  higher  grounds  on  either 
side  hundreds  of  fine  residences  overlook  Gillham  Road,  \\here  the  strip 
attains  its  maximum  width  of  600  feet  a  small  park  has  been  laid  out,  witli 
paths  and  shelters.  \\"here  the  strip  narrows  the  driveway  occupies  the  bottom 
and  the  slopes  are  lawns. 

Penn  Valley  and  the  Cliff  Drive. 

Penn  Valley  was  one  of  the  most  unattractive  localities.  It  is  south  of  the 
business  center,  on  the  west  side  of  Main  street,  and  out  about  Twenty-sixlh 
street.  Stone  had  been  quarried  in  the  hillside.  Penn  \"allev  was  built  over 
with  a  cheap  class  of  dwellings  in  the  boom  period.  The  old  Santa  Fe  Trail 
passed  through  the  valley  on  the  way  from  river  landing  to  \\'estport.  To  trans- 
form the  131  acres  into  a  park  the  board  wrecked  and  removed  310  houses. 
Through  condemnation  proceedings  the  owners  were  paid  $871,000.  The.se 
proceedings  were  contested  by  between  forty  and  fifty  members  of  the  Kansas 
City  bar  and  the  appeal  to  the  supreme  court  was  argued  and  reargued  in  behalf 
of  property  owners  by  a  large  number  of  eminent  counsel.  The  park  movement 
won.  And  when  the  people  realized  what  was  possible  in  Penn  \'alley,  a  vol- 
unteer neighborhood  movement  to  the  southwest  was  started  to  transform  a 
localitx'  unsettled  but  similar  in  its  ruggcdness  to  Penn  Valley.  .\.s  a  result  of 
this  volunteer  action  most  of  the  ground  was  given  by  nearby  property  owners 
to  create  the  beautiful  Roanoke  Park.  A  broken  region  in  the  midst  of  one  of 
the  most  prominent  residence  sections  was  in  danger  of  occupation  by  cheap 
houses  and  small  industries.  It  is  now  a  park,  preserving  and  enhancing  the 
character  of  the  residence  section  surrounding  it. 

When  it  was  proposed  to  create  Cliff  Drive,  which  passes  through  a  highly 
romantic  and  thoroughly  beautiful  region  full  of  surprising  attractions,  the  prop- 
osition was  strongly  opposed.  Officials  of  the  city  were  taken  out  to  see  the  loca- 
tion for  the  proposed  drive.  One  of  them  declared  the  project  impossible.  Pie 
said  that  "a  goat  could  not  climb  along  where  it  was  proposed  to  lay  out  the 
drive."     Another  official  referred  rather  contemptuously  to  this  location  as  "a 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  909 

.s(|uiri-el  pasture."'  And  yet  this  Clift'  Drive  in  the  opinion  of  many  visitors  to 
the  city  is  the  crowning  feature  of  the  system  and  is  unsurpassed  anywhere  else  in 
the  United  States. 

Several  miles  of  perfect  roadway  have  been  built  along  the  face  of  this  bluff 
at  the  timber  line.  The  limestone  cliff  rises  sheer  on  one  side,  the  waving  tree- 
tops  on  the  other.  The  park  board  acquired  this  bold  front  of  Kansas  City, 
buying  a  narrow  strip  between  the  top  and  the  bottom  of  the  bluff,  a  distance  of 
two  miles  and  more,  for  S625,cxx).     This  now  is  North  Terrace  Park. 

The  Method  of  Assessment. 

Within  each  park  district  the  board  by  resolution  selected  the  lands  and 
the  connecting  boulevards.  Recommendations  were  made  to  the  council.  Or- 
dinances were  prepared.  Proceedings  in  the  circuit  court  condemned  the  lands. 
Values  were  fixed  by  juries  and  the  same  juries  assessed  the  benefits  in  specific 
amounts  against  the  land  in  the  park  district.  These  assessments  were  against 
land  only.  To  make  the  assessments  as  easily  borne  as  possible  it  was  provided 
that  they  might  be  paid  in  annual  installments.  Usually  the  period  was  twentj- 
years.  This  enabled  the  property  owner  to  realize  the  benefits  as  he  was  paying 
for  them.  Those  who  desiretl  to  pay  promptly  and  relieve  their  property  of  the 
park  lien  could  do  so  within  sixty  days  after  the  verdicts  of  juries  were  ren- 
dered to  court.  As  the  lands  condemned  could  not  be  taken  until  paid  for. 
the  balance  necessary  after  sixty  days  had  passed  was  obtained  through  the 
issue  and  sale  of  park  fund  certificates.  These  certificates  represented  the  assess- 
ments unpaid  and  due  through  a  series  of  years.  They  had  back  of  them  these 
collective  assessments.  The  city  treasurer  was  trustee  for  the  collection  of  the 
assessments  and  the  redemption  of  the  certificates.  Courts,  as  already  stated, 
decided  in  test  cases  that  the  park  fund  certificates  were  not  obligations  of  the 
municipality  and  did  not  conflict  with  the  city's  debt-making  power.  By  this 
novel  method  the  park  board  was  able  to  raise  large  sums  and  to  build  the  park 
and  boulevard  system  of  Kansas  City.  Within  each  district  an  assessment  for 
maintenance  and  improvement  is  made  against  the  lands  only  of  that  district. 
The  original  cost  of  a  boulevard,  however,  except  the  tree  planting,  is  charged 
directly  against  the  ground  fronting  on  that  boulevard.  This  is  the  exception  to 
the  statement  that  the  assessment  for  improvement  and  maintenance  is  against 
the  whole  district. 

The  Playground  Policy. 

\\'hcre\er  the  system  has  penetrated  well  settled  localities,  the  policy  has 
been  to  provide  playgrounds  for  children,  tennis  courts  and  baseball  diamonds 
for  older  youth.  Every  part  of  the  city  has  its  playgroimds.  The  park  board 
early  adopted  the  recommendation  to  accjuire  the  ground  and  to  establish  a 
recreation  field  in  the  East  Bottoms,  where  m^ny  railroad  shojimen  and  em- 
ployes in  other  industries  live. 

There  are  playgrounds  in  West  Terrace  Park.  The  Paseo  has  its  play- 
grounds. Where  that  chain  of  small  parks  widens  into  the  twenty-one  acres  of 
the  Parade  is  an  athletic  field,  a  sunken  portion  of  which  becomes  an  outdoor 
skating  rink  in  winter.    There,  also,  is  the  free  bathhouse,  the  gift  of  the  Mega- 


910  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

phone  Minstrels.  This  was  the  circus  lot  in  the  old  days.  It  affords  the  ball 
ground  and  other  means  of  recreation  for  a  large  neighborhood.  No  Kansas 
City  boy  finds  it  necessary  to  board  a  street  car  and  ride  miles  in  searcJi  of  a 
baseball  field. 

Two  of  the  small  parks  changed  completely  the  character  of  the  surrounding 
residence  sections.  The  twenty-seven  acres  of  Spring  Valley,  before  becoming 
public  property  under  control  of  the  park  board,  bore  the  suggestive  name  of 
"Razor  Park."  One  of  the  economies  of  the  board  transformed  an  abandoned 
quarry  into  an  ideal  playground  for  children  with  admirable  location  for  g>^ni- 
nasium  apparatus.  A  driveway  winds  through  this  park.  The  wooded  slopes 
rise  on  either  side  to  an  encircling  fringe  of  fine  homes.  The  spring  which 
gave  the  name  to  the  park  feeds  a  pretty  lake. 

Holmes  Square  is  less  than  three  acres  in  extent,  but  it  has  its  free  bath,  its 
gymnastic  apparatus,  its  sand  court,  its  bubble  fountain,  its  shelter.  The  devel- 
opment of  this  playground  in  the  midst  of  a  tenement  neighborhood  has  changed 
the  children  from  little  vandals  into  self-appointed  guardians  of  the  place. 

A  recreation  center,  in  the  Kansas  City  definition,  means  more  than  an  op>en 
space.  It  includes  see-saws,  swings,  ladders  and  a  variety  of  apparatus,  baths 
and  comfort  stations,  in  addition  to  the  baseball  and  tennis  grounds.  There  are 
no  signs,  "Keep  off  the  grass."  Every  lawn  space  on  every  park  in  the  Kansas 
City  system  is  in  use  without  restriction. 

To  the  widest  possible  extent  the  parks  and  boulevards  have  been  planned  to 
afford  proper  recreation  and  entertainment.  But  the  policy  to  exclude  catch- 
penny shows  has  been  rigorously  upheld,  although  through  many  a  sharp  contest 
and  with  the  refusal  of  temporary  revenue. 

One  of  the  "eccentricities  of  topography"  favored  the  creation  of  a  lake 
covering  several  acres  by  an  inexpensive  dam.  The  lake  was  stocked  with  fish 
and  the  proper  season  finds  fishing  added  to  park  recreation  in  the  midst  of 
Kansas  City. 

Some  of  the  Practical  Details. 

When  the  original  plan  was  submitted  the  landscape  architect  advised  that 
"all  structures  for  operating  purposes  and  for  convenience  and  comfort  of  the 
public,  which  are  artificial  and  more  or  less  out  of  keeping  with  natural  scenery, 
should  never  be  permitted  to  become  conspicuous  in  either  design  or  color." 
This  policy  has  been  carefully  observed.  The  barns,  comfort  stations  and  sim- 
ilar structures  are  so  located  and  so  screened  as  not  to  oflfend  the  eye.  The 
use  of  the  limestone  in  rough  state  for  many  structures  and  the  location  of  them 
near  the  limestone  cliffs  have  been  in  the  line  of  observance  of  such  policy. 

A  standard  for  boulevard  construction  was  adopted  in  1893.  Results  have 
demonstrated  fully  the  wisdom  of  that  original  plan.  The  landscape  architect 
recommended  and  the  first  board  of  park  commissioners,  or  as  it  was  called 
then,  the  board  of  park  and  boulevard  commissioners,  agreed  to  this  standard: 
"The  width  of  the  boulevards  will  be  100  feet  and  at  no  time  should  any  less 
width  be  considered,  since  with  less  width  it  would  be  impossible  to  secure  the 
effect  of  a  parkway  and  at  the  same  time  give  sufficient  width  of  roadway.  This 
space  should  be  divided  as  follows  on  all  routes  not  occupied  by  street  railways: 


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THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  915 

A  central  roadway  forty  feet  wide,  and  parking  thirty  feet  on  each  side;  the  park 
space  will  be  arranged  with  a  curb  and  gutter  combined;  next  to  this,  turf  sev- 
enteen feet  wide ;  then  eight  of  walk,  and  between  this  and  the  property  line  five 
feet  of  turf.  On  this  space  three  lines  of  trees  almost  equally  spaced  will  be 
planted." 

This  standard  width  of  roadway  and  definite  spaces  for  parking  and  number 
of  trees  were  planned  "with  a  view  to  provide  for  the  expected  growth  of  Kansas 
City.  The  roadway  was  made  forty  feet  wide  because  that  was  sufficient  for  all 
traffic  purposes  when  the  standard  was  adopted.  The  expectation  of  the  board 
and  of  the  landscape  architect  was  that  forty  feet  wbuld  accommodate  all  traffic 
on  these  boulevards  for  at  least  twenty  years.  Neither  the  board  nor  the  land- 
scape architect,  in  1893,  could  foresee  the  drift  of  city  expansion.  There  is  a 
present  condition  which  could  not  have  been  taken  into  consideration  at  the 
time  the  boulevard  system  was  designed.  That  condition  is  the  rapidly  develop- 
ing use  of  automobiles  for  pleasure  riding.  It  is  evident  to  all  now  that  fifteen 
years  instead  of  twenty  is  the  limit  for  the  forty  feet  of  roadway  on  some 
parts  of  the  boulevard  system.    The  roadways  will  have  to  be  widened. 

The  seventeen  feet  of  grass  between  the  curb  and  the  sidewalk  was  left  in 
order  that,  as  trafific  necessitated,  a  strip  could  be  taken  from  either  side  and 
added  to  the  roadway.  This  can  be  done  as  the  traffic  increases  to  the  point  of 
congestion  of  the  present  forty  feet.  The  three  rows  of  trees  were  provided 
in  order  that  the  outer  or  the  row  next  the  curb  could  be  removed  without  spoil- 
ing the  boulevard  plan  as  the  roadway  might  be  increased  in  width. 

In  the  planning  of  the  Kansas  City  system  full  consideration  was  given  to 
the  needs  of  business  traffic.  In  parks  upon  the  line  of  natural  thoroughfares 
there  have  been  built  two  roadways :  one  as  direct  as  the  easiest  grades  will  per- 
mit for  the  use  of  business  vehicles,  the  other  curving  and  winding  to  afford  the 
maximum  of  landscape  effect  for  pleasure  riding.  In  places  the  park  and  the 
traffic  roadway  are  side  by  side  separated  by  a  row  of  trees  and  strip  of  sod. 
The  result  of  such  planning  is  that  traffic  is  facilitated  by  better  roads  and 
easier  grades  than  existed  before  the  park  and  boulevard  system.  At  intervals 
on  the  traffic  roadways  in  parks  are  placed  watering  troughs  for  teams. 

One  of  the  most  successful  economies  has  been  the  double  use  made  of  trees. 
As  the  boulevards  were  constructed  three  rows  were  planted  on  either  side  with 
twice  as  many  trees  as  would  be  necessary  after  growth.  As  new  parks  and 
boulevards  were  opened,  intermediate  trees  from  six  to  eight  inches  in  diameter 
on  the  old  boulevards  were  taken  up  and  transplanted.  This  has  been  done 
with  very  little  loss.  In  a  single  season  portions  of  the  old  barren  circus  lot, 
now  known  as  the  Parade,  were  given  the  attractiveness  of  a  well  shaded  park. 
New  boulevards,  through  this  transplanting  of  large  trees,  at  once  vie  in  beauty 
with  the  older  drives.  Thousands  of  fine  trees  have  done  double  duty.  Thou- 
sands more  are  growing  and  will  be  utilized  for  extensions  of  the  system. 

Permanent  Influences. 

The  earliest  actual  boulevard  construction  had  far  reaching  influences  upon 
the  expansion  of  Kansas  City.  The  first  boulevard,  as  laid  out  on  paper  by  the 
landscape  architect,  was  intended  to  extend  from  west  to  east,  in  what  was  com- 


Hit;  chlXTl'lXMAL  IILSTURY  OF  MISSOURI 

nionly  called  tlie  N'orth  Sick-.  Tlie  ircnd  of  city  yruwth  and  the  extension  of  the 
residence  district  was  in  that  direction  at  the  time.  The  draft  of  an  ordinance 
to  carry  out  the  plan  of  this  west  to  east  boulevard  was  introduced  in  the  city 
council.  It  was  defeated.  Thereupon  the  landscape  architect  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  north  and  south  lines  of  the  proposed  system.  Ordinances  providing  for 
boulevards  and  park  connections  between  the  north  and  south  sides  received 
favorable  consideration  and  were  passed  by  the  city  council.  The  construction 
gave  quick  and  strong  impetus  to  the  growth  of  the  city  on  the  south  side. 
That  trend  has  not  been  checked.  The  greatest  activity  in  boulevard  extension 
and  in  park  expansion  is  now  to  the  southwestward,  the  southward  and  the 
southeastward. 

Centers  of  congested  population,  growing  more  aggravated  yearly,  were 
abolished  to  make  room  for  parks  and  boulevards.  It  is  a  notable  fact  that 
other  centers  of  the  same  character  did  not  take  the  places  of  those  thus  removed. 
The  marked  influence  of  the  park  and  boulevard  movement  has  been  to  scatter 
population  until  today  Kansas  City  is  built  over  a  greater  area  than  almost  any 
other  city  of  similar  size.  Next  to  residences  on  the  boulevard  or  with  park 
frontage,  the  Kansas  City  family  endeavors  to  live  as  near  as  possible  to  some 
part  of  the  system.  The  result  is  this  wide  distribution  of  all  classes.  To  a 
large  extent  the  problem  of  congestion  has  been  eliminated  for  Kansas  City. 
There  is  no  present  indication  that  the  next  generation  will  have  to  deal  with 
that  problem. 

The  standard  of  residential  architecture  has  been  raised.  Kansas  City  homes 
today  average  above  those  of  any  other  city  in  the  same  class  of  population. 
There  is  no  doubt  the  creation  of  these  many  miles  of  boulevards  has  prompted 
the  owners  of  property  to  exercise  more  taste  in  planning  and  to  spend  more 
money  in  building  that  they  would  have  done  on  ordinary  residence  streets.  Both 
the  architecture  and  the  surroundings  have  felt  the  influence  of  the  parks  and 
boulevards. 

Kansas  City  today  is  a  city  with  more  taste  and  beauty  in  its  homes  and  their 
surroundings  than  any  other  community  of  corresponding  number  of  people  in 
the  world.  It  has  no  slums.  The  unit  of  real  estate  is  50  feet  front,  which 
means  elbow  room.  Every  street  outside  of  the  business  section  is  tree  bordered. 
Every  dooryard  is  a  well-kept  lawn.  The  houses,  as  a  rule,  stand  on  terraces 
from  three  to  half  a  dozen  feet  above  the  street.  The  spacious  veranda  is  another 
rule.  Creeping  vines,  rose  bushes,  pots  of  flowers  are  everywhere.  The  side 
street  house  that  cost  $1,000  is  as  smart  in  fresh  paint  as  the  boulevard  mansion 
which  cost  $100,000.  And  this  wonderful  transformation  in  a  city's  homes, 
small  and  great,  is  the  uplifting  effect  of  the  parks  and  boulevards. 

So  well  has  the  park  district  plan  worked  that  Kansas  City  has  extended  it 
rapidly.  The  city  was  divided  into  three  park  districts  when  the  original  park 
and  boulevard  system  was  designed.  Later  the  city  was  divided  into  eight  park 
districts.  Each  district  bears  its  own  park  expenditures,  or  the  larger  part  of 
them.  Each  district  is  anxious  to  develop  and  improve  its  own  share  of  the 
system.  Each  has  its  own  park  and  boulevard  problems.  Tlie  district  divisions 
are  natural  ones,  suggested  by  the  topography  and  by  the  character  of  settlement. 
The  municipal  government  has  found  it  advisable  to  adopt  these  district  divisions 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  'JlT 

of  the  city  for  other  public  utilities.     Instead  of  following  ward  boundaries  the 
city  carries  on  several  kinds  of  public  work  by  park  districts. 

Real  estate  men  discovered  years  ago  that  frontage  on  boulevards  easily 
doubles  the  market  price  of  lots  on  streets  two  or  more  blocks  distant.  Kansas 
City  today  is  acquiring  many  miles  of  boulevards  which  cost  the  park  board 
nothing  for  original  dedication  and  construction.  Future  extension  of  the  boule- 
vard system  is  assured  by  this  profitable  experience  of  the  past.  To  obtain  the 
first  boulevards  it  was  necessary  to  condemn  strips  of  ground  and  to  construct 
roadway,  parking  and  walks,  assessing  the  cost  against  property.  Today,  as 
additions  are  made  to  the  city,  owners  plat  the  ground  to  include  boulevards, 
dedicate  and  build  such  boulevards  at  their  own  expense  and  deliver  them  finished 
to  the  city.  The  platted  locations  of  these  new  boulevards  must  receive  the 
approval  of  the  park  board.  The  specifications  for  construction  must  be  passed 
upon  by  the  park  board.  The  actual  work  must  be  done  under  the  regular  super- 
vision of  the  park  board  inspectors.  Upon  such  conditions  miles  of  boulevards 
have  been  added  to  the  system.  Additional  mileage  without  condemnation  or 
special  assessment  will  come  into  the  system  as  the  city  expands.  The  problem  is 
a  simple  one.  Acre  property  eligible  as  to  altitude  and  convenient  in  distance 
from  the  business  district  is  bought  for  Si,ooo  an  acre.  The  cost  of  boulevards 
and  other  improvements  is  $2,000  an  acre.  As  long  and  as  far  away  as  such 
land  will  bring  for  residence  sites  from  $4,000  to  $5,000  an  acre,  the  platting  and 
boulevard  making  will  go  on.  This  is  not  the  building  of  new  additions  at  the 
expense  of  the  old.  The  new  boulevards  and  park  districts  are  being  occupied  to 
a  large  extent  by  a  new  population. 

The  Gridiron  of  Green. 

Kansas  City  now  has  three  chains  of  parks  and  boulevards  extending  from 
north  to  south  through  the  residence  sections.  Three  boulevards  from  west  to 
east  connect  parks  and  intersect  the  north  and  south  chains.  These  already 
existing  parks  and  connecting  boulevards  make  every  part  of  the  system  easily 
accessible.  Admiral  boulevard  begins  across  the  street  from  one  of  the  principal 
office  buildings  and  within  a  block  of  the  post  office.  Gillham  road  comes  down 
to  the  ^ite  of  the  new  Union  Station,  which  is  in  the  great  dividing  valley  of  the 
city.  Cliff  Drive  winds  for  miles  along  the  face  of  the  palisades  overlooking  the 
-Missouri  river  and  the  East  Bottoms,  with  the  labyrinth  of  elevators,  railroad 
tracks  and  factories.  West  Terrace  has  its  Outlook  Point  of  massive  masonry 
and  castle  effect  with  far-sweeping  views  of  the  packing  houses,  the  Kaw  river 
and,  beyond,  Kansas  City,  Kan. 

Below  the  Outlook,  part  of  the  way  down  the  steep  bluff,  is  a  park  drive 
which  follows  the  cliff  around  to  the  west  and  makes  connection  with  Penn 
Valley  Park.  North  and  south  through  the  heart  of  what  a  few  years  ago  was 
the  most  thickly-settled  residence  section  is  the  Paseo.  It  was  created  by  con- 
demning a  narrow  strip,  a  distance  of  several  miles. 

Gladstone  and  Benton  boulevards  give  the  eastern  part  of  the  city  its  share 
of  this  improvement.  Linwood  and  Armour  boulevards  are  east  and  west  bars 
in  Kansas  City's  grand  gridiron  of  green.     Swope  parkway,  several  miles  long. 


918  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

125  feet  wide,  leads  awaj'  to  the  southeast,  to  what  will  be  the  chief  lung  of  the 
city  when  a  million  people  must  find  breathing  space  within  its  limits. 

Kansas  City  after  Dark. 

No  one  has  obtained  full  appreciation  of  the  Kansas  City  system  until  he  has 
given  midsummer  nights  to  views  of  it.  The  passing  of  hundreds  of  automo- 
biles in  almost  continuous  columns  between  the  long  rows  of  trees  is  of  itself  a 
scene  to  fascinate.  Everywhere  red  lamps  divide  the  boulevards  into  going  and 
coming  routes.  The  rule  of  right-of-way  is  universally  observed  by  all  vehicles. 
On  one  side  of  the  red  lamps  the  dazzling  headlights  all  move  in  one  direction, 
on  the  other  side  they  pass  in  the  opposite  direction.  From  where  the  boulevard 
passes  a  rise,  or  crest,  it  is  possible  to  see  at  once  hundreds  of  these  headlights 
moving  in  seemingly  endless  procession;  the  foliage  glistens;  the  rows  of  trees 
take  on  exaggerated  forms.  Residents  along  the  boulevards  sit  on  their  porches 
and  steps  night  after  night  enjoying  the  spectacle.  Along  the  strips  of  parking 
between  roadways  and  sidewalks  the  park  board  has  placed  seats  for  the  con- 
venience of  those  who  choose  to  come  from  their  homes  on  the  side  streets  and 
see  the  nightly  parade.  Never  before  in  its  history  has  so  small  a  percentage  of 
the  population  of  Kansas  City  gone  away  for  the  summer  season. 

Clifl  Drive  by  night  takes  on  new  character.  On  one  side  the  great  irregular 
masses  of  limestone  tower  until  they  are  lost  in  the  darkness.  On  the  other  hand 
the  illumination  serves  to  accentuate  the  shadows  in  the  depths  of  the  forest  be- 
low. On  Cliff  Drive  as  upon  other  boulevards  and  throughout  the  parks  lamps 
are  placed  at  unusually  short  intervals  and  add  greatly  to  the  night  scenes. 

From  Prospect  Point  or  the  Colonnade  of  North  Terrace,  the  East  Bottoms 
far  below  present  a  different  appearance  after  dark.  All  of  the  ugliness  of  the 
freight  yards  and  industries  by  day  is  hidden  by  night.  The  headlights  of  the 
engines,  the  swinging  lanterns  of  the  brakemen,  the  illumination  of  the  moving 
trains,  the  many  colored  lamps  at  the  switches  and  crossings,  the  commingling 
of  thousands  of  gas  and  electric  lights,  with  the  roar  and  the  whistles  and  bells 
for  accompaniment,  make  up  a  combination  of  light  and  sound  which  perhaps 
has  no  counterpart  elsewhere. 

From  West  Terrace,  another  city's  night  lights  are  visible,  those  of  Kansas 
City,  Kansas.  Extending  from  the  foot  of  the  terrace  one  and  one-half  miles 
straight  across  the  West  Bottoms,  almost  fringing  the  banks  of  the  Missouri 
river,  is  a  double  row  of  brilliant  burners  marking  the  course  of  the  viaduct. 

The  summit  of  Observation  Park  is  still  another  of  these  vantage  points  for 
night  spectacles.  There  the  vision  sweeps  an  entire  circle  with  the  city  spread 
out  everywhere.  To  the  northwestward  are  busy  railroad  yards  and  industries. 
To  the  north  is  the  commercial  center  with  hundreds  of  electric  signs  making 
a  profuse  glare  of  light.  In  every  other  direction  are  the  long  rows  of  gas  lamps 
on  the  boulevards  and  streets  of  the  residence  sections  with  the  reflectors  of  the 
automobiles  moving  hither  and  thither  like  so  many  ^hooting  meteors. 

The  Bearing  on  Municipal  Problems. 

The  system  has  done  much  toward  the  solution  of  several  municipal  problems. 
The  city  hospital,  built  at  a  cost  of  $500,000,  has  park  frontage.    The  advantage 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  919 

of  such  a  location  for  such  an  institution  is  evident.  As  the  time  comes  for  the 
erection  of  public  buildings,  sites  on  boulevards  or  parks  are  naturally  the  first 
choice.  Educational  and  charitable  institutions,  schools,  asylums  and  hospitals 
are  being  located  with  studied  reference  to  the  park  and  boulevard  system. 
Nearly  every  building  erected  for  such  purposes  in  Kansas  City  during  the  past 
five  years  has  been  located  with  boulevard  or  park  frontage. 

When  the  railroads  determined  to  remove  the  passenger  depot  from  the  West 
Bottoms  to  the  valley  between  the  North  and  South  Sides  of  Kansas  City,  thus 
creating  entirely  new  routes  of  entrance  and  exit  for  travel,  the  plan  accepted 
by  the  city  provided  not  only  for  tracks  and  for  station  room  on  a  magnificent 
scale,  but  for  a  spacious  plaza  in  front.  As  the  result  of  this  reservation  there 
Can  be  established  no  business  within  several  hundred  feet  of  the  new  depot. 

Local  nomenclature  in  Kansas  City  has  undergone  great  change  with  the 
coming  of  parks  and  boulevards.  Twenty  years  ago  the  people  spoke  of  various 
localities  as  West  Blufif  and  East  Bluff,  as  West  Bottoms  and  East  Bottoms,  as 
O.  K.  Creek  and  Goose  Creek  and  Brush  Creek.  Those  names  were  short.  In 
that  respect  they  were  consistent  with  the  temperamental  quickness  and  directness 
of  speech  which  are  characteristic  of  the  community.  Kansas  City  talks  and  acts 
with  rapid  decision.  Moreover  these  pioneer  names  of  localities  were  apt  in  de- 
scription. Bluffs  were  bluflfs  and  bottoms  were  bottoms  in  the  strongest  defini- 
tions of  the  words.  Brush  Creek  was  a  marvelously  crooked  channel  in  the  midst 
of  a  tangle  of  forest  and  vine  growth.  Goose  Creek  suggested  its  chief  utility  in 
the  period  of  early  settlement.  It  was  quite  in  accordance  with  the  Kansas  City 
economy  of  vowels  and  consonants  that  the  Kansas  river  became  the  Kaw;  that 
Pennsylvania  street  was  contracted  to  Penn  street;  that  many  similar  changes  in 
original  names  occurred.  With  the  evolution  of  the  park  and  boulevard  era, 
successive  boards  of  commissioners  did  not  part  from  the  Kansas  City  habit  of 
speech;  they  indulged  in  no  stilted,  high  sounding  titles;  they  gave  to  these 
improvements  of  the  landscape  names  which  were  short,  easily  pronounced,  and 
so  applicable  in  description  that  they  found  immediate  acceptance  by  the  public. 
Some  of  these  names  of  parks  and  boulevards  were  given  with  little  consideration 
in  the  planning;  they  were  in  a  sense  accidental.  But  they  seemed  to  apply  so 
well  that  the  board  used  them  as  they  were  designated  on  the  plats  and  the 
citizens  adopted  them. 

By  way  of  illustration  it  may  be  recalled  that  Penn  Valley  Park  was  so  desig- 
nated in  the  first  platting  because  it  was  a  broken  jumble  of  depressions  through 
which  Pennsylvania  street  found  its  way.  It  is  Penn  Valley  Park  today  and 
probably  will  be  Penn  Valley  Park  for  all  time  to  come. 

The  Paseo  was  applied  in  the  beginning  to  describe  a  proposed  combination 
of  long,  narrow  parks,  bordered  by  drives,  which  was  to  be  a  passage  extending 
north  and  south  through  the  eastern  part  of  the  city.  There  was  nothing  in  the 
landscape  naming  that  quite  fitted  this  proposed  improvement.  The  Paseo  was 
taken  from  the  Spanish.  It  means  passage.  It  became  at  once  of  general  use  on 
the  part  of  the  newspapers  and  the  public.  The  Pergola  in  the  Paseo  and  the 
Colonnade  at  the  edge  of  the  Plaza  overlooking  the  great  wooded  gorge  in  the 
North  Bluff  describe  those  architectural  features. 

The  Parade  is  a  widening  of  the  Paseo  into  a  plain  of  several  acres  adapted 


920  CEXTKXXIAI.  IlISToRV  OF  MISSOURI 

by  its  central  location  and  level  surface  to  purposes  of  drill,  of  public  gatherings 
and  of  general  recreation.  It  forms  a  natural  outdoor  skating  rink  in  winter. 
The  Grove  is  just  that — a  collection  of  magnificent  forest  trees  in  the  midst  of 
the  residence  section  of  the  city.  West  Bluff  became  West  Terrace  because  the 
terrace  idea  was  applied  to  redeem  that  unsightly  locality.  Cliff  Drive  is  so 
briefly  expressive  that  not  only  has  it  taken  with  all  of  Kansas  City  but  lives  in 
the  memory  of  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  world  who  have  seen  its  great  nat- 
ural beauty. 

Observation  Park  is  the  former  Reservoir  Hill,  the  lofty  elevation  in  a  city 
of  hills  which  furnished  a  natural  site  for  the  waterworks  reser\oir.  The  ground 
surrounding  the  reservoir  was  turned  over  to  the  park  board  for  treatment. 
The  hill  is  crowned  with  a  stone  observatory  overlooking  great  sections  of  the 
city. 

Gillham  Road  is  a  tribute  in  name  to  a  former  vigilant  member  of  the  park 
board. 

Spring  Valley  makes  historic  the  site  of  a  former  source  of  pure,  cold  water, 
before  the  growth  of  the  city  surrounding  it  made  necessary  the  suppression  of 
the  natural  fountain  for  sanitary  reasons. 

In  several  instances  names  of  persons  well  chosen  have  been  attached  to  the 
park  and  boulevard  system.  Entirely  proper  was  it  that  Swope  Park  and  Budd 
Park  should  honor  the  memory  of  two  citizens  who  added  by  noble  gifts  to  the 
breathing  capacity  of  Kansas  City. 

Swope  Park. 

The  first  park  board  had  in  view  when  the  original  system  was  planned  the 
matter  of  great  outer  parks,  although  that  was  not  included  in  the  earliest  recom- 
mendation. After  a  beginning  had  been  made  toward  the  park  and  boulevard 
system  within  the  then  existing  city,  topographical  surveys  were  made  of  an 
extensive  area  of  country  southeast  of  Kansas  City.  The  end  in  view  was  to 
select  the  location  for  at  least  one  great  outer  park.  The  board  realized  that  such 
a  park  would  be  needed  ultimately  and  hoped  that  the  acquisition  might  be  made 
before  values  advanced.  Thomas  H.  Swope  heard  of  the  desire  and  gave  to  the 
f^'ty  1.354  acres.  Swope  Park  extends  between  two  and  three  miles  along  the 
narrow,  cliff-bound  valley  of  the  Blue.  Entrance  from  the  city  is  at  Sixty-third 
street,  nine  miles  from  the  business  center.  Much  of  the  tract  is  dense  forest. 
Swope  Park  was  accepted  by  the  board  in  the  interest  of  another  generation. 
Extension  of  the  street  car  line,  the  building  of  a  great  shelter  house  with 
observatories,  the  erection  of  a  monumental  entrance,  the  laying  out  of  the  beau- 
tiful garden,  with  the  natural  attractions,  brought  the  park  into  immediate  pop- 
ular use.  When  Swope  Park  was  farm  and  pasture  the  land  all  around  it  was 
worth  $150  an  acre.  Suburban  homes  were  built  on  the  borders  of  Swope  Park 
and  the  land  acquired  for  them  cost  over  $2,000  an  acre. 

The  possibilities  of  Swope  Park  have  been  demonstrated.  The  greater  part 
of  the  tract  of  1,354  acres  is  still  virgin.  But  the  refreshment  pavilion,  the 
sunken  garden,  the  athletic  field,  the  Zoo,  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  the  swimming 
beach,  the  camp  ground,  the  target  range,  the  lagoon,  the  golf  links  and  tennis 
courts  are  existing  evidences  of  the  varied  uses  which  may  be  found  for  this 


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THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  923 

ideal  strip  of  the  valley  of  the  Blue.  The  British  ambassador,  James  Bryce, 
said  of  Swope:  "I  have  never  seen  a  city  park  in  this  country  that  equaled  it, 
and  it  certainly  is  unrivaled  among  the  cities  of  the  Old  World,  so  far  as  my 
travels  have  extended.  Its  strongest  appeal  to  me  is  its  magnificent  reaches  of 
wild  grass  and  cool  forest." 

The  System  up  to  Date. 

In  1914  Kansas  City  had  a  total  area  of  parks  and  parkways  within  the  city 
limits  of  approximately  2,560  acres.  This  included  Swope  Park.  Kansas  City 
had  more  than  fifty-eight  miles  of  parkways,  boulevards  and  park  roads  com- 
pleted. The  land  for  fifty-six  miles  more  had  been  acquired  and  construction 
was  in  progress.    Projects  not  closed  included  twenty-four  miles  additional. 

Andrew  Wright  Crawford,  the  city  planning  expert  of  nation-wide  repute, 
said:  "Of  all  the  actual  accomplishments  that  American  cities  can  boast,  within 
the  past  twenty  years,  none  surpasses  the  park  and  parkway  system  of  Kansas 
City.  That  system,  by  and  of  itself,  is  making  the  city  world-famous.  It  is  in  its 
completeness,  its  pervasiveness,  in  the  way  it  reaches  every  quarter  and  section 
of  the  city,  that  it  surpasses  the  park  systems  of  other  cities  of  the  world." 

The  park  law  of  Kansas  City  was  a  unique  experiment  in  the  history  of 
American  cities.  Every  acre  of  land  which  has  been  purchased  in  Kansas  City 
up  to  1914  for  park  and  boulevard  purposes  fias  been  established  or  taken  by  the 
power  of  eminent  domain  put  into  operation  by  resolution  of  the  board  of  park 
commissioners,  carried  into  eflfect  by  ordinances  of  the  city,  enforced  by  the 
decrees  of  the  courts,  and  paid  for  solely  and  exclusively  by  the  assessments  of 
benefits  upon  the  real  estate,  exclusive  of  improvements,  within  the  various  dis- 
tricts in  which  each  particular  park  or  boulevard  was  established.  Not  a  single 
acre  of  park  land  in  Kansas  City  was  ever  paid  for  by  general  taxation  or  by  the 
issue  of  bonds  of  the  city  at  large. 

What  Kansas  City's  System  Teaches. 

By  those  who  have  had  most  to  do  with  the  creation  of  the  Kansas  City 
system  two  points  are  emphasized : 

First,  that  special  assessment  or  special  taxation  is  the  most  suitable  method 
of  acquiring  and  improving  lands  for  park  and  boulevard  purposes;  that  by 
that  method  the  burden  is  more  nearly  imposed  upon  the  property  benefited  than 
by  any  other  method  of  taxation. 

Second,  that  this  method  and  the  plans  and  methods  that  were  devised  to 
carry  it  into  eflfect  have  proved  to  be  the  best,  if  not  the  only,  way  of  securing 
for  any  city  a  symmetrical,  well-balanced  and  harmonious  system  of  parks  and 
boulevards. 

The  reasons  for  these  conclusions  are  that  the  division  of  the  city  into  park 
districts  as  imits  of  taxation  prevents  that  jealousy  and  contest  between  different 
sections  of  the  city  which  always  develops  from  the  standpoint  of  money  which 
has  been  raised  by  general  taxation  or  by  issue  of  bonds.  The  payment  of  the 
cost  of  acquiring  and  improving  lands  for  park  and  boulevard  purposes  by  the 
method  of  special  taxation  is  based  upon  the  theory  that  these  costs  are  met, 
and  more  than  met,  by  the  increased  values  which  they  create  in  the  lands  which 


924  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

are  assessed  for  the  cost  of  such  improvement.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  poten- 
tial increase  in  vakie  only  that  is  taxed  to  pay  for  the  improvement.  The  ex- 
perience of  Kansas  City,  in  the  judgment  of  those  best  qualified  to  speak,  affords 
a  remarkable  demonstration  of  the  proof  of  the  correctness  of  this  principle  of 
taxation.  The  establishment  of  the  parks  and  boulevards  served  not  only  to 
enhance  real  estate  values  in  Kansas  City,  but  actually  created  a  real  estate 
market  where  none  had  existed. 

In  1910-11  the  park  board  undertook  an  exhaustive  investigation  to  ascer- 
tain the  influence  of  the  parks  and  boulevards  upon  realty  values.  This  was  the 
result : 

"Taking  the  assessed  and  actual  values  of  property  fronting  on  the  various  boule- 
vards, before  and  after  the  establishment  of  such  boulevards,  it  was  shown  conclusively 
that  the  smallest  increase  in  value  which  had  resulted  from  the  establishment  of  any  boule- 
vard was  equal  to  183  per  centum.  After  deducting  the  cost  to  the  property  owner  of 
every  class  of  improvement  for  which  his  frontage  had  been  assessed,  and  deducting  also 
the  average  increase  of  land  values  throughout  the  entire  district  due  to  other  causes  and 
other  improvement  in  the  same  district,  a  net  gain  to  the  property  owner  was  shown  of 
practically  fifty  per  centum  of  the  value  of  the  property.  On  some  boulevards  the  gain 
has  averaged  from  200  to  500  per  centum,  the  greater  portion  of  such  gain  being  directly 
attributable  to  the  establishment  of  the  boulevards.  In  the  same  manner  but  in  a  lesser 
degree  the  parks  have  enhanced  values,  proving  that  the  construction  of  Kansas  City's  park 
and  boulevard  system  was  a  profitable  industry  for  the  taxpayer  without  reference  to  its 
artistic,  moral  and  social  benefits.  This  fact  is  now  universally  recognized  by  citizens  who 
are  unanimous  in  their  approval  of  this  great  expenditure." 

It  is  an  established  fact  that  during  the  past  ten  years  many  thousands  of 
people  have  been  attracted  to  Kansas  City,  as  a  place  of  residence,  by  her  fine 
exhibition  of  civic  spirit,  the  most  conspicuous  product  of  which  is  her  mag- 
nificent parks  and  pleasure  grounds.  Many  men  who  have  been  successful  in 
business  in  town  and  village  within  the  territory  tributary  to  Kansas  City  have 
felt  the  spell  of  her  influence,  and  when  retiring  from  active  labor  have  built 
beautiful  homes  along  the  boulevards  and  settled  here  to  rear  and  educate  their 
children.  Other  thousands  among  the  industrial  classes  have  likewise  come, 
attracted  by  the  same  advantages,  to  seek  employment  here  and  swell  the  popu- 
lation. 

Kansas  City's  population  increased  51.7  per  cent  in  the  decade  1900-1910. 
Of  twenty-five  cities  this  community  ranked  third  in  the  percentage  of  increase. 
The  other  two  were  Detroit  and  Denver.  These  twenty-five  cities  constituted  a 
class  having  over  100,000  population.  The  significant  deduction  warranted  by 
the  census  returns  was  that  the  cities  which  had  done  most  to  improve  conditions 
of  living  had  gained  most  in  numbers.  Kansas  City  led  all  other  cities  in  her 
park  and  boulevard  development  during  the  decade  and  was  one  of  the  first  three 
of  these  twenty-five  cities  in  respect  to  gain  of  population.  Both  Denver  and 
Detroit  have  been,  since  1900,  notably  active  in  city  planning  and  accomplish- 
ment. Cleveland  and  Chicago  are  other  cities  which  have  been  made  more  at- 
tractive as  places  of  residence  and  Chicago  and  Cleveland  are  of  the  marked 
gainers  in  growth.  On  the  other  hand,  the  larger  cities  which  fall  below  twenty 
per  cent  increases  in  population  are  with  very  few  exceptions  the  laggards  in  the 
betterment  of   residential  conditions.     A  canvass  of   Kansas  Citv's   newcomers 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  925 

since  1900  would  show  that  the  park  and  boulevard  system  liad  been  a  strong 
factor  in  the  growth  of  population. 

Park  and  Boulevard  Economies. 

Economies  have  been  practiced  at  every  stage  of  the  park  and  boulevard 
development.  Cliff  Drive  was  limited  in  construction  to  a  serviceable  roadway. 
When  it  was  proposed  to  "improve"  the  drive  with  some  Italian  architecture  at 
certain  outlook  points,  the  suggestions  were  vetoed.  The  park  board  accepted 
the  theory  of  the  landscape  architect  that  the  Cliff  Drive  and  the  paths  alone 
should  be  man's  handiwork ;  that  all  else  along  the  drive  should  be  as  nature 
made  it.  For  protection  of  vehicles  a  rail  was  stretched  along  the  outer  edge  of 
the  drive,  intended  to  give  place  in  time  to  a  low,  rustic  stone  wall  in  strict  keep- 
ing with  the  rock-strewn  slope  below. 

The  practice  of  economies  has  led  naturally  to  a  great  diversity  of  park 
conditions.  When  the  visitor  has  traversed  Gillham  Road  he  had  no  conception 
of  the  surprises  which  await  him  in  the  miles  of  the  Paseo.  North  Terrace  is 
as  dissimilar  as  possible  from  West  Terrace.  One  high  point  of  observation 
is  the  climax  of  interest  in  many  park  systems.  Kansas  City  has  a  dozen  of 
these  points  of  view  and  no  two  of  them  are  to  be  compared  with  each  other. 

Obser\'ation  Park  is  only  two  and  one-tenth  acres,  but  it  has  been  developed 
to  present  a  perfect  panoramic  spectacle  of  the  entire  southwestern  section.  The 
path  encircles  the  reservoir  and  to  every  step  forward  a  new  scene  presents 
itself. 

Penn  Valley  Park  possesses  a  bold  promontory  overlooking  the  new  Union 
Station  and  the  terminal  system  following  the  valley  between  the  North  and 
South  Sides.  From  another  point  in  Penn  Valley  Park  there  is  a  fascinating 
view  across  a  little  lake  to  the  business  part  of  Kansas  City. 

The  West  Terrace  presents  half  a  dozen  different  views  of  the  railroad  yards, 
the  packing  houses,  the  stock  yards,  the  great  industries  on  tmth  sides  of  the 
Kaw  river,  with  the  other  Kansas  City  spread  over  the  Kansas  hills  beyond. 

From  North  Terrace  are  to  be  seen  some  of  the  finest  stretches  of  the  Mis- 
souri river  where  it  comes  down  from  the  north,  makes  its  mighty  sweep  at  the 
feet  of  Kansas  City  and  disappears  in  a  valley  eastward  as  fertile  as  the  Nile. 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  having  in  mind  this  great  elbow  of  the  Missouri,  said : 
"There  is  the  point  that  is  destined  to  become  the  largest  city  west  of  St.  Louis." 

The  destiny  is  being  fulfilled. 

The  System's  Influence  on  the  Ideal  City  Plan. 

George  E.  Kessler.  to  whom  the  ])lanning  of  the  park  and  boulevard  system 
of  Kansas  City  has  given  national  reputation,  summed  up  the  varied  influences 
of  the  system  upon  the  development  of  the  city  during  the  past  twenty  years: 

"The  boulevaril  .system  ha.s  aided  in  preventing,  through  the  expansion  of  ample,  stable 
residence  areas,  the  establishment  of  concentrated  dwelling  house  barracks  which  usually 
follow  a  rapid  accretion  of  population.  Kansas  City  has,  therefore,  in  an  unusual  degree, 
great  areas  of  residence  sections  uniformly  built  upon  and  of  uniform  character  wherein 
there   is   little   likelihood   of    change,   and   so   has    accomplished    one   great   purpose   in    any 


926  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

rational  city  planning  or  replanning,  namely,  the  establishing  and  holding  of  the  character 
and  value  of  home  places. 

"Through  the  expansion  of  the  city  by  means  of  boulevards  and  parkways,  together 
with  the  street  railway  trarvsportation  system,  over  great  areas  away  from  the  business 
district,  it  has  been  possible  for  the  people  to  get  their  homes  at  reasonable  prices  and 
without  fear  of  encroachment  of  antagonistic  activities   in  those  residence  areas. 

"Together  with  the  excellent  street  railway  system,  the  boulevard  system  has  made 
Kansas  City  in  effect  a  garden  city.  It  has  become  almost  entirely  a  home  owners'  com- 
munity, made  up  of  individual  homes  surrounded  by  their  gardens ;  and  in  all  sections, 
penetrated  by  the  boulevards,  the  influence  of  the  building  and  fine  maintenance  of  these 
highways  has  resulted  in  a  response  in  similar  care  on  adjoining  and  intersecting  streets 
and  upon  all  homes  in  those  districts. 

"Where  it  has  been  possible,  the  parkways  have  occupied  the  valley  lands,  which 
largely  coincided  with  the  directions  of  thoroughfare  necessities  in  those  localities;  and 
through  the  absorption  of  these  low-lying  lands,  the  lands  above  have  been  safeguarded 
against  intrusion  of  private  improvements  of  lesser  value. 

"In  its  principal  result,  the  parkway  and  boulevard  system  has  made  Kansas  City  a 
'good  place  to  live  in,'  and  this  was  the  slogan  of  the  civic  bodies  and  of  the  commercial 
club  in  their  constant  support  of  this  movement. 

"Incidentally,  and  in  less  pronounced  form,  it  has  affected  many  other  elements  of 
conscious  city  planning.  In  its  development  of  means  of  egress  and  ingress  to  the  com- 
mercial area  of  the  city,  the  boulevard  system  has  greatly  aided  in  classifying  and  facilitat- 
ing the  vehicular  traffic  on  its  streets  and  has  aided  in  holding  the  commercial  area  with- 
out serious  shifting.  The  parks  and  playgrounds,  in  so  far  as  they  have  been  improved 
and  made  use  of,  are  serving  the  normal  recreational  needs  of  the  community  as  one 
important  element  in  city  planning. 

"As  a  result  of  the  construction  of  the  boulevards,  Kansas  City  accomplished  an 
unusual  thing  in  street  tree  planting.  The  city  has  practically  been  turned  into  one  great 
park  by  the  planting  of  avenue  trees  on  comparatively  wide  parking  spaces,  and  as  these 
trees  are  of  uniform  character  and  kinds  and  are  planted  on  practically  all  of  the  residence 
streets,  the  city  as  seen  from  above,  in  the  summer  months,  seems  embowered  in  foliage. 

"The  relation  of  the  Kansas  City  park  system  to  the  purpose  for  which  a  city  plan 
is  supposed  to  be  developed  is  direct,  and  in  its  results  pronouncedly  evident.  The  park- 
ways and  boulevards  pierce  practically  every  section  of  the  city,  commercial,  residential 
and  to  some  extent  industrial.  They,  therefore,  make  communication  between  the  different 
sections  of  the  city  direct  and  distinctive. 

"The  boulevards,  however,  which  are  in  fact  nothing  more  than  wide,  fine  streets,  give 
to  the  occupants  of  adjacent  private  lands  reasonable  assurance  of  stable  conditions,  and 
in  uniting  all  the  great  residential  districts,  give  opportunity  in  the  areas  which  they  serve 
for  the  development  of  individual  home  sites. 

"The  occupancy  of  large  areas  solely  for  residential  purposes,  except  where  they  are 
interspersed  with  local  commercial  areas,  has  directly,  sometimes  unconsciously,  discour- 
aged the  intrusion  of  industrial  developments  within  those  sections.  The  effect  of  the  whole 
has  been  to  hold  definitely  the  unbroken  high  lands  for  residential,  and  the  principal  valley 
lands  for  transportation  and  industrial  uses. 

"The  park  lands  have  by  no  means  been  improved  in  their  full  possibilities,  the  founda- 
tion work  alone  having  so  far  been  accomplished ;  yet  Kansas  City's  public  responds 
promptly  and  generously  to  the  essential  development  of  this  system  and  through  this  has 
established  a  paying  investment  in  every  sense  of  the  word. 

"Throughout  the  city  local  recreation  grounds  quickly  follow  the  population,  and  while 
they  are  not  yet  fully  supplying  present  and  future  needs,  the  greater  areas  of  properties 
needed  for  these  purposes  have  been  acquired.  The  large  frontage  along  lines  of  assured 
value  for  all  classes  of  residential  use  has  made  it  possible  for  the  homeseeker  to  obtain 
ground  at  reasonable  cost,  and  has  prevented  the  establishment  of  excessively  high  values 
in   residential   properties   anywhere   in   Kansas   City. 

"Finally,  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  feeling  of  sectionalism  and  consequent  antagonism 
of   one   section   to  another   within   a   city,   existing   in    some   communities,   the   boulevards 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  927 

and  parkways  of  Kansas  City  have  accomplished  the  real  purpose  outlined  by  Mr.  Meyer 
in  the  first  report  of  the  park  and  boulevard  board,  namely,  the  tying  together  of  all  sec- 
tions and  the  uniting  of  Kansas  City  as  a  whole  into  a  community  whose  purposes  and 
actions  are  for  the  benefit  of  the  city  as  a  whole  at  all  times." 

Still  in  the  Making. 

But  the  Missourians  who  have  created  a  park  and  boulevard  system  which 
has  done  directly  and  indirectly  all  that  Mr.  Kessler  claims  for  it  do  not  consider 
Kansas  City  made.  With  the  commercial  center  stabilized  for  the  present,  Kan- 
sas City  looks  forward  to  the  inevitable  expansion  of  business  according  to  defi- 
nite plan.  William  Bucholz,  member  of  the  Park  Commission,  told  the  National 
City  Planning  Conference  at  its  annual  meeting  in  1917: 

"Kansas  City  has  not  yet  done  its  duty  to  its  people.  It  has  neglected  to  define  and 
restrict  the  uses  made  of  its  lands.  It  has  done  nothing  toward  permanently  establishing 
industrial  or  commercial  zones,  and,  within  those  zones,  classifying  the  use  of  lands.  It 
has  done  nothing  to  secure  a  residential  neighborhood  against  unwarranted  intrusion  of 
business  property,  or  to  safeguard  the  section  of  individual  homes  against  the  intrusion  of 
the  apartment  house,  the  gasoline  and  oil-filling  station.  The  solution  of  this  problem,  in 
my  opinion,  can  only  be  made  by  proper  restrictions  and  proper  zoning." 

In  other  words,  what  Kansas  City  has  secured  through  the  physical  appli- 
cation of  the  park  and  boulevard  system  is  to  be  made  permanent  through  mu- 
nicipal legislation  to  guard  the  future.  And  this  is  only  one  of  the  steps  toward 
"the  making  of  a  city"  which  is  being  taken.  The  betterments  already  realized 
have  brought  population  which  by  the  new  census  is  a  more  than  a  normal  increase, 
moving  Kansas  City  to  higher  relative  position  on  the  list  of  the  larger  Amer- 
ican cities.  It  has  brought  demands  for  the  genius  of  Kessler  from  a  dozen  other 
cities.  It  has  been  pictured  on  the  screens  for  the  inspiration  of  other  commu- 
nities.   But  Kansas  City  is  not  yet  made,  in  the  minds  of  its  people. 

Kansas  City's  park  and  boulevard  system  has  been  twenty-five  years  in  the 
making.  It  embraces  more  than  3,000  acres  in  parks  and  parkways  and  nearly 
150  miles  of  boulevards  and  park  drives,  seventy  miles  of  which  has  been  per- 
manently improved.    The  cost  has  been  about  $17,000,000. 

When  Kansas  City  began  to  lay  out  boulevards  a  width  of  100  feet  was 
deemed  sufficient.  But  with  the  influx  of  the  well-to-do  retired  farmers  and  the 
men  being  made  wealthy  by  the  oil  development  in  the  Southwest  to  make  homes 
in  Kansas  City,  there  has  come  such  a  volume  of  automobile  traffic  as  to  prompt 
serious  consideration  whether  the  coming  boulevards  should  not  be  at  least  150 
feet  in  width.  Kansas  City  is  face  to  face  with  the  spread  of  suburban  districts 
and  the  necessity  of  providing  easy  and  quick  access  between  them  and  the  busi- 
ness center.  When  boulevards  were  begun  they  were  lined  with  the  homes  of 
the  wealthy.  The  crowding  automobile  traffic  on  the  boulevards  has  prompted 
the  selection  of  the  suburbs  for  the  detached  residences,  and  the  family  hotel  and 
apartment  house  have  taken  the  places  of  the  fine  homes  in  many  inside  localities. 
City  planners  coming  from  the  East  to  study  Kansas  City's  development  com- 
mented with  regret  that  the  $5,000,000  Union  Station,  with  its  imposing  archi- 
tecture and  its  amazing  flow  and  ebb  of  travel  had  not  been  given  better  environ- 
ment.    But  they  learned  that  this  was  one  of  the  problems  which  was  in  the 


928  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

process  of  solution  with  the  prospect  of  a  pubhc  reservation  which  would  show 
the  traveler  who  looked  out  of  the  front  doors  of  the  great  building  a  first  vision 
of  the  park  and  boulevard  system. 

Coming  down  from  the  border  between  Missouri  and  Kansas,  the  Blue  river 
is  true  to  its  name  until  it  passes  through  Swope  park.  North  of  the  park,  on 
its  way  to  the  I\Iissouri,  the  Blue  presents  one  of  Kansas  City's  most  pressing 
problems,  and  one  which  is  not  being  ignored.  On  paper  the  improvement  to 
make  the  Blue  valley  a  part  of  the  Greater  Kansas  City  plan  is  forecasted.  Steam 
railroads  and  industrial  plants  will  be  given  the  east  side  of  the  valley,  with 
traffic  ways  to  accommodate  business.  Along  the  west  side  will  be  a  boulevard 
tying  into  Swope  park  and  the  system  of  boulevards.  Sewers  will  intercept  the 
present  surface  drainage  which  makes  the  Blue  untrue  to  its  name,  and  a  series 
of  dams  may  give  a  chain  of  lakes  for  pleasure  boating. 

These  are  some  of  the  problems  to  which  Kansas  City  now  turns  attention 
inspired  by  what  the  quarter-century  expcrirtient  wnth  parks  and  boulevards  has 
taught. 

The  census  of  1920  gave  Kansas  City  324.410  population,  a  growth  of  30.6 
per  cent,  or  76,029  in  ten  years,  proof  that  it  pays  to  "make  the  city  better  to 
live  in,"  which  was  the  slogan  of  the  park  and  boulevard  beginning  twenty-five 
years  ago. 

Kansas  City  in  Eleven  Episodes. 

Charles  Phelps  Cushing,  trained  in  the  Kansas  City  Star's  school  of  journal- 
ism, epitomized  for  Leslie's  in  1920  the  century's  evolution  of  Kansas  City.  He 
called  it  "Kansas  City,  an  Epic  in  Eleven  Episodes."  More  of  an  American 
city's  history  could  not  be  condensed  in  fewer  words : 

K.^NSAS  CITY. 
An  Epic  in  Eleven  Episodes. 

/ — Birch  Canoes. 
1821-1827.     In  canoes  and  pirogues  a  band  of  thirty-one   French   fur  traders  paddled 
up   the   Missouri   River   from    St.   Louis   and   established   a   trading   post    (1821)    near   the 
month  of  the  Kansas   (better  known  locally  as  the  "Kaw")   River. 

// — Prairie   Schooners. 
1827-1840.     The  fur  trading  settlement  continues  to  remain  insignificant  upon  the  map 
because  a  near  neighbor,  named  Independence   (the  northern  terminus  of  the  old  Santa  Fe 
trail),  holds  trade  supremacy  of  the  western  plains. 

/// — "IVeslport   Lauding." 
1840-1855.     Another    neighbor,    named    Westport,    snatches    away    the    claim    of    Inde- 
pendence to  be  called  the  West's  "City  of  Destiny."     The  docks  of  the  "City  of  Kansas" 
handle   \A'estport's    freight    from    Missouri    River   steamboats,    so   the    little   levee   town    is 
nicknamed    "Westport   Landing."     Population    in    1855,   only   478. 

IV — Golden  Days  of  River  Trade. 
1855-1860.     In   the   golden   era   of    steamboating   on   the   Missouri    River,    the    "City   of 
Kansas"  thrives.     In   1857  as  many  as  729  boats  put  in  at  her  docks.     On  the  eve  of  the 
outbreak   of   the   Civil   War   the   city   has   a   population   of   7,180   and    threatens   Westport 
with  commercial  annihilation. 

V—The  Blight  of  IVar. 
1860-1865.     The   Civil  War  deals  the  hopeful  community  a   staggering  blow.     Half   of 
tlie    population    flees    its    war-stricken    neighborhood.      In    consequence.    Fort    Leavenworth, 


GENERAL  STERLING  PRICE 
Reproduced  from  a  Civil  war  picture  in  the  collection  of  the  Lafayette  County  Historical  Society 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  931 

safely   located   forty  miles   upstream,   gobbles   up   the   trade  of   the   territory,   and  by  1865 
has    15,000  population   as   against  only  3,500   in   the   "City  of    Kansas." 

VI — Reconstruction   Struggles. 

1865-1870.  In  reconstruction  days  and  fighting  against  terrific  odds  in  favor  of  Leaven- 
worth. Kansas  City  struggles  to  secure  railway  connections  w-ith  the  East  and  North,  for 
the  golden  era  of  the  steamboat  is  past  and  all  hope  now  lies  in  securing  lines  of  modern 
transportation.  Kansas  City  wins  in  a  desperate  battle,  and  by  1870  has  seven  railways 
and  a  population  of  32.260 — greater  than  Leavenworth  will  boast  in  the  census  of  1920. 

I'll— Pulling  Out  of  the  Mud. 

1870-1880.  Kansas  City  begins  to  feel  the  urge  of  civic  improvement  and  sets  to  pull- 
ing herself  out  of  the  mud.  In  ten  years  she  spends  iH  million  dollars  upon  street 
improvements.  This  despite  the  fact  that  her  population  at  the  end  of  the  decade  is  only 
55,;85- 

VIII— When    the   "Boom"   Collafsi^d. 

1880-1890.  A  real  estate  "boom"  falls  through  with  a  sickening  crash,  and  Kansas 
City  is  knocked  out  for  the  count  of  nine,  but  struggles  to  her  feet  and  begins  fighting 
again.  In  1889  officially  names  herself  "Kansas  City"  in  a  new  charter  and  absorbs  West- 
port  within  her  enlarged  city  limits.     Population,   1890,   is   132.716. 

IX— A   Call  for  the  Beauty  Doctor. 

1890-1900.  With  nothing  for  a  beginning.  Kansas  City  hopefully  plunges  into  the  task 
of  attempting  to  beautify  herself  with  parks  and  boulevards.  Before  igoo  she  has  nearly 
twelve  miles  of  completed  boulevards  and  1,691  acres  of  parks.  Population  in  1900  for 
Kansas  City,  Mo.,  164,745. 

A' — .4  Winety-Day  Wonder. 

1900-1910.  Kansas  City  leaps  into  the  limelight  of  national  fame  in  1900  after  a  tire 
destroys  a  huge  convention  hall  prepared  for  the  Democratic  national  convention.  Though 
experts  say  it  "can't  be  done,"  Kansas  City  rebuilds  the  hall  in  ninety  days,  and  the  con- 
vention opens  on  the  minute  of  schedule  time.  Then  Kansas  City  keeps  on  plunging 
deeper  and  deeper  into  heavy  expenses  for  parks  and  boulevards,  inspired  by  the  slogan : 
"Make  Kansas  City  a  Good   Place  to  Live  In !" 

XI— Her  Place  in  the  Sun. 

1910-1920.  .\  period  of  swift  development  of  trade  which  boosts  Kansas  City  into 
fifth  place  in  the  entire  L'nited  States  in  volume  of  bank  clearings.  This  business  activity 
is  accompanied  by  an  even  more  startling  development  of  residence  districts.  The  Country 
Club  "development"  in  particular,  is  a  home  community  richly  deserving  a  national  repu- 
tation.    No  let-up,  meanwhile,  in  the  work  of  extending  the  park  and  boulevard   system. 

Even  in  so  sketchy  an  outline  as  this,  no  one  can  fail  to  perceive  that  from  first  to 
last  the  unseen  but  powerful  spirit  of  Kansas  City  has  been  ever  active  in  stimulating  the 
community  to  keep  valiantly  struggling  after  success.  No  one  can  contend  that  Kansas 
City  was  a  winner  because  she  "had  all  the  luck."  The  luck  was  dead  against  her  for 
fifty  consecutive  years,  and  turned  and  bit  her  at  stated  intervals  thereafter.  Kansas  City 
won  not  because  she  had  all  the  luck,  but  because  she  had  all  the  pluck. 

In  the  end  the  town  even  made  itself  "a  good  place  to  live  in,"  though  that  ambition 
had  caused  her  rivals  the  most  hilarious  laughter  of  all.  The  hills  and  valleys  were  turned 
from  liabilities  into  assets. 

Our  prose  epic  is  now  drawing  to  a  close,  revealing  a  city  celebrated  the  country 
over  for  her  eighty  miles  of  boulevards,  her  more  than  3,000  acres  of  parks,  her  residence 
districts  of  nation-wide  fame,  her  business  section  booming  as  never  before  in  all  history 
— for,  in  addition  to  the  regular  trade  of  a  rich  tributary  territory,  the  city  now  feels  an 
unusual  stimulus   from  the  Southwest's  newly  developed  oil   fields. 

The  Epic  of  Kansas  City. 

C.  L.  Edson,  a  native,  returning  to  Kansas  City  in  the  summer  of  1920,  rhymed 
his  "impressions."    He  explained  that  the  "Great  Race"  of  the  last  sacred  city 


932  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"is  the  strain  that  subdued  wild  America.  More  men  of  this  stock  live  in  Kan- 
sas City  than  in  any  other  town."  Mr.  Edson's  other  footnote  related  to  the 
"Town  Builders."  It  attributed  Kansas  City's  wonderful  stride  to  the  early 
discovery  that  the  railroad  was  to  supersede  the  river  transportation.  Mr. 
Edson  put  it  in  this  way:  "There  were  a  dozen  towns  around  the  Kaw  mouth 
all  aiming  to  be  the  metropolis  of  the  Southwest.  Why  did  Kansas  City  outstrip 
them  all?  Because  she  had  what  the  other  towns  lacked — a  man  of  genius.  This 
man  predicted  that  river  traffic  would  die  and  that  the  railroads  would  rule  the 
plains.  So  the  mudbank  village  of  Kansas  City  gave  $20,000  toward  a  railroad 
bridge.  The  river  was  bridged  and  the  railroads  came."  This  is  the  epic  as  it 
appeared  in  the  Kansas  City  Star: 

The  California  Hummer  with  its  ears  pinned  back, 
Races  thro'  the  city  on  the  Belt  Line  track 
To  the  union  station.     There  the  brakes  buck  down, 
And  we  tarry  twenty  minutes   in   a  big  beef   town. 

A  tall  town  of  Traders   with  its  Big  Biz  hives. 
The  last  sacred  city  where   the   Great   Race  thrives. 
The  tree-felling,  bear-slapping,  road  building  race. 
Hold   this   their  capital — and   market  place. 

The  FouNiiKKS   or  the   Citv. 

The  herders  and  the  traders  and   the  sod  corn  crew, 
■    They  planted  'em  a  city  when  the  world  was  new. 
They  planted  Kansas  City,  and  the  darn  thing  grew. 

The  bearcat  killers  and  the  Dan  Boone  clan. 

The  boys  that  taught  the  panther  his  respect  for  man — 

They  planted  Kansas  City  where  the  bull  trails  ran. 

Built  on  BREAt)  and  Beef. 

Ships  made  Carthage,  gold  made  Nome, 
Grain   built   Babylon,   the   wars   built    Rome, 
Hogs  made  Chicago  with  their  dying  squeal, 
Up  popped  Pittsburgh  at  the  birth  of  steel; 
Come,  Kansas  City,  make  your  story  brief : 
"Here   stands   a   city  built   o'   bread   and   beef." 

"Where  the  West  Begins." 

Here  the  pioneer  axman  came  out  of  the  woods, 

And   his   trek   through    the    forest   was   done. 
The  curtain,  on  woodcraft,  had  fallen  for  good. 

And  the  Prologue  of  Grass  had  begun. 
Here  the  buffalo  border  undauntedly  ran, 
And  the   Jin   of  the   Desert   stood  mocking  at  man. 

The  steamboat  was  stopped  by  the  shallows  and  sand, 

And  the  rivers  were  troubled  no  more. 
But  the  bull  train  set  forth   for  the  journey  by  land. 

And  the  Boone  tribe  went  on  as  before. 
The'  the  Ozarks  and  ox  carts  and  leaf  littered  lanes, 
Had   blended   and    ended    and   balked   at   the   plains. 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  933 

Here  ended  an  era.     Old  guidings  were  gone, 

And  a  tree  tribe  was  out  on  the  grass, 
And   facing   the   sunset    *    *    *    they  looked   on   the   dawn 

Of  a  dream  that  would  yet  come  to  pass, 
And  their  trading  post,  built  as  a  plainsmen's  retreat, 
Is  this  capital  town   in   a  kingdom  of  wheat. 

Little   Kansas   City,   when   its   bones    were   green   as   gristle, 

Swapped   its   catfish   seaport   for   a  locomotive  whistle. 

"Oh,   isn't   it   a  beaut ;   just   hear   that   whistle   toot. 

"It   cost   our   river   birthright   and   some   borrowed   gold   to   boot." 

Oh,   think  of   Bennie   Franklin,   he  bought   a   whistle,   too ; 

"Don't   pay  too   much   for   whistles,"   is   the   moral   that   he   drew. 

Did  Kansas   City  weep   when  the  harvest   was   to   reap? 

Oh,  no;  she  laughed  in  triumph;  she  had  bought  her  whistle  cheap. 

Where    is    Westport    Landing,    and    its    bull    and    harness    trade? 

Where  is  Leesport  Landing  and  the  local  fuss  it  made? 

The  port   of   Independence  and  the  port  of  Wyandotte? 

They   are   rusted,   they   are   busted,   they   are   buried   and   forgot. 

And    the    locomotive    whistle    goes    a    roaring    o'er    the    spot. 

The   River   was   the   sponsor   for   those   towns   upon   the   shore. 

The   River   was   their   wet  nurse  but   it   suckles   them   no    more; 

Their  landings  all  have  languished  where  the  weeds  and  willows   wave. 

Their    dream    of    catfish    commerce    is    a    legend    in    the    grave. 

And  the  river  towns   are   dust   upon   the  Kansas  City  pavfe. 

The  Iron   Mare  is  mother  of  the  epoch  here  begun — 

And  the  city,  Kansas  City,   is  the  railroads'  son. 

The  Union  Station. 

Stroll  thru  this  station  where  the  tribe  trails  meet. 
The  clans  from  the  cotton,  the  hordes  from  the  wheat. 
Watch   the   West   in   action — from   a  grandstand   seat. 

Six  sheep  shearers  out  of  far  Cheyenne, 

Ten  tie  hackers  from  the  Ozark  hills, 
An  oil  king  and  cotton  king  from  Texarkan', 

And  a  po'  white  piker  with  the  ague  chills. 
A   "silly   ass"  tourist  that   has   never   earned  a   dollar, 

A  tall,  tanned  Texan   in  a  wide  brimmed  hat, 
A  rich   Swede   farmer   in   a  ten-cent   collar, 

A   Wind-River   booster   with   his    pockets    flat. 
Oil-rich  Indians  as  sour  as  sin. 
Dining  room  darkies  with  a  golden  grin ; 
Beef    men,   bread   men,    corn,    wool    and   cotton    men, 
Squaw   men,   l^Iexicans,   half   breeds   and   rotten   men, 
Seethe  through   the   city,   the   great   gate   city. 
Crowding  Kansas  City  as  the  great  trade  town. 

Corn-fed  farmer  girls  as  pretty  as  an  apple. 

Unconscious  of   their  beauty  as   it  gleams  and  glows, 
And   a    small   town    vamp — each    cheek    a    scarlet   dapple. 

She's  larking  to  the  city  in  her  tell-tale  clothes. 


934  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Siuiff-dippiiig    razorbatks    with    black    slouch    lids, 
And  Rackensack  mothers  with  a  hundred  kids. 

All    this    is    movie    stulT    in    a   mammoth    scene, 
A   masque   of   America   moving   to  and   fro, 

Types   out   of   Hollywood,   types    from   the   screen, 
But  this  is  not  a  movie,  it's  the  Big  World  Show. 

Bud's   top   balloon   goes   a   sailing   to   the   ceiling; 

Now  it  settles  downward' while  the  slow  tear  wells. 
Bud   bravely   follows   with  his  baby  eyes   appealing. 

Till    an    injim   gets    his    bauble — and    be    yells    hell's    bells! 

A  farm  hand  from  Berryville  is  told  to  take  his  ticket 
To  gate   number   seven   to   await   the   Clinton    Plug 

He  scans  every  gate,   but  he   lacks   the   wit   to  pick   it ; 
He    "can't    read    readin' "    any    more'n    a    doodle    bug. 

A   Si)ringfield  drummer  sees  the   numb-skull's  plight. 

And  points   to   the  gate   that   will   put  the   fellow    right ; 

There  stands  Bryan  with  his  palm  leaf  fan ; 

He's  lapping  up  a   soda  with  a  livestock  mai). 

This  is  Kansas  City,  where  the  tribe  trails  meet. 
The   rail  bead,  the  gateway,   the  West's  main   street, 
The  old  tribal  stamping  ground  to  stamp  your  feet. 

HiSTOKV    OF    K.\NSAS    CiTV. 

Price  was  a  rebel,  a  raider  lacking  pity. 

Along  came  the  war  and  he  raided  Kansas  City. 

Peace  brought  a  jubilee;  Jesse  James  was  there, 
James   and   his   robber   band   robbed   the   county   fair. 

Stockyards  and  packing  bouses !     How  the  city  grew ; 
They   had   the    Priests   of   Pallas   and   the   Karnival   Krew. 

The   flood   drowned   the   bottoms   like   an   old   wet   hen; 
Down    burned   Convention   Hall — they   built   it  up   again. 

The   Star  boomed   for   boulevard   and   parkways   green. 
And    Kansas    City    houses    are    the    finest    ever    seen. 

Rki  OI.I.KCTIO.NS    OF    KaNSAS    CiTV. 

1)1   iKi)0   the   old   scllli-r   snid: 
"I  shot  a  deer — put  a  bullet  thro'  his  brain — 
And   gutted   him   and   et   him    where   now    it's    Sixth    and    M 
I  never  have  forgot  how  he  tasted,   sizzlin  hot." 
(Today  a  cafeteria  is  standing  on  the  spot.) 

"I   whacked   bulls — me   and   twenty   wagon   hands. 
Teaming  up  the  holler   where  the  Junction   stands. 
In  an  old  stone  building,  where  they  later  had  The  Star. 
I  shot  a  blanket   Injun   in  a  quarrel  at  a  bar." 


am ; 


THE  MAKING  OF  A  CITY  935 

In      i()3o  the  settler's  son  said: 
"Well  do  I   remember  the  cable  car  days, 
The  Aggie  Meyers  murder  and  the  silver  craze; 
The  Nebraska  Clothing  Company  was  raking   in  the  scads, 
And  kept  the  people  laughing  with   their   funny  little  ads. 

"I  'member  long  before  the  ten-cent  store. 

Or  the  first  nickelodeon  opened  up  its  door. 

Me  and  Brother  Joe   had  a  tandem   bike,  and   Bo, 

We   used   to    scorch    the   paving   where   your   jitney   busses    go. 

Em-oy. 
The  California  Hummer  with  its  ears  pinned  back, 
Rumbled   from  the  station  on  its  westward  track. 
And  the  tourist  in  the  diner  had  a  beefsteak  brown. 
As  a  high  life  reminder  of  a  corn-fed  town. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
A   GRAXD  OLD   .MAN   OF   MISSOURI 

John  finis  Philips — Eighty-five  Years  of  the  Century  of  Statehood — Vivid  Recollections  of 
the  Leyal  Giants — The  Big  Four  after  the  Civil  War — At  the  Gettysburg  of  the  West — 
The  Frank  James  Case — Abiel  Leonard's  Early  Fee — Legislative  Pardon  for  a  Duel — 
Leonard's  Last  and  Vest's  First  Notable  Case — Washington  Adams'  Misquotation — 
Gardenhire's  Peroration  Spoiled — John  B.  Clark's  Fountain  of  Tears — Barton,  the  Fore- 
most Cilicen — Edward  Bates'  Appeal  for  Sacred  Personal  Rights — "Old  Sarcasm"  Hay- 
den — Four  Supreme  Court  Judges  at  the  Bar — Tzvo  Views  of  the  Bench — Judge 
Ryland's  Classic  Lore — Vest's  Missouri  Verision  of  Latin — Judge  Naplon's  Search  for 
Law — A  Good  Turn  and  Lifelong  Friendship — Farmer  Hicks  and  Lawyer  Hicks — The 
Railsplilter — Lynch  Law  Rebuked — A  Practical  Joke  that  Dissolved  a  Partnership — 
Primitive  Practice  Along  the  Osage — Judge  Emmerson's  Free-for-All  Court — John  S. 
Phelps  on  Nunc  Pro  Tunc — Waldo  P.  Johnson's  Thick-Headed  Client — Duke  Draffen's 
Mastery  of  Law — The  Defense  of  Justice  Cross — What  Became  of  a  Fee — Missouri's 
Best  Story  Teller — Speeches  that  Live  Only  in  Tradition — Passing  of  the  Old  Breed — 
Modern  Conditions — Ethics  of  the  Shyster — A  Tribute  to  the  Pioneers  of  the  Profession. 

As  God   is   my   witness,   I   have  tried   so   hard   to   do    right. — Jolin   F.   Pliilips. 

The  grand  old  man  of  Missouri,  in  the  closing  years  of  the  state's  century, 
was  John  Finis  Philips.  When  he  was  born,  in  Boone  county,  on  the  last  day 
of  1834,  the  state  was  thirteen  years  old.  Boy  and  man  he  knew  the  pioneers, 
and  he  lived  to  have  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  Missouri  to  the  end  of  his 
eighty-five  years.  Only  a  few  days  before  he  went  with  Judge  Walter  Sanborn 
to  the  home  of  Samuel  W.  Fordyce  near  Hot  Springs,  where  the  end  came 
in  the  spring  of  1919,  Judge  Philips  addressed  a  public  meeting  in  Kansas  City, 
giving  his  views  as  to  the  form  a  memorial  to  those  who  fought  in  the  World 
war  might  take  worthily.  At  the  celebration  of  Missouri's  first  state  centennial, 
the  one-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  presentation  of  the  memorial  to  Congress 
for  statehood,  Judge  Philips  talked  charmingly  of  the  pioneer  period  of  state- 
hood.    He  was  in  full  possession  of  mental  vigor  down  to  the  last. 

What  amazing  variety  of  service  he  had  rendered!  As  Judge  Philips  he 
was  most  popularly  know.  To  his  credit  there  was  a  supreme  court  commis- 
sionership,  judgeship  on  the  Kansas  City  court  of  appeals  bench  and  twenty- 
two  years  as  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court  of  the  western  district 
of  Missouri.  He  had  handed  down  437  opinions,  characterized  by  their  fullness 
of   information,  their  completeness  of  treatment   of   the   issues   involved. 

True  to  the  faith  of  his  fathers  and  to  the  name  of  the  Presbyterian 
preacher,  Rev.  John  Finis,  famous  in  the  early  religious  life  of  Missouri,  Judge 
Philips  was  active  in  the  church,  going  as  a  delegate  to  the  Pan- Presbyterian  con- 

937 


938  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

vention  in  Edinburgh,  in  1877.     That  gave  liini  opportunity  for  European  travel 
and  observation  wliich  rounded  out  his  vision. 

Missouri's  Big-  Pour. 

Four  young  .Missourians,  wlio  iiad  begun  the  practice  of  law  in  Central 
Missouri,  and  who  were  destined  to  become,  by  common  consent,  known  two 
decades  later  as  Missouri's  "Big  Four,"  came  together  in  the  winter  of  i86o-6r, 
to  talk  about  their  futures.  Cockrell  had  made  up  his  mind  to  go  with  the  states 
rights  movement.  With  that  same  simple  steadfastness  of  purpose  which  won 
for  him  thirty  years  in  the  United  States  Senate  and  the  utmost  confidence  in 
his  integrity,  more  telling  in  life  than  brilliance  of  mind,  there  was  no  hesita- 
tion or  variableness  in  his  decision.  Vest  had  been  an  elector  for  Douglas,  the 
winning  ticket  in  Alissouri  in  i860,  and  had  made  strong  Union  speeches.  But 
he  had  a  sentiment  of  devotion  to  his  southern  land  which  carried  him  with  the 
secessionists  when  the  issue  came.  The  arguments  of  Philips  and  Crittenden, 
who  had  decided  to  remain  with  the  Union,  could  not  change  this  inclination. 
Speaking  of  the  sequel  to  this  conference.  Judge  Philips  said: 

"Vest  chose  to  emigrate  to  Arkansas  with  the  seceding  state  officials,  and  down  there 
Shelby's  brigade  elected  him  to  the  Confederate  Congress.  I  don't  blame  them, — Vest  had 
a  persuasive  tongue.  I  suppose  he  talked  to  them  as  he  talked  to  a  jury,  and  Vest's  juries 
usually  did  what  he  told  them  to  do.  Few  men  could  resist  either  his  eloquence  or  his  logic. 
He  told  me  once  he  never  had  studied  an  English  grammar,  but  no  public  speaker  had  a 
better  command  of  the  language  or  understood  more  perfectly  the  effective  marshaling  of 
sentences  or  the  magic  use  of  words.  But  that  was  not  all.  He  had  a  voice  that  was  a 
worthy  vehicle  of  his  finest  periods  and  a  dignity  and  presence  that  stilled  and  inspired  all 
men. 

"Vest  went  to  Richmond  and  I  went  to  Jefferson  City  as  a  member  of  the  provisioTial 
convention.  Our  ways  lay  apart  for  four  years.  There  was  no  longer  any  doubt  of  Mis- 
souri's stand  after  the  convention  met.  The  legislature  had  invested  it  with  extraordinary 
powers,  confident  that  it  would  do  Jackson's  bidding,  and  it  used  those  powers  to  defeat  his 
plans  and  cement  the  state  to  the  Union.  The  convention  declared  the  state  offices  vacant 
and  declared  Hamilton  R.  Gamble  governor.  I  was  commissioned  to  raise  a  regiment  and 
took  the  field  at  the  head  of  the  7th  Missouri  cavalry,  but  retained  my  seat  in  the  con- 
vention and  attended  its  sitting  whenever  I  could  leave  the  saddle  long  enough  to  reach 
the  capital." 

In  that  convention,  John  F.  Pliili])s  was  the  youngest  but  one  of  the  mem- 
bers. He  was  twenty-six  years  old.  r)Ut  in  and  out  of  the  convention  he 
gained  state-wide  fame  for  his  aggressive  speeches  for  the  Union.  He  fought 
as  well  as  he  talked.  The  battle  of  Westport,  in  what  are  now  the  suburbs  of 
Kansas  City,  was  called  "the  Gettysburg  of  the  West."  There  the  cause  of 
Price  and  the  states  rights  Missourians  reached  high  tide  and  began  its  reces- 
sion. Philips  led  the  charge  up  what  became  known  as  "Bloody  Hill."  Crit- 
tenden fell  wounded  on  the  slope.  Philips  led  in  the  drive  of  the  Confederates 
southward  down  the  Wornall  road  and  was  made  a  brigadier-general  for  his 
gallantry. 

Philips  chose  early  between  politics  and  law.  He  had  his  choice.  He  had 
been  on  the  Bell-Everett,  Constitutional  Union,  electoral  ticket  in  i860;  he  had 
bad  two  terms  in  Congress ;  he  was  a  member  of  a  committee  which  investigated 


.)T-I)GK  .lOIlX  F.  PHILIPS 

A  (ji'i'i'l   I'l'l   iii'i"  of  Missouri 


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A  GRAND  OLD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  941 

the  Tilden-Hayes  election  in  1876  and  made  a  report  which  has  recognition  in 
national  political  history.  But  after  these  successful  experiences,  he  moved 
lo  Kansas  City  and  entered  upon  his  greater  and  more  satisfying  career  as  a 
lawyer  and   jurist. 

The  Frank  James  Case. 

After  the  Civil  war,  Philips  and  Vest  at  Sedalia  and  Cockrell  and  Crittenden 
at  Warrensburg  became  the  poweis  in  law  and  politics.  The  action  of  the  two 
Union  officers.  Philips  and  Crittenden,  in  forming  early  partnerships  with  the 
two  Confederates,  Cockrell  and  Vest,  had  no  little  influence  in  determining  the 
future  political  success  of  the  two  senators. 

There  came  later  another  chapter  in  the  curiously  interwoven  careers  of  the 
four  men.  Crittenden  was  elected  governor  of  Missouri  over  the  most  popular 
man  the  republicans, could  nominate,  David  P.  Dyer.  He  determined  to  put  an 
end  to  the  series  of  events  which  had  prompted  the  epithet  of  "the  robber  state" 
as  applied  to  Missouri  by  some  eastern  papers.  He  offered  large  rewards  for 
the  capture  of  Frank  and  Jesse  James.  Two  young  Missourians,  scarcely  out  of 
their  teens.  Bob  and  Charlie  Ford,  undertook  to  earn  the  rewards.  In  1881, 
Jesse  James  was  shot  and  killed  at  his  home  in  St.  Joseph  by  one  of  the  Fords. 
Frank  James  appeared  at  the  governor's  office  in  Jefferson  City,  accompanied  by 
Major  John  N.  Edwards  who  had  known  of  his  career  during  the  war,  and  sur- 
rendered, laying  his  pistols  on  the  governor's  table.  Frank  James  was  indicted 
on  the  charge  of  complicity  in  the  killing  of  Conductor  Westfall  of  the  Rock 
Island  in  connection  with  the  holdup  of  a  train.  On  the  twenty-first  of  August, 
1883,  the  most  notable  criminal  trial  in  that  generation  of  Missourians  began 
at  Gallatin.    William  H,  Wallace,  for  the  state  headed  the  prosecution. 

John  F.  Philips  and  Charles  P.  Johnson  were  in  the  array  for  the  defense. 
James  was  acquitted.  Thereafter  he  led  a  law  abiding  life.  At  the  funeral,  held 
at  the  farm  house  in  Clay  county,  there  was  no  prayer,  no  hymn,  no  preacher, 
but  Judge  Philips,  then  past  fourscore,  journeyed  out  from  Kansas  City  and  spoke 
a  few  words  as  he  had  promised  the  man  he  had  defended  nearly  thirty-five 
years  before. 

Judge  Philips'  Reminiscences. 

Of  all  Missourians,  John  F.  Philips  knew  longest  and  most  intimately  the 
bench  and  bar  of  the  Center  State,  during  the  century  closing.  Boy  and  man, 
lawyer  and  jurist,  his  recollections  went  back  to  the  pioneers.  Clo.se  relation- 
ship with  his  profession  continued  down  to  1919.  Repeatedly  Judge  Philips  was 
called  upon  to  tell  of  those  he  had  known.  And  he  responded  with  delightful 
detail  and  charming  diction.  Before  the  Missouri  Bar  Association,  at  the  cen- 
tennial celebration  of  Missouri's  formal  appeal  to  Congress  for  statehood,  and 
on  other  occasions,  Judge  Philips  gave  the  reminiscences  which  follow : 

"In  1855,  when  I  commenced  reading  law,  I  began  to  take  notice  of  the  leading  lawyers 
of  the  bar  of  Missouri.  Like  the  first  large  objects  in  nature  tlie  eye  beholds,  such  as 
rivers,  lakes,  forests,  and  towering  hills,  the  notable  personages  first  obser\cd  are  apt  to 
impress  the  mind  with  exaggerated  conceptions  of  their  magnitude.     Yet,  there  are  those 


942  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

who  fix  tlic  attiiitidii  in  early  life,   who  ever  after  staiitl  out  distinctly,  as  monumental  as 
the  moinitains,  as  grand  as  the  sea,  liceause  they  arc  great. 

"The  fir.st  lawyer  I  ever  saw  was  .-Xbiel  Leonard,  of  Fayette.  Missouri.  My  father 
had  been  sued,  in  an  action  of  ejection,  in  the  circuit  court  of  the  United  States,  at  St. 
Louis,  for  the  recovery  of  possession  of  the  homestead  located  by  him,  in  Boone  county  in 
1817,  on  which  I  was  born.  The  claim  advanced  against  him  was  predicated  of  what  was 
known  as  a  New  Madrid  earthquake  certificate.  He  employed  Mr.  Leonard  to  defend  the 
action.  En  route  to  St.  Louis  he  remained  over  the  night  at  my  father's  home.  He  was 
a  small  man  physically,  so  ugly  as  to  attract  attention,  with  a  lion's  voice  that  challenged 
contradiction.  Me  filled  my  youthful  mind  with  awe.  As  I  listened  to  him  he  seemed  a 
very  oracle  of  wisdom. 

Abiel  Leonard's  Pee. 

"In  midwinter  he  and  my  father  rode  horseback,  over  150  miles  to  St.  Louis  to  attend 
that  trial.  They  were  gone  over  two  weeks,  during  which  the  family  awaited  with  anx- 
ious hearts  tidings  of  them.  Leonard  won,  and  stopped  again  over  night  on  his  return,  I 
suspect  to  collect  his  fee.  When  the  neighbors,  who  in  those  days  ever  took  the  liveliest 
interest  in  the  aflfairs  of  each  other,  learned  of  Leonard's  charge  for  his  services,  they 
pronounced  it  exorbitant.  It  was  the  princely  sum  of  $150.00!  Verily,  Tempnra  mulanlur, 
et  nos  mutamur  in  illis. 

"From  that  time  to  the  close  of  his  career  he  never  failed  to  measure  up  to  the  highest 
standards  of  lawyer,  jurist  and  citizen.  With  rapt  interest  I  listened  at  the  family  fireside 
to  the  recital  of  the  incident  of  one  Berry  cowhiding  him,  publicly  in  the  court  house  yard. 
The  hotheaded  westerner  assumed  that  as  Leonard  was  a  New  England  Yankee  he  was 
cold-blooded,  and  would  not  fight.  How  badly  he  reckoned !  To  wipe  the  ignominy  from 
his  honor  thus  meanly  put  upon  him,  Leonard  challenged  him  to  mortal  combat,  according 
to  the  then  recognized  Code  Duello.  They  fought  on  Bloody  Island  in  the  Mississippi 
river.  From  the  rifle  held  by  steady  nerves  and  directed  by  keen  eyes.  Berry  fell.  No 
man  afterward  questioned  the  right  of  the  New  Englander  to  be  treated  and  respected  as 
a  gentleman. 

Pardoned  for  a  Duel. 

"The  legislature  of  the  state,  in  recognition  of  the  approval  of  public  opinion  of  this 
action  of  Mr.  Leonard,  passed  the  following  act : 

"  'an    act    for    the    relief    of   abiel    LEONARD. 

"'Preamble:  Whereas,  it  satisfactorily  appears  to  this  General  Assembly,  that  Abiel 
Leonard,  at  the  October  term  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Howard,  First  Judicial  district,  before 
the  judge  of  said  court,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-four,  was  con- 
victed of  challenging  a  person  to  fight  a  duel,  contrary  to  the  statute  in  such  case  made  and 
provided,  and  the  said  Abiel  Leonard  was  then  and  there,  by  the  judgment  of  the  court 
aforesaid,  declared  to  be  "incapable  of  holding  or  being  elected  to  any  post  of  profit,  trust, 
or  emolument,  civil  or  military,  under  the  government  of  this  state,  or  of  voting  at  an  elec- 
tion within  the  same. 

"  'Therefore,  Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  .^ssembly  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  that  the 
said  Abiel  Leonard  be  and  he  is  hereby  restored  to  all  the  rights,  privileges  and  liberties  of 
a  citizen  of  this  state,  in  as  full  and  perfect  manner  as  he  possessed  and  enjoyed  them  before 
the  conviction  and  judgment  aforesaid.  This  act  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force  from  and 
after  the  passage  thereof,  and  shall  be  taken  and  considered  a  public  act.'" 

"'(Approved  December  24th,  1824,  Chapter  13,  Private  Acts  of  Missouri  1824.)'" 

"In  i8.?5  the  original  roll  of  this  private  act  was  destroyed,  together  with  all  other 
laws  then  preserved  in  the  archives  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state,  by  the  fire  which 
consumed  the  state  capitol  building.  A  volume  of  the  private  acts  of  1824,  printed  by  public 
authority  and  containing  this  act,  was  found  among  the  law  books  in  the  library  of  Judge 
Leonard  after  his  death,  preserved  by  him,  doubtless,  as  a  valued  treasure.  On  his  death 
this  volume  passed  into  the  hands  of  his  son-in-law.  General  Odon  Guitar,  of  Columbia, 
Missouri,  and  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  R.  A.  Brown,  an  attorney  at  law  of  St. 
Joseph.  Missouri,  who  married  a  daughter  of  General  Guitar.  Mr.  Thomas  K.  Skinker, 
the  well-known  lawyer  of  St.  Louis,  who  has  a  commendable  passion  for  collecting  and 
preserving  such  ancient  and  rare  books,  obtained  a  reprinting  of  this  volume  of   private 


A  GRAND  OLD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  943 

acts  and  tendered  a  copy  to  the  secretary  of  state  with  the  request  that  it  be  certified  by 
him  as  a  true  copy.  This  the  secretary  declined  to  do  unless  the  original  volume,  then  in 
the  hands  of  General  Guitar,  were  filed  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state.  General 
Guitar  did   not  accede   to   this   request   doubtless    for   sentimental    reasons. 

"Judge  Leonard  was  a  highly  educated  man,  a  rare  classical  scholar,  with  an  eminently 
practical  mind.  He  was  not  an  orator,  as  the  world  estimates ;  but  he  was  so  logical,  so 
learned,  and  intellectually  honest  that  men  listened  to  and  believed  in  him.  His  term  on 
the  supreme  bench  of  the  state,  from  which  he  voluntarily  retired,  though  short,  demon- 
strated his  premiership  as  a  jurist,  especially  in  that  branch  of  the  law  which  calls  for  the 
highest  qualities  of  head  and  heart, — equity  jurisprudence. 

Washington  Adams'  Quotation  from  B3rron. 

"The  last  case  in  which  he  appeared  on  the  circuit,  within  my  observation,  was  at 
Boonville.  Because  of  the  high  social  standing  of  the  litigants  and  the  eminent  counsel 
engaged  in  it,  the  case  became  'casus  celebre.'  It  was  the  first  case  of  note  in  which  George 
G.  Vest  appeared,  and  established  by  his  brilliant  speech  a  reputation  for  oratory  that 
never  waned.  Wash.  Adams.  Sr.,  was  of  leading  counsel  for  the  defendant  with  Leonard. 
Mr.  Adams  afterwards  became  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  state.  He  was  an  all 
'round  good  lawyer,  strong,  aggressive,  full  of  assertion,  and  armed  at  every  point  with  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  law.  He  had,  in  discussion,  a  way  of  saying,  'These  are  the 
facts'  and  'This  is  the  law,'  that  defied  contradiction,  and  made  the  timorous  hesitate  to 
gainsay  it.  He  furnished  proof  of  the  assertion  that  the  expert  pleaders  and  practitioners 
under  the  old  Chitty  system  made  the  best  pleaders  and  practitioners  under  the  new  code. 
There  was  no  place  in  his  rugged  mind  for  fancy  or  poetry.  In  one  of  their  consultations, 
during  the  trial  of  the  crim.  con.  case,  a  phase  of  the  evidence  recalled  to  Vest's  mind  the 
lines  of   'Don  Juan' : 

"  'A   little  while  she  strove,  and  much   repented, 
'  And  whispering  "I  will  ne'er  consent"  consented.' 

"They  struck  Mr.  'Adams  with  the  idea  of  their  possible  utility  in  his  coming  address 
to  the  jury.  So  he  asked  Vest  to  repeat  them  slowly  that  he  might  fix  them  firmly  in  his 
memory.  When  he  reached  the  point  in  his  ad4ress  to  the  jury  where  he  thought  the 
lines  would  fit  in,  he  said : 

"  '(jentlemen  of  the  jury,  the  conduct  of  the  plaintiff  recalls  the  lines  of  Lord  Byron's 
poem  about  one  Don  Juan  and  Julia,  which  go  on  to  say:  ".\  little  still  she  strove  and 
much  repented."  ' 

"Right  there  his  memory  lapsed.  After  an  ineffectual  eflfort  to  catch  on  to  the  other 
line,  in  characteristic  tone,  he  said :  'Gentlemen,  I'm  no  poetry  lawyer,  but  the  idea  Byron 
tried  to  express  was  that  the  woman  said  she  wouldn't  when,  by  the  eternal,  she  did.' 

"The  leading  counsel  for  the  plaintiiT  was  James  B.  Gardenhire,  then  attorney  general 
of  the  state,  an  excellent  lawyer,  whose  thoughts,  always  prolific,  were  conveyed  on  a 
vehicle  of  rhetoric  beautiful  and  charming.  The  plaintiff  was  a  very  attractive  woman, 
in  the  full  glow  of  exuberant  life;  and  the  defendant,  who  was  her  cousin,  was  in  the  lusti- 
hood  of  his  manhood. 

Why  Gardenhire  Lost. 

"In  his  closing  address  to  the  jury,  Gardenhire  gave  full  play  to  his  gifts  as  an  advo- 
cate. Judge  Leonard,  with  his  chair  tilted  back  against  one  of  the  framed  pillars  enclos- 
ing the  bar,  and  near  to  the  jury,  was  listening  with  rapt  attention  to  the  rhythm  of  Garden- 
hire's  well-rounded  sentences.  In  illustration  of  what  the  defendant's  deportment  should 
have  been,  under  the  circum.stances  that  provoked  the  alleged  assault  upon  the  plaintiff,  he 
described  an  incident  in  his  own  life.  He  was  attending  court  at  Independence,  Missouri. 
Being  out  late  one  night,  engaged  at  some  lawyer's  office,  he  returned  to  his  hotel  and  to 
his  room,  as  he  thought.  Lighting  the  candle,  in  use  in  those  days,  he  at  once  disrobed 
for  bed.  The  bed  was  of  the  ancient  aristocratic  type,  with  tall  posts,  surmounted  with 
a  canopy,  with  curtains  extending  almost  to  the  floor.  Parting  the  curtains  to  turn  down 
the  covers,  he   was  astounded  to   discover   in   the   bed  a   female   form,   all   unconscious   in 


OU  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

deep,  innocent  sleep.  Her  raven  locks  were  curled  over  alabaster  shoulders ;  the  roses  were 
a-blooni  on  her  cheeks;  the  silken  eyelashes  hung  low;  and  two  ripe  cherries  were  seeming- 
ly being  kissed  by  her  half-parted  lips;  while  her  bosom  rose  and  fell  above  a  Hebe  waist. 
Turning  his  sparkling  eyes  upon  Leonard,  in  a  dramatic  manner,  he  exclaimed:  'What  did 
I  do,  but  like  a  gentleman  close  the  curtains,  rerobe  myself,  extinguish  the  candle,  and 
silently  retire  from  the  room,  instead  of  imitating  the  conduct  of  your  client  by  attempting 
to  leap  the  ramparts  of  virtue,  and  feast  upon  chastity!  What,  sir,  should  any  gentleman 
have  done?  Would  you  have  imitated  the  example  of  your  libidinous  client?'  Leonard, 
wrought  to  a  high  pitch  of  excitement  by  the  portraiture,  brought  his  tilted  chair  with  a 
thud  to  the  floor,  and  in  a  hoarse  whisper  that  echoed  like  a  voice  in  the  dome  of  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral  in  London,  said :  'I  think  now  that  I  would  have  awakened  her  by 
kissing  those  cherries,  and  then  apologized  like  a  gentleman.'  The  jury  heard,  and  Garden- 
hire's  case  was  lost. 

The  Foremost  Missourian  a  Century  Ago. 

"One  biographical  historian  tells  us  that  David  Barton  began  his  brilliant  career  at 
old  Franklin  and  was  the  first  judge  of  the  Howard  county  circuit.  Another  tells  us  that 
he  began  at  St.  Louis,  and  became  its  first  circuit  judge.  But  let  these  'boroughs'  con- 
tend for  Homer  dead,  David  Barton  was  great  enough  to  cover  all  with  the  mantle  of  his 
fame.  He  was  the  speaker  of  the  territorial  legislature  who  signed  the  resolution  accept- 
ing the  terms  of  the  state's  admission  into  the  Union.  He  was  one  of  the  great  factors 
in  substituting  for  the  civil  code  of  laws  the  common  law  of  Missouri.  He  was  the  first 
United  States  senator  from  Missouri,  its  foremost  citizen  and  lawyer,  although  the  en- 
cyclopedia makers  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  did  not  find  a  place  for  a  name  so  full  of 
glorious  achievements.  I  stood  a  short  time  ago  at  his  grave  in  the  beautiful  Walnut 
Grove  cemetery  at  Boonville.  As  I  beheld  the  magnificent  monuments  erected  there  to  men 
of  provincial  quality,  and  then  looked  at  the  humble,  crumbling  stone  that  marks  the  rest- 
ing place  of  David  Barton,  the  thought  came  that  true  greatness  needs  no  imposing  mauso- 
leum to  perpetuate  its   fame. 

"Henry  S.  Geyer  for  half  a  century  stood  in  the  forefront  of  lawyers  in  St.  Louis, 
and  represented  the  state  in  the  United  States   Senate  with  distinguished  honor. 

Bates  on  Sacred  Personal  Liberties. 

"As  I  must  be  brief,  without  making  invidious  distinctions,  I  feel  warranted  in  desig- 
nating as  'clarum  et  veiicrabile  nomen,'  Edward  Bates,  who  left  the  imprint  of  his  name 
written  in  letters  of  gold  on  the  archives  of  the  state.  He  helped  it  to  put  aside  its  terri- 
torial garb,  and  stood  at  its  birth  as  a  state.  He  was  a  Virginian,  the  brother-in-law  of 
Hamilton  R.  Gamble.  He  was  the  first  attorney  general  of  the  state,  and  first  attorney 
general  of  the  United  States  under  the  administration  of  President  Lincoln.  His  mind 
was  'a  perfect  field  of  cloth  and  gold.'  He  possessed  a  vast  wealth  of  learning.  His  mental 
tastes  and  ambition  made  him  toil  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  law  and  the  science 
of  government.  Early  in  my  professional  career,  I  had  an  occasion  to  read  a  brief  from 
his  pen  before  the  supreme  court;  the  thought  and  philosophy  of  which  ought  to  be  burnt 
into  the  public  mind,  in  these  days  when  legislators  and  ministers  at  the  seat  of  power, 
distempered  with  frenzy,  disregard  the  sacred  personal  liberties  of  the  citizen.  It  was 
the  rcvivication  and  amplification  of  Thomas  Jefferson's  pronouncement  in  the  preamble 
to  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  that  'all  men  are  endowed  by  their  creator 
with  certain  inalienable  rights,  among  whicli  are  Life,  Liberty  and  the  Pursuit  of  Happi- 
ness.' With  turning  words  and  impassioned  earnestness,  he  maintained  that  there  are  per- 
sonal privileges  and  rights  that  depend  upon  no  human  statutes  or  organic  acts  of  govern- 
ment, but  they  e.xist  inherent  in  our  manhood,  and  whenever  or  wherever  government  or 
society  undertakes  to  invade  this  domain,  they  make  for  despotism,  no  matter  what  the 
pretext,  whether  under  the  guise' of  the  supposed  exigency  of  government  or  the  frenzied 
fancy  of  the  sociologist. 


A  GRAND  0LD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  945 

John  B.  Clark,  Sr. 

"Contemporaneous  with  the  ciders  of  the  bar  of  Central  Missouri,  was  General  John 
B.  Clark,  Sr.,  of  Fayette.  He  was  my  preceptor  in  the  study  of  law.  He  was  a  most  noted 
character,  and  left  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  upon  the  history  of  the  state.  Before 
the  Civil  war  he  was  a  member  of  Congress,  and  a  brigadier  general.  He  was  a  brigadier 
general  in  the  Confederate  army;  and  a  member  of  the  Confederate  Senate— 6.v  brevet! 
And  so  thoroughly  reconstructed  did  he  become 'early  that  he  tried  to  get  back  into  Congress, 
and  only  consented  to  retire  in  favor  of.  that  knight  chevalier,  his  son,  General  John  B. 
Clark,  Jr. 

"While  in  his  office  I  became  much  impressed  with  his  great  familiarity  with  the  old 
text-books.  It  was  his  habit,  at  the  e;id  of  my  week's  reading  of  law,  to  examine  me  like 
a  schoolmaster  on  what  I  had  gone  over.  No  law  professor  possessed  more  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  books  than  he  displayed.  He  not  only  had  stored  in  his  memory  the 
texts,  but>he  understood  the  rationale  of  the  rules  and  principles. 

"He  was  an  imposing  figure,  tall,  erect,  strong,  with  massive  head,  and  an  oratorical 
pose  and  grace  of  gesture  that  designated  him  as  a  man  of  distinctive  force.  Many  stories 
were  told  of  his  crudities  and  angularities,  with,  perhaps,  sufficient  foundation  in  truth, 
without  so  much  of  exaggeration.  He  was  disposed  in  writing  to  follow  phonetics  rather 
than  correct  orthography.  But  he  employed  virile  English,  and  on  occasion  rose  to  lofty 
heights  of  natural  eloquence.  His  lachrymose  ducts  were  always  full  and  ready  to  over-, 
flow.  Like  a  lie  they  were  a  great  help  in  time  of  need.  I  listened  to  him  defend  a  suit 
against  a  widow  to  impress  her  dower  interest  in  land  with  the  quality  of  a  mortgage, 
with  an  element  of  fraud  in  it,  whereby  he  persuaded  the  court  to  submit  to  a  jury  the 
hearing.  In  his  appeal  to  the  jury  he  said  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiflf  would  send  his  client, 
a  delicate,  refined  woman,  burdened  with  the  care  of  helpless  children,  to  the  washtub,  to 
scrub  and  uring.  Suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  when  he  used  the  word  'wring,'  the 
fountain  of  his  tears  was  loosed,  until  he  baptized,  with  immersion,  his  entire  expansive 
shirt  front.  Although  his  client  sat  as  if  carved  out  of  granite,  he  outwept  Niobe  over 
her  nine  dead  children.     The  jury  wept  with  him,  and  decided   for  him. 

A  Never  Failing  Fountain  of  Tears. 

"The  last  case,  of  note,  in  which  he  appeared,  was  at  Boonville,  in  defence  of  a  man 
indicted  for  murder.  He  had  the  wife  of  the  defendant,  dressed  in  black,  surrounded  by  a 
bevy  of  bright-looking  young  children,  inside  of  the  bar,  sitting  near  the  husband  and 
father.  When  he  reached  the  'homestretch'  in  his  speech,  he  called  up  the  well-spring 
of  his  tears,  at  sight  of  which  the  wife  and  little  ones  broke  into  audible  sobs.  The  pre- 
siding judge,  about  whose  heart  the  icicles  hung  in  summer,  called  to  the  sheriff  to  remove 
the  wife  and  children  from  the  court  room.  This  rebuflf  would  have  nonplused  the  aver- 
age lawyer,  but  the  veteran  of  over  three-score  years  on  the  field  of  combat  lost  neither 
courage  nor  resource.  With. a  swelling  flow  of  tears  streaming  down  his  unwiped  cheeks, 
he  said:  "Your  Honor,  if  it  pleases  you,  let  the  woman  be  taken  out;  but,  in  the  name  of 
the  Savior  of  mankind,  who,  with  infinite  compassion,  said,  "sufTer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me,"  I  beg  that  these  little  ones  be  spared.  But  the  judge  was  immovable;  and  ag 
the  sheriff  led  the  procession  of  mother  and  children  from  the  room,  all  wailing  as  at  a 
funeral,  the  old  general  turned  to  the  jury  and  said; 

"  'Gentlemen,  you  alone  can  give  this  husband  and  father  to  wife  and  children.  You 
cannot  call  back  the  dead,  but  you  can  *ave  the  living.  That  mother  and  her  little  ones 
have  been  sent  from  this  room  weeping  their  hearts  away,  and  so  overcoming  me  with 
emotion  that  I  am  unable  to  continue  my  speech.' 

"A  fresh  gust  of  tears  ran  down  his  cheeks  like  rain  drops  from  a  weeping  willow. 
The  jury  wept  with  him ;  and  gave  the  'husband  and  father'  his  freedom. 

"In  grateful  remembrance  of  the  affectionate  interest  he  ever  manifested  in  me,  I  leave 
him  with  this  sentiment :  For  every  foible  in  his  character  there  were  many  great  virtues. 
For  every  weakness  in  his  nature  there  was  a  ramnart  of  strength. 

Vol.  I— GO 


946  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Old  Sarcasm." 

"Peyton  R.  Hayden,  of  Boonville,  was  one  of  the  most  unique  characters  of  the  bar. 
He  was  closely  related  to  Wash  Adams,  Sr.  Preeminent  lawyers,  they  were  usually  antago- 
nists in  most  important  cases ;  and  the  War  of  the  Roses  went  on  until  they  found  surcease 
in  the  grave.  Hayden  was  deeply  versed  in  the  science  of  law,  and  most  skilled  in  the  fine 
arts  of  the  profession.  In  his  tongue  was  the  sting  of  the  asp.  He  was  known  as  'Old 
Sarcasm.'  In  invective  he  was  a  terror.  He  wore  his  hair  in  a  long  queue  like  a  China- 
man. In  speaking  he  had  the  habit  of  flipping  with  his  forefinger  his  queue  into  the  form 
of  a  periphery.  Whenever  he  began  to  flip  it  violently  it  was  an  unmistakable  warning  signal 
that  opposing  counsel,  witness  or  litigant,  was  about  to  get  'a  skinning.'  \nA  when  he 
turned  loose  the  artillery  of  his  raillery  or  invective  the  court  room  became  lurid,  and  woe 
to  him  who  caught  its  fire ! 

"Illustrative  of  his  resourcefulness  was  the  tact  he  took  in  defending  an  action  for 
slander.  While  the  defendant  was  possessed  of  considerable  property,  his  reputation  was 
unsavory.  When  the  plaintiff  closed  his  evidence,  Hayden  had  sworn  a  number  of  'char- 
acter witnesses.'  Counsel  for  the  plaintiff,  not  divining  Hayden's  design,  interposed  no 
objection  to  his  introducing  evidence  in  support  of  the  defendant's  character  before  it  was 
assailed,  knowing  that  it  was  bad.  Each  of  those  witnesses  testified  that  the  defendant's 
reputation  for  truth  and  veracity  was  bad;  and  under  leading  questions  further  said  they 
would  not  believe  anything  he  said.  In  his  best  vein  of  humor  and  abuse,  Hayden  argued 
to  the  jury  that  his  client  was  such  a  notorious  liar  that  nobody  believed  anything  he 
said,  no  man's  character  could  be  aflfected  by  what  he  had  directly  or  indirectly  said  of  him ; 
that  far  from  mulcting  the  defendant  as  a  public  example  the  plaintiff  should  be  regarded  a 
a  bad  citizen,  eaten  up  with  greed  and  selfishness ;  that  inspired  by  no  higher  motive  than 
an  itching  desire  to  transfer  to  his  pockets  a  few  dollars  earned  by  the  defendant  in  hoeing 
corn,  and  marketing  cabbage  and  potatoes,  he  had  compelled  the  jury  to  leave  their  farms 
in  seeding  time,  and  attend  court  to  listen  to  the  reliearsal  of  some  ordinary  lie  about  him, 
which  nobody  believed.  Giving  his  queue  a  final  swish,  he  said:  'A  character  that  is  so 
sleazy  a  tongue  like  the  defendant's  can  make  a  rent  in  it  can  be  patched  up  better  than  it 
was  with  a  two-bit  plaster.'  The  jury  evidently  took  this  view,  as  they  awarded  the  plaintiff 
only  nominal  damages.  When  Hayden  asked  for  his  fee  his  client  threatened  to  whip  him 
because  of  the  peculiar  defence  made  for  him! 

Two  Opinions  from  the  Bar. 

"Mr.  Hayden  was  a  magnet  around  whom  the  younger  members  of  the  bar  gathered  to 
listen  to  his  rare  witticisms  and  raillery.  Illustrative  of  how  some  lawyers'  estimation  of 
the  judge  is  affected,  Hayden  had  argued  an  important  demurrer  before  Judge  Russell 
Hicks,  the  presiding  judge.  In  an  oral  opinion,  delivered  with  characteristic  clearness  and 
force,  Hayden  was  sustained.  Turning  to  his  satellites,  he  said:  'There  sits  a  great  judge, 
with  a  large  head  full  of  knowledge  of  the  law.  How  lucid  his  mind  and  elegant  his 
language.'  In  a  day  or  two  thereafter  he  argued  some  other  question  of  law  before  the 
same  judge,  which  was  promptly  ruled  against  him.  Turning  to  the  same  circle  of  'young 
hopefuls,'  he  flipped  his  queue  and  said:  'Just  listen  to  that.  I  take  back  what  I  said 
of  that  ass  on  the  bench  the  other  day.  He  is  disgustingly  ignorant.  Why,  he  don't  even 
know  grammar.' 

The  Cold  Blooded  Lawyer. 

'When  I  was  in  the  chrysalis  period,  I  had  foreclosed  a  mortgage  on  a  valuable  tract 
of  land ;  and  after  sale  and  deed  made  to  my  client,  I  discovered  to  my  amazement  that 
the  land  throughout  the  proceedings  had  been  misdescribed.  In  my  perplexity  and  distress 
I  went  to  a  venerable-looking,  white-haired  lawyer,  in  attendance  upon  the  court,  for  advice 
as  to  how  I  might  rectify  the  blunder.  He  coldly  said  to  me :  'Have  your  client  employ 
nte,  and  I  think  I  can  straighten  out  the  tangle.'  With  contempt  burning  in  my  breast,  I 
told  him  that  my  client  resided  in  Kentucky,  so  it  would  be  impossible  to  communicate 
with  him  during  the  present  term  of  court,  and  I  had  the  notion  that  now  was  the  time  to 


^- 


^^sk 


-     THK   STAITK   (M'   ST.   LOT  is 
Presenteil  to  tlie  Citv  of  St.  Louis  hv   the  Louisiana   Purchase  Exposition 


A  GRAND  OLD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  949 

act;  besides,  I  did  not  wisli  my  client  to  know  of  my  misadventure,  and  the  necessity  of 
going  to  anotlier  lawyer  for  assistance.  The  only  answer  I  received  were  the  pompous 
words:  'My  knowledge  of  the  law  is  for  sale,  and  not  to  give  away.'  I  did  not  let  the 
iron  enter  my  soul.  But  the  bitter  experience  did  two  things  for  me  of  inestimable  value. 
During  all  of  my  subsequent  professional  life  no  brother  lawyer  ever  came  to  me,  in 
trouble,  for  the  helping  hand,  and  went  away  empty-handed,  if  I  could  fill  it.  And,  second, 
left  to  self-reliance,  I  burned  the  midnight  oil  in  searching  all  the  relevant  books  accessible 
to  me,  determined  that  I  would  verify  the  motto  of  the  pickaxe  on  the  dial:  'I'll  find  a 
way  or  make  one.'  With  'fear  and  trembling'  I  worked  out  the  problem,  saved  my  client's 
interest,  and  protected  what  little  reputation  I  had  as  a  young  lawyer!  I  would  have  let 
this  incident  sleep  in  forgetfulness,  but  for  the  useful  lesson  it  teaches. 

"Four  judges  retired  from  the  supreme  bench  during  the  periods  of  which  I  speak: 
Abiel  Leonard,  John  F.  Ryland,  William  B.  Napton,  and  Wash.  Adams,  Sr.,  all  of  whom 
resumed  the  practice  of  law,  and  were  encountered  by  me  at  the  bar,  except  Judge  Leonard. 

Judge  John  F.  Ryland 's  Classics. 

"Judge  Joim  F.  Ryland  was  a  lawyer  of  varied  attainments.  He  was  profoundly  learned 
in  the  law  and  a  good  classical  scholar.  From  which,  I  take  it,  came  his  fancy  for  the 
civil  law,  which  led  him  to  the  especial  study  of  equity  jurisprudence,  in  the  application  of 
which  he  became  noted  ""  the  bench ;  and  when  he  resumed  practice  of  the  law  he 
sought  to  turn  cases  technically  at  la\^  to  the  equity  side  of  the  docket.  I  witnessed  a 
trial,  in  the  early  sixties,  to  a  jury  wherein  Ryland  was  opposed  by  George  G.  Vest.  The 
vendor  of  a  farm  sued  on  the  contract  for  the  purchase  money.  Among  the  defences  in- 
terposed by  Judge  Ryland  was  that  between  the  date  of  sale  and  time  for  delivery  the 
vendor  had  suffered  his  cattle  to  run  upon  the  orchard  of  young  fruit  trees,  which  were 
promising  and  valuable.  With  those  cattle  was  a  young  bull,  in  'the  horny  season.'  In  his 
training_  for  future  encounters  with  his  kind  he  had  practiced  on  the  tender  apple  trees, 
wrenching  their  limbs,  stripping  from  them  the  bark,  and  i>awing  up  the  earth  about  the 
roots  as  if  a  cyclone  had  passed  that  way.  Judge  Ryland's  mind,  ever  revelling  in  the 
classics,  led  him  to  liken  the  situation  to  that  of  a  connoisseur  of  art  who  bargained  for 
one  of  Raphael's  paintings,  and  before  delivery  the  vendor  had  suffered  it  to  be  marred 
and  disfigured  by  some  vandal  hand.  The  purchaser,  of  course,  would  not  be  required  to 
take  or  pay  for  it.  From  the  vast  storehouse  of  his  reading  the  judge  drew  a  vivid 
portraiture  of  Raphael's  genius  as  an  artist,  which  culminated  in  the  production  of  the 
celebrated  'Madonna  and  Child';  that  no  limner  could  reproduce  his  immutable  colors,  or 
give  birth  to  his  conceptions. 

Vest's  Translation  of  Latin. 

"In  his  reply  Vest  dissipated,  with  ridicule,  the  effect  of  the  judge's  display  of  learning. 
He  assailed  his  illustration  for  lack  of  analogy;  that  like  noble  Festus  the  judge's  learning 
had  made, him  mad;  he  had,  in  fact,  offended  the  memory  of  Raphael,  by  likening  his  work 
of  art  to  an  apple  orchard,  with  a  bull  calf  running  rampant  over  it,  twisting  apple  trees 
by  whetting  his  horns  on  them.  While  it  might  be  true  that  no  living  artist  could  put  to 
canvas  the  images  born  of  the  genius  of  Raphael,  any  horticulturist  could  furnish  like 
apple  sprouts  by  wagon-loads  at  two  and  a  half  dollars  a  dozen,  and  any  clodhopper,  with 
a  spade,  could  plant  them  out  in  a  day  or  two ;  and  the  good  Lord  would  send  His  rain 
■and  sunshine  to  make  them  perform  the  sacred  mystery  of  reproductive  growtli.  He  then 
asserted  that  no  farmer  ought  to  be  expected  to  provide  an  impound  strong  and  high 
enough  to  restrain  a  young  bull  in  the  horning  season.  He  reached  his  climax  by  saying: 
'There  is  another  Latin  maxim  my  learned  brother,  Ryland,  seems  to  have  overlooked, 
quite  applicable  to  this  case.  It  is  Damnum  absque  injuria,  which  being  rendered  into 
plain,  western  vernacular  means — little  injury.'  The  jury  accepted  the  rendition  of  the 
maxim!  Judge  Ryland  himself  wielded  a  dangerous  lance  in  a  wordy  encounter.  I  heard 
him  in  court  worst  Judge  Hicks  in  a  tilt  at  ridicule  and  satire. 


950  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

William  B.  Napton's  Research. 

"In  many  important  respects,  in  my  humble  judgment,  William  B.  Napton  was  one 
of  the  ablest  jurists  that  ever  adorned  the  supreme  bench  of  this  state.  The  valedictorian  of 
his  class,  in  the  University  of  Virginia,  he  maintained  ever  his  high  academic  standards. 
He  wrote  pure  English,  and  expressed  his  ideas  in  most  concise  terms,  without  superfluity 
or  circumlocution.  His  contributions  to  the  law  pertaining  to  real  property  and  equity 
jurisprudence  established  monumental  marks.  When  he  retired  from  the  bench,  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  war,  from  necessity  and  love  of  his  profession,  he  resumed  the 
practice  of  law.  He  was  not  a  great  advocate,  as  his  mind  was  logical  and  theoretical. 
He  wielded  power,  however,  before  bench  and  jury,  because  of  his  recogfnized  learning  and 
intense  honesty. 

"I  listened  to  him  once  on  the  trial  of  an  important  case.  His  argument  to  the  court, 
touching  some  complex  questions  of  law  and  fact,  was  superb,  although  he  lost.  When 
he  began  the  preparation  of  the  case  for  review  in  the  supreme  court  he  was  a  novice.  He 
came  to  me,  and  requested  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  the  bill  of  exceptions  and 
proper  motions.  I  discovered  that  he  had  overlooked  the  necessity  of  saving  exceptions  in 
the  progress  of  the  trial  to  certain  matters  of  evidence  he  desired  to  have  reviewed.  But 
I  had  the  bill  of  exceptions  to  show  that  they  were  duly  preserved,  after  obtaining  consent 
of  opposing  counsel. 

"How  much  more  to  be  desired  are  the  offices  of  friendship  than  silver  and  gold!  I 
accepted  no  compen.iation  for  my  services  to  Judge  Napton;  but  received  my  reward  in 
his  unaffected  friendship  to  the  close  of  his  great  life.  He  was  again  returned  to  the  su- 
preme bench.  One  day  I  was  busily  engaged  in  the  old  library  of  the  supreme  court  in 
the  preparation  of  a  brief.  Late  in  the  afternoon  Judge  Napton  briskly  stepped  out  of  an 
alcove.  I  said  to  him:  'Why,  judge,  I  did  not  know  you  were  in  this  room.'  With  the 
characteristic  jerk  of  his  vest,  he  said:  'Yes,  I  have  been  reading  opinions  trying  to  find 
out  what  some  judges  meant,  until  I  am  almost  distraught.  I  am  now  going  to  walk  out 
over  these  capitol  grounds  and  commune  with  nature  to  ascertain,  at  least  to  fny  own 
satisfaction,  what  the  law  of  the  given  case  ought  to  be.'  I  have  often  thought  that  the 
suggestion  was   full   of  meat. 

The  Rail  Splitter. 

'•Russell  Hicks  was  one  of  the  most  striking  personalities  of  the  bar  of  Central  Mis- 
souri. He  was  a  native  of  New  York.  Of  his  antecedents  or  family  connections  very 
little  could  be  learned,  even  by  his  closest  associates.  He  was  called  'the  rail  splitter,'  be- 
cause of  the  story  that  the  first  money  he  earned  after  coming  west  was  for  making  rails 
for  a  farmer.  He  began  the  practice  of  law  in  Jackson  county,  where  he  owned  a  splendid 
farm.  He  was  passionately  fond  of  fine  horses,  especially  racers,  and  maintained  on  his 
farm  a  race  track  for  their  training,  more  for  his  own  amusement  than  profit.  I  heard 
him  say,  with  a  deep  sigh,  that  'Farmer  Hicks  kept  Lawyer  Hkks  a  poor  man.'  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  war  his  farm  was  raided  by  a  band  of  marauders,  known  as  'Red- 
legs,'  from  Kansas,  who  carried  off  his  horses  and  negroes.  This  so  outraged  him  that 
to  the  day  of  his  death  he  bore  an  implacable  dislike  to  everything  and  almost  everybody 
that  had  been  connecred  with  the  cause  of  the  Union. 

"He  was  a  man  of  powerful  frame,  large-headed,  piercing  black  eyes,  and  a  strong 
challenging  voice.  His  manner  was  brusque,  and  he  took  pride  in  being  aloof.  But  be- 
neath the  rough  exterior  I  discovered  a  heart  not  void  of  sympathy  or  sentiment.  He  was 
endowed  with  great  intellectual  force.  As  early  as  1855  he  stood  at  the  forefront  of  the 
bar  of  Jackson  county,  and  his  fame  spread  out  beyond  its  borders.  He  attracted  wide- 
spread attention  as  one  of  the  leading  counsel  for  the  defendant  in  the  celebrated  slander 
suit  of  James  H.  Birch  against  Thomas  H.  Benton,  tried  at  Clinton,  Henry  county,  on 
change  of  venue.  It  brought  around  the  trial  table  the  most  distinguished  array  of  lawyers 
in  Western  and  Central  Missouri.  The  refusal  of  the  court  to  give  certain  instructions 
as  drawn  by  Judge  Hicks  constituted  reversible  error,  as  held  by  the  supreme  court.  The 
fierce  invective  of  his  speech  in  that  case  was  as  blistering  to  the  pride  of  Judge  Birch  as 
the  vitriol  of  Benton's  tongue. 


A  GRAND  OLD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  951 

Upholder  of  Court  Dig:nity. 

"He  appeared  upon  the  circuit  bench  in  1856.  His  very  presence  was  a  cominand  for 
order.  He  broke  up  the  vulgar  habits  of  habitues  about  the  court  room.  The  man  with 
hat  on  and  coat  off  was  summoned  before  him,  and  the  badinage  and  bantering  of  counsel 
around  the  trial  table  were  objurgated.  His  rulings  were  prompt  and  final.  He  believed  in 
the  majesty  of  the  law,  and  respect  for  its  ministers. 

"When  he  went  to  Marshall,  Saline  county,  to  hold  court,  a  negro,  under  indictment 
for  murder,  was  forcibly  taken  from  the  custody  of  the  sheriff,  and  hanged  by  a  mob. 
This  so  incensed  the  judge  that  he  refused  to  hold  court  in  a  community  where  such  law- 
lessness he  misconceived  to  be  applauded,  and  adjourned  court,  without  day,  and  sent  his 
resignation  to  the  governor,  and  never  again  sought  office. 

"At  the  close  of  the  Civil  war  I  found  him  in  St.  Louis,  moneyless,  seeking  to  estab- 
lish business  in  his  profession.  I  invited  him  to  come  to  Sedalia,  and  join  me,  as  I  was  flush 
with  clients.  Of  that  offer  he  said  to  a  mutual  friend  that  he  had  felt  he  could  never  get 
his  consent  to  be  associated  even  in  a  partnership  relation  with  a  man  who  had  fought  in 
the  Union  army;  but  as  it  was  a  case  of  bread  with  him,  he  'would  try  Philips.'  George 
Vest  had  lost  his  civil  rights  in  the  state  by  trying  to  find  them  in  the  territories ;  and  his 
steamboat  had  sunk  on  the  Red  river,  taking  with  it  to  the  bottom  his  iron  safe,  which 
proved  on  resurrection  to  contain  only  bills  payable  for  supplies  of  'licker'  for  the  craft. 
He  had  joined  his  family  in  Kentucky,  from  whom  he  had  been  separated  for  nearly  four 
years.  I  wrote  to  him,  inviting  him  to  return  to  Missouri,  and  join  me  in  the  practice  of 
law.  He  came,  and  the  firm  of  'Philips,  Hicks  &  Vest'  was  formed.  It  lasted  until  the 
latter  part  of  1869,  when  two  incidents,  in  quick  succession,  occurred  that  ended  the  firm, 
after  the  fashion  of  a  staged  histrionic  play  ending  in  a  comical  farce. 

A  Partnership  Suddenly  Dissolved. 

"One  mellow  autumn  day  an  oleaginous  negro  woman,  black  enough  for  an  idol  'in 
darkest  Africa,'  stopped  at  our  office  and  inquired  where  she  could  find  the  agent  of  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau!  Knowing  Judge  Hicks'  extreme  aversion  to  that  institution,  we  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  for  what  promised  to  be  rare  fun.  We  informed  her  that  the 
agent  was  in  his  office,  out  in  the  yard  back  of  our  offices;  and  Vest  manifested  so  much 
interest  in  her  behalf  as  to  go  with  her  to  the  back  door  and  point  out  the  judge's  office 
door,  saying  to  her:  'Walk  right  in  without  knocking,  and  announce  your  business.  The 
agent  is  an  ugly,  crabbed  old  fellow,  and  he  will  likely  storm  at  you ;  but  stand  your  ground, 
and  demand  of  him  what  you  want;  the  government  is  paying  him  to  look  after  the  inter- 
ests of  just  such  colored  persons  as  you.'  We  were  listening.  She  had  no  more  than 
entered  there  until  the  uproar  came.  Like  a  porpoise,  half  waddling  and  rolling,  she 
tumbled  into  our  office,  almost  before  we  could  resume  seats  at  our  desks,  with  the  judge 
in  hot  pursuit,  flourishing  a  big  iron  poker,  and  out-swearing  all  the  soldiers  in  Flanders. 
He  chased  her  out  onto  the  sidewalk.     Returning  through  our  office,  he  paused  only  long 

enough  to  catch  his  breath,  and  glowering  at  us  viciously,  said :     'You  be  d d.     Thersites 

deriding  Achilles.'  From  the  debris  and  surrounding  circumstances,  discovered  the  follow- 
ing morning,  we  drew  the  following  inferences :  He  had  swallowed  something  to  soothe  his 
outraged  feelings,  and  taking  off  his  ambrosial  wig,  and  placing  it,  as  usual,  on  the  round 
top  bed  post,  with  his  clothes  on  he  dropped  onto  his  bed  and  fell  into  a  restless  dream. 
Under  normal  conditions  he  was  ever  apprehensive  of  burglars.  The  moon  streaming 
through  the  window  fell  full  upon  that  wig-crowned  bed  post.  From  a  maudlin  dream 
the  judge  sufficiently  awoke  to  discern  in  that  bed  post  a  veritable  burglar  right  at  the 
foot  of  his  bed.  Quietly  slipping  from  the  further  side  of  the  bed  he  laid  hold  of  the 
ever-ready  large  iron  poker,  and  with  one  fell  swoop  he  split  into  splinters  the  top  of  the 
bed  post,  and  scattered  the  hair  of  that  well-groomed  wig  over  the  floor.  Fully  con- 
vinced that  he  had  brained  a  burglar,  hatless,  he  hurried  from  the  homicidal  scene,  and  took 
refuge  in  a  hotel.  He  did  not  appear  for  about  three  days  at  his  office.  Evidently  he  had 
been  busy  in  procuring  from  Kansas  City,  or  St.  Louis,  a  new  wig,  inferably  by  short 
telegram,  as  it  was  off-color,  so  noticeable  that  neither  Vest  nor  myself  could  look  at  it 


952  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

without  a  suggestion  of  the  catastrophe  that  befell  its  predecessor.  The  situation  for  a 
while  was  tense  and  embarrassing,  between  the  judge's  stolid  reserve  and  the  suppressed 
mirth  of  Vest  and  myself.  For  business  reasons  the  judge  concluded  to  take  a  change  of 
venue,  to  Warrensburg,  where  he  entered  the  law  office  of  one  of  the  best  law  firms  there; 
and  there  he  died. 

Lover  of  the  Poets. 

"Singularly  enough  this  ascetic  man  was  passionately  fond  of  poetry.  He  knew 
Shakespeare,  Byron,  Burns,  Scott  and  Longfellow  as  a  schoolboy  knows  his  primer. 
Blessed  with  a  marvelous  retentive  memory,  he  would  recite  page  upon  page  from  the 
choicest  parts.  With  his  own  pen  he  often  invoked  the  muses.  I  found  one  day  upon  his 
table  a  poem,  written  in  his  legible  hand,  dedicated  to  'My  Mary-.'  It  was  so  exquisite  in 
sentiment  and  so  touching  in  its  pathos  as  to  persuade  me  that  this  Mary  had  been  of  real 
flesh  and  blood,  and  that  in  the  long  ago  she  had  taken  possession  of  his  heart,  and  con- 
tinued to  occup)'  it.    He  never  married.    I  would  if  I  could  embalm  his  memory, 

"  'Storied   of   old   in   high,    immortal   verse.' 

Law  Along  the  Osage. 

"While  the  Osage  river  was  regarded  as  the  boundary  line  on  the  south  of  Central 
Missouri,  from  the  south  side  often  came  leading  lawyers  to  the  courts  along  the  dividing 
border.  Among  the  most  conspicuous  was  John  S.  Phelps  from  Springfield.  His  wider 
fame  was  achieved  as  a  politician.  He  served  many  terms  in  Congress,  where  he  became 
a  recognized  leader  as  the  head  of  the  committee  on  ways  and  means.  He  was  military 
governor  of  Arkansas  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  war;  and  then  governor  of  Missouri.  Yet, 
he  was  one  of  the  best  equipped  lawyers,  for  an  all  'round  battle  in  court,  I  ever  met  on 
the  Osage.  He  was  imposing  in  stature,  suave  in  manner,  fearless  in  demeanor,  and  pos- 
sessed deep  insight  into  the  springs  of  human  action.  Untiring  in  energy,  he  kept  abreast 
of  the  progress  of  the  law. 

"In  the  flush  times  of  litigation,  just  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  war,  the  Warsaw 
circuit  court  was  a  battleground.  The  presiding  judge  was  Judge  Burr  Emnierson,  whose 
like  we  shall  never  see  again,  .^t  some  lime  or  other  he  had  read  the  leading  text-books  of 
his  day;  and  with  a  wonderful  faculty  for  assimilation  he  readily  appropriated  them  for 
use,  and  never  bothered  himself  about  technical  rules.  He  was  equally  indifferent  about 
rules  of  decorum.  His  court  room,  in  those  raucous  days,  was  a  'free-for-all'  gladitorial 
arena.  The  only  time  I  ever  knew  him  to  interfere  from  the  bench  in  an  inside-bar  fisticuff, 
was  when  one  of  the  combatants  made  a  motion  as  if  to  draw  a  knife;  whereat  the  judge, 
as  if  an  umpire,  loudly  called  out:  "Fair  fight,  fair  fight.  I  say;  if  you  go  to  cuttin'  I'll  fine 
you  sure.'  At  one  time  when  reversed  by  the  supreme  court,  he  took  an  especial  pride  in 
showing  the  opinion  to  lawyers  at  the  bar,  wherein  the  language  (usually  quite  perfunctory), 
occurred:  'The  learned  judge  inadvertently  fell  into  error.'  He  said:  'This  shows  that 
the  supreme  court  regards  me  as  a  learned  judge.  But,  like  all  men,  I  am  liable  to  an  ac- 
cident through  mere  inadvertence.'  Then,  to  further  square  himself  with  the  bystanders, 
he  said:  'Those  fellows  down  at  Jefferson  City  are  on  to  their  job.  If  they  should  affirm 
all  the  rulings  of  the  circuit  courts  the  people  would  conclude  that  there  is  no  cause  for 
their  existence  and  would  abolish  them  ;  and,  therefore,  they  must  reverse  us  occasionally 
to  make  a  showing  of  netessity  for  their  continuance.' 

The  Legislature  Circumvented. 

"The  -state  legislature  attempted  to  eliminate  him  as  judge  by  cutting  down  his  circuit 
to  one  county  (Benton),  in  which  he  did  not  live.  But  he  circumvented  their  design.  On 
receiving  news  that  the  bill  had  passed  both  houses,  he  mounted  his  horse,  and  rode  through 
at  night  from  Bolivar,  his  home,  to  Warsaw,  the  county  seat  of  Benton ;  and  sent  a  message 
to  the  governor,  before  the  bill  was  approved,  that  he  had  changed  his  residence  from  Polk 
to  Benton  county.     The  first  time  I  saw  him  after  this  coup  d'  etat.  I  said  to  him :     'Judge, 


A  GRAND  OLD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  953 

you  have  not   so  much   work  to  do  now.'     He  quickly  replied :     'Yes,   less  work,  but  the 
same  pay,  and  as  to  the  honor,  de  miiiiiitis  lex  non  curat!' 

The  Case  of  Nunc  Pro  Tunc. 

"I  brought  an  action  in  ejectment  for  the  recovery  of  the  homestead  of  a  man  who 
had  gone  off  into  the  Confederate  army.  In  his  absence  the  defendant  had  attached  his 
land,  for  debt,  and  had  it  sold.  I  attacked  the  sale  on  the  ground  that  for  lack  of  con- 
formity to  the  statute  the  judgment  was  void.  John  S.  Phelps  appeared  for  the  defendant. 
In  the  progress  of  the  trial,  (to  the  court,  without  jury.)  Phelps  offered  in  evidence  a 
certain  paper  among  the  files  of  the  attachment  proceedings,  to  which  I  objected  for  non- 
conformity to  statutory  requirements.  To  cure  the  obvious  defect,  Phelps  presented  a  mo- 
tion for  an  entry  nunc  pro  tunc;  supporting  it  by  a  lengthy  arg^iment,  advancing  the  ordi- 
nary rule  that  permits  the  court  to  amend  its  own  records  in  aid  of  what  the  court  had 
in  fact  ordered  theretofore.  This  I  met  with  the  suggestion  of  the  other  rule,  that  while 
the  court  might  at  a  subsequent  term  amend  the  record  to  conform  to  the  fact,  there  must 
be  some  memorandum  of  record  in  the  case  made  at  the  time,  from  which  the  amend- 
ment might  be  made;  and  there  was  no  such  memorandum  in  the  case.  Phelps  persisted, 
explaining  to  the  judge  the  meaning  of  the  words  nunc  pro  tunc,  when  the  judge  inter- 
jected:  'Yes,  governor,  I  see  your  nunc,  but  where  is  your  tunc'?  This  shot  staggered 
the  governor,  and  I  felt  sure  I  had  won.  But  when  court  took  a  recess  for  dinner,  the 
judge  came  up  to  me.  and  giving  his  usual  familiar  tap^  by  stabbing  my  side  with  a  very 
stiff  thumb,  said ;  'Philips,  your  argument  is  mighty  nigh  ungitoverable ;  but  if  you  are 
right,  I  don't  own  the  house  I  live  in,  as  I  bought  it  at  just  such  a  sale.'  And  so  it  was  that 
I  was  compelled  to  take  the  case  to  the  supreme  court  to  obtain  my  client's  land.  (Duros- 
sett's,  .^dmr..  vs.  Hale,  38  Mo.  346.)  The  refusal  of  the  judge  to  allow  the  entry  nunc  pro 
tunc  was  not  considered  by  the  supreme  court,  as  non  constat,  the  judgment  below  was 
for  the  defendant. 

Waldo  P.  Johnson  and  His  Clients. 

"Waldo  P.  Johnson  was  another  conspicuous  lawyer  of  the  Osage  district.  He  was 
an  antebellum  circuit  judge;  a  United  States  senator  when  the  Civil  war  began,  from 
which  he  resigned,  to  identify  himself  with  the  Confederacy.  He  became  a  member  of 
the  Confederate  senate,  by  the  action  of  a  peripatetic  rump  legislature,  which  sat,  down 
in  Arkansas,  as  the  fortunes  of  war  permitted.  Johnson  was  an  'irreconcilable.'  He 
refused  to  apply  for  the  removal  of  his  disabilities,  so  he  could  practice  law.  But  he  did 
business  sub  rosa.  Frequently  I  tried  for  him  in  court  cases  in  which  he  was  'the  real 
party  in  interest,'  as  counsel.  In  1875  he  was  a  member  of  the  convention  that  framed 
the  present  state  constitution,  and  presided  over  its  deliberations  with  signal  ability  and 
impartiality.  He  was  an  astute  lawyer,  well  posted,  and  had  a  keen  analytical  mind.  He 
was  a  philosopher,  and  a  very  wise  man.  The  late  General  B.  G.  Boone,  of  Clinton. 
Missouri,  told  of  an  interview  he  chanced  to  overhear  between  Johnson  and  his  client. 
It  was  another  slander  suit  indigenous  to  the  local  soil.  As  Johnson  was  one  of  the 
counsel  in  the  famed  slander  suit  of  Birch  vs.  Benton,  he  had  learned,  from  the  decision 
of  the  supreme  court,  the  great  importance  of  the  proof  sustaining  the  actionable  words 
as  laid  in  the  petition.  So  he  had  his  client  backed  up  against  the  outer  wall  of  the  court 
house,  drilling  him  by  reading  to  him  the  petition.  When  he  came  to  the  actionable  words 
of  the  petition,  he  halted,  and  fixing  his  deep-set  eyes,  beneath  shaggj-  brows,  upon  the 
client,  said:  'Now.  mark  the  language.'  Slowly  spelling  out  the  words,  he  asked  him  if 
he  understood  them.  The  fellow  with  a  vacant  stare,  asked:  'Who  is  that  fellow  called 
defendant,  in  that  wrhin'?'  Johnson  fairly  hissed  through  his  teeth:  'He  is  the  other 
fool  to  this  lawsuit,  the  fellow  you  claim  slandered  you ;  now  tell  me  what  he  said.'  With 
a  scared  look,  the  client  said :  'I  almost  fergit.'  Johnson's  voice,  rising  to  a  full  falsetto, 
exclaimed:  'You  are  a  veritable  Midas'  ass  who  lost-his  wit  but  kept  his  ears.  I  don't 
believe   anybody  ever   did   or   could   slander   you.' 


954  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"Duke"  Draff  en. 

"James  W.  Draffen,  of  Boonvillc,  who  went  by  the  sobriquet  of  'Duke,'  because  of 
his  middle  name — Wellington — and  his  iron  will,  was  a  conspicuous  star  in  the  constellation 
of  lawyers  named.  The  attributes  that  make  up  the  lawyer  and  gentleman  were  com- 
pressed into  his  character.  In  honor,  courage  and  fidelity  he  had  no  superior.  He  was 
not  what  the  world  calls  a  brilliant  man ;  nor  did  he  possess  the  graces  of  oratory.  His 
mind  worked  rather  along  the  lines  of  studied  premise  and  assured  conclusion.  He  would 
wear  the  night  out  searching  the  books  to  satisfy  himself  as  to  the  law.  He  would  resist 
being  forced  into  trial,  until,  to  his  own  satisfaction,  he  had  mastered  the  facts  and  ap- 
plicable law.  The  effect  of  which  was  that  his  opponent  could  not  depend  upon  taking 
him  by  surprise,  or  finding  any  vulnerable  part  of  his  armor  he  had  not  tried  to  strengthen. 
His  discrimination  was  fine,  which  enabled  him  to  escape  the  pitfall  into  which  so  many 
lawyers  stumble,  by  predicating  their  case  on  some  apparently  applicable  statement  found 
in  a  judicial  opinion,  without  discovering  that  it  was  predicated  on  a  state  of  acts  that 
entirely   differentiated  the  two  cases. 

"Level-headed  as  he  was,  he  would  become  obsessed  with  the  notion  that  his  case 
was  undeniably  just,  and  his  client  was  always  honest.  He  would  have  made  an  invincible 
general  on  the  battlefield,  as  he  never  knew,  when  he  was  whipped,  and  never  admitted 
defeat.  Staid  in  judgment,  and  stable  in  conviction,  no  blandishment  could  swerve  him, 
no  flattery  cajole  him,  and  no  ignis  fatuus  could  deceive  him.  No  sudden  discomfiture 
could  disconcert  or  discourage  him.  He  fought  the  harder  when  thought  to  be  'down  and 
out.' 

"On  one  occasion  the  character  of  his  client,  the  defendant,  was  impeached.  Turning 
to  his  client,  after  a  whispered  conversation,  he  called  out,  with  battle  in  his  voice : 
'Mr.  John  Robinson,  come  inside  the  bar  and  take  the  witness  stand.'  John  Robinson 
being  sworn,  the   following  questions  and  answers  ensued: 

"'Mr.   Robinson,  you  are  a  farmer  and  an  old  citizen  of  this  county?' 

"  'Yes  sir.' 

"'How  long  have  you  known  the   defendant?' 

"  'Perhaps  for  twenty  years.' 

"  'You  and  he  are  near  neighbors  ?' 
,      "-Yes  sir.' 

"  'Are  you  well  acquainted  with  his  general  reputation  in  the  community  where  he 
lives    for   truth   and   honesty?' 

"  'I  think  I   am.' 

"'Is  that  reputation  good  or  bad?' 

"'It  is  bad." 

"With  face  unblanched,  and  rebuke  in  his  tone,  Draffen  said:  'Is  that,  sir,  all  you 
know  about  this  case?  If  it  is  you  can  stand  aside.'  As  the  lion  shakes  his  mane  when 
angered,  he  flashed  his  eyes  around  the  bar,  a  command  not  to  'titter.'  The  only  effect 
upon  him  was  to  cause  him  to  pull  his  visor  down  and  more  firmly  set  his  lance  for  the 
onset. 

"He  was  a  patron  of  the  farm,  and  a  lover  of  the  forests.  There  was  no  music  so 
sweet  to  his  ears  as  the  songs  of  the  wild  birds;  and  nothing  so  exhilarated  his  spirits  as 
the  sound  of  the  hunter's  horn,  and  the  deep-toned  outcry  of  the  pack  in  hot  pursuit  of 
fox  and  deer.  And,  although  he  was  handicapped  with  a  disabled  limb,  no  bold  rider  took 
the  leap  over  fence,  hedge  and  ditch  more  daringly  than  he,  or  beat  him  getting  in  at 
'the  death.' 

Vest's  Defense  of  Squire  Cross. 

"No  group  of  the  luminaries  of  the  bar  of -Central  Missouri  would  be  complete  with- 
out a  picture  of  George  G.  Vest.  He  was  a  man  of  small  stature,  with  neck  deeply  set 
in  stooping  shoulders,  head  large  and  well  formed,  hair  tinged  with  gold  that  relieved  it 
from  being  regarded  as  red,  with  large  searching  blue  eyes,  and  a  tenor  voice,  in  its 
prime  musical  and  vibrant.    He  was  many  sided,  full  of  sharp  angles,  without  being  jagged. 


A  GRAND  OLD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  955 

He  had  the  wizard's  tongue  and  the  artist's  imagination.  His  resourcefulness,  and  keen 
appreciation  of  the  hidicrous,  were  manifested  at  the  outset  of  his  appearance  at  the  bar 
in  Missouri.  He  preceded  me  at  Georgetown,  the  county  seat  of  Pettis  county.  There 
lived  in  the  village  a  human  curio — a  living  cadaver,  named  Cross.  So  like  a  dead  man 
was  he  that  one  day  when  teamsters  were  passing  through  the  main  street  of  the  village 
with  wagons  laden  with  coffins  of  the  dead,  being  removed  to  another  burying  ground,  one 
of  the  teamsters  in  the  rear  of  the  gruesome  procession  cried  out  to  the  one  in  front,  that 
he  had  dropped  one  of  his  skeletons,  which  turned  out  to  be  old  Squire  Cross  sitting  on 
the   curbing  looking   on ! 

"Cross  was  a  continuous  justice  of  the  peace.  He  could  not  be  beaten  for  the  office, 
no  matter  what  the  changes  in  parties.  He  said  that  parties  could  not  change  faster  or 
oftener  than  he  could  change  his  politics.  One  of  his  rare  accomplishments  was  that  of 
an  adept  in  the  game  of  poker.  The  grand  jury,  about  the  time  of  Vest's  arrival  in  the 
village,  indicted  the  'squire  for  'gaming.'  He  employed  Vest  to  defend  him,  paying  him  a 
fee  of  $20,  the  amount  of  his  winnings  at  the  last  'sitting.'  When  the  term  of  court  was 
about  to  convene  at  which  the  case  was  to  be  tried,  there  was  in  progress  in  the  village 
a  religious  revival.  It  occurred  to  the  fertile  mind  of  the  'squire  that  it  might  be  a  coup 
d'  etal  if  he  were  'to  get  religion.'  Accordingly  on  Sunday,  just  before  the  convening  of 
court,  he  'joined,'  and  was  baptized  publicly  in  Cedar  creek,  .'\fter  muddying  the  waters, 
as  much  as  possible,  about  the  evidence  identifying  the  'squire  with  the  particular  game. 
Vest  slipped,  outside  of  the  evidence,  information  to  the  jury  of  the  'squire's  conversion, 
as  remarkable  almost  as  that  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  while  journeying  between  Jerusalem  and 
Damascus,  breathing  out  curses  against  the  Christians;  and  pleaded  with  the  jury  as  the 
'squire's  sins  had  been  washed  away  in  Cedar  creek,  and  the  good  Lord  had  bade  him  go 
and  sin  no  more,  they  ought  to  imitate  the  Master's  example;  with  the  result  that  the  jury 
returned   something  like  a   Scotch   verdict — guilty,  but   not  proven. 

"That  evening,  in  celebration  of  his  acquittal,  the  'squire  invited  a  select  few,  among 
them  Vest,  to  come  around  to  the  rear  room  of  his  judicial  chambers.  The  result  of  the 
celebration  was  that  the  'squire  won  back  from  Vest  the  $20  he  had  paid  him  for  a  fee. 
From  which  early  experience  Vest  drew  the  moral  that  there  is  an  utter  incompatibility 
between  the  game  of  poker  and  the  practice  of  law,  as  the  earning  of  the  day's  'session' 
is  apt  to  be  lost  in  the  night's  'sitting.' 

Vest's  Strong-  Qualities  at  the  Bar. 

"Vest  was  not,  in  technical  knowledge  of  the  law,  equal  to  some  of  his  contemporaries 
at  the  bar  of  Missouri.  But  as  an  advocate  before  juries,  and  in  the  fence  and  foil  of 
debate  before  the  bench,  he  had  no  superior.  If  genius  be  the  faculty  of  appreciation,  and 
the  power  to  seize  the  emergent  opportunity,  he  had  it  in  fullness.  He  possessed  the 
singular  quality,  akin  to  fascination,  of  making  attached  friends  of  men,  without  apology 
or  sycophancy,  whom  he  had  mercilessly  excoriated  on  the  hustings  and  in  the  court 
room.  He  was  a  prince  among  gentlemen,  and  a  hale  fellow  well  met  among  parvenues. 
He  had  an  inexhaustible  repertory  of  apt  anecdotes,  garnered  and  coined,  which  were 
skillfully  employed  on  occasion  to  fasten  attention  and  rivet  an  argument.  He  had  a  way 
of  presenting  commonplace  matters  of  fact  and  law  positively  attractive.  The  attention 
of  jury  and  court  never  fagged  while  he  held  the  floor.  Rarely  did  he  lose  a  case  before 
a  jury  when  he  had  a  foot  of  solid  ground  on  which  to  stand.  Chief  among  his  mental 
qualities  was  his  brevity,  and  the  command  of  the  exact  phraseology  to  express  his 
thoughts.  Whatever  he  wrote  or  spoke  was  terse  and  sententious.  He  was  strikingly  free 
from  tautology  and  repetition.  The  syllogism  was  complete,  the  rhetoric  finished.  He 
seldom  spoke  over  an  hour  to  a  jury;  and  I  never  heard  him  before  the  higher  courts  ask 
for  an  extension  of  time.  He  affected  no  mannerism  in  his  delivery.  He  followed  no 
pattern,  and  imitated  no  model.  He  was  natural  in  manner,  and  original  in  matter. 
Energetic  in  action,  and  at  times  vehement,  he  never  'tore  passion  into  tatters,'  or  played 
the  part  of  the  low  comedian.  His  was  the  power  of  magnetism.  His  pleadings,  instruc- 
tions and  briefs  were  models  of  conciseness  and  perspicuity.  His  diction  was  quite  nigh 
faultless,   and   his    style   of   composition    and    speaking   was    free    from    floridity    or   vapid 


1156  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

declamation.  His  vitriolic  sarcasm  and  flashing  repartee  made  it  dangerous  for  any  com- 
batant to  engage  him  in  fierce  encounter.  But  he  never  made  the  unknightly  thrust,  or 
played  the  dastard's  role. 

Vest's  Humor. 

"A  rich  vein  of  humor  ran  through  his  mind  like  a  fast-flowing,  sparkling  brook,  that 
at  times  overflowed  the  adversaries'  barricade  of  facts.  In  the  celebrated  trial  of  Colonel 
Warner,  of  Lexington,  Missouri,  for^ killing  his  son-in-law.  Nutter,  Colonel  Tilton  Davis, 
an  astute  lawyer,  prosecuting  as  private  counsel  on  behalf  of  the  state,  severely  criticised 
Mrs.  Nutter,  the  daughter  of  the  defendant  and  widow  of  Nutter,  who  had  testified  for 
her  father,  that  on  an  almost  starless  night,  at  a  distance,  perhaps,  of  seventy-five  yards, 
she  had  seen  Nutter  skulking  among  the  trees  near  Warner's  house,  as  if  lying  in  wait, 
and  although  she  could  not  distinguish  his  features,  she  recognized  him  by  his  walk.  In 
his  reply  Vest  said  that  Mrs.  Nutter  was  a  Kentuckian,  who  can  tell  a  man  by  his  move- 
ments as  a  horse  by  his  gait ;  that  his  own  wife,  who  is  a  Kentuckian,  could  not  only  tell 
his  footfalls  as  he  approached  the  home,  after  being  out  late  at  night,  'but  she  can  some- 
times tell   from  my  walk  where  I  have  been.' 

"His  speech  to  the  jury  in  that  case,  in  brilliancy,  invective,  and  electrifying  power, 
in  my  humble  judgment,  was  not  surpassed  by  that  of  Sargent  S.  Prentiss  in  defence  of 
Dr.  Wilkerson  and  others,  at  Harrodsburg,  Kentucky,  in  i83q,  which  so  thrilled  his 
audience,  and  has  delighted  multitudes  whose  fortune  it  has  been  to  read  it.  But  as  there 
was  not  present  any  shorthand  reporter  to  catch  its  lightning  flashes,  nor  any  Carlton, 
as  there  was  for  Prentiss,  to  write  out  in  longhand  the  burning  words  and  breathing 
thoughts  of  \'est's  speech,  it  lives  only  in  tradition ;  alas  for  posterity,  the  keepers  of  its 
memory  will   soon  pass  under  the  silent  shadows. 

"I  heard  him,  on  a  sudden  in  briefest  speech,  discuss  before  a  trial  judge  the  correct 
application  and  proper  limitation  of  the  rule  respecting  evidence  as  a  part  of  the  res 
gestae.  In  conciseness,  comprehension,  and  practical  sense  no  writer  or  jurist  has  ever 
approached  it.  The  essence  of  his  postulate  was  that  the  admissibility  of  the  statement 
made  subsequent  to  the  act  sought  to  be  explained  or  qualified  depends  upon  the  con- 
tinuity  of   the   act   and   the   statement    rather  than   upon   their  mere  proximity   in   point   of 

time. 

"I  cannot  let  this  opportunity  to  pass  to  correct  a  false  impression,  among  some,  that 
\>st  was  not  a  toiler  in  the  deep  mines  of  legal  lore.  He  had  for  his  guide  and  mentor, 
in  the  Transylvania  Law  School,  that  greatest  of  Kentucky  jurists,  Chief  Justice  Robinson, 
who  regarded  him  as  one  of  his  star  students,  even  though  rivalled  by  John  Marshall 
Harlan,  who. became  such  a  distinguished  justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 
Because  of  the  fact  that  Vest  caught  as  by  intuition  what  others  reached,  if  at  all,  by 
the  slower  process  of  induction,  it  was  surmised  that  he  was  rather  superficial  in  technical 
learning.  Like  the  skilled  mineralogist,  who  can  discern  and  approximately  measure  the 
rich  ore  in  place  without  delving  for  it  as  the  common  miner,  or  the  connoisseur  of  the 
fine  arts,  who  can  tell  what  a  painting  is  almost  by  a  glance  of  his  practiced  eye.  Vest,  by 
running  his  eyes  rapidly  over  the  pages  of  the  text,  or  opinion,  could  catch  their  essence 
without  stopping  to  con  them  over  and  again;  and  then  with  his  facility  of  language 
present  it  in  most  attractive  form  to  the  court.  By  the  same  force  of  specific  intellectual 
ascension  that  lifted  him  to  the  front  rank  of  debaters  and  practical  statesmen  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  he  became  a  lawyer  to  be  reckoned  with  by  the  best  in  the  lists  of 
the  legal  profession. 

The  New  Conditions. 

"These  lawyers  of  a  former  epoch  have  passed  forever  out  of  our  view.  The  electric 
currents  of  their  minds  flash  no  more:  and  their  voices  are  silent.  This  and  the  next  gen- 
eration will  not  see  their  like.  Our  commercialized  civilization  does  not  breed  them;  and  if 
it  did  the  Pharisaism  and  artificialism  of  the  times  would  not  cultivate  them.  They  were, 
however,  monument  builders :  and  they  gave  Missouri  a  high  place  among  the  bright  sister- 


A  GRAND  OLD  MAN  OF  MISSOURI  957 

hood  of  states.  It  has  always  been  and  ever  will  be  true  that  the  standards  of  our  profes- 
sion can  best  be  gauged  by  the  lawyers  who  stand  out  in  the  community  preeminent  for 
their  learning,  honor  and  moral  courage.  Like  a  flawless,  high-grade  mirror,  they  give  back 
no  distorted  image.  Their  reflection  makes  others  see  their  own  lineaments  by  comparison ; 
so  that  they  must  strive  to  grow  into  the  likeness  of  great  men,  or  sink  away  into  obscurity. 
When  there  is  only  mediocrity  at  any  bar  it  is  apt  to  degenerate  into  mental  dwarfage,  for 
lack  of  ambition  stimulated  by  example. 

"The  best  specific  any  community  can  formulate  for  the  extermination  of  the  growing 
pest  of  shysters  is  to  foster  and  support  only  the  nobler  breed  of  lawyers. 

Days  of  the  Hand  Picked  Lawyer, 

"In  those  days  the  lawyer,  as  a  rule,  was  'hand  picked,'  not  machine  made.  I  have 
known  some  lawj'ers  of  whom  it  was  said  'they  could  neither  read,  spell  nor  write,'  who 
were  quite  formidable,  if  they  could  get  beyond  the  court  to  the  jury,  with  the  applause  of 
the  onlooking,  hungry-eyed  rabble.  But  their  notpriety  came  from  committing  assaults  and 
batteries  on  grammar  and  rhetoric  in  the  very  temple  of  justice!  The  conception  the 
ancients  had  of  the  real  lawyer  was  that  he  should  be  an  educated  man.  I  knew  lawyers 
of  the  old  school  who  were  as  familiar  with  Plato,  Aristotle  and  Lovingus  as  they  were 
with  Littleton.  Coke  and  Blackstone.  who  comprehended  the  arguments  of  Demosthenes. 
Tully  and  Cicero  as  they  did  the  rationale  of  the  opinions  of  the  great  jurists  of  England 
and  America.  They  regarded  the  law  as  a  science,  and  its  practice  as  the  noblest  calling 
that  ever  appealed  to  the  ambition  of  the  intellectual  man.  They  had  few  books,  but  they 
mastered  them.  Believing  with  Lord  Coke  that  'out  of  the  old  fields  cometh  this  new  corn 
of  modern  jurisprudence,'  they  put  to  practice  what  Montesquieu  said,  'when  I  discovered 
my  first  principles  everything  I  sought  for  appeared.'  Thus  they  solved  the  many  intricate 
questions  growing  out  of  the  passing  from  territorial  to  state  existence,  the  tenure  of  land 
titles  emanating  from  Spanish  grants  and  national  government,  and  the  power  of  the  legis- 
lature territorial  and  state,  to  enact  certain  statutes.  If  the  lawyer  or  the  judge  could  not 
find  a  precedent,  they  adopted  the  motto  of  the  pick  axe  on  the  dial,  'I  will  find  a  way  or 
make  one.' 

"Today  we  have  multitudes  of  lawyers  and  judges  who  expend  their  time  anJ  energies 
in  hunting  up  some  allied  case  through  the  reports,  from  the  tomes  of  the  Inns  of  Court 
in  London  to  Biscay  and  Bombay,  from  New  England  to  New  Mexico,  and  from  Amster- 
dam to  'Ubedam.'  And  if  they  do  not  find  one  'ipsissime  verbis,'  on  all  fours  with  the  case 
in  hand,  they  are  all  at  sea.  Such  men  are  mere  floaters,  not  swimmers.  Like  a  man  with 
palsy,  they  live  half  dead. 

"One  hundred  years* ago,  the  shyster  was  almost  an  unknown  'cuss'  in  Missouri.  There 
is  something  about  our  boasted  civilization  that  breeds  the  shyster.  I  suppose  this  stands 
to  the  law  of  natural  creation.  There  are  more  flies  than  eagles.  A  single  maggot  will 
generate  myriads  of  flies.  The  fly  has  such  a  vile  stomach,  it  finds  in  the  ofltal,  the  ex- 
crescence of  overwrought  civilization,  so  much  to  feed  and  batten  on ;  while  the  eagle  that 
nests  in  the  lofty  cedar  top,  or  its  aerie,  spreads  wing  on  the  upper  air,  and  the  game  on 
which  it  feeds  is  harder  to  catch,  with  more  power  of  resistance.  Hence  it  is  that  we  have 
swarms  of  shysters  today  who  'rescue  a  gentleman's  estate  from  his  enemies  and  keep  it 
themselves' ;  who  enter  into  copartnership  with  the  client  with  the  concealed  purpose  of 
becoming  the  surviving  partner.  To  rescue  the  profession  from  such  ravishers  is  the 
knighthood  of  the  true  lawyer's  calling. 

Ethics  of  the  Shyster, 

"There  are  lawyers  who  must  have  learned  their  ethics  from  pious  old  Peggy  Lobb,  who 
enjoined  on  her  hopeful  son,  Paul,  when  he  w-as  leaving  the  parental  roof  to  go  out  into 
the  world :  'My  child,  stick  to  your  sittivation  in  life ;  read  your  Bible,  study  you  kitty- 
chism,  and  talk  like  a  pious  one,  for  people  goes  more  by  what  you  says  than  by  what  you 
does.  If  you  wants  anything  that  is  not  your  own,  try  and  do  without  it.  but  if  you  can't 
do  without  it,  take  it  by  insinivation,  and  not  bluster,  for  they  as  steals  gets  more  and  risks 
less  than  they  as  robs,  for  of  sich  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,' 


958  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"In  reading  anew  the  other  eveninR  the  travels  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  the  thought 
occurred,  that  if  the  good  Lord,  in  scmling  the  afflictions  of  bloody  water,  bloody  murrain, 
locusts,  flies  and  lice  upon  the  Egyptians  to  compel  Pliaraoh  to  let  the  Israelites  depart 
from  the  land,  had  only  sent  upon  them  swarms  of  shysters  to  foment  among  them  petty 
strifes,  and  despoil  them  of  their  jewels,  flocks,  cattle  and  corn,  in  the  way  of  fees,  old 
Pharaoh,  at  the  first  onslaught,  would  have  exclaimed :  'I  give  up ;  go  Moses,  and  don't 
stand  upon  the  order  of  your  going.'  Thus  Pharaoh  might  have  escaped  the  cataclysm  of 
the  Red  S«a,  being  better  occupied  in  throwing  the  sliysters  into  the  Nile ! 

"As  tonight  we  lift  the  veil  from  the  sepulchcrs  of  the  sturdy  pioneers,  who  trampled 
down  the  wild  briars  and  bull  nettles,  and  opened  the  primeval  forests  to  let  in  the  light 
of  a  higher  civilization,  who  struggled  so  long  and  hard  to  break  through  the  chrysalis  of 
territorial  existence,  to  breathe  the  inspiring  sense  of  statehood,  let  not  the  fact  be  un- 
recognized that  one  of  the  great  factors  in  bringing  about  the  long  wished  for  consumma- 
"tion  were  the  lawyers  of  one  hundred  years  ago.  I  could  crave  no  brighter  halo  for  the 
sunset  glow  of  life  than  to  witness  the  crowning  of  the  brow  of  my  native  state  with  the 
Centennial  wreath. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

Colonial  Theotopy — The  Coming  of  John  Clark — Church  Bells  Barred — First  Protestant 
Churches  Built  in  Missouri — Presbyterianism's  Foothold — Dr.  Niccolls'  Centennial  Ser- 
mon— First  Protestant  Church  in  St.  Louis  a  Public  Enterprise — Catholic  Diocese  of 
St.  Louis — Coming  of  Bishop  Dubourg — Culture  One  Hundred  Years  Ago — Rosati's 
Constructive  Career — The  First  Cathedral — A  Catholic  Census — When  Rev.  Mr.  Potts 
Was  "the  Rage" — Archbishop  Kenrick — -"The  Rome  of  America" — Baptist  Church 
Building  and  City  Planning — The  Pulpit  and  Literature — Religious  Journalism — Ante- 
bellum Church  Architecture — St.  Louis  an  Archdiocese — The  Prayerbook  Church — Dr. 
Montgomery  Schuyler's  Career — Some  Notable  Pastorates — A  Hero  of  the  Cholera — 
Dr.  Hutchinson  on  David  and  Uriah — The  Tallest  Steeple — Far-reaching  Influence  of 
Dr.  Eliot — Dr.  Post  and  Congregationalism — Judge  Philips  on  Presbyterianism  in  Cen- 
tral Missouri — War  Experiences — The  Kenrick  Lectures  and  The  Newsletter — Mc- 
Cullagh's  "Great  Controversy" — Father  Ryan,  Orator  and  Wit — Religious  Intolerance 
Exceptional — Dr.  Niccolls  on  Progressive  Catholicism — Bishop  Tuttle — The  New  Cathe- 
dral— Religion  and  Good  Works — The  Y.  M.  C.  A. — The  Provident  Association — A 
Layman's  Monument — Missouri's  Moral  Standards. 

All  the  churches  named  and  unnamed  have  wrought  together  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  uplifting 
of  the  city.  It  is  not  claimed  that  all  have  seen  the  truth  with  equal  clearness  and  fullness,  or  frdtn 
the  same  angle  of  vision.  There  have  been  vain  rivalries  among  them,  divisions  that  were  disastrous 
and  shameful,  misconceptions  and  separating  prejudices,  but  all,  according  to  their  light,  have  stood  for 
liberty  of  conscience,  for  freedom  from  ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  for  the  authority  of  the  word  of  God. 
fhey  have  persistently  upheld  the  claims  of  eternal  righteousness,  and  have  called  upon  men  to  live 
in  view  of  their  relations  to  God  and  an  endless  future.  We  have  no  arithmetic  by  which  to  compute 
the  value  of  their  ministries,  or  to  sum  up  the  riches  they  have  secured  for  the  city.  They  have  taught 
men  to  see  the  invisible  world,  to  lay  hold  of  its  wealth  and  to  labor  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  In  the  midst  of  the  evil  tendencies  of  a  great  and  growing  city,  the  greed  for  gain,  the  love 
of  sensual  pleasure,  the  demoralization  of  luxury,  the  oppressions  of  the  strong  and  the  despair  and 
sorrow  of  the  weak  and  poor,  all  of  which  degrade  man,  they  have  sought  to  remind  him  of  a  nobler 
and  higher  life,  to  tell  of  God's  redeeming  grace  and  of  the  glorious  future  to  which  that  grace  was 
calling  him.  They  have  endeavored  to  keep  open  the  channel  of  communication  between  earth  and 
Tieaven,  and  to  persuade  men  to  live  as  the  children  of  God. — From  tlie  scrtnon  of  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  J. 
Niccolls  on  "The  Ministry  of  Religion,"   in   St.   Louis,   Centennial  Sunday,   1909. 

When  .\mericans  came  to  settle  in  Mis.souri  before  the  purchase  of  Louisiana 
territory  the  Spanish  governor  informed  them  officially  that  the  law  required 
every  resident  to  be  "un  bon  Catholique."  Then  he  proceeded  to  put  some  very 
general  questions  as  to  spiritual  opinions.  Tradition  has  it  that  the  questions  as 
translated  were  to  this  effect : 

"Do  you  believe  in  the  Almighty  God:  in  the  Holy  Trinity;  in  the  true 
Apostolic  Church;  in  Jesus  Christ,  our  Saviour?" 

The  American  applicants  readily  answered  that  they  did  so  believe.  The  com- 
mandant concluded  by  declaring  the  answers  were  satisfactory,  and  that  the  new- 
comers were  evidently  good  Catholics  and  could  remain.    It  is  not  of  record  that 

959 


960  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

otherwise  desirable  Americans  were  turned  back  from  Missouri  because  of  their 
religious  convictions. 

Major  Holconibe  concluded  from  his  researches  that  "the  first  Protestant 
minister  who  set  foot  in  Missouri"  was  John  Clark,  i  Scotchman.  He  described 
Clark  as  "born  and  bred  a  Presbyterian,  became  a  Methodist,  then  a  Baptist. 
With  another  Methodist  preacher,  they  baptized  each  other."  Clark,  at  the  age 
of  twenty  enlisted  in  the  British  navy.  He  was  taken  prisoner  and  was  con- 
fined at  Havana  nineteen  years.  Going  back  to  England  he  had  several  conversa- 
tions with  Wesley.  This  was  his  preparation  for  missionary  work  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi \'alley. 

Clark,  for  some  years,  lived  on  the  Illinois  side,  crossed  over  by  night  and 
held  his  meetings.  The  Spanish  governor  waited  until  he  thought  tlte  preacher 
had  about  completed  his  round  of  visits  among  the  .\merican  Protestant  families 
and  then  sent  him  word  he  must  leave  within  three  days  or  he  would  be  ini- 
prisoncd  as  the  teaching  of  the  Protestant  faith  was  in  violation  of  the  .Spanish 
laws.  The  Rev.  John  Clark  would  smile,  hold  a  farewell  service  and  go  back  to  the 
Illinois  side,  to  repeat  his  missionary  trip  a  little  later.  The  liberality  of  Gov- 
ernor Trudeau  was  ])ut  to  a  rather  severe  test  when  Abraham  Musick  called  at 
government  house  and  boldly  asked  for  a  permit  to  hold  Baptist  meetings  in  his 
house  out  in  the  country.  The  governor  denied  the  petition  and  quoted  the  law. 
Then  looking  significantly  at  the  sturdy  Kentuckian.  he  added : 

"I  mean  you  must  not  put  a  bell  on  your  house  and  call  it  a  church  or  sutler 
anj'body  to  christen  your  children  except  the  parish  priest,  but  if  your  friends 
choose  to  meet  in  your  house  to  sing,  pray  and  talk  about  religion,  you  will  not 
be  molested,  provided  you  continue,  as  of  course  you  are,  a  good  Catholic." 

First  Protestant  Churches  Built  in  Missouri. 

Five  miles  west  of  Cape  Girardeau  stands  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  of 
Protestant  churches  built  in  Missouri,  and,  for  that  matter,  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. It  is  McKendree  chapel.  The  material  is  yellow  poplar  logs.  The 
dimensions  are  forty  by  fifty  feet.  The  church  was  built  by  Jesse  Walker,  who 
established  Methodism  in  Missouri,  and  years  later  in  what  was  to  be  Chicago. 
The  original  structure  fell  into  almost  ruins  but  a  Methodist  with  reverence 
for  the  historical  sentiment,  William  R.  McCormack,  repaired  and  restored  it. 
Methodist  conferences  were  held  in  this  historic  McKendree  chapel  in  1819,  1821, 
1826,  and  1831.  John  Clark,  the  eccentric  Scotchman,  preached  in  this  chapel. 
.A.ccording  to  one  biographer,  Clark  came  to  America  in  1778,  enlisted  in  the 
Colonial  army,  was  captured  by  the  British,  escaped,  rejoined  the  army  -and 
fought  to  the  end  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  He  then  entered  the  ministry, 
traveled  on  foot  through  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  holding  great  revivals,  crossed 
the  Mississippi  at  Cape  Girardeau  and  held  what,  probably,  was  the  first  revival  in 
Missouri.  John  Oglesby  and  Robert  R.  Witten  were  two  other  pioneers  who  held 
services  in  this  church.  Bishop  George,  Bishop  Roberts  and  Bishop  Soule  pre- 
sided over  the  early  conferences  held  in  McKendree  chapel. 

The  earliest  Protestant  meeting  house  is  credited  by  some  historians  to  the 
Baptists.  In  1806,  two  years  after  the  transfer  at  St.  Louis,  the  Bethel  Baptist 
church  was  built  near  Jackson  in  Cape  Girardeau  county.    It  was  made  of  logs 


CENTENARY  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHUKrii,  l  il-  lli    AM)    PINE   STREETS,  IN 
1859,  AND  DR.  McAN ALLY'S  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE  OFFICE  OX  PINE  STEET 


/ 

'    ■  '■■'7  V'/.' 

Rev.  Dr.  D.  R.  McAnally,  Methodist  Rev.  S.  B.  McPliceters,  Presbyterian 

EMINENT  MISSOURI  PREACHERS  OF  THE  CH'IL  WAR  PERIOD 


Vol.  1—61 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  963 

and  was  standing  a  half  century  later.  Rev.  David  Green,  a  Virginian,  organized 
the  society.  He  died  three  years  later.  When  the  Missouri  Baptists,  recruited  to  a 
mighty  army,  wanted  to  place  a  monument  of  this  first  pastor  of  the  first  non- 
Catholic  church  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific  they  could  not  find  the 
grave. 

Cumberland  Presbyterians  organized  in  Pike  county.  They  formed  their  first 
presbytery  with  four  ministers.  The  denomination  spread  locally  with  such 
strength  that  Cumberland  Presbyterianism  was  called  by  a  historian  "The  es- 
tablished church  of  Pike  county." 

Good  natured  controversy  as  to  "the  first  Protestant  organization  having 
continuous  life  west  of  the  Mississippi"  arose  near  the  end  of  the  Missouri's 
century  of  statehood.  H.  M.  Blossom  thought  the  First  Presbyterian  church  of 
St.  Louis  held  that  record,  dating  from  1817.  Rev.  J.  E.  Dillard,  however,  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  Fee  Fee  Baptist  church,  in  St.  Louis  county,  had  been 
in  continuous  existence  since  1807,  having  been  started  in  that  year  at  what  is 
now  known  as  Pattonville,  by  Rev.  Thomas  R.  Music,  of  Virginia. 

The  Rise  of  Presbyterianism. 

The  pioneer  of  Presbyterianism  in  Missouri  was  a  Connecticut  man,  Rev. 
Salmon  Giddings.  Appointed  a  missionary,  he  rode  horseback  1,200  miles, 
in  winter,  arriving  in  April,  1816.  As  his  chief  means  of  support  Mr.  Giddings 
conducted  a  school  for  girls  on  Market  street  opposite  the  court  house.  The 
missionary  spirit  prompted  him  to  go  among  the  newcomers  in  Missouri  and 
to  gather  them  into  congregations.  In  this  way  he  organized  twelve  Presby- 
terian churches.  He  got  together  in  his  school  room  a  number  of  Missourians 
and  organized  a  society  to  distribute  Bibles.  It  is  told  of  one  of  the  churches 
Salmon  Giddings  organized  that  the  pastor  who  was  installed  over  it,  Charles 
S.  Robinson,  a  Massachusetts  man,  was  at  one  time  "entirely  out  of  money  and 
out  of  food  for  his  family,  but  just  when  his  need  was  greatest  he  found  a  silver 
dollar  imbedded  in  the  earth,  which  sufficed  for  all  his  wants  until  a  more  per- 
manent supply  came." 

"The  Ministry  of  Religion  in  St.  Louis"  was. the  subject  of  a  sermon,  con- 
taining much  interesting  history,  which  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  J.  Niccolls  preached -in 
the  Second  Presbyterian  church  on  Centennial  Sunday  in  1909.  With  the  sole 
exception  of  Rev.  Dr.  M.  Rhodes,  of  St.  Mark's  Evangelical  Lutheran  church. 
Dr.  Niccolls  had  held  his  pastorate  longer  than  any  other  Protestant  minister 
in  St.  Louis.  Of  the  start  and  rise  of  Presbyterianism  in  Missouri,  Dr.  Nic- 
colls said: 

On  April  6.  1816,  Rev.  Salmon  Giddings  crossed  the  river  after  a  journey  of  over  twelve 
months  from  New  England,  and  on  the  next  day  preached  to  a  small  congregation,  his  first 
sermon.  He  found  the  city  without  a  Protestant  minister,  and  himself  an  unwelcome  herald 
of  the  Gospel.  Rumors  had  been  circulated  unfavorable  to  him.  An  article  entitled 
"Caution"  had  appeared  in  the  Missouri  Gazette  of  that  day,  warning  the  people  again,;t  him, 
and  declaring  that  he  was  an  emissary  of  the  famous  Hartford  Convention ;  but,  unmoved 
by  the  report  and  with  that  quiet  persistence  which  characterized  his  subsequent  ministry, 
he  began  his  work.  He  was  a  consecrated  man  of  blameless  life,  sterling  common  sense, 
patient,  persevering  and  of  indomitable  will.     He  was  ceaseless  in  his  activities,  preaching 


964  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

not  only  in  the  city,  but  in  the  outlying  settlements.    The  first  church  organized  by  him  was 
at  Belleview  settlement,  in  Washington  county;  the  second  at  Bonhomme,  October  i6,  1816. 

In  St.  Louis  he  started  a  school,  from  which  he  supported  himself  in  his  ministry.  On 
November  23,  1817,  he  organized  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  the  first  Protestant  church 
in  St.  Louis.  At  its  organization  it  consisted  of  nine  members,  and  its  two  male  members, 
Stephen  Hempstead  and  Thomas  Osborn,  were  chosen  ruling  elders. 

On  December  i8th,  of  the  same  year,  the  Presbytery  of  Missouri  was  organized  in 
St.  Louis  by  the  authority  of  the  Synod  of  Tennessee.  Its  territory  was  wide  enough,  for 
jt  included  all  that  part  of  the  United  States  west  of  the  meridian  line,  drawn  across  the 
Cumberland  river.  There  were  but  four  members  of  the  presbytery — Salmon  Giddings, 
Timothy  Flint,  Thomas  Donnell  and  John  Matthews. 

At  that  time  there  was  no  resident  minister  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  the  total  mem- 
bership of  the  presbytery  did  not  exceed  200.  Yet  from  this  feeble  beginning,  there  grew 
twenty-nine  presbyteries  and  three  great  synods,  including  a  membership  of  more  than 
180,000  persons. 

In  1832  St.  Louis  claimed  to  have  a  population  of  7.000.  Allowing  for  western 
boasting,  it  had  probably  6,000.  In  that  year  a  second  church,  under  the  ministry  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Hatfield,  was  organized,  through  a  colony  from  the  First  church.  This  organization 
was  subsequently  dissolved  and  its  members  returned  to  the  mother  church. 

In  the  same  year,  18.32,  the  synod  of  Missouri  was  O'ganized  in  the  First  church  of  this 
city.  It  was  the  year  of  the  great  plague,  the  visitation  of  cholera,  which  brought  death 
and  lamentation  to  so  mai'y  homes.  The  death  rate  was  over  twenty  each  day.  The  min- 
isters present  at  the  organization  of  the  synod  remained  in  the  city,  preaching  daily  the 
offers  and  consolation  of  the  Gospel,  and  as  a  result  there  was  a  widespread  revival  of 
religion,  which  left  a  permanent  effect  upon  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the  city. 

In  1838  the  present  Second  church  was  organized  by  a  colony  from  the  First  church, 
and  Rev.  William  S.  Potts,  D.  D.,  was  called  to  be  its  first  pastor.  From  this  time  on  the 
number  of  churches  increased  rapidly  with  the  increasing  growth  of  the  city.  My  limited 
time  forbids  even  a  mention  of  their  origin,  location  and  names.  It  is  enough  now  to  say 
that  the  present  number  of  all  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  clnirch,  including  missions  in 
the  city,  is  fifty-three,  distributed  as  follows:  Presbyterian  church.  United  States  of 
America,  thirty-eight ;  Presbyterian  church.  United  States,  seven ;  United  Presbyterian 
church,  four ;  Reformed  Presbyterian  church,  three ;  Cumberland  Presbyterian  church,  one. 

But,  while  the  Presbyterian  church  represents  numerically  the  largest  of  the  divisions 
of  Protestantism,  it  is  very  far  from  including  the  chief  religious  forces  that  have  wrought 
for  the  advancement  of  the  city.  The  Baptist  church  began  its  labors  in  the  territory  vvhile 
it  was  yet  a  Spanish  province,  but  its  first  church  in  St.  Louis  was  organized  on  February 
18,  1818.  The  Methodist  circuit  riders  were  engaged  in  their  self-denying  labors  in  the  new 
territory  as  early  as  1810,  and  in  ifco  the  first  Methodist  church  was  organized  in  St.  Louis. 
The  first  Episcopal  church  was  organized  in  1819.  Out  of  this  organization  Christ  church 
has  grown.  The  first  United  Presbyterian  church  in  St.  Louis  was  organized  in  1840,  and 
there  are  now  four  churches  of  that  order  in  the  city. 

Church,  Building  and  Good  Citizenship. 

When  the  nine  pioneers  organized  the  First  Presbyterian  church  in  Novem- 
ber, 1817,  they  drew  up  and  signed  an  agreement  or  covenant  to  watch  over 
each  other  and  to  regulate  their  lives  in  a  "spirit  of  Christian  meekness,"  and 
to  maintain  the  worship  of  God  in  their  homes.  Church  building  has  always  been 
linked  with  good  citizenship  in  St.  Louis.  Business  men  have  aided  such  enter- 
prises on  the  broad  principle  that  a  city  cannot  have  too  many  or  too  fine  churches. 
The  congregation  worshipped  in  the  room  where  Mr.  Giddings  carried  on  the 
school  to  support  himself.  When  the  time  seemed  favorable,  financially,  for 
the  building  of  the  First  Presbyterian  church  in  St.  Louis,  the  little  congrega- 
tion had  the  substantial  sympathy  of  the  whole  community.    A  public  meeting 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  965 

was  held  to  start  the  subscription  paper.  Alexander  McNair,  who  becanu;  the 
first  governor  of  Missouri,  was  the  chairman  of  that  meeting.  Thomas  H. 
Benton,  afterwards  the  thirty  years  senator,  was  the  secretary.  When  the 
paper  was  passed  around  Catholic  business  men  put  down  their  subscrijitions 
freely.  The  largest  contribution  was  $200,  given  by  Matthew  Kerr.  In  the 
class  of  $50  subscribers  were  three  of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  old 
Cathedral  parish.  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  became  President,  sent  a  subscrip- 
tion of  $25.  The  site  for  the  church,  the  west  side  of  Fourth  street,  near 
Washington  avenue,  was  purchased  for  $327.  When  Salmon  Giddings  died 
2,000  people,  half  of  the  population  of  St.  Louis,  attended  the  funeral 

Impressions  in  1837. 

One  of  the  early  Presbyterian  ministers  of  Missouri  was  Rev.  Dr.  John 
Leighton.  He  came  to  St.  Louis  in  1836.  Dr.  Leighton  left  this  recollectio;i  of 
the  beginning  of  his  pastorate: 

"My  first  impression  was  of  surprise  that  the  good  people  of  the  church  should  have 
located  their  place  of  worship  away  beyond  the  town  and  outside  of  the  population.  I 
glanced  to  the  west  and  the  south,  and  beyond  the  unpaved  street  on  which  I  stood.  I 
could  see  little  but  an  unreclaimed  flat,  covered  with  stagnant  water,  with  here  and  there 
a  clump  of  brush.  Here,  thought  I,  is  another  proof  that  Presbyterians  are  the  'Lord's 
foolish  people,'  for  the  sake  of  a  cheap  lot,  building  their  church  where  few  of  their  neigh- 
bors would  care  to  follow  them.  The  house  itself  was  a  very  unpretending  one,  inferior 
to  many  of  the  wooden  churches  we  now  have  in  the  rural  districts,  and  was  surmounted 
by  a  belfry  not  unlike  what  we  see  upon  factories.  That  house  subsequently  underwent 
changes  within  and  without,  which  were  thought  to  be  elegant  improvements  befitting  the 
condition  of  the  little  town.  The  pulpit  was  brought  down  from  its  perch  midway  between 
the  ceiling  and  floor;  and  the  roof  was  crowned  with  what  in  courtesy  was  called  a  steeple. 
But  while  the  church  was  a  very  unpretending  building  when  I  first  saw  it,  we  must  not 
infer  that  the  worshipers  within  it  were  all  plain,  unpretending  folk. 

"Just  about  one  year  from  that  time,  in  the  spring  of  1837,  the  following  scene  might 
have  been  witnessed :  On  a  Sabbath  morning  a  lady,  dressed  in  heavy  silk,  advanced  up 
the  street,  having  behind  her  a  train  of  extraordinary  length.  This  appendage  was  sup- 
ported and  borne  by  two  colored  boys,  one  hand  of  each  holding  up  the  train,  and  the  other 
hand  of  each  carrying  this  one  a  fan,  and  that  one  a  hymn  book.  When  the  door  of  the 
church  was  reached  the  train  was  dropped,  the  fan  and  the  book  were  passed  to  the  hands 
of  the  lady,  and  the  pages  went  their  way." 

The  Diocese  of  St.  Louis. 

The  existence  of  the  diocese  of  St.  Louis  dates  from  July,  1826.  Rut  St. 
Louis  was  the  residence  of  a  bishop  many  years  earlier.  Louis  William  Valen- 
tine Dubourg  was  consecrated  bishop  of  New  Orleans  in  1815.  The  ceremony 
took  i)lace  in  Rome.  Almost  inmiediately  Bishop  Dubourg  asked  to  have  the 
diocese  divided  and  a  new  see  of  St.  Louis  created.  The  church  documents  of 
that  day  refer  to  St.  Louis  as  situated  variously  in  Upper  Louisiana,  Louisiana 
Superior  and  Alta  Louisiana.  Before  action  was  taken  on  Bishop  Dubourg's 
petition,  the  proposition  was  withdrawn.  From  New  Orleans  came  the  informa- 
tion, through  church  channels,  that  such  a  rebellious  spirit  prevailed  among  those 
in  control  of  the  cathedral  of  New  Orleans,  it  would  not  be  safe  for  Bishop 
Dubourg  to  take  up  his  residence  there.  Investigation  showed  threats  were 
being  made  "that  the  bishop  would  be  shot  in  the  streets  of  New  Orleans  if  he 


966  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

dared  set  foot  on  its  soil."  In  the  church  correspondence  of  that  day  New 
Orleans  was  referred  to  as  "Vera  Nova  Babilonia" — a  new  Babylon.  In  order 
that  Bishop  Dubourg  might  reside  within  his  diocese,  the  proposition  to  make 
a  see  of  St.  Louis  was  withdrawn. 

At  Bordeaux,  late  in  the  fall  of  1815,  assembled  the  little  party  to  accom- 
pany Bishop  Dubourg  to  St.  Louis.  At  the  head  of  it  was  Rev.  Joseph  Rosati, 
who  was  chosen  for  the  head  of  the  seminary  to  be  established.  The  authority 
to  make  Joseph  Rosati  vicar  general  was  carried  by  Bishop  Dubourg.  Father 
Rosati  was  a  native  of  Sora  in  Naples.  He  was  educated  in  Rome,  and  when 
the  time  came  for  his  ordination,  th^  ceremony  took  place  in  secret,  because  Na- 
poleon, who  had  invaded  Italy,  had  forbidden  ordinations  by  the  Congregation  of 
the  Missions.  In  the  party  which  set  out  from  Bordeaux  were  four  students 
preparing  for  the  priesthood,  three  of  whom  became  prominent  in  the  Catholic 
life  of  St.  Louis.  They  were  Leo  Deys,  a  Belgian;  Francis  Dahmen,  a  German; 
Castuc  Gonzales,  a  Spaniard,  and  John  Tichitoli,  an  Italian.  Among  other  mem- 
bers of  the  party  were  French,  Italians  and  Poles.  At  that  early  day  the  polyglot 
character  of  the  population  of  the  new  religious  field  was  recognized  and  pro- 
vided for. 

The  party  came  by  way  of  Baltimore.  It  was  not  deemed  wise  or  safe  to  enter 
the  Mississippi  Valley  by  way  of  New  Orleans.  Crossing  the  mountains  and 
coming  down  the  Ohio,  the  party  stopped  at  Bardstown.  Bishop  Dubourg 
arrived  in  the  United  States  by  way  of  Annapolis  some  months  after  the  rest 
of  the  party  had  come  west.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  the  bishop  was  in  the 
country,  Father  Rosati  came  to  St.  Louis  to  prepare  for  the  reception  of  the 
first  Catholic  bishop  who  was  to  take  up  his  residence  here.  Bishop  Flaget,  of 
Bardstown,  accompanied  Father  Rosati.  Bishop  Dubourg  was  no  stranger  to 
New  Orleans.  He  had  gone  from  that  city  to  Rome  to  be  made  a  bishop.  He 
had  brothers  who  were  business  men  in  New  Orleans.  But  the  extensive  prop- 
erty of  the  cathedral  there  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  corporation,  three 
priests  in  charge  of  the  cathedral  had  been  suspended,  and  the  excitement  was 
very  great.  Not  knowing  how  far  the  feeling  might  have  spread.  Bishop  Du- 
bourg did  not  come  to  the  United  States  until  inquiry  had  shown  how  he  would 
be  received  in  St.  Louis.  And  when  he  did  come,  Rosati  and  Bishop  Flaget 
came  over  in  advance  to  be  assured  of  a  friendly  reception  for  Bishop  Dubourg. 
They  found  some  opposition  to  the  reception  of  the  bishop,  but  it  melted  away 
quickly.    Rosati  was  a  man  of  wonderful  tact  and  diplomacy. 

Culture  One  Hundred  Years  Ago. 

Bishop  Dubourg  was  a  man  of  high  culture.  He  brought  to  St.  Louis, 
before  the  town  organization  had  given  place  to  the  city,  a  library  of  8,000  vol- 
umes. This  collection  was  described  "as  the  most  complete,  scientific  and  literary 
repertory  of  the  western  country,  if  not  of  the  western  world." 

There  is  most  excellent  non-Catholic  authority  for  the  description  of  this 
first  Catholic  bishop  to  take  residence  in  St.  Louis,  as  "a  man  endowed  at  once 
with  the  elegance  and  politeness  of  the  courtier;  the  piety  and  zeal  of  the  Apostle 
and  the  learning  of  a  Father  of  the  Church." 

In  the  first  St.  Louis  directory,  issued  in  1821,  was  given  this  description 
of  the  Catholic  church  as  the  result  of  Bishop  Dubourg's  efforts: 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  967 

The  cathedral  of  St.  Louis  can  boast  of  having  no  rival  in  the  United  States  for  the 
magnificence,  the  value  and  elegance  of  her  sacred  vases,  ornaments  and  paintings,  and 
indeed  few  churches  in  Europe  possess  anything  superior  to  it.  It  is  a  truly  delightful  sight 
to  an  American  of  taste  to  find  in  one  of  the  remotest  towns  of  the  Union  a  church 
decorated  with  the  original  paintings  of  Rubens,  Raphael,  Guido,  Paul  Veronese,  and  a 
number  of  others  by  the  first  modern  masters  of  the  Italian,  French  and  Flemish  schools. 
The  ancient  and  precious  gold  embroideries  which  the  St.  Louis  cathedral  possesses  would 
certainly  decorate  any  museum  in  the  world.  AH  this  is  due  to  the  liberality  of  the  Catholics 
of  Europe,  who  presented  these  rich  articles  to  Bishop  Dubourg  on  his  last  visit  through 
France,  Italy,  Sicily  and  the  Netherlands.  Among  the  liberal  benefactors  could  be  named 
many  princes  and  princesses,  but  we  will  only  insert  the  names  of  Louis  XVIII,  the  present 
king  of  France,  and  that  of  Baroness  La  Candale  de  Ghysegham,  a  Flemish  lady,  to  whose 
munificence  the  cathedral  is  particularly  indebted. 

The  First  Catholic  Bishop. 

A  record  of  great  activity  in  the  Catholic  church  began  with  the  coming 
of  Bishop  Rosati  to  St.  Louis.  Here  was  a  diocese  with  one  bishop,  three  secular 
priests,  five  Lazarist  fathers,  one  Jesuit,  fourteen  ecclesiastical  students,  five 
Jesuit  scholastics  and  from  ii,000  to  12,000  laity.  Before  the  first  year  was  out 
Bishop  Rosati  at  the  Cathedral  in  St.  Louis  consecrated  a  bishop,  Michael  Por- 
tier,  for  Alabama  and  the  Floridas.  For  assistants  he  had  no  neighboring 
bishops.  He  called  in  the  chancellor  of  the  little  college  of  Jesuits,  Father  Quick- 
enborne,  and  the  venerable  and  lovable  Father  Donatianus  Olivier.  About  this 
time  Bishop  Rosati  ordained  the  first  priest  born  in  Missouri,  Rev.  Joseph 
Paquin.  In  March,  1827,  Rosati  was  formally  constituted  first  bishop  of  St. 
Louis.  The  next  year  he  ordained  the  first  priest,  who  was  a  native  St.  Louisan, 
Francis  Regis  Loisel. 

There  were  no  bishops  in  Mexico  who  could  give  ordination.  In  1829, 
Bishop  Rosati  began  the  ordination  of  priests  for  the  dioceses  of  that  country. 
Mexican  candidates  by  the  score  for  the  priesthood  visited  Bishop  Rosati. 
Ordination  ceremonies  in  the  cathedral  were  very  frequent,  beginning  in  1829. 

In  his  first  report  to  Rome,  on  conditions  as  he  found  them  on  taking  charge 
of  the  new  diocese,  in  1825,  Bishop  Rosati  described  St.  Louis  as  "an  important 
city,  the  most  considerable  of  the  whole  state."   He  added : 

French  is  spoken  here  by  the  old  inhabitants ;  and  English  by  the  Americans  and  Irish 
who  have  established  themselves  here  of  late  years.  There  is  only  one  priest  and  there 
ought  to  be  at  least  two  more.  There  are  some  difficulties.  During  the  time  that  Mgr. 
Dubourg  resided  here  a  subscription  was  made  to  build  a  church.  The  expenses  were  very 
great,  and  the  funds  were  found  wanting  as  soon  as  they  were  counted  together.  This  was 
occasioned  by  various  circumstances,  which  debilitated  commerce,  and  diminished  the  num- 
ber of  new  inhabitants  who  had  subscribed.  Four  of  the  principal  citizens,  who  had  been 
elected  as  administrators  of  the  building,  were  obliged  to  pay  a  debt  of  from  $5,000  to  $6,000 
for  which  they  had  passed  their  bonds  to  the  workmen.  In  order  to  reimburse  themselves 
they  have  obtained  from  the  legislature  the  authorization  to  sell  the  ground  next  to  the 
church,  together  with  the  house  which  served  for  habitation  of  the  bishop  and  priest.  The 
bondsmen  threaten  to  proceed  to  the  sale  if  the  money  they  have  laid  out  is  not  paid  bark 
to  them. 

Those  were  pioneer  days  of  things  religious.  In  his  report  on  the  new  dio- 
cese. Bishop  Rosati  spoke  of  "Viede  Poche  Carondelet  having  about  100  French 


968  CEXTF.WIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

families  all  very  poor.  Wlu-n  ilure  were  more  priests  than  one  in  St.  Louis  one 
of  them  went  to  the  village  Saturdays  and  Sundays  to  hear  confessions,  to  preach 
and  to  say  mass.   At  the  present  it  is  vacant." 

The  see  of  St.  Louis  extended  across  the  river  and  took  in  a  number  of 
parishes.  One  of  these  was  Prairie  du  Rocher,  of  which  Bishop  Rosati  reported: 
"There  is  a  church  and  a  priest.  This  is  Rev.  Father  Olivier,  a  respectable  old 
man  of  seventy-five  years,  almost  blind,  and  unable  to  render  any  service  to  the 
parish.  To  him  I  have  offered  a  room  in  the  seminary.  He  is  a  saint,  who  has 
labored  for  many  years  in  the  service  of  all  the  Catholics  in  these  regions." 

Five  years  after  he  had  been  elected  bishop  and  three  years  after  his  con- 
secration Bishop  Rosati  became  by  transfer  the  first  bishop  of  the  diocese  of  St. 
Louis.  Not  until  1827  did  this  occur.  Even  when  the  country  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi was  divided  into  two  dioceses  it  was  the  plan  of  His  Holiness  Pope  Leo 
XII  that  Rosati  should  be  bishop  of  New  Orleans  and  that  he  should  admin- 
ister both  dioceses  for  the  time  being.  "Bi.shop  Rosati  did  all  in  his  power  to  be 
excused  from  accepting  the  diocese  of  New  Orleans,  and  succeeded  in  having 
the  decree  rescinded."  So  reads  the  church  record  in  manuscript.  The  church 
in  St.  Louis  has  reason  to  be  grateful  that  Rosati  stood  so  firmly  by  his  attach- 
ment to  this  city.  Dubourg  had  become  oppressed  and  discouraged  with  con- 
ditions at  New  Orleans.  He  went  to  Europe  in  the  summer  of  1826,  presented 
his  resignation  of  the  see  of  New  Orleans,  and  it  was  accepted.  Then  Bishop 
Rosati  was  given  the  see  of  St.  Louis,  but  he  was  commanded  to  continue  to 
serve  the  diocese  of  New  Orleans  as  administrator  until  the  Holy  See  could  pro- 
vide otherwise.  "Bishop  of  Teagre  and  Administrator  of  St.  Louis  and  New 
Orleans"  was  the  title  borne  at  first  by  Bishop  Rosati. 

The  Cathedral. 

On  tile  first  of  August,  1831,  occurred  an  event  which  told  of  the  work 
Rosati  was  doing.  The  comer  stone  of  the  new  cathedral  was  laid  on  Walnut 
street  between  Main  and  Second  streets.  This  was  the  fourth  Catholic  church 
built  on  the  lot,  beginning  with  the  house  of  posts  erected  in  1776.  In  1833 
Bishop  Rosati  gave  their  first  resident  priests  to  Chicago  and  Kansas  City.  The 
twenty-sixth  of  October,  1834,  brought  the  consecration  of  the  new  cathedral 
of  St.  Louis.  Two  bishops  came  to  participate  in  the  ceremonies— Flaget  from 
Bardstown  and  Purcell  from  Cincinnati.  The  second  day  afterwards  occurred 
the  consecration  of  the  bishop  of  Vincennes,  Simon  Brute.  The  laying  of  corner 
stones  for  new  Catholic  churches  was  becoming  frequent.  Bishop  Rosati  that 
year  laid  the  comer  stone  for  Our  Lady  of  Mt.  Carmel  in  Carondelet.  That 
same  year  of  1834  was  memorable  for  another  church  event  in  St.  Louis. 
Bishop  Rosati  recorded :  "Rev.  Lutz  said  mass  in  St.  Mary's  chapel  for  the 
Germans  and  preached  in  German  to  them,  which  in  future  will  be  done  every 
Sunday." 

The  next  year,  1835,  Rosati  began  to  keep  the  annual  counts  of  the  con- 
gregations. He  sent  to  all  of  the  priests  instructions  to  prepare  and  forward 
at  the  end  of  the  year  a  census  of  their  congregations.  The  first  census  of  the 
Catholic  church  in  St.  Louis  showed  8,601  souls,  293  baptisms,  100  marriages. 
97   funerals.   54  converts.    Notable  is  the   column   of   converts   in   these  annual 


BISHOP   P.  J.   RYAN 


ARCHBISHOP  KEXRICK 


BISHOP  L.   W.   V.   DUBOURG 


BISHOP  JOSEPH  ROSATI 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  971 

census  reports  of  Bishop  Rosati.      There  went  on  among  the  residents  of  St. 
Louis  year  after  year  the  conversion  of  non-CathoHcs  to  Catholicism. 

Conditions  in  1830. 

James  Stuart,  a  Scotchman,  who  visited  St.  Louis  in  1830,  and  who  wrote 
a  booiv  after  his  return  to  his  own  country,  said  of  the  rehgious  conditions  at 
that  time : 

I  attended  divine  worship  in  the  Presbyterian  church  on  the  day  I  reached  St.  Louis. 
Having  asked  the  landlord  of  the  inn  which  was  the  best  church  to  go  to,  he  at  once  replied, 
"I  go  to  no  church  but  the  Presbyterian  minister  is  the  rage."  The  Presbyterian  minister, 
Mr.  Potts,  delivered  a  very  good  sermon  upon  this  text,  "The  sting  of  sin  is  death,"  in  a  very 
neatly  seated  church  in  the  upper  part  of  the  town.  It  was  a  funeral  sermon,  in  consequence 
of  the  death  of  Mr.  Woods,  an  English  gentleman  from  London,  one  of  the  elders  or  dea- 
cons of  the  church.  In  the  afternoon  I  went  into  the  meeting-house  of  people  of  color. 
They  had  one  of  themselves  preaching  sensibly,  though  it  appeared  he  was  not  a  man  of 
much  education.  The  sermon  was,  in  great  measure,  composed  of  scriptural  quotations, 
and  was  delivered  impressively;  but  there  was  far  less  manifestation  of  excitement  than 
in  a  church  of  people  of  color,  which  I  afterward  attended  in  New  York. 

The  Coming'  of  Kenrick. 

In  1840  Bishop  Rosati  went  to  Rome,  expecting  to  return  shortly.  He  was 
asked  by  the  Holy  Father,  Pope  Gregory  XVI.,  if  he  would  not  take  the  charge 
of  Apostolic  Delegate  to  Hayti  to  conclude  a  concordat  between  the  Holy  See 
and  that  country. 

Bishop  Rosati  replied  that  he  would  not  like  to  leave  his  diocese  without 
the  services  of  a  bishop  for  so  long  a  time,  but  that  if  His  Holiness  would  give 
him  a  coadjutor  to  govern  during  the  absence  he  would  undertake  the  Haytian 
charge. 

Thereupon  the  Pope  said:  "Well!  My  dear  Lord,  if  you  know  any  good 
priest  whom  you  would  wish  for  your  coadjutor,  just  name  him,  and  I  will 
appoint  him  right  away." 

"Most  Holy  Father,"  said  Bishop  Rosati,  "if  I  could  get  the  Very  Reverend 
Peter  Richard  Kenrick,  the  vicar  general  of  the  Right  Reverend  Francis  Patrick 
Kenrick,  coadjutor  of  the  bishop  of  Philadelphia,  I  would  be  satisfied." 

"Very  well,"  said  His  Holiness,  "you  shall  have  him." 

One  less  thorough  going  in  his  mental  method  than  Bishop  Rosati  would 
perhaps  have  stopped  with  that.  But  the  bishop  of  St.  Louis  was  a  man  who 
left  nothing  uncertain.  He  said  to  the  Pope :  "Your  Holiness !  You  had  the 
kindness  some  time  ago  to  appoint  the  Very  Reverend  John  Timon,  C.  M.,  as 
my  coadjutor,  but  he  refused  the  office,  and  if  Very  Reverend  Peter  Richard 
Kenrick  would  do  the  same  thing,  I  would  be  frustrated,  therefore  I  beg  of  you 
to  oblige  him  under  obedience  to  take  the  office." 

That  the  Pope  acted  on  the  suggestion  was  evident  from  a  letter  which 
Right  Reverend  Francis  Patrick  Kenrick  wrote  from  Philadelphia  to  Bishop 
Rosati.  "The  positive  wishes  of  His  Holiness  have,  I  believe,  secured  my 
brother's   full  acquiescence." 

Right  Reverend  Peter  Richard  Kenrick  was  consecrated  bishop  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1841  by  Bishop  Rosati  and  came  to  St.  Louis  as  coadjutor.    Bishop 


972  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Rosati  went  to  Hayti,  completed  the  diplomatic  work,  for  which  he  was  sent, 
with  his  usual  painstaking  care,  went  to  Rome,  was  taken  ill  and  died. 

Many  years  afterward,  when  he  had  become  the  head  of  the  church,  Leo 
XIII.  said  to  a  high  representative  of  the  Catholic  church  in  St.  Louis: 

I  have  known  the  first  bishop  of  St.  Louis.  I  traveled  with  him  from  Rome  to  Paris. 
When  he  was  on  his  way  to  Hayti  to  conclude  the  concordat,  I  was  on  my  way  to  Brussels 
as  nuncio.  I  must  say  that  I  have  never  in  my  life  met  with  a  bishop  whom  I  considered 
such  a  holy  man  and  whom  I  found  so  full  of  respect  towards  the  Holy  Father. 

Three  of  the  greatest  of  American  sees  have  drawn  archbishops  from  the 
clergy  of  St.  Louis.  At  the  X'atican  they  sometimes  speak  of  St.  Louis  as  "the 
Rome  of  America."  Not  less  to  priests  than  to  bishops  and  archbishops  does 
the  city  owe.  Priests  like  Henry.  McCaffery,  Walsh  stood  for  education  and 
for  morality  in  great  sections  of  the  city  as  well  as  for  religious  teaching.  The 
crusade  of  ColTey  against  the  wine-room  was  an  act  of  best  citizenship.  Zieg- 
ler's  sturdy  and  imyielding  battle  to  save  his  parish  from  invasion  by  the  red 
light  won  the  admiration  of  all  good  people.  When  the  high  prelates  came 
from  other  cities  and  countries  to  attend  the  corner  stone  laying  of  the  new 
cathedral  in  1908,  they  marveled  at  the  work  of  Father  Dunne  among  newsboys 
and  of   Father  Dempsey  among  homeless  men. 

Baptist  Church  Building. 

The  Second  Baptist  church  became  that  number  because  the  First  Baptist 
church,  after  a  struggle  of  fourteen  years,  disbanded.  The  first  church  organ- 
ized in  1818,  but  assumed  a  financial  burden  too  heavy  for  the  membership. 
•When  John  Mason  Peck,  from  Connecticut,  and  James  Eby  Welch,  from  Ken- 
tucky, the  missionaries,  came  to  St.  Louis  in  1817,  they  could  find  only  seven 
Baptists.  They  organized  a  church  with  eleven  members.  That  year  1818, 
this  little  Bapti.st  flock  began  to  build  the  first  Protestant  church  in  St.  Louis, 
at  Market  and  Third  streets,  about  two  blocks  from  the  Catholic  church,  now 
the  old  Cathedral.  The  Baptists  planned  a  building  which  should  serve  for 
worship,  and  bring  in  revenue.  They  called  it  a  meeting  house.  The  structure 
was  of  brick,  was  forty  feet  wide,  sixty  feet  long  and  three  stories  high.  It 
was  never  fully  completed.  About  $6,000  was  expended.  Mr.  Welch,  the 
missionary,  advanced  $1,200  and  John  Jacoby,  the  treasurer,  $600.  St.  Louis 
became  a  city,  and  widened  Market  street,  cutting  a  slice  of  twelve  feet  ofi  the 
side  of  the  church.  The  Baptists  claimed  damages.  The  city  replied  that  a 
church  was  not  known  in  law,  and  that  church  trustees  could  not  recover 
damages.  About  that  time  a  hail  storm  broke  all  of  the  windows  on  the  north 
side.  The  mayor  wouldn't  permit  repairs  because  that  side  of  the  church  had 
been  condemned  as  public  property.  The  church  was  sold  for  $1,200,  and  the 
money  was  divided  between  Rev.  Mr.  Welch  and  the  widow  of  Trustee  Jacoby. 
The  first  church  disbanded,  and  the  members  went  into  a  new  organization, 
which  they  called  "the  Second  Baptist  church  of  St.  Louis,"  frankly  saying  that 
they  wanted  to  make  a  fresh  start  without  carrying  the  debts  of  the  other 
organization. 

In  the  Second  Baptist  church  of  1833  were  represented  the  Cozzens,  Stout, 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  973 

Orme.  Kerr  and  other  prominent  families  of  St.  Louis.  The  new  organization 
proceeded  slowly  in  the  matter  of  another  church  structure.  Meetings  were  held 
in  the  school  house  of  Elihu  H.  Shepard  on  Fourth  street  opposite  the  court 
house.  A  lot  on  Morgan  and  Sixth  was  bought,  but  sold  after  a  foundation  had 
been  laid.  The  Episcopal  church  on  Third  and  Chestnut  was  for  sale  at  $12,000. 
and  the  Baptists  bought  it.  As  early  as  1839  the  choir  of  the  Second  Baptist 
church  had  become  so  well  known  that  it  ventured  upon  "a  grand  sacred  con- 
cert." The  church  had  many  pastors,  Rev.  John  Mason  Peck  came  over  from 
his  seminary  at  Rock  Spring  to  preach  during  several  periods.  The  congrega- 
tion overflowed  the  edifice  on  Third  street  and  built  a  $40,000  church  at  Sixth 
and  Locust.  An  incident  which  was  the  talk  of  the  whole  city  was  the  baptism 
of  sixteen  Hollanders  by  Dr.  Peck,  in  1849.  These  Hollanders  had  been  Presby- 
terians. Foreign  immigration  to  St.  Louis  was  at  its  height  when  the  Baptists 
received  the  Hollanders.  J.  B.  Jeter,  Galusha  Anderson  and  A.  H.  Burlingham 
were  among  the  divines  of  national  reputation  who  held  the  pastorate  of  this 
church.  In  1877  came  to  the  Second  Baptist  church  a  pastor  who  wa.=  to  re- 
main and  to  enter  into  the  life  of  the  city — Rev.  W.  W.  Boyd.  A  New  Yorker 
by  birth,  he  had  gone  into  business  life  as  superintendent  of  a  cotton  manufac- 
turing plant  in  Maine.  To  do  something  for  his  operatives  on  Sunday,  Superin- 
tendent Boyd  reopened  a  little  abandoned  Baptist  church  in  the  village,  carried 
on  a  Sunday  school  for  the  children  and  read  Spurgeon's  sermons  to  the  grown- 
ups. The  effect  upon  the  superintendent  was  more  startling  than  upon  the  mill 
people.  Mr.  Boyd  began  to  preach,  went  to  Harvard  to  get  more  education, 
took  special  honors  in  philosophy,  studied  theology  and  was  ordained  to  the 
ministry.  Four  years  later  he  came  to  St.  Louis  to  enter  upon  a  pastorate  of 
nearly  one-third  of  a  century.  When  Dr.  Boyd  came  to  St.  Louis  the  Second 
Baptist  church  had  moved  westward  to  the  site  on  Beaumont  and  Locust  streets, 
selected  by  William  M.  McPherson,  E.  G.  Obear,  D.  B.  Gale,  Thomas  Pratt  and 
Nathan  Cole.  Only  the  chapel  had  been  completed.  Under  the  inspiration  of 
Dr.  Boyd's  eloquence,  the  main  structure  was  completed  at  a  cost  of  more  than 
$250,000.  That  remained  the  home  of  the  congregation  until  the  removal  to  the 
new  church  on  Kings  Highway  and  Washington  avenue  in  1908. 

Ministers  Who  Wrote  Books. 

John  Hogan  of  the  County  Cork  was  favored  with  so  few  educational  op- 
portunities that  when,  an  immigrant  boy,  he  went  to  work  for  a  shoemaker  in 
Baltimore  as  an  apprentice,  the  journeymen  in  the  office  taught  him  his  letters. 
Self  educated,  this  boy  became  a  Methodist  minister  of  reputation  through  the 
western  country.  He  published  a  book  called  "Thoughts  of  St.  Louis,"  which 
was  so  well  appreciated  by  the  business  interests  of  the  city  that  a  service  of 
silver  was  given  to  the  author  as  a  testimonial.  Subsequently  he  was  the  author 
of  a  "History  of  Methodism  in  the  West"  and  "The  Resources  of  Missouri." 
There  was  a  clearness  of  style  and  a  freshness  about  his  writings  which  made 
him  very  popular  with  readers  in  1850-1860.  The  Dollar  savings  institution,  on 
which  was  built  the  Exchange  bank,  was  presided  over  for  some  time  by  John 
Hogan.    In   1858  Mr.   Hogan  became,  by  appointment  of  President   Buchanan, 


974  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  postmaster  of  St.  Louis.     The  wife  of  John  Hogan  was  the  daughter  of 
Joseph  B.  Gamier  of  St.  Louis. 

In  the  decades  between  1840  and  i860,  one  of  the  most  popular  authors  with 
young  folks  was  the  Rev.  Cicero  Stephens  Hawks,  D.  D.,  bishop  of  Missouri. 
He  came  of  English  and  Irish  ancestors  and  was  born  at  Newbem,  North  Caro- 
lina. He  entered  the  ministry  after  a  university  education,  and  after  the  study 
of  law  in  New  York  city.  He  came  to  St.  Louis  in  1843  to  become  rector  of 
Christ  church,  and  the  next  year  was  elected  unanimously  as  bishop.  Possibly 
that  which  most  endeared  the  bishop  to  the  St.  Louis  people  of  his  generation 
was  his  heroic  conduct  during  the  Asiatic  cholera  epidemic.  When  others  left 
the  city  for  places  of  refuge  Bi.shop  Hawks  remained  and  devoted  himself  to  the 
care  and  consolation  of  the  sick.  His  writings  included  several  volumes  of  a 
series  called  "Uncle  Phelps  Conversations  for  the  Young."  He  also  wrote 
"Friday  Christian."  He  was  the  editor  of  "The  Boys'  and  Girls'  Library,"  and 
of  the  "Library  for  Our  Young  Country  Women."  Two  brothers  of  the  bishop 
became  very  prominent  ministers  in  the  Episcopal  church,  one  of  them  in  New 
York  city,  the  other  in  Georgia. 

Rev.  Dr.  D.  R.  McAnally  came  from  Tennessee.  He  had  preached  in  the 
South  and  had  conducted  a  seminary  a  number  of  years  before  he  came  to  St. 
Louis  to  be  editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  and  to  conduct  the  Metho- 
dist publishing  house.  Organizing  a  Methodist  church  in  Carondelet,  Dr.  Mc- 
Anally preached  there  seventeen  years.  No  appointment  was  made  by  the 
conference,  the  church  being  left  "to  be  supplied."  In  that  way  the  rule  of 
itineracy  was  avoided.  There  was  a  militant  strain  in  Dr.  McAnally.  The  editor 
sympathized  with  the  South.  He  was  arrested  early  in  the  Civil  war  and  his 
paper  was  suppressed.  In  July,  1861,  he  was  tried  by  court  martial,  but  the 
verdict  was  never  returned  from  Washington.  The  good  doctor  was  put  on 
parole,  forbidden  to  leave  St.  Louis  county.  As  a  vigorous  writer  he  was 
known  and  greatly  admired  by  two  generations  of  St.  Louis  Methodists.  The 
office  of  the  Christian  Advocate  was  on  Pine  street  next  to  the  church.  Dr. 
McAnally  was  the  son  of  Charles  McAnally,  a  Methodist  minister.  He  began 
his  life  work  in  the  pulpit  when  he  was  nineteen  years  old.  The  Methodist  Book 
Concern  of  St.  Louis  was  started  with  a  capital  of  $1,800.  Dr.  McAnally  built 
up  the  establishment  until  the  books  issued  were  in  the  hundreds  of  thousands. 
The  business  was  equal  to  some  of  the  larger  establishments  in  the  East. 

Religious  journalism  in  the  west  owed  a  great  deal  to  Rev.  John  W.  Allen, 
of  Ohio  birth,  who  came  to  St.  Louis  in  1873.  Mr.  Allen  founded  the  St.  Louis 
Evangelist,  which  became  the  Mid-Continent.  He  was  in  charge  of  the  missionary 
work  of  the  Presbyterians  many  years. 

John  Calvin  Learned,  a  scholarly  man,  a  student  all  of  his  life,  served  the 
Church  of  the  Unity  a  quarter  of  a  century.  He  was  bom  in  Dublin,  New 
Hampshire.  His  influence  was  not  confined  to  the  pulpit.  He  taught  ethics 
and  political  economy  in  Washington  University  and  developed  one  of  the 
strong  literary  organizations  of  St.  Louis — the  Unity  Oub. 

Rev.  Dr.  James  Wilderman  Lee  was  bom  on  a  Georgia  farm  and  educated 
in  a  Methodist  college  of  his  native  state.  His  "Footprints  of  the  Man  of 
Galilee"  and  his  "Romance  of  Palestine"  gave  him  high  standing  in  religious 
literature. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  975 

A  native  Missourian  who  became  famous  for  his  success  as  an  evangelist  of 
the  Christian  church  was  Rev.  Thomas  Preston  Haley,  born  in  Lafayette  county 
in  1832.  Some  of  the  strongest  churches  of  that  denomination  in  Missouri  date 
from  the  initial  efforts  of  Father  Haley.  This  is  especially  true  of  Northeastern 
Missouri  where  Mr.  Haley  was  the  missionary  pastor  in  the  fifties.  Mr.  Haley 
held  pastorates  in  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City,  in  Lexington,  Mo.,  in  Louisville. 
He  traveled  and  preached  in  the  cities  of  England.  He  wrote  several  books, 
chief  of  which  was  "The  Dawn  of  the  Reformation."  He  was  a  pioneer  in  the 
movement  to  get  away  from  ritual  forms  and  ceremonies. 

Robert  B.  Fife,  who  was  not  a  preacher  but  a  student  of  the  Bible  and  a 
religious  man  with  a  short  and  simple  creed,  brought  together  in  Shepard's  school 
opposite  the  court  house,  in  1837,  a  few  people  and  started  services  for  Chris- 
tians. The  meetings  did  not  become  regular  until  five  years  later.  These  Chris- 
tians or  Disciples  of  Christ  grew  strong  in  St.  Louis.  They  formed  a  dozen 
churches,  established  an  orphans'  home  and  built  up  a  vigorous  publishing 
concern. 

Chiirch  Architecture  Before  the  War. 

St.  Louis  churches  kept  pace  with  the  population,  rapid  as  the  growth  was 
before  the  war.  In  1830  the  average  number  of  residents,  young  and  old,  to  the 
churches  was  2,000.  In  1854  there  were  sixty-five  churches.  The  population 
was  estimated  to  average  1,900  to  the  church,  although  the  government  census 
did  not  give  that  number  of  residents.  The  city  was  famed  not  only  for  the 
congregations  but  for  the  costly  character  of  the  church  architecture.  Business 
men  responded  with  great  liberality  to  all  church  calls.  When  Rev.  Dr.  William 
G.  Eliot  was  fairly  settled  in  his  church  he  went  among  the  members  of  his 
congregation  and  raised  $60,000  for  educational  purposes. 

The  church  architecture  of  St.  Louis,  before  the  Civil  war,  was  something 
of  which  the  city  could  boast.  The  church  of  the  Messiah,  Dr.  Eliot's,  on  Ninth 
and  Olive,  where  the  Century  building  stands,  cost  $100,000.  It  was  of  massive 
masonry.  Seventy  tons  of  iron  were  used  in  the  metallic  parts.  The  construction 
was  not  given  out  by  contract,  but  was  done  under  the  direction  of  a  committee. 
The  spire,  167  feet  high,  was  a  model  in  proportions.  The  church  itself  was 
considered  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  the  country. 

Union  Presbyterian  church  on  Locust  street  was  unlike  any  other  church 
edifice  in  St.  Louis.  Architects  of  that  period  called  it  the  "Lombardio  style." 
There  were  two  towers  at  the  corners,  one  was  104  feet,  the  other  160  feet  in 
height.  This  church  was  built  by  Henry  D.  Bacon,  the  banker.  It  cost  him 
$70,000.  The  finest  organ  in  the  west  was  installed.  When  the  building  was 
ready  for  dedication,  Mr.  Bacon  offered  to  deed  the  property  to  the  trustees 
for  $30,000,  making  his  contribution  $40,000.  The  offer  was  accepted.  The 
$30,000  was  subscribed  in  three  days.  The  Union  Presbyterian  church  was  or- 
ganized in  1850.  The  pastor  was  Rev.  William  Holmes,  who  became  an  edi- 
torial writer  on  the  Missouri  Democrat. 

Missionary  Activities  of  the  Catholics. 

The  missionary  activities  first  of  Bishop  Rosati  and  second  of  Archbishop 
Kenrick,  from  1830  to  i860,  are  part  of  the  history  of  St.  Louis.     See  after  see 


976  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

was  created  and  the  bishop  to  take  charge  was  consecrated  at  St.  Louis  for  the 
new  field.  Diocese  after  diocese  was  cut  off  from  what  had  been  the  original 
diocese  of  St.  Louis.  From  St.  Louis  priests  went  to  the  Indians  far  in  ad- 
vance of  settlement.  They  were  assigned  to  the  posts  of  the  fur  traders.  They 
camped  with  the  lead  miners.  They  traveled  through  the  West  finding  and  bind- 
ing anew  to  the  church  the  families  of  scattered  Catholics.  They  went  with  the 
armies  of  railroad  builders.  And  all  of  the  time  that  the  work  went  on  in  the 
field,  parish  after  parish  was  organized,  and  church  after  church  was  blessed 
in  the  growing  city  of  St.  Louis.  Rosati  was  a  man  of  unlimited  capacity  for 
detail.  Kenrich  was  as  methodical  as  a  clock.  He  had  time  for  everything. 
Year  in  and  year  out  he  walked  westward  from  the  archbishop's  house,  taking 
his  exercise  so  regularly  that  people  on  the  route  had  a  saying  that  it  was  safe 
to  set  the  family  clock  by  the  archbishop's  daily  constitutional. 

Italy  and  France  had  been  represented  in  the  bishop  resident  at  St.  Louis. 
Right  Reverend  Peter  Richard  Kenrick,  who  arrived  in  the  winter  of  1841-2, 
was  of  Dublin  birth  and  education.  In  Maynooth  Seminary  he  went  through 
his  higher  studies.  He  was  only  thirty-six  years  old  when  he  came  to  St.  Louis 
as  Bishop  Kenrick.  One  year  lie  had  given  to  the  priesthood  in  his  native  Dub- 
lin, and  nine  years  he  had  passed  in  Philadelphia  as  president  of  the  seminary, 
rector  of  the  cathedral  and  vicar  general  to  his  brother,  Bishop  Francis  Patrick 
Kenrick. 

The  year  after  his  arrival  Bishop  Kenrick  established  and  opened  three 
parish  churches  in  St.  Louis.  These  were  St.  Francis  Xavier's,  St.  Mary's  and 
St.  Aloysius.  That  year  Chicago  was  made  a  see  with  Illinois  for  the  diocese 
and  at  the  same  time  Little  Rock  became  a  see.  In  1845  Bishop  Kenrick  opened 
three  more  parish  churches  in  St.  Louis.  These  were  St.  Patrick's,  St.  Joseph's 
and  St.  Vincent's. 

In  July.  1847,  by  papal  bull  the  diocese  of  St.  Louis  became  an  archdiocese, 
and  Bishop  Kenrick  was  appointed  Archbishop  of  St.  Louis.  The  spread  of 
the  Catholic  church,  under  the  management  of  the  head  at  St.  Louis,  justified  the 
recognition.  The  census  of  that  year  showed  50,000  souls,  notwithstanding  the 
dioceses  of  Illinois  and  Arkansas  had  been  created  out  of  the  diocese  of  St. 
Louis.  The  missions  and  stations  of  that  year  were  forty-two.  In  1848  Pius 
IX.  decreed  that  Archbishop  Kenrick  should  be  invested  with  the  pallium.  The 
ceremony  was  performed  at  Philadelphia  by  the  elder  brother,  the  archbishop  of 
Philadelphia,  who  just  fifteen  years  previously  had  sent  to  Dublin  the  money 
to  pav  the  passage  of  the  younger  to  this  country. 

The  Prayer  Book  Church. 

"The  Prayer  Book  Church"  was  the  historical  theme  of  Rev.  Dr.  David 
Claiborne  Garrett  at  St.  Peter's  Episcopal  church  on  Centennial  Sunday,  in  1909. 
For  that  occasion  the  processional  hymn,  most  appropriately  chosen  by  Charles 
Galloway,  was  "Ancient  of  Days."    Dr.  Garrett  said : 

"The  first  public  service  in  St.  Louis  by  a  priest  of  the  prayer-book  church,  and  as  far 
as  known  west  of  the  Mississippi  river,  was  on  October  14,  1819.  The  beginning  of  the 
work  of  the  church  west  of  the  great  river  was  in  a  little  one-story  frame  building  on  the 
corner  of   Second   and  Walnut  streets.     Rev.  John  Ward,   from   Lexington,   Ky.,  was  the 


BISHOP    C.    F.    ROBERTSON 
Episcopal 


BISHOP   CICERO   STEPHEN    HAWKS 
Episcopal 


CHRIST  CHURCH  IN  1840 

Located  on  Broadway  and  Chestnut  Streets,  now  the  site  of  a  hotel.     The  Centennial  of  this, 

the  first  Episcopal  or   Prayer  Book  Church   in   Missouri,   celebrated   in   1919 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  979 

missionary.  Only  two  persons,  and  tliey  men,  were  ready,  with  prayer  books  in  hand,  to 
respond.  From  that  small  start  a  parish  was  organized  November  ist,  All  Saints'  Day, 
following. 

"The  standing  of  this  church  in  the  city  from  the  very  beginning,  its  influence  in  the 
social,  political  and  commercial  world,  is  illustrated  by  the  remarkable  fact  that  among  the 
signers  of  the  articles  of  association  for  our  first  parish  were  the  first  United  States  senator, 
who  represented  Missouri  for  thirty  years;  the  first  governor  of  this  state,  the  first  mayor 
of  the  city,  the  surveyor-general,  judges  of  the  supreme  court  and  a  time-honored  judge  of 
the  probate  court.    Thus,  in  the  earliest  days,  the  church  and  the  city  were  closely  associated. 

"Mr.  Ward's  rectorship  was  brief,  through  no  fault  of  his  own  or  of  the  parish;  he 
was  obliged  to  return  to  Kentucky.  For  a  number  of  years  services  were  held,  but  the 
coming  of  a  Virginia  clergyman.  Rev.  Mr.  Horrell,  in  the  fall  of  1825,  gave  a  new  impetus 
to  the  languishing  work.  We  owe  a  debt  to  the  Methodists  and  Baptists  for  the  use  of 
their  places  of  worship  for  short  periods,  showing  that  Christian  unity  is  not  as  some  seem 
to  think  a  thing  of  the  present  days.  A  lot  was  bought  on  the  corner  of  Third  and  Chestnut 
streets,  and  the  new  church  was  finished  in  1829.  It  cost  $7,000,  all  of  which  but  $1,100 
was  paid,  Mr.  Clemens  contributing  $1,300. 

"Another  devoted  missionary  of  those  first  days  was  Rev.  William  Chadderton,  from 
Philadelphia,  who  came  in  1832,  and  put  new  life  into  the  work  so  well  begun  by  Mr.  Horrell. 
On  May  25,  1834,  the  church,  finished  five  years  before,  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Smith, 
of  Kentucky,  who  at  the  same  time  confirmed  a  class  of  twenty-six.  This  was  the  first 
church  consecration  and  first  confirmation  west  of  the  big  river  and  north  of  Louisiana. 
Mr.  Chadderton  resigned  in  1835,  through  some  false  modesty  in  regard  to  his  own  inability 
to  do  the  work  needed.  Bishop  Smith  praises  him  highly,  and  speaks  of  the  'marvelous 
refinement  and  delicacy  of  his  nature.' 

"The  great  forward  movement  of  the  church  in  the  city  and  throughout  the  whole 
Middle  West,  radiating  from  St.  Louis  as  the  center,  began  in  the  memorable  year  of  1836. 
That  was  the  year  that  marked  a  wonderful  change  all  over  the  new  West.  Prosperity  set 
in  with  full  swing.  Pioneers  and  settlers  poured  in  by  the  thousands,  scattering  all  along 
the  river  northward.  It  was  fortunate  for  the  church  that  at  last  the  East  had  awakened 
to  a  realization  of  its  missionary  duty  and  opportunity.  And  it  was  more  fortunate  that 
the  first  missionary  bishop  of  the  great  Northwest  should  have  been  the  saintly  and  schol- 
arly and  hard-working  Jackson  Kemper,  another  Philadelphian.  Christ  Church  parish  elected 
the  newly  consecrated  bishop  its  rector,  promising  an  assistant. 

"A  new  lot  was  bought  at  Fifth  and  Chestnut;  the  old  church  was  sold  to  the  Baptists, 
reversing  the  order  at  the  beginning,  when  we  were  glad  to  borrow  a  building  from  our 
Baptist  brethren.  A  new  church  was  begun.  Services  were  held  in  the  basement.  Bishop 
Kemper  did  a  grand  work.  The  church  was  consecrated  February  17,  1839.  A  further 
evidence  of  the  good-fellowship  among  Christians  of  all  names,  and  an  interesting  incident 
which  doubtless  is  gratefully  remembered  today  by  our  Lutheran  friends,  is  the  story  of 
how  Bishop  and  Rector  Kemper  appealed  to  his  vestry  to  permit  the  Lutherans  to  occupy 
the  basement  of  the  new  church,  reminding  our  own  people  of  'how  highly  esteemed  the 
early  Lutherans  were  by  the  English  reformers,  and  with  whom  our  glorious  martyrs, 
Cranmer  and  Ridley,  and  others,  had  much  early  intercourse.'  In  the  record  of  the  second 
confirmation  in  the  city  we  find  the  name  of  one  whose  memory  should  be  honored  today 
for  his  long  and  faithful  services  to  mother  church.  Rev.  J.  P.  T.  Ingraham. 

"In  connection  with  the  coming  of  Bishop  Kemper,  your  rector  feels  a  personal  interest 
and  may  perhaps  be  permitted  a  personal  expression  of  gratitude,  for  what  he  owes  to  the 
churcli  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis.  In  March,  1836,  on  the  first  trip  of  the  steamboat  Olive 
Branch  up  the  opened  river,  Bishop  Kemper  started  on  his  first  missionary  journey,  and 
his  first  converts  to  the  church  were  a  young  Virginia  lawyer  and  his  wife,  going  with 
their  two  children  to  what  was  then  Flint  Hills,  Michigan  Territory,  now  Burlington,  Iowa. 
That  Virginian  was  my  grandfather,  and  the  little  three-year-old  daughter  my  mother.  The 
prayer  book  which  the  bishop  gave  to  my  grandmother  was  the  efficient  cause  of  the  con- 
firmation of  both  husband  and  wife  and  the  baptism  of  the  children  at  the  first  visit  of 
the  bishop.  It  may  be  said  to  be  the  final  cause,  under  God's  providence,  of  my  being  here 
today  a  clergyman  of  the  old  church,  a  rector  of  a  parish  which  was  a  missionary  offshoot 


980  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

of  Bishop  Kemper's  parish.     I  hold  that  prayer  book  in  my  hand,  and  I  sliall  say  our  final 
prayer  today  from  its  pages. 

"Our  own  beloved  parish  of  St.  Peter's  may  not  claim  an  ancient  history ;  it  is  com- 
paratively young,  but  of  all  the  parishes  of  the  city  growing  out  of  mission  movements  it 
stands  today  the  strongest  in  service  and  influence.  It  began  as  a  mission  of  Christ  Church 
in  February,  1868,  the  grand  old  priest  and  prophet.  Dr.  Schuyler,  giving  to  it  his  help  and 
blessing.  On  October  27,  1872,  it  was  organized  into  a  pari.ih.  If  we  call  the  roll  of  rectors 
we  find  only  five,  including  the  incumbent,  a  record  which  reflects  credit  on  both  parish 
and  priest.  We  find  Berkeley,  the  first  rector,  who  left  the  parish  free  from  all  debt  after 
eleven  years  of  service;  Bishop  Brooke,  whose  short  ministry  was  terminated  by  his  eleva- 
tion to  the  episcopate ;  then  William  -Short,  D.  D.,  whose  rectorship  was  the  longest  of  all 
and  crowned  the  work  of  his  predecessors  by  the  erection  of  the  noble  buildings  we  use 
and  enjoy  today." 

Montgomery  Schuyler's  Versatile  Career. 

Forty-two  year.s  Montgomery  Scliuyk-r  was  a  well-doing  citizen  of  St.  Louis 
as  well  as  a  conspicuous,  constructive  clergyman.  He  was  ])reeminently  one  of 
the  St.  Louis  clergymen  whose  activities  were  not  limited  to  their  churches. 
His  influence  was  marked  upon  public  morals  and  upon  public  spirit.  The  list 
of  good  works  of  these  men  is  long  and  varied.'  No  history  of  the  city  could 
omit  some  mention  of  the  profession  in  its  relation  to  the  better  development  of 
St.  Louis,  apart  from  the  growth  of  the  church.  When  Montgomery  Schuyler 
died  the  diocese  recorded  that  he  was  "a  typical  priest  of  the  church  and  a  faithful 
luember  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ."  Giving  up  the  practice  of  law  because 
he  had  acquitted  a  man  he  felt  sure  was  guilty  of  murder.  Montgoiuery  Schuyler 
speculated  in  a  Michigan  real  estate  boom ;  he  operated  a  saw  mill ;  he  interested 
himself  in  a  stage  line  between  Detroit  and  the  village  of  Chicago;  he  was  a  suc- 
cessful merchant.  None  of  these  occupations  brought  satisfaction.  Montgomery 
Schuyler  turned  to  the  Episcopal  priesthood  when  he  was  well  toward  thirty 
years  of  age.  The  supreme  test  of  this  man's  character  came  with  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  war.  Christ  church,  on  Fifth  and  Chestnut,  had  been  sold.  The  con- 
gregation was  worshiping  in  Mercantile  Library  hall.  Included  in  the  member- 
ship were  many,  perhaps  a  majority,  who  sympathized  with  the  South.  Of  the 
old  Schuyler  stock  of  New  York,  with  Revolutionary  traditions  of  the  family 
binding  him.  the  rector  was  a  Union  man.  When  the  hostilities  began  Dr. 
Schuyler  talked  of  resigning.  He  made  no  concealment  of  his  political  sentiments, 
although  he  preached  no  political  sermons.  His  southern  members  would  not 
listen  to  any  change  of  rectors.  Montgomery  Schuyler  stayed  on.  His  patriotism 
found  expression  in  association  with  Yeatman,  Eliot  and  the  rest  of  that  noble 
band  which  became  glorious  as  the  Western  Sanitary  commission.  The  rector  of 
Christ  church  was  made  chaplain  to  all  of  the  army  hospitals  at  St.  Louis. 
To  the  inherited  Dutch  courage  and  determination  which  yielded  nothing  of 
principle,  he  joined  a  wealth  of  sympathy,  ways  that  were  winning  and  gentleness 
of  manner.  It  was  Montgomery  Schuyler's  ambition  to  establish  a  downtown 
church.  Old  Trinity  of  New  York  was  his  ideal.  With  this  in  view  the  location 
at  Thirteenth  and  Locust  was  chosen.  It  was  part  of  his  life  plan  to  found  a 
mission  which  should  remain  in  the  business  section.  Montgomery  Schuyler  min- 
istered to  rich  and  poor.    His  monument  is  Schuvler  Memorial  house. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  981 

Some  Notable  Pastorates. 

A  pulpit  career  remarkable  for  length  and  steadfastness  was  the  period  of 
thirty-nine  years  through  which  James  H.  Brookes  preached.  This  career  began 
with  the  Second  Presbyterian  church  when  it  was  on  Broadway  and  Locust 
in  1855,  and  ended  in  the  Compton  avenue  church.  Year  after  year  Dr.  Brookes 
ministered  to  the  same  congregation  with  unfailing  vigor  and  freshness.  He 
preached  from  the  Bible,  of  which  he  was  a  devoted  student.  He  edited  for 
twenty-three  years  a  monthly  publication  called  "The  Truth,"  and  found  time  to 
write  half  a  dozen  books,  the  results  of  his  Bible  study. 

Notwithstanding  the  rule  of  the  Methodist  church  requiring  frequent  pulpit 
changes,  several  ministers  of  that  denomination  became  identified  with  St.  Louis 
by  long  residence  and  exercised  much  influence  upon  the  life  and  development 
of  the  city.  A  thorough  St.  Louisan  was  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Boyle,  born  in  Balti- 
more. He  came  to  this  city  in  1842  in  charge  of  the  First  Methodist  church. 
St.  Louis  was  practically  his  home  for  thirty  years,  until  his  death.  He  was  a 
delegate  to  the  general  conference  at  Louisville  in  1844  when  the  Methodists 
divided  into  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 
South.  Dr.  Boyle  labored  to  bring  about  reconciliation  of  the  wings.  The 
immediate  cause  of  the  division  was  the  proposition  advanced  that  Bishop 
Andrew  of  Georgia  be  asked  to  suspend  the  exercise  of  his  duties  so  long  as  a 
certain  impediment  existed.  The  impediment  was  the  fact  that  his  wife  owned 
slaves.  Dr.  Boyle  was  presiding  elder  of  the  St.  Louis  district  in  i860,  1868  and 
1869.     He~ preached  in  the  First  church  three  periods;  in  Centenary,  two. 

The  beginning  of  St.  George's  Episcopal  church  was  a  sermon  preached  by 
Rev.  Dr.  E.  Carter  Hutchinson  in  the  Benton  school  on  Sixth  street,  near  Locust. 
Among  the  most  entertaining  and  vigorous  of  St.  Louis  preachers  was  Dr. 
Hutchinson.  He  took  for  his  text  one  Sunday  morning:  "David  was  a  man 
after  God's  own  heart."  He  described  the  career  of  David,  his  duel  with  Goliath 
and  his  other  exploits  wholly  to  his  credit.  It  .seemed  as  if  the  eloquent  rector 
did  not  mean  to  refer  to  the  discreditable  event  in  his  hero's  career,  but  he  did. 
Just  before  the  close  of  the  sermon  the  preacher  said:  "In  the  matter  of  Uriah, 
the  Hittite,  David  must  stand  on  the  same  platform  wnth  other  sinners."  The 
Rev.  S.  S.  Gassaway.  while  rector  of  St.  George's,  was  killed  by  the  explosion  of 
a  boiler  on  the  Alton  packet,  Kate  Kearney,  just  as  the  boat  was  leaving  the  St. 
Louis  levee. 

"I  Died  at  My  Post." 

"Tell  my  brethren  of  the  Pittsburg  conference  that  I  died  at  my  post,"  was 
chiseled  in  the  stone  which  marked  a  grave  in  the  Wesleyan  cemetery  on  the  Olive 
street  road.  Three  times  the  stone  had  been  put  in  place.  It  quoted  the  dying 
message  of  Rev.  Thomas  Drummond,  an  Englishman,  who  came  to  St.  Louis 
to  take  charge  of  the  Methodist  church  on  Fourth  street  and  Washington  avenue. 
A  year  after  his  coming  Mr.  Drummond  faced  the  cholera  epidemic  of  1835. 
He  was  advised  to  leave  the  city,  but  refused  and  was  stricken.  From  his  death- 
bed he  sent  the  message  to  the  conference  with  which  he  had  been  first  asso- 
ciated  in   this   country.     His  body  has  been   buried   in  three  cemeteries,   being 


982  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

moved  as  the  city  grew.    From  Twenty-third  and  Franklin  avenue,  it  was  taken 
to  Grand  and  Laclede,  and  later  to  the  cemetery  on  Olive  street  road. 

Before  the  Civil  war,  a  popular  hymn  book  with  Missouri  Methodists  was 
called  "Select  Melodies,"  and  in  that  collection  one  of  the  favorite  hymns  was 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Hunter's  "He  Died  at  His  Post."  The  hymn  was  based  upon 
Thomas  Drummond's  farewell  message.    The  hymn  began: 

"Away  from  his  home  and  the  friends  of  his  youth. 
He  hastened,  the  herald  of  mercy  and  truth ; 
For  the  love  of  the  Lord,  and  to  seek  for  the  lost; 
Soon  alas !  was  his  fall — but  he  died  at  his  post." 

Each  of  the  five  stanzas  ended  with  Drummond's  message.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W. 
Cunningham,  a  Methodist  pioneer  in  Missouri,  said  that  was  the  first  hymn  and 
tune  he  learned  to  sing.  Afterwards  he  heard  it  under  such  impressive  circum- 
stances that  when  he  came  to  St.  Louis,  in  1870,  he  sought  the  burial  place  of 
Thomas  Drummond  and  found  it  near  the  corner  of  Laclede  and  Grand  avenue, 
in  the  old  Centenary  W^sleyan  cemetery  as  it  was  then  known.  The  body  had 
been  removed  from  its  first  resting  place  in  cholera  days,  at  Twenty-third  street 
and  Franklin  avenue.  When  the  Grand  avenue  cemetery  was  given  up,  the  remains 
of  Drummond  were  removed  to  the  third  grave  in  a  cemetery  on  the  Olive  street 
road  near  the  North  and  South  road,  in  St.  Louis  county.  One  summer  morning 
during  the  World's  fair,  Mr.  Cunningham  awoke  at  dawn  with  the  thought 
of  Drummond  in  his  mind.  He  got  up  and  without  waiting  for  breakfast  made 
his  way  out  into  the  country  on  a  pilgrimage  to  his  hero's  resting  place. 

"A  Chinese  grave  was  as  close  to  it  as  it  could  be  dug.  I  counted  many  other  Chinese 
graves  as  close  as  they  could  be  placed  on  the  south  side.  Handfulls  of  rice  had  been 
scattered  over  some  of  the  elevations  and  in  the  spaces  between.  There  were  shells  of 
exploded  firecrackers  and  bits  of  red  painted  and  partially  burnt  wood  lying  on  the  ground 
and  some  stuck  in  the  graves.  There  were  displayed  the  evidences  of  pagan  living  ones' 
remembrance  of  pagan  kindred  or  friends.  No  flower  or  other  evidence  of  affection  or 
remembrance  by  preacher,  man  or  woman  of  the  first  Methodist  preacher  that  died  west 
of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  among  his  last  remembered  words  said,  'I  died  at  my  post.' 
There  was  the  marble  headstone  with  such  an  accumulation  of  dirt  upon  it,  that  it  had  no 
appearance  of  what  it  really  was.  It  was  leaning  eastward  at  a  sharp  angle  and  so  far 
sunken  that  some  of  the  lettering  upon  it  could  not  be  seen.  I  returned  home  with  the 
desire  that  all  that  was  left  of  the  heroic  Thomas  Drummond  should  be  removed  to 
Centenary  church  and  deposited  there  as  might  be  determined.  I  thought  of  Centenary 
church  because  she  had  long  been  the  custodian  of  all  that  remained  of  the  three  times 
buried  martyr  to  duty.  I  called  the  attention  of  the  Centenary  pastor  and  of  the  preachers' 
meeting  in  that  church  building.  The  work  has  been  done.  The  little  that  has  been  left 
of  the  buried  mortality  weighed  but  a  few  pounds  and  rests  in  a  niche  in  one  of  the  walls 
of  Centenary  church,  and  the  marble  slab  has  been  renewed  and  beautified  by  the  graver's 
tools,  to  be  seen  and  read  by  all  who  visit  the  hall  where  it  abides  against  the  wall." 

Dr.  BiUlard's  Church. 

When  Rev.  Artemas  Bullard  came  to  St.  I-ouis  to  be  pastor  of  the  First 
Presbj'terian  church  in  1838  he  thought  the  place  of  worship  was  too  far  from 
the  center  of  the  city.  The  location  was  near  Fourth  street  and  Washington 
avenue,  but  most  of  the  worshipers  lived  east  or  south  of  the  church.  When 
the  new  church  was  built.  Dr.   Bullard   found  conditions  so  changed  that  he 


FIRST   PEESBYTERIAN   CHURCH,   FOXIE- 
TEENTH   AND   LtTCAS   PLACE,   BE- 
FORE THE  CIVIL  WAR 


Courtesy    Missouri    UL,Ujin:;ii    .SuL-ietj- 

Rev.    William    Potts,    Presbyterian  Rev.   Arteinas   Bulla  rd,   Presbyterian 

EMINENT  MISSOURI  PREACHERS  BEFORE  THE  CIVIL  WAR 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  985 

advised  a  location  at  Fourteenth  street  and  Lucas  place.  There  was  much 
opposition  to  the  new  site,  many  members  claiming  that  this  was  a  removal  too 
far  to  the  west.  In  its  day  the  First  Presbyterian  church,  on  Fourteenth  street 
and  Lucas  place,  was  regarded  as  having  a  very  handsome  exterior,  and  it  was 
commented  upon  favorably  by  many  travelers.  At  that  time  there  were  few 
buildings  in  the  vicinity  and  the  church  edifice  stood  out  bold  and  strong  in  all 
of  its  architectural  impressiveness.  The  First  Presbyterian  church  regarded 
as  colonies  or  offshoots,  the  Second  Presbyterian  church,  and  the  Third  Pres- 
byterian church  and  the  Pine  street  church,  with  which  became  identified  for 
many  years  Dr.  Niccolls,  Dr.  Post,  Dr.  Brookes  and  Dr.  Rutherford. 

The  First  Presbyterian  church,  the  most  costly  up  to  that  time,  was  com- 
pleted about  the  middle  of  the  decade,  1850-1860.  It  was  commonly  called  "Dr. 
Bullard's  church."  long  after  the  beloved  pastor  met  his  death  in  the  Gasconade 
disaster.  Competition  in  church  architecture,  in  those  days,  ran  somewhat  to 
spires.  The  First  church  had  "the  tallest  steeple  in  St.  Louis" — 225  feet.  When 
the  western  city  limits  were  extended  from  Seventh  to  Eighteenth  street,  in 
1841,  there  was  strong  opposition.  The  argument  was  that  the  population  did 
not  justify  the  enlargement;  that  streets  were  not  opened.  Thirteen  years  later, 
while  people  were  still  speaking  of  "the  new  limits,"  this,  most  costly  of  the 
churches,  was  built  almost  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  city. 

Centenary  Methodist  church  had  a  basement  story  wholly  above  ground.  It 
was  on  Fifth  and  Pine  streets,  the  southwest  corner.     Beside  it  was  a  parsonage. 

The  Unitarian  Pioneer. 

The  coming  of  William  Greenleaf  Eliot  was  of  far-reaching  influence  in  Mis- 
souri. It  meant  much  more  than  the  founding  of  the  First  Unitarian  church. 
From  an  old  note  book.  Henry  Ware  Eliot,  Jr.,  obtained  historical  material 
which  he  used  in  an  interesting  address  before  the  men's  club  of  that  church 
in  1916: 

"In  1834,  Christopher  Rhodes,  a  merchant  of  St.  Louis,  happened  to  make  a  trip  to 
Boston,  and  before  he  left  St.  Louis  he  was  asked  by  some  of  his  friends  to  look  around 
in  Boston  and  see  whether  it  was  possible  to  get  some  Unitarian  clergyman  to  come  out  to 
St.  Louis.  Mr.  Rhodes  inquired  of  the  general  secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian  asso- 
ciation in  Boston,  and  was  told  that,  purely  as  a  coincidence,  William  Greenleaf  Eliot,  Jr., 
then  just  graduated  from  the  Theological  College  of  Harvard  University,  had  already  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  going  out  west  and  was  looking  for  the  opportunity.  The  source  of  Mr. 
Eliot's  inspiration  was  partly  his  own  pioneer  spirit  and  partly  the  fact  that  his  intimate 
friend  at  Cambridge,  James  Freeman  Clarke,  had  taken  a  pulpit  in  Louisville.  Mr.  Rhodes 
forthwith  made  arrangements  for  Mr.  Eliot  to  come  out  to  St.  Louis  in  the  fall  of  that  year. 

"Mr.  Eliot  arrived  on  the  27th  of  November,  1834.  There  was  then  but  one  news- 
paper, a  semi-weekly,  published  in  St.  Louis,  and  as  the  next  issue  was  not  till  the  following 
Monday,  the  news  that  Mr.  Eliot  was  to  preach  on  Sunday  was  printed  on  handbills  and 
circulated  about  the  city.  The  first  meeting  was  held  in  a  schoolhouse  on  Fourth  street,  be- 
tween Pine  and  Chestnut.  There  were  several  disadvantages  about  this  schoolroom.  In  the 
first  place,  the  seats  were  arranged  so  that  the  audience  sat,  not  facing  the  minister,  but 
with  their  sides  toward  him.  In  the  second  place  the  associations  of  the  place  were  of  quite 
the  wrong  sort,  for  it  had  been  used  previously  largely  for  the  infidel  lectures  which  were 
conducted  by  a  Dr.  Prefontaine.  A  footnote  in  Dr.  Eliot's  own  record  of  the  church, 
in  pencil,  states  that  this  Dr.  Prefontaine  shortly  after  landed  in  jail  for  the  robbery  and 
murder  of  a  trader  from  Santa  Fe.  That  should  have  settled  definitely  the  status  of  the 
infidel  contingent  in  the  community. 


986  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

"A  good  many  of  the  disciples  of  this  Dr.  Prefontaine  attended  Dr.  Eliot's  church  in 
the  schoolroom  for  awhile  in  the  expectation  that  the  doctrine  of  unbelief  was  to  be 
enunciated  by  Dr.  Eliot  with  perhaps  more  fiery  intensity  than  it  had  been  by  his  prede- 
cessor. The  congregation,  therefore,  was  at  first  large.  Soon  being  disappointed,  how- 
ever, the  infidels  ceased  to  attend,  and  the  congregation  in  the  winter  dwindled  to  twenty- 
five,  and  on  some  days  to  not  more  than  eight  members. 

"In  Dr.  Eliot's  record  he  states  that  the  only  music  in  those  days  was  furnished  by 
several  German  gentlemen,  of  the  most  kindly  intentions,  but  slight  musical  knowledge. 
He  says  that  this  choir  was  quite  unfamiliar  with  the  tunes  used  in  the  Unitarian  church, 
and  that  when  they  sang  'Brattle  Street,'  they  did  so  'in  quick  time.' 

"In  January,  1835,  the  sixteen  most  faithful  members  of  the  congregation  banded 
themselves  into  a  society.  They  started  out  at  once  to  collect  funds  for  the  erection  of  a 
church  building.  After  three  months  of  labor,  they  had  collected  only  $1,000.  Mr.  Eliot 
then  went  east  as  the  emissary  of  the  society,  and  by  preaching  in  Boston,  Salem,  Provi- 
dence, Philadelphia  and  New  York,  he  raised  the  sum  of  $3,080.  With  the  money  they 
now  had,  they  bought  two  lots,  one  on  Fifth  and  Elm  streets,  and  one  on  Fourth  and  Pine. 
This  was  a  lucky  investment,  for  in  less  than  a  year  they  sold  the  lot  on  Fifth  and  Elm 
for  $5,500,  a  neat  profit  of  $3,500. 

"They  now  made  arrangements  to  build  on  Fourth  and  Pine,  which  is  the  site  now 
occupied  by  the  Mississippi  Valley  Trust  company.  The  entire  block  at  that  time  was 
vacant  ground ;  in  fact  the  open  country  began  at  Broadway.  A  spring  flowed  on  the  spot 
where  it  was  necessary  to  erect  one  of  the  walls  of  the  church,  and  to  avoid  the  expense  of 
driving  piling,  a  heavy  brick  arch  was  built  over  the  spring,  and  the  church  wall  was  erected 
on  top  of  the  arch.  When  the  Mississippi  Valley  Trust  company  was  built,  the  contractors 
found  this  arch  in  such  good  condition,  that  they  built  the  walls  of  the  trust  company 
right  on  top  of  it,  and  doubtless  the  spring  still  flows  under  that  building." 

In  Sig-ht  of  the  Slave  Market. 

.Speaking  of  the  locality,  Mr.  Eliot  suggested  that  from  the  front  of  the 
church  might  be  seen  the  slave  auctions  taking  place  at  the  east  front  of  the  court- 
house, a  block  south.  The  church  decided  to  start  a  Sunday  school.  "Six  teachers 
volunteered  but  there  were  no  children.  Finally,  however,  they  employed  a 
sexton,  a  Mr.  Owen,  who  happened  to  have  ten  children.  They  started  a  Sun- 
day school  with  these  ten  children.    As  a  nucleus,  this  family  was  a  great  success." 

Illustrating  further  the  conditions  of  that  period,  he  said  that  when,  about 
1840.  Mr.  Eliot  built  a  frame  house  on  Eighth  street  between  Olive  and  Locust, 
"his  parishioners  reproached  him  for  having  moved  so  far  west." 

"Beyond  Eighth  street  there  were  thick  woods  and  few  farm  houses.  Chouteau's 
Pond  covered  all  of  that  part  of  the  city  included  between  Clark  on  the  north,  Eighth  on 
the  east,  Gratiot  on  the  south  and  Vandeventer  on  the  west.  Chouteau's  Pond  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  shanties  of  the  very  poor  and  by  slaughter  houses,  which  dumped  their 
refuse  into  the  pond,  so  that  the  pond  was,  though  the  people  did  not  realize  it,  a  serious 
menace  to  health.  St.  Louis  had  no  sewer  system,  and  no  water  system.  Drinking  and 
washing  water  were  obtained  chiefly  from  cisterns  and  wells.  After  the  great  cholera 
year,  in  1849,  Chouteau's  Pond  was  drained  and  a  sewer  system  started.  Water  for 
household  use  was  pumped  from  the  river  in  its  natural  state,  and,  though,  of  a  rich 
chocolate  color,  it  was  fairly  good  after  it  had  been  allowed  to  stand  over  night." 

Congregationalism  in  Missouri. 

In  a  inost  notable  address,  delivered  in  December,  1877,  Rev.  Dr.  Truman 
M.  "Post  told  of  the  beginning  of  Congregationalism  in  Missouri.  At  the  time 
of  his  coining  to  St.  Louis,  Dr.  Post  was  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  Illinois 
College  at  Jacksonville : 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  987 

"I  had  been  repeatedly  solicited  to  come  to  this  city,  with  the  proffer  of  a  salary  ade- 
quate to  my  financial  relief,  but  I  was  attached  to  the  college  and  was  unwilling  to  live 
with  slavery.  At  length  a  special  delegate  from  the  Third  Presbyterian  church,  Dr. 
Reuben  Knox,  visited  me,  coming  some  loo  miles  by  stage  to  urge  the  application.  To  his 
inquiry  if  the  difficulty  was  slavery,  I  told  him  it  was.  I  was  unwilling  to  lay  my  bones 
in  a  slave  state  or  to  commit  my  family  to  its  destinies.  His  reply  was,  'Come  down  and 
help  us  remove  it.'  At  length  after  repeated  calls  and  pleadings,  in  reply  to  a  letter  urg- 
ing their  case  anew,  I  replied  that  I  would  come  for  four  years,  but  was  unwilling  to 
commit  myself  for  a  longer  withdrawal  from  the  college,  and  that  I  would  come  only 
on  condition  that  my  letter  of  acceptance  should  be  publicly  read, — -not  before  the  elders 
only,  but  publicly  before  the  church,  and  that,  after  hearing  my  letter,  the  church  should 
re-vote  my  call.  In  that  letter  I  stated  that  I  regarded  holding  human  beings  as  property 
as  a  violation  of  the  first  principles  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  that  while  I  did  not 
require  of  the  church  that  they  should  adopt  my  views  in  regard  to  it,  or  to  modes  of 
removal,  I  thought  every  Christian  should  be  alive  to  the  inquiry  after  some  mode,  and  his 
duty  thereunto ;  and  that  I  must  be  guaranteed  in  my  liberty  of  opinion  and  speech  on  this 
subject,  at  my  own  discretion.  Otherwise  I  did  not  think  that  God  called  me  to  add  my- 
self to  the  number  of  slaves  in  Missouri. 

"I  also  wrote  them  that  I  was  a  Congregationalist  from  principle,  and  without  dis- 
turbing their  ecclesiastical  relations,  should  still  retain, my  own.  The  answer  of  the 
church  was  that  they  had  done  as  I  requested  with  my  letter  and  that  they  now  wished 
me  more  than  ever.  So  I  came  to  St.  Louis  in  the  fall  of  1847,  came  for  a  term  of  years 
only,  to  the  Third  Presbyterian  church." 

After  stating  that  the  four  years  passed  much  more  pleasantly  than  he  had 
anticipated  and  that  tolerance  was  extended  to  him  in  the  expression  of  his 
views  on  slavery,  Dr.  Post  told  of  a  growing  sentiment  in  the  church  in  favor 
of  becoming  a  Congregational  body : 

"Near  the  close  of  my  term  of  engagement,  different  persons,  and  among  them  one  of 
the  elders,  came  to  me  with  the  statement  that  a  large  portion  of  our  members  were  Con- 
gregationalists  in  principle  and  in  origin;  that. there  was  room  and  demand  for  a  Con- 
gregational church  here,  and  that  with  a  view  of  retaining  me,  whose  term  would  soon 
expire,  there  was  a  wish  among  our  members  to  form  such  a  church.  I  replied  that  the 
church  had  undoubtedly  the  right  to  consult  its  own  sense  of  interest  and  duty  in  the  form 
and  method  of  its  church  life.  But  situated  as  I  was,  as  pastor  for  the  time  being  of  a 
Presbyterian  church,  I  must  decline,  not  only  in  appearance  but  in  reality,  all  connection 
with  the  movement  and  was  precluded  from  rendering  the  assistance  they  requested. 

"Finally,  just  on  the  eve  of  the  expiration  of  my  engagement,  the  church,  without  any 
knowledge  on  my  part  of  the  purpose,  or  fact  of  their  meeting,  of  their  own  motion,  and 
without  consultation  with  me,  met,  and,  with  a  majority  amounting  almost  to  unanimity, 
determined  by  vote  on  the  change.  I  first  learned  of  the  fact  from  a  chance  meeting  with 
a  member  of  the  church  on  the  street  after  the  meeting  was  over,  who  told  me  what  they 
had  done  and  that  they  were  'all  for  it.'  Soon  after  a  committee  from  the  church  called 
on  me  and  informed  what  they  had  done,  and  asked  me  to  remain  with  them  as  pastor  and 
conduct  the  new  enterprise. 

"The  question  seemed  forced  on  me  by  the  hand  of  God,  and  I  could  not  put  it  by. 
Evidently  a  Congregational  church  was  demanded  in  the  city." 

The  spread  of  Congregationalism  in  Missouri  did  not  come  until  after  the 
Civil  war.  A  congregational  church  was  established  in  Hannibal  in  1859,  but 
that  was  about  the  only  hold  that  the  denomination  had  outside  of  St.  Louis. 
In  ten  years  following  the  war  seventy  Congregational  churches  were  established 
in  the  state. 


988  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Pioneer  Presbyterianism  in  Central  Missouri. 

At  commemorative  exercises  in  the  First  Presbyterian  church  at  Sedalia,  in 
1882.  Judge  John  F.  Philips  told  of  the  beginnings  of  that  denomination  in  Central 
Missouri. 

"In  the  year  1856,  I  was  living  in  Georgetown,  and  was  the  only  Presbyterian  there. 
There  were  perhaps  not  a  dozen  in  the  county.  Rev.  James  Lapsley  was  living  near  Knob- 
noster  and  preaching  in  that  neighborhood.  I  was  instrumental  in  securing  him  to  preach 
at  Georgetown  occasionally.  We  had  no  church,  and  the  services  were  held  in  the  base- 
ment of  a  brick  building,  wliich  is  still  standing.  My  duties  were  many.  I  was  elder, 
deacon,  and  se.xton.  I  opened  the  church,  rang  the  bell,  built  the  fires,  swept  out  the  house, 
lit  the'  lamps,  went  round  the  village  to  drum  up  an  audience  and  took  iip  the  collection.  I 
shall  never  forget  my  longing  for  co-laborers  in  the  work  of  planting  Presbyterianism  in 
this  county  and  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  people.  Nor  shall  I  ever  forget  the  joy 
which  was  mine  when  that  Kentucky  delegation,  headed  by  that  noble  man,  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery, and  formed  of  kindred  spirits  came  to  us.  It  was  as  the  coming  of  the  relief  of 
Lucknow.  Dr.  Montgomery  at  once  .set  about  his  work,  and  organized  a  church  at  Priest's 
Chapel,  twelve  miles  north  of  Georgetown,  and  I  and  my  wife  attended  service  there  every 
Sunday,  unless  the  severity  of  the  weather  prevented.  He  then  came  to  us  at  Georgetown 
and  there  remained  until  the  dark  clouds  of  war  rolled  black  against  the  sky.  I  shall 
always  hold  in  fondest  remembrance  the  life  and  work  of  this  grand  man  among  us." 

A  Problem  in  Pioneer  Morals. 

From  "Catholic  Beginnings  in  Kan.sas  City,"  the  writing  of  Rev.  Gilbert  J. 
Garraghan,  of  St.  Louis  University,  it  appears  that  as  early  as  1820  Bishop 
Dubourg  sent  a  priest  to  investigate  religious  opportunities  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Kaw.  The  mission  was  undertaken  by  Father  de  la  Croix,  of  St.  Ferdinand,  and 
was  prompted  by  the  visit  of  some  Osage  chiefs  to  invite  the  bishop  to  visit 
their  villages  in  Western  Missouri.  Father  de  la  Croix  in  his  report  mentioned 
that  he  found  a  "handful  of  Creole  settlers  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  river." 
Six  years  later  Bishop  Rosati  sent  Father  Lutz  to  open  a  mission  among  the 
Kansas  Indians.  Father  Lutz  performed  service  in  the  Vasquez  house  which 
was  located  on  the  bank  of  the  Missouri  just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Kaw.  Father 
Garraghan  says : 

"Historical  candor  compels  the  statement  that  Father  Lutz  was  not  favorably  im- 
pressed with  religious  conditions  in  the  Creole  colony  at  Kawsmouth.  Long  standing  lack 
of  opportunity  to  share  in  the  ministrations  of  the  church,  together  with  the  careless,  half 
savage  manner  of  life  among  the  voyageurs  of  the  Missouri,  had  brought  a  deal  of  re- 
ligious  indifference  and  other  disorders  in   their  train." 

Later,  in  1834,  caiue  Father  Roux  to  succeed  Father  Lutz  and  to  establish 
the  pioneer  church  in  what  was  to  be  Kansas  City.  This  was  a  building  of  logs 
near  what  is  now  the  comer  of  Pennsylvania  avenue  and  Eleventh  street,  a  block 
from  the  present  cathedral.  For  a  time  this  first  house  of  worship  was  called 
Chouteau  church,  the  Chouteau  families  having  been  the  principal  contributors 
to  the  cost.  Two  granddaughters  of  Daniel  Boone  were  among  the  first  chil- 
dren baptized  by  Father  Roux.  Their  father,  Daniel  Morgan  Boone,  according 
to  tradition,  taught  the  first  school  in  the  settlement,  having  the  use  of  the 
presbytery  for  that  purpose.  Conditions  improved  under  Father  Roux.  although 
not  as  rapidly  as  the  good  priest  wished.     Father  Roux  wrote  to  the  bishop  that 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  989 

he  was  having  a  hard  time  to  get  the  people  to  give  up  balls  which  took  place, 
"sometimes  after  church  services."  He  wrote:  "I  reprove,  entreat,  rebuke  them 
in  French  and  in  English  as  well.  I  am  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season,  but 
their  amendment  is  scarcely  appreciable."  Evidently,  Father  Roux  had  more 
influence  than  he  realized  for  his  successor  at  Kansas  City,  Father  Nicholas 
Point,  the  companion  of  Father  DeSmet,  who  took  charge  of  the  church  in  1840, 
reported  to  the  bishop : 

".Another  thing  that  occurred  at  this  period  gave  me  great  joy.  The  year  before  balls 
had  taken  place  among  the  people  weekly;  this  year  there  were  only  two  or  three,  which 
I  permitted,  lest  by  too  great  show  of  severity  I  might  lose  the  ground  I  gained  with 
them.  The  means  they  took  in  securing  my  permission  for  the  dance  amused  me  not  a 
little.  They  sent  as  bearer  of  their  first  petition  an  old  soldier  of  the  empire,  Jean 
Baptiste  de  Velder,  a  native  of  Belgium  who  had  also  accompanied  Father  DeSmet  on  his 
return  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  who  bore  the  reputation  of  being  a  man  to  whom 
I  would  refuse  nothing.  The  good  old  fellow  came  to  me,  and,  after  telling  me  that  he  had 
a  favor  to  ask.  begged  to  kneel  and  say  a  prayer  for  the  success  of  his  mission.  The 
prayer  said,  he  confidently  broached  the  subject  of  his  mission." 

Father  Bernard  Donnelly  succeeded  Father  Roux  in  1846,  and  for  thirty- 
four  years  was  identified  with  the  history  of  Kansas  City. 

Father  McMenamy 's  Wax  Experiences. 

Re\'.  r.ernard  1'.  McMenamy  was  the  resident  priest  in  Edina  during  the 
Civil  war.  He  was  an  intense  Union  man  and  preached  against  secession.  Most 
of  the  young  men  in  his  congregation  went  into  the  Union  army.  These  young 
men  often  sent  money  home  by  express  for  dependent  relatives.  Quincy  was 
the  nearest  express  point.  Father  McMenamy  was  accustomed  to  make  the 
journey  to  Quincy.  get  these  remittances,  carry  them  back  to  Edina  and  distribute 
the  money  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  the  boys.  He  became  pay- 
master for  a  number  of  families.  When  reports  reached  Edina  that  Confederates 
were  approaching  on  a  raid,  the  priest  hid  the  money  in  a  stump  in  his  back  yard. 
One  day.  as  Father  McMenamy  long  afterwards  told  the  ston,-,  a  woman,  rather 
poorly  dressed  and  evidently  from  the  country,  came  to  the  parochial  residence  and 
asked.  "Is  this  where  Mr.  Priest  lives?"  Father  McMenamy  said  he  was  the 
man.  The  woman  was  smoking  a  corncob  pipe.  She  looked  the  priest  over  care- 
fully, and  then  handed  him  a  letter,  saying  it  was  from  the  boys  and  they  told  her 
to  "come  here  and  get  some  money  from  you."  Father  McMenamy  examined  his 
list  of  remittances,  found  that  there  was  some  money  forwarded  by  the  boys 
mentioned  in  the  letter.  He  paid  it.  Very  deliberately.  Patsy  Mauck,  for  that 
she  said  was  her  name,  looked  at  the  money  and  the  priest.  "Wall,"  she  said, 
"I  think  it  derned  strange  that  the  boys  should  rather  trust  your  honesty  than  to 
trust  nic;  but  you've  paid  it  over  all  right  and  I've  a  good  mind  to  take  dinner 
with  you."    The  priest  accepted. 

It  came  to  the  part  of  Father  McMenamy  to  do  many  extraordinary  things 
in  the  war  period.  .\  report  reached  Edina  one  afternoon  that  Price  was  march- 
ing on  the  town.  The  priest  went  up  town  to  investigate.  Opposite  the  gate  of 
John  riiggerstafF,  a  Union  man  and  a  leading  Methodist,  the  priest  was  stopped  by 
Mr.  BiggerslalT  who  had  with  him  the  bishop  who  had  come  to  Edina  to  dedicate 


990  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

the  new  Methodist  church.  Mr.  Biggerstaff  explained  that  they  were  just  on  the 
way  to  the  parochial  residence  to  ask  that  the  bishop  be  sheltered  there  as  prob- 
ably the  safest  asylum  if  the  rebels  came.  The  priest  fell  in  with  the  suggestion 
readily  and  took  the  bishop,  then  quite  an  old  man,  to  his  house  and  kept  him  there 
until  next  day,  putting  him  on  the  stage  for  Canton  early  in  the  morning. 

What  a  Vote  for  Lincoln  Cost. 

One  of  the  twenty  votes  cast  in  Livingston  county  for  Lincoln  in  1850  was 
by  Rev.  J.  E.  Gardner,  a  Methodist  preacher  at  Utica.  A  short  time  after  the 
election,  Mr.  Gardner  received  a  notice  signed  by  thirty-seven  citizens  of  Living- 
ston notifying  him  to  leave  the  county  within  three  days.  He  paid  no  attention 
to  it.    A  little  later  a  meeting  was  held  and  these  charges  were  preferred: 

"i.  You  are  a  preacher  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  North  sent  among  us  with- 
out our  consent  and  supported  by  northern  money,  sent  by  a  religious  denomination,  whose 
doctrine  is  to  war  upon  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  South. 

"2.  Vou  are  the  only  man  in  our  community  who  voted  for  Lincoln,  and  you  have 
publicly  declared  that  you  would  glory  in  making  yourself  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of 
abolitionism. 

"3.  You  have  had  frequent  interviews  with  slaves  of  this  county,  and  you  invited  a 
number  of  them  to  the  country  and  gave  them  a  dinner,  after  preaching,  as  your  equals." 

Mr.  Gardner  replied  in  writing  to  these  charges  when  they  were  presented  to 
him  ; 

"i.  I  am  not  a  preacher  of  the  M.  E.  Church  North,  as  there  is  no  such  church  in 
existence.  Neither  am  I  supported  by  northern  money,  but  by  the  people  to  whom  I  am 
sent  to  preach.  Our  doctrine  is  not  to  war  upon  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  state,  for 
in  our  Book  of  Discipline  we  acknowledge  ourselves  obedient  to  the  laws  of  the  land. 

"2.  I  did  vote  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  did  not,  either  publicly  or  privately,  declare  that  I 
would  glory  in  making  myself  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  abolitionism. 

"3.  I  never  had  an  interview  with  slaves  or  gave  them  a  dinner,  making  them  my 
equals.  I  therefore  challenge  the  proof,  as  the  onus  brobandi  rests  on  you ;  and  until  you 
bring  that  I  stand  with  the  law  to  defend  me." 

Another  meeting  was  held  and  notice  was  sent  to  the  minister  that  he  must 
leave  in  three  days,  the  hour  of  the  limit  being  fixed.  Citizens  of  Utica  then 
formed  a  "law  and  order''  organization  which  discountenanced  the  work  of  the 
previous  organization  and  undertook  to  settle  the  matter  by  compromise.  It  was 
decided  by  the  law  and  order  society  that  the  Gardner  family  should  have  ten  days 
to  move  away.  The  day  before  the  time  expired  a  mob  came  to  the  house  demand- 
ing that  in  ten  minutes  Gardner  give  his  word  to  leaye  the  county  the  next  day, 
the  threat  being  that  if  he  did  not  the  house  would  be  burned.  An  order  was  given 
to  bring  hay  for  the  purpose  of  starting  the  fire.  After  some  parleying  the  mob 
withdrew  to  wait  until  next  day.  Mr.  Gardner  went  down  to  one  of  the  stores. 
The  mob  reassembled,  seized  him  and  put  him  astride  of  a  rail.  As  they  marched 
around  town,  they  shouted  "North  Preacher!"  "Lincolnite !"  "Nigger  Thief!" 
The  minister  warned  the  mob  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  and  then  began  to 
sing: 

"Children    of   the    Heavenly    King, 
As  we  journey,   let   us  sing." 


Church  of  the  Messiah,  Olive  and  Kinth  streets 


TJnion  Methodist  Church,  Eleventh  and  Second   Baptist   Church,   Sixth   and    Locnrt 

Locust  Streets  Streets 

ST.  LOUIS  CHURCHES  IN  1861 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  993 

One  man  said  he  wciuld  "make  him  sluit  his  mouth''  and  threw  a  chunk  of  ice 
striking  the  minister  on  the  shoulder.  Mrs.  Gardner  went  into  the  midst  of  the 
crowd  and  demanded  the  release  of  her  husband.  Citizens  who  had  not  partici- 
pated in  the  rail  riding  advised  the  Gardners  to  give  their  promise  to  leave  the 
next  day,  telling  them  it  was  dangerous  to  refuse.  The  next  day  the  Gardners 
went  to  Chillicothe  and  suit  was  started  against  the  mob.  According  to  a  state- 
ment sent  by  Mrs.  Gardner  to  the  Central  Christian  Advocate  at  the  time  another 
mob  "compelled  Squire  Hughes  before  whom  the  case  was  to  be  tried  to  burn  the 
papers." 

Deacon  Tucker,  the  editor  of  the  Evening  Bulletin,  worshipped  at  the  Presby- 
terian church  on  Eighth  and  Locust  streets.  His  paper  was  the  organ  of  the 
southern  rights  people.  Rev.  Galusha  Anderson,  an  aggressive  young  anti-slavery 
man  was  the  minister  of  the  Second  Baptist  church  two.  blocks  east.  One  evening 
the  Bulletin  came  out  with  an  editorial  reading : 

"The  devil  preaches  at  the  corner  of  Sixth  and  Locust  streets  and  he  is  the 
same  sort  of  a  being  that  he  was  more  than  i,8oo  years  ago.  He  wants  everybody 
to  bow  down  and  worship  him." 

"Kucklebur  Oath." 

"Kucklebur  oath"  was  what  some  of  the  Missourians  in  the  interior  of  the 
state  called  the  Drake  test.  They  applied  it  in  the  case  of  the  Rev.  W.  R.  Lit- 
singer  of  Morgan  county.  This  minister  cast  his  lot  with  the  South.  When  he 
returned,  after  the  war,  he  found  that  the  Methodists  of  the  northern  faction  had 
taken  possession  of  the  church  building  in  Versailles  and  had  been  holding  regu- 
lar services.  On  Sunday  he  went  to  church  and  sat  quietly  until  the  services  were 
ended.  Then  he  arose  and  said  that  the  Methodist  Church  South  would  resume 
regular  services  in  that  church  beginning  the  following  Sunday.  As  soon  as  the 
announcement  was  made,  examination  showed  that  Mr.  Litsinger  had  taken  the 
key  from  the  tront  door.  The  northern  Methodists  demanded  the  key.  Mr.  Lit- 
singer held  on  to  it.  Then  the  northern  Methodists  announced  that  they  would 
prevent  Litsinger  from  occupying  the  pulpit  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not  taken 
the  "kucklebur  oath"  as  required  by  the  Drake  constitution.  Mr.  Litsinger 
preached  and  was  arrested.  The  court  put  him  under  $600  bonds  to  answer  for 
the  offense.  That  same  court  had  a  few  days  before  put  a  horse  thief  under  only 
$200  bonds,  which  prompted  Mr.  Litsinger  to  remark  to  the  judge  that  "in  this 
court  it  is  three  times  worse  to  preach  the  Gospel  than  to  steal." 

In  Dunklin  county  a  Cumberland  Presbyterian  congregation  had  a  novel  ex- 
perience during  the  Civil  war.  While  Rev.  T.  S.  Love  was  preaching  the  church 
was  surrounded  by  a  company  of  guerrillas.  The  leader  interrupted  the  service 
to  say  that  there  was  no  intention  to  disturb  the  services  further  than  to  require 
the  men  inside  to  come  out  and  exchange  clothes  with  them.  The  men  went  out- 
side, closing  the  church  doors  and  leaving  the  women  and  children  within.  The 
Sunday  suits  were  stripped  off,  the  guerrillas  selecting  the  sizes  that  best  fitted 
them.  For  the  boots  of  the  churchgoers,  the  guerrillas  gave  some  badly  worn  foot- 
gear. One  young  man  had  the  presence  of  mind  to  pull  off  his  boots  before  he 
came  out  of  the  church  and  shove  them  into  the  stove.  It  was  in  warm  weather. 
He  went  out  of  doors  barefoot  and  the  guerrillas  asked  no  question.     After  the 

Vol.  1—63 


994  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

company  had  departed  with  all  the  good  clothes  of  the  churchgoers  the  latter  put 
on  enough  of  the  dilapidated  clothing  left  behind,  went  back  into  the  church,  sang 
a  hymn  and  went  home. 

Archbishop  Kenrick's  Lectiires  and  Newsletter. 

From  conversions  of  non-Catholics,  the  Catholic  church  gained  strength  in 
St.  Louis  before  the  war.  As  early  as  1848  Archbishop  Kenrick  began  a  notable 
undertaking.  He  had  public  announcement  made  that  during  Lent  he  would 
deliver  evening  lectures.  His  subjects  were  such  as  Evidences  of  Christianity, 
Divine  Revelation.  Mysteries  of  Religion,  Doctrines  of  the  Church,  Ritual  Observ- 
ances and  so  on  through  an  elaborate  course  of  information  on  the  Catholic  faith. 
About  the  same  time  that  the  archbishop  announced  his  lectures,  a  Catholic  news- 
paper called  the  St.  Louis  Newsletter  was  started.  Father  O'Hanlon  was  made 
the  editor.  The  Newsletter  was  published  weekly  and  it  made  a  feature  of  the 
archbishop's  lectures.  Not  only  was  the  public  given  to  understand  that  the  lec- 
ture course  would  be  open  to  anybody  who  chose  to  come  but  a  special  effort  was 
made  to  show  non-Catholics  that  they  were  welcome.  Owners  of  pews  threw 
them  open  to  all  comers.  It  soon  became  apparent  that  a  considerable  proportion 
of  the  attendants  upon  these  lectures  were  non-Catholics.  The  cathedral  was 
thronged,  the  attendance  including  some  of  the  most  prominent  people  in  the 
city.  The  editor  of  the  Newsletter  of  1848  has  left  a  record  of  this  religious 
awakening  in  St.  Louis : 

It  was  scarcely  possible  to  understand  how  the  archbishop  could  find  a  moment's 
time  to  prepare  and  arrange  the  heads  of  these  discourses,  much  less  to  deliver  them  in 
that  orderly  and  logical  manner  in  which  they  were  molded ;  but  they  were  indeed  most 
instructive  to  the  priests,  as  to  the  laity  present,  for  while  each  lecture  evinced  a  pro- 
found knowledge  of  the  subject,  it  was  enforced  by  reasoning  and  illustrations  which 
carried  conviction  to  the  minds  of  all  dispassionate  hearers.  I  found  that  the  archbishop 
was  accustomed  to  jot  down  on  a  small  sheet  of  paper  the  divisions  of  his  sermon  for 
each  evening,  while  he  trusted  to  a  well  stored  memory  for  the  abundant  matter  his 
theological  erudition  had  gleaned,  and  a  measured  fluency  and  accuracy  of  language 
came  to  his  aid  without  any  apparent  effort.  I  was  fortunate  to  procure  these  notes  after 
they  had  been  used,  and  soon  the  archbishop  undertook  to  revise  my  reports,  before  they 
were  sent  to  the  printer.  I  have  reason  to  know  these  resumes  served  a  very  useful  pur- 
pose and  they  formed  a  feature  of  the  Newsletter  which  was  particularly  interesting  to 
all  its  readers.  The  result  of  this  course  of  instruction  was  to  bring  an  additional  num- 
ber of  non-Catholic  visitors  to  the  cathedral.  As  their  interest  and  spirit  of  inquiry  grew, 
many  of  them  desired  interviews  with  the  archbishop  to  receive  further  explanations  and 
instruction.  Several  well-disposed  and  distinguished  persons  were  thus  prepared  for  ad- 
mission to  the  church.  Whether  conditionally  or  unconditionally  administered,  baptism 
was  received  by  many,  and  afterwards  these  became  practical  and  fervent  Catholics.  Not 
alone  the  archbishop  but  several  of  his  priests  engaged  in  the  duty  of  catechising  and 
receiving  converts  of  the  greatest  respectability  and  of  a  thoughtful  intelligent  class.  As 
in  the  Apostolic  time,  the  Lord  daily  added  to  His  church  those  who  were  to  be  saved. 
So  St.  Louis  began  to  acquire  a  distinction  for  Catholicity. 

Archbishop  Kenrick  gave  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  Newsletter.  He 
not  only  contributed  articles  but  advised  as  to  editorial  policy.  He  counseled  that 
while  in  its  inain  feature  it  should  be  distinctively  a  Catholic  newspaper,  yet  it 
should  maintain  a  high  literary  character  through  essays,  reviews  and  especially 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  995 

in  well  selected  reprint.    He  used  to  recommend  the  use  of  scissors  and  paste  pot, 
saying  to  the  editor,  "Selected  sense  is  much  better  than  original  nonsense." 

Father  Ryan. 

Thirty  years  after  Archbishop  Kenrick  had  inaugurated  and  carried  out  a 
policy,  if  that  word  may  be  used,  of  interesting  and  impressing  non-Catholics, 
another  great  preacher  with  remarkable  power  for  awakening  religious  thought 
came  forward  in  the  Catholic  church  of  St.  Louis.  It  is  told  of  Patrick  John 
R\'an  that  when  he  was  thirteen  years  old,  in  Naughton's  school  in  the  parish  of 
Rathmines,  he  was  chosen  as  the  spokesman  to  deliver  a  special  address  to  Daniel 
O'Connell,  imprisoned  in  1844  at  Richmond,  Bridewell.  The  boy  was  the  born 
orator.  He  had  a  taste  for  literary  effort.  His  schoolmates  selected  him  to 
prepare  the  address  and  read  it  to  the  patriot. 

Father  Ryan  was  only  a  deacon  when  with  a  determination  to  become  a 
missionary  priest  in  America,  he  reached  St.  Louis  toward  the  close  of  1852 
and  was  sent  to  Carondelet.  \\'ith  him  came  Patrick  A.  Feehan,  who  became 
bishop  of  Nashville  and  afterwards  archbishop  of  Chicago.  The  two  young 
deacons  were  sent  to  the  seminary  to  remain  until  of  age  for  ordination  to  the 
priesthood.  Father  Ryan  became  a  bishop  in  1872  but  long  before  that  he  was 
famed  for  his  eloquence.  After  his  ordination  in  1854,  he  was  attached  to  the 
cathedral.  He  became  best  known  as  pastor  of  St.  John's,  where  for  twenty 
years  he  preached  regularly,  his  sermons  drawing  noil-Catholics  in  large  num- 
bers. It  became  the  custom  with  strangers  in  the  city  over  Sunday  to  attend 
St.  John's  on  Sixteenth  and  Chestnut  to  hear  a  sermon  by  Father  Ryan. 

Father  Tom  Burke,  the  Dominican  of  international  fame  as  an  orator,  came 
to  St.  Louis  between  1870  and  1880  and  remained  some  time.  He  was  on  a 
lecture  tour  of  the  United  States.  While  he  was  here  Father  Tom,  for  that 
everybody  called  him,  heard  Bishop  Ryan  then  but  recently  consecrated.  There 
was  no  jealousy  of  Father  Ryan ;  the  humility  of  the  man  forbade  it,  but  intense 
admiration  for  his  power  as  a  speaker.  The  St.  Louis  priests  asked  Father  Tom 
what  he  thought  of  their  pulpit  orator. 

"Well,  in  good  truth,"  replied  Father  Burke,  "when  I  heard  Lacordaire  in 
Paris,  I  thought  the  whole  church  could  not  produce  his  equal,  but  now  that 
I  have  heard  your  good  and  great  assistant  bishop.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  as  a  pulpit  orator  he  immeasurably  surpasses  that  celebrated  preacher  of 
our  order." 

After  the  manifold  duties  of  bishop  made  it  impossible  to  preach  weekly  at 
St.  John's,  Father  Ryan  adopted  the  custom  of  occupying  the  pulpit  on  the 
first  Sunday  of  the  month,  unless  he  was  too  far  away  to  get  home.  "Bishop 
Ryan's  Sunday"  obtained  a  fixed  place  on  the  religious  calendar  of  St.  Louis. 
On  those  Sundays  .St.  John's  was  uncomfortably  crowded. 

"The  Great  Controversy." 

The  outside  calls  upon  Bishop  Ryan  grew  numerous  and  pressing.  By  invi- 
tation, the  eloquent  prelate  preached  twice  before  the  Missouri  legislature.  He 
was  very  obliging.  Twice  he  went  to  Columbia  to  address  the  students  of  the 
University  of  Alissouri.     The  Sanctity  of  the  Church  and  Modem  Skepticism 


996  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

were  two  subjects  ui»n\  whicli  I'.ishop  Ivyaii  preached  or  lectured  in  the  leading 
cities  of  the  country.  The  last  traced  popular  opinion  through  various  phases 
with  deductions  in  favor  of  Catholicism.  In  1882,  Bishop  Ryan  delivered  one 
of  the  most  notable  of  his  many  lectures  before  an  audience  which  filled  Mer- 
cantile Library  liall.  h  was  explanatory  and  conciliatory,  calculated  to  win 
consideration  of  the  principles  of  Catholicism.  The  audience  included  several 
pastors  of  Protestant  churches. 

From  the  days  of  his  student  life,  Father  Ryan  had  a  liking  for  the  press. 
He  wrote  much  for  periodicals  when  other  duties  permitted.  Out  of  Father 
Ryan's  eloquent  preaching  and  the  interest  it  aroused  in  Catholicism  developed 
one  of  the  most  notable  features  in  the  history  of  St.  Louis  journalism.  Joseph 
B.  McCullagh,  editor  of  the  Globe-Democrat,  printed  in  full  one  of  the  bishop's 
addresses.  Bishop  Ryan  had  two  kinds  of  sermons,  the  dogmatic  and  the  moral. 
Mr.  McCullagh  selected  a  dogmatic  discourse,  one  that  brought  out  the  salient 
and  distinctive  qualities  of  the  Catholic  faith.  Then  he  opened  the  columns  of 
the  paper  for  all  creeds.  For  months  "The  Great  Controversy"  was  carried  on 
in  the  Globe-Democrat,  filling  in  the  aggregate  some  hundreds  of  columns. 

Archbishop  Kenrick's  Travels  in  Missouri. 

Archbishop  Kenrick  rarely  spoke  of  the  experiences  he  had  in  the  missionary 
-work  which  made  Catholicism  so  strong  in  St.  Louis  and  vicinity  during  the 
period  of  great  immigration  ten  years  before  the  Civil  war.  He  had  a  free 
colored  servant,  "William."  In  a  vehicle,  accompanied  by  William,  the  arch- 
bishop drove  through  the  country  without  regard  to  seasons  or  weather.  One 
■dav  he  insisted  on  fording  a  swollen  creek  in  St.  Charles  county  and  went  under, 
having  a  narrow  escape.    But  of  these  incidents  he  was  reticent. 

The  archbishop's  advice  to  young  priests  probably  revealed  the  lesson  of 
liis  own  experience.  He  was  accustomed  to  say  that  when  a  profession  is 
-embraced  the  first  duty  is  to  acquire  all  the  knowledge  necessary  to  discharge  it 
fully  and  conscientiously.  L'ntil  that  is  done  extraneous  duty  should  be  avoided. 
"Therefore,"  he  said,  to  young  priests,  "lose  no  day  that  you  shall  not  apply  some 
part  of  it  to  the  learning  of  dogmatic  and  moral  theology  as  also  to  the  reading  of 
commentaries  on  the  Scriptures."  The  history  of  the  church  and  the  lives  of  the 
saints,  he  recommended  also,  and  he  deemed  it  highly  important  to  have  a  favorite 
book  of  devotion  to  "nourish  piety  within  the  soul."  Careful  pre])aration  for 
preaching  was  recommended. 

The  extraordinary  growth  of  Catholicism  in  St.  Louis,  the  theological  strength 
of  the  clergy,  the  thousands  of  conversions  of  residents,  not  so  much  from  other 
churches  as  from  the  mass  of  the  indifferent,  are  better  understood  when  the 
example  and  precepts  of  Peter  Richard  Kenrick  are  known. 

The  Humor  of  Father  Ryan. 

One  of  the  stories  still  told  of  Archbishop  Ryan  is  his  connnent  on  the  boy's 
answer  to  a  catechism  question.  A  parish  priest  was  showing  off  the  children's 
aptness.  He  asked  a  boy,  "What  is  matrimony?"  The  pupil,  embarrassed  by 
the  presence  of  the  archbishop,  replied:   "Matrimony  is  a  state  of  punishment  to 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  997 

which  some  souls  are  condemned  to  suffer  for  a  wliile  before  they  are  considered 
good  enough  to  go  to  heaven." 

"Oh !"  said  the  priest,  "that  is  the  answer  for  purgatory." 

"Let  the  hoy  alone,  father,"  commented  the  archbishop.  "He  may  be  right. 
What  do  you  or  I  know  about  it  anyway  ?" 

Father  Ryan  once  pleasantly  suggested  to  a  priest  thai  it  was 'time  for  him 
to  get  a  new  hat.  The  priest  was  a  loyal  Irislinian.  "1  would  not  give  up  that  old 
hat  for  twenty  new  ones,"  he  said,  with  emphasis.  "It  belonged  to  my  father  who 
fell  in  the  uprising  of  "48." 

"And  evidently  fell  on  that  hat,"  said  Father  Ryan. 

One  of  the  archbishop's  famous  lecture  subjects  was  on  Ireland.  In  that  lec- 
ture he  told  the  story  of  the  Irishman  who  came  to  him  with  the  most  amazing 
series  of  troubles.     l'";ither  Ryan  said  he  listened  to  the  recital  and  then  asked: 

"Pat,  in  all  your  troubles,  did  you  at  any  time  think  of  committing  suicide?" 

"Not  upon  my.self,  your  reverence,"  was  the  instant  reply. 

When  a  certain  man  had  been  elected  from  St.  Louis  to  Congress  and  every- 
body was  marveling,  a  friend  excitedly  asked  Father  Ryan,  "Bishop,  did  you 
know  that  Blank  had  been  elected  to  Congress?" 

"Oh,  well,"  said  the  bishop,  "he  is  young  and  strong.  Maybe  he  will  out- 
live it." 

The  association  of  Kenrick  and  Ryan  for  thirty  years  in  St.  Louis  was  extra- 
ordinarv.  Kenrick  had  marvelous  cajjacity  for  organization  and  management. 
Ryan  was  philosophical  antl  eUKjuent.  One  was  the  comjjlement  of  the  other. 
The  relations  were  more  than  harmonious.  U])on  his  bishop  the  archbishop 
leaned  more  and  more.  The  Catholic  church  in  the  archdiocese  of  St.  Louis  pros- 
pered beyond  comparison.  The  fame  of  Ryan,  as  a  preacher  and  a  lecturer, 
became  national.  Both  of  these  men  maintained  the  friendliest  relations  with 
and  commanded  the  highest  respect  of  the  non-Catholics  of  St.  Louis.  When 
.^.rchbishop  Ryan  was  called  to  Philadelphia,  St.  Louisaus,  without  regard  to 
religious  affiliations,  tendered  him  a  most  notable  farewell  rece])tion. 

Dr,  NiccoUs'  Tribute  to  the  Roman  Catholics. 

Religious  intolerance  has  been  the  exception  in  the  relaiions  nf  the  churches, 
since  statehood.  .Slavery  and  the  Civil  war  prompted  some  denominational  divi- 
sions. The  attending  bitterness  was  only  temporary,  the  matter  of  a  single  gen- 
eration. The  liberality  of  view  was  shown  in  a  rather  striking  expression  by  Rev. 
Dr.  Samuel  j.  Xiccolls  in  his  centennial  sermon  of   ic/xj: 

"The  Roman  Catholic  church,  always  constrvative,  has.  in  spite  of  its  cherished  tradi- 
tions, been  moved  by  the  spirit  of  progress  and  has  become  a  most  important  factor  in  the 
civilization  of  the  West.  In  this  city  it  has  greatly  multiplied  its  cliurches,  schools,  hos- 
pitals and  asylums.  Its  leaders  have  been  godly  men  of  broad,  statcsmenlike  vision,  who 
have  administered  the  affairs  of  their  branch  of  the  church  with  marked  discretion  and 
success  and  its  members  are  among  our  foremost  citizens  in  seeking  the  highest  welfare 
of  our  city.  It  occupies  a  most  influential  position  in  the  religious  and  social  affairs  of  the 
city,  and  the  history  of  its  progress  furnishes  a  most  instructive  chapter  in  the  story  of  the 
development  of  the  great  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  But  I  leave  to  those  more  familiar  with 
it  the  full  recital  of  its  progress,  although  venturing  the  prediction  that  before  another 
hundred  years  have  gone  by  the  relations  between  the  different  branches  of  the  Christian 
church  will  be  much  more  intimate  than  they  now  are." 


098  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

Bishop  Tuttle. 

When  Daniel  Sylvester  Tuttle  was,  in  1866,  elected  bishop  of  Montana,  with 
jurisdiction  over  Idaho  and  Utah,  he  was  compelled  to  confess  to  the  committee 
sent  to  notify  him  that  he  was  only  twenty-nine  years  old.  The  church  law 
required  a  candidate  to  be  thirty  years  old.  Bishops  Potter  and  Whitehouse 
were  the  committee.  They  had  picked  out  Mr.  Tuttle,  a  man  of  stalwart  frame, 
as  peculiarly  well  fitted  for  such  missionary  field  as  the  three  frontier  territories 
offered  at  that  day.  They  were  not  willing  to  relinquish  their  plan.  So  they  said 
to  Mr.  Tuttle,  "My  brother,  go  home  to  Morris  to  your  work,  continue  in  it  quietly 
and  steadily  till  after  January  26,  1867,  when  you  will  be  thirty  years  old.  After 
that  you  will  doubtless  receive  from  the  presiding  bishop  information  to  guide 
you  in  your  next  step."  Thus  it  came  about  that  in  1867,  with  a  little  missionary 
band,  Bishop  Tuttle  started  for  Montana,  within  the  bounds  of  which  no  Epis- 
copal clergyman  had  set  foot  up  to  that  time.  The  bishop  rode  across  the  plains 
on  a  stage  coach,  every  man  carrying  a  rifle  and  a  revolver  for  protection  against 
Indians.  The  first  thing  he  did  on  reaching  Salt  Lake  was  to  call  upon  Brigham 
Young,  telling  him  for  what  he  had  come.  Ten  da^'s  afterwards,  the  bishop  con- 
firmed eleven  persons.  He  went  on  to  Montana  and  lived  in  a  log  cabin  in  the 
mining  town  of  Virginia  City.  That  year  a  telegram  came  to  the  bishop  in  his 
cabin  from  Rev.  Montgomery  Schuyler  of  St.  Louis,  reading:  "Elected  bishop 
of  Missouri  at  Kirkwood,  May  29th,  on  first  ballot."  Bishop  Tuttle  sent  back 
his  declination.  His  sole  companion  in  the  cabin  at  Virginia  City  was  his  cat 
"Dick."  Nineteen  years  later  a  second  telegram  from  Dr.  Schuyler  found  Bishop 
Tuttle  in  a  mining  camp  of  Utah  and  notified  him  that  for  the  second  time  he 
had  been  elected  bishop  of  Missouri.  This  time  acceptance  was  sent.  Bishop 
Tuttle  came  to  St.  Louis  in  1886. 

The  New  Cathedral. 

The  sun  sent  slanting  rays  through  banks  of  clouds  into  the  faces  of  an -army 
with  banners  marching  out  Lindell  avenue  on  Sunday,  the  18th  of  October,  1908. 
Pageants  of  different  kinds  St.  Louis  had  seen,  but  never  before  one  like  that. 
Of  military  and  of  civic  demonstrations  there  had  been  many.  But  now  moved 
with  the  precision  and  array  of  an  army  the  men  of  the  Catholic  churches.  This 
mighty  host  gave  new  meaning  to  the  79  parishes  of  the  city. 

East  and  west  of  Newstead  avenue  spread  a  mass  of  humanity  which  crowded 
sidewalks  and  lawns  and  encroached  upon  the  broad  asphalt  until  only  by  stren- 
uous effort  of  the  police  was  a  pathway  kept  open  for  the  moving  column.  .Above 
the  heads  of  the  marchers  and  spectators  hung  from  the  long  arm  of  a  great 
crane  a  massive  block  of  granite  with  the  words  "Christo  Victori."  Over  the 
foundations  of  the  new  cathedral,  tier  above  tier,  sat  the  hundreds  of  frocked 
priests  and  seminarians.  In  front  were  grouped  about  the  Apostolic  Delegate, 
Diomede  Falconio,  most  reverend  archbishops  and  the  right  reverend  bishops,  in 
their  purple  robes.  A  full  head  above  the  other  dignitaries,  erect  of  figure,  his 
face  alight  with  the  spirit  of  the  event,  stood  the  young  metropolitan  of  St.  Louis, 
John  J.  Glennon. 

A  striking  feature  in  the  celebration  of  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  was  the 
interest  shown  by  the  entire  community.    Lindell  boulevard,  the  great  residence. 


REV.   DR.   THOMAS  M.   FINNEY 
Methodist 


REV.  DR.  SAMUEL  J.  NICCOLLS 

His  pastorate  of  the  Second   Presbyterian 

Church  of  St.  Louis  exceeded  fifty  years 


BISHOP    ENOCH    MATHER    MARVIN 
Methodist 


REV.  PR.  TRt'MAX  MARCELLUS  POST 
Congregational 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  1001 

church  and  club  avenue  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  from  Grand  avenue  to  King's 
Highway,  a  distance  of  nearly  two  miles,  was  filled  with  waving  colors.  In 
respon.se  to  the  invitation  of  the  central  committee  having  charge  of  the  celebra- 
tion the  residents  and  the  institutions  on  the  avenue  almost  without  exception 
hung  out  the  American  flag.  The  request  of  the  committee  was  that  the  colors  of 
the  country  be  displayed.  Directly  opposite  the  scene  of  the  ceremony,  American 
flags  festooned  the  windows  of  the  Lindell  Avenue  Methodist  church. 

Among  the  .seated  guests  upon  the  stand  overlooking  the  corner  stone  were 
men  of  all  religious  beliefs,  responsive  by  their  presence  to  the  general  sentiment 
that  the  whole  city  had  a  living  sympathetic  interest  and  pride  in  the  ceremony. 

A  great  contribution  to  the  church  architecture  of  the  city,  that  in  which  the 
whole  community  had  an  interest,  was  the  cathedral,  with  its  foundation  walls 
above  ground  and  waiting  the  corner  stone  of  Missouri  granite.  It  is  no  detrac- 
tion from  the  reverence  and  religious  fervor  of  the  Catholic,  that  the  St.  Louisan 
forecasted  with  civic  pride  the  completion  of  a  cathedral  which  was  to  surpass 
any  other  in  the  country.  And  by  the  same  sign  it  was  none  the  less  a  fitting  sub- 
ject for  civic  pride  that  this  monumental  creation  of  the  architect  and  the  artist 
had  as  its  inspiration  the  religious  motive. 

Impressive  Corner  Stone  Ceremonies. 

J  he  parade  of  ihv  lJari^hes  preceded  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone.  When 
the  head  of  the  column  led  by  the  grand  marshal,  Amedee  Valle  Reyburn,  a 
descendant  of  one  of  the  oldest  families  of  St.  Louis,  reached  the  site  of  the  new 
cathedral,  it  wa.-;  met  by  a  procession  of  prelates  and  priests,  the  most  notable 
ever  seen  in  the  Mississippi  valley.  The  Apostolic  Delegate.  Most  Reverend 
Diomede  Falconin.  was  escorted  by  the  seven  archbi.'ihops.  thirty  bishops  and 
seven  hundred  priests  from  the  .Sacred  Heart  convent,  on  Maryland  avenue,  to 
the  site  of  the  cathedral,  arriving  there  just  as  the  procession  of  the  parishes  came 
marching  up  from  the  other  direction. 

The  procession  of  the  parishes  was  three  hours  in  passing  the  reviewing  stand 
ujion  which  the  distinguished  prelates  took  their  positions.  When  the  procession 
of  the  parishes  had  filed  by,  the  laying  and  blessing  of  the  corner  stone  took  place 
in  accordance  with  the  usual  forms  of  the  Catholic  church.  It  was  preceded  by 
the  blessing  of  a  great  cross  which  had  been  erected  for  the  occasion.  After  the 
blessing  of  the  cross  came  the  blessing  of  the  foimdation  of  the  new  structure, 
and  then  the  procession  of  prelates  and  priests  marched  back  to  the  stone  which 
was  first  blessed  and  then  placed  by  the  Apostolic  Delegate.  The  ceremony  con- 
cluded with  the  drawing  of  the  cross  by  the  trowel  upon  the  side  of  the  corner 
stone. 

The  Latin,  cut  deep  into  the  geological  fomiation  which  is  the  foundation  of 
all  terrestrial,  dedicates  the  building  to  the  Saviour  and  in  the  same  sentence 
honors  the  city.  The  sentiment  is  reverent  and  patriotic.  It  is  happily  framed. 
When  the  archbishop  approached  the  matter  of  the  inscription,  he  thought  much 
about  what  sentiment  should  be  embraced  in  it.  To  well  known  Latin  scholars 
he  sent  out  his  request  for  counsel.  He  told  them  that  the  words  should  be  few, 
that  they  should  impress  primarily  the  religious  character  of  the  edifice,  the  con- 
secration to  the  Catholic  faith.    And  then  he  added  that  recognition  of  the  patron 


1002  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

and  of  the  city  should  be  included.  And  finally  the  archbishop  desired  that  the 
participation  of  the  entire  diocese  in  the  building  of  this  cathedral  should  be 
given  imperishable  tribute. 

The  Benedictines  are  famous  for  their  learning  and  skill  in  the  cryptogram. 
They  were  asked  to  suggest  a  form  of  inscription.  The  archbishop  did  not  stop 
with  the  Latinists  of  the  United  States.  He  gave  some  of  the  scholars  of  Europe 
opportunity  to  compete.  A  St.  Louis  priest  supplied  the  text  which,  with  slight 
alteration,  was  decided  to  express  best  the  sentiments.  He  used  fewer  than  forty 
words,  most  of  them  very  short.    In  the  Latin,  St.  Louis  becomes  "S.  Ludovici." 

The  translation,  following  closely  the  concise  Latin,  is: 

"To  Christ  the  victor,  and  in  honor  of  St.  Louis,  King  of  France,  patron  of 
the  bounteous  city  and  archdiocese,  this  stone,  inaugural  of  the  metropolitan 
church,  erected  by  the  bounty  of  the  faithful  of  the  whole  diocese,  was  placed  on 
October  i8,  by  the  Most  Reverend  Delegate  of  the  Holy  See." 

The  inscription  was  the  composition  of  Rev.  F.  G.  Holweck.  rector  of  St. 
Francis  de  Sales  church  on  the  Gravois  road  in  the  southern  part  of  the  city. 
Father  Holweck  was  one  of  the  foremost  classical  scholars  in  the  country.  He  was 
the  censor  librorum  of  this  archdiocese.  Catholic  books  intended  for  publication 
here  were  submitted  in  manuscript  to  him  because  of  his  ability  to  detect  errors. 
Out  of  all  of  the  forms  suggested  for  this  corner  stone,  Rector  Hoiweck's  ex- 
pressed most  perfectly  the  sentiments  the  archbishop  desired. 

The  Work  of  a  Generation. 

The  Catholics  of  St.  Louis  had  been  preparing  for  this  work  of  building  a 
grand  cathedral  a  generation  or  more.  Archbishop  Kenrick,  during  his  lifetime, 
conceived  and  made  some  preliminarj'  plans  looking  to  a  cathedral.  The  late 
Archbishop  Kain,  who  succeeded  Archbishop  Kenrick,  also  devoted  attention  to 
the  project  and  started  the  fund  for  it.  It  remained,  however,  for  the  present 
archbishop  of  St.  Louis,  Most  Rev.  John  J.  Glennon,  to  take  up  preliminaries  and 
to  bring  the  project  to  the  actual  construction.  Archbishop  Glennon  was  made 
coadjutor  bishop  of  St.  Louis  under  Archbishop  Kain's  admini.stration  during 
1903,  and  the  same  year,  on  the  death  of  Archbishop  Kain,  Bishop  Glennon  be- 
came archbishop  of  St.  Louis,  being  the  youngest  prelate  of  that  rank  in  the 
country. 

It  was  well  that  the  movement  progressed  slowly.  An  earlier  beginning  might 
have  been  a  mistake  as  to  location.  On  the  28th  of  April,  1871,  was  taken  the 
formal  step  for  the  cathedral,  the  corner  stone  of  which  was  laid  October  18, 
1908.  Archbishop  Kenrick,  Bishop  Ryan  and  Vicar-General  Muehlsiepen  were 
at  the  head  of  the  movement.  The  men  of  means  of  that  day  who  participated 
in  the  incorporation  of  the  St.  Louis  Cathedral  Building  association  were  James 
H.  Lucas,  Henry  S.  Turner,  Joseph  O'Neil,  John  Withnell,  Nicholas  Schaeflfer, 
H.  J.  Spaunhorst,  J.  B.  Ghio,  Bernhard  Crickhard,  Julius  S.  Walsh,  John  Byrne, 
Jr.,  Bernard  Slevin.  Charles  P.  Chouteau,  Charles  Slevin,  James  Maguire,  Joseph 
Garneau.  The  site  tentatively  selected  was  the  block  bounded  by  Twenty-second 
and  Twenty-third  streets.  Pine  and  Chestnut  streets,  now  largely  occupied  by 
light  manufacturing  establishments. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  1003 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

Three  times  tlie  Young  Men's  Christian  association  was  started  before  it 
secured  a  permanent  and  flourishing  hold  in  St.  Louis.  In  1853,  nine  years  after 
the  original  Young  Men's  Christian  association  was  founded  in  London,  a  St. 
Louis  association  was  started.  Samuel  Cupples  and  Henry  Hitchcock  were  offi- 
cers. The  Civil  war  caused  this  association  to  disband.  After  several  years 
another  beginning  was  made  by  Rev.  Shepard  Wells  and  General  Clinton  B.  Fisk. 
This  movement  failed.  In  1875  twelve  young  men  met  at  the  Union  Methodist 
church,  then  on  Eleventh  and  Locust  streets,  and  organized  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
which  has  grown  to  the  present  impressive  strength.  The  officers  were  H.  C. 
Wright,  Frank  L.  Johnson,  Dr.  L.  H.  Laidley,  Charles  C.  Nichols,  and  E.  Anson 
More.  The  association  occupied  one  rented  room  after  another  down  town,  until 
in  1879  Mf"-  Moody  conducted  one  of  his  revivals.  The  evangelist  appealed  to 
the  business  men  of  St.  Louis  to  provide  the  Young  Men's  Christian  association 
with  a  building.  Stephen  M.  Edgell,  Carlos  S.  Greeley  and  John  R.  Lionberger 
headed  a  subscription  which  reached  $40,000.  The  Union  Methodist  church  was 
bought  for  $37,500.  In  1885  the  association  occupied  the  former  residence  of 
John  D.  Perry  on  Pine  and  Twenty-ninth  streets  and  built  a  gymnasium.  In 
1892  the  property  on  Eleventh  and  Locust  was  sold  for  $125,000.  A  lot  on  Grand 
and  Franklin  avenues  was  bought  for  $51,250  in  1894.  On  this  a  building  which 
cost  $200,000  was  erected.  The  business  management  of  the  association  has  been 
excelled  only  by  its  Christian  influence.  In  a  third  of  a  century  the  St.  Louis 
Young  Men's  Christian  association  had  two  general  secretaries — Walter  C.  Doug- 
las and  George  T.  Coxhead.  The  latter  held  the  position  twenty-five  years.  For 
many  years  the  association  had  one  presiding  head — Thomas  S.  McPheeters.  It 
added  branch  after  branch  to  the  central  imtil  the  whole  city  was  its  field  of 
operation.  In  the  northern  and  southern  parts  of  the  city  the  branches  occupy 
their  own  buildings  and  grounds.  The  railroad  branch  occupies  a  model  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  building  erected  at  a  cost  of  $80,000,  to  which  Miss  Helen  Gould  was  the 
chief  contributor.  This  branch  was  dedicated  in  October,  1907,  with  Miss  Gould 
m  attendance.  Queen  Victoria  knighted  the  man  who  first  thought  of  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  and  put  his  thought  mto  action.  The  honor  roll  of  most  useful  citizens  con- 
tains the  names  of  the  men  who  have  made  the  St.  Louis  Young  Men's  Christian 
association. 

The  St.  Louis  Provident  Association. 

In  sixty  years  the  St.  Louis  Provident  Association  has  expended  for  the  relief 
of  the  poor  of  St.  Louis  $1,750,000,  has  investigated  200,000  cases.  About  i860 
the  most  charitable  man  in  St.  Louis,  by  common  consent,  was  James  E.  Yeatman. 
He  lived  on  Olive  street  in  what  was  called  Yeatman's  row.  The  poor,  Mr.  Yeat- 
man had  always  with  him.  One  very  bad  night  he  was  called  to  the  door  and 
was  told  a  tale  of  distress  by  a  woman  who  represented  that  her  child  was  desper- 
ately ill  and  that  she  had  no  means  to  buy  food  or  medicine.  Mr.  Yeatman  took 
the  address,  gave  some  temporary  help  and  went  back  to  his  fire.  He  couldn't 
rest.  He  got  his  overcoat  and  started  out.  Around  the  corner  at  Tenth  and 
Locust  streets  lived  Dr.  Pope,  the  eminent  surgeon.  He  was  just  leaving  the  house 
to  take  his  buggy  for  a  visit  to  a  patient.     Mr.  Yeatman  insisted  that  Dr.  Pope 


1004  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

go  with  him  to  sec  the  sick  child.  The  doctor  demurred  and  then  yielded.  The 
two  good  Samaritans  made  their  way  to  an  alley  above  Franklin  avenue  and  found 
the  hou.se.  But  the  supposed  abode  of  distress  was  lighted  and  a  sound  of  revelry 
came  through  the  cracks  of  door  and  window.  Mr.  Yeatman  knocked.  The  door 
was  opened.  There  stood  the  woman  holding  a  child,  liehind  her  surrounding 
a  tabic  ujjon  which  stodd  the  beer  bought  with  Air.  Yeatman's  charity  were  three 
or  four  husky  fellows. 

"Where  is  that  sick  child?"  asked  Mr.  Yeatman. 

"Here  she  is,"  said  the  woman,  indicating  the  one  in  her  arms. 

Dr.  Pope  looked  at  the  little  sleeper  closely  and  said  with  some  emphasis,  "I 
prescribe  soap  and  water.     Good  night." 

The  next  day  Mr.  Yeatman  invited  a  few  business  men  to  meet  him.  That 
was  the  genesis  of  the  St.  Louis  Provident  .-\s.sociation,  which  handles  from  $35,- 
cxx)  to  $50,000  a  year,  helping  the  poor  to  help  themselves  and  protecting  charity 
from  abuse. 

Once  in  its  history  the  St.  Louis  Pro\ident  Association  faced  a  crisis  which 
threatened  to  close  its  doors.  Philanthropy  knows  what  a  panic  means.  The 
winter  of  1893-4  drained  the  resources  of  the  charity  organizations.  One  day 
Mr.  Scruggs  and  Mr.  Cupples  found  themselves  facing  an  empty  treasury  and 
the  demands  for  relief  almost  without  precedent.  They  sent  for  Adolphus  Bu.sch 
and  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  the  three  men  sat  in  the  parlor  of  Mr.  Cupples'  home 
and  discussed  ways  and  means  to  keep  the  institution  0])en.  The  next  day  Mr. 
Busch  came  back.  He  brought  $10,000.  Half  of  it  was  his  individual  gift.  The 
remainder  was  from  Mr.  Lemp  and  other  brewers.  The  Provident  Association 
did  not  suspend. 

More  than  one  hundred  philanthropic  organizations  occupy  the  St.  Louis  field. 
With  very  few  exceptions  they  are  conducted  upon  the  cardinal  principle  of  help- 
ing the  unfortunate  to  help  themselves.  The  heart  of  St.  Louis  is  charitable  but 
in  the  exercise  of  charity  practical  judgment  goes  with  the  humane  sentiment. 
That,  in  large  measure,  explains  why  St.  Louis  has  no  slums,  like  the  plague  spots 
of  the  other  large  cities  of  the  country.  As  he  rode  about  St.  Louis.  Archbishop 
Farley  of  New  York  commented : 

"In  St.  Louis  the  workingmen  and  poorer  classes  are  much  better  taken  care 
of  in  their  homes  than  similar  classes  in  New  York.  This  results  in  contentment 
and  ])rcvcnts  social  trotibles.  I  have  seen  no  districts  in  St.  Louis  that  I  could 
call  squalid.     In  fact,  there  seems  to  be  no  real  squalor  in  the  city." 

A  La3rman's  Lifework, 

The  quality  of  religious  heroism  came  out  strong  and  not  infrequently  among 
the  laymen  of  the  city.  Thomas  F.  Webb  opened  a  little  Sunday  school  with 
twenty  scholars  in  a  small  frame  house  at  .Sixth  and  Carr  streets  in  1840.  After 
half  a  dozen  years  the  owner  of  the  land  wanted  it.  The  frame  building  was 
lifted  on  trucks  and  hauled  to  Fourteenth  and  Carr  streets,  where  Judge  Carr 
offered  a  temporary  location.  As  the  school  grew  the  building  was  enlarged  to 
accommodate  350.  In  1848  Thomas  Morrison  became  the  superintendent.  For 
sixty  years  thereafter  this  man  carried  on  a  work  peculiarly  his  own  with  a  degree 
of  devotion  which  made  his  personality  of  more  than  local  interest.    To  get  addi- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  1005 

tional  room  he  moved  the  school  to  a  hall  in  the  Bidclle  market,  and  the  Biddle 
market  mission  was  cited  a  model  for  mission  work  in  other  cities.  The  number 
of  scholars  increased  to  over  i.ooo.  A  church,  "the  First  Independent  church  of 
St.  Louis,"  was  started  in  1864.  Mr.  Morrison  sold  his  home  and  added  to  it 
all  of  the  money  he  could  spare  to  build  on  Sixteenth  and  Carr  streets.  After 
$37,000  had  been  spent  the  place  was  sold  under  a  mortgage.  Carlos  S.  Greeley 
took  the  property,  completed  the  church  and  presented  it  to  the  trustees  of  the 
mission.  At  that  time,  in  1880,  the  Memorial  Tabernacle,  for  that  was  the  name 
Rev.  Dr.  Niccolls  bestowed  upon  it,  was  pronounced  the  largest  and  finest  build- 
ing in  the  United  States  for  Sunday  school  purposes. 

When  Thomas  Morrison  died,  in  1908,  the  scenes  and  the  testimonies  at  his 
bier,  told  eloquently  what  a  place  he  had  occupied  in  the  life  of  the  city.  Bare- 
footed boys  and  bankers,  men  with  dinner  buckets  and  men  who  manage  great 
industries  came.    A  laboring  man  said : 

"I  went  to  school  to  him  in  1863.  It  was  in  tlie  old  mission  over  the  Biddle  Market. 
I  haven't  made  such  a  great  success  as  the  world  goes,  hut  I've  lived  a  Christian  life  and 
reared   my  children   Christians,   all  on   account  of  him." 

James  W.  Bell,  the  banker,  told  of  the  esteem  in  which  Thomas  Morrison  was  held : 
"In  1898,  upon  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  organization  of  this  mission,  Mr.  Mor- 
rison gave  away  3,000  bibles,  each  with  his  autograph  and  a  small  American  flag  of 
silk  pasted  inside.  I  have  one  of  those  bibles  now  at  home  upon  my  center  table  and 
prize  it  highly.  There  will  never  be  another  Thomas  Morrison  in  St.  Louis.  He  was 
unique.  He  was  the  means  of  saving  thousands  of  men  and  women.  I  was  a  steady 
contributor  to  his  mission  for  fifty  years.  We  all  loved  to  help  him.  When  we  saw  him 
come  in  we  threw  up  our  hands  and  said:     'How  much,  Tom?'" 

In  the  newspaper  accounts  of  the  funeral  of  Thomas  Morrison  were  described 
these  scenes: 

In  the  procession  of  mourners  were  three  generations  of  one  family,  a  grandmother, 
her  daughter  and  little  grandson.  The  grandmother  was  a  pupil  in  the  Biddle  Mission 
Sunday  School  sixty  years  ago.  Her  daughter  was  a  pupil  there  thirty  years  ago,  and 
her  little  boy  is  a  member  of  the  same  Sunday  School  now,  all  reared  in  the  love  of  God 
through  the  influence  of  this  one  man.  The  three  generations  went  into  the  mission 
together  and  stopped  at  the  coffin.  The  mother  lifted  her  little  boy  up  so  he  could  see  the 
face  they  all  loved  so  much.     As  they  went  out  the  grandmother  said : 

"I  wanted  the  child  to  carry  in  his  memory  the  face  of  the  man  who  did  so  much 
for  us.     He  was  the  means  of  our  salvation." 

In  the  crowd  was  an  old  Irish  woman,  a  devout  member  of  the  Catholic  church.  After 
she  had  looked  at  the  face  in  the  coffin,  she  said : 

"He  was  a  great  and  good  man.  I  knew  of  his  good  works  for  forty  years  in  this 
district,  and  though  he  didn't  die  in  the  church  I'd  like  to  hare  seen  him  die  in,  he  must 
surely   be   in   heaven." 

A  woman  in  a  magnificent  motor  car  rode  up  to  the  mission  door  at  one  o'clock  and 
alone  climbed  the  ding>'  stairway  to  the  mission  room.  Her  tears  fell  upon  the  glass  plate 
covering  the  face  and  without  speaking  to  anyone  she  walked  out,  got  into  her  car  and 
went   away. 

"Some  woman  he  saved.     There  are  many  of  them,"  said  a  mourner. 

Temperance  Reform  in  the  Forties. 

The  Washingtonian  movement,  as  the  great  temperance  cause  of  the  early 
forties  was  called,  swept  over  Missouri.     Among  those  who  espoused  the  cause 


1006  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

« 

with  enthusiasm  was  Thomas  L.  Anderson  of  Palmyra.  Colonel  Anderson  ar- 
ranged for  a  mass  meeting  in  his  town  and  secured  as  a  drawing  card,  Edwin  G. 
Pratt,  a  fellow  citizen.  Mr.  Pratt  was  the  best  dresser  in  the  legal  profession  of 
Northeast  Missouri.  He  usually  appeared  at  the  beginning  of  the  regular  terms 
of  court  with  a  new  plug  hat  and  a  new  suit  of  clothes.  The  weakness  in  Pratt's 
professional  practice  was  his  keen  sense  of  humor.  He  couldn't  let  an  oppor- 
tunity for  funmaking  pass.  Pratt  had  not  been  known  as  a  temperance  man,  but 
he  accepted  Colonel  Anderson's  invitation  with  a  readiness  that  would  have 
aroused  the  suspicion  of  the  colonel  if  the  latter  had  not  been  so  much  in  earnest 
for  temperance  reform.  When  Pratt  got  up  to  speak,  he  produced  some  old 
newspapers  in  which  he  said  he  had  found  obituary  notices  bearing  upon  the 
reform.  One  man  had  died  at  the  age  of  eighty  and  the  other  had  lived  to  be 
eighty-two.  The  newspapers  said  both  were  men  of  fine  character,  good  hus- 
bands and  fathers,  honest  in  their  relations  with  their  fellow  men.  The  only 
thing  which  could  be  said  against  them  was  that  they  sometimes  took  a  little  whis- 
key. Pratt,  after  reading  the  eulogies  as  he  claimed  they  appeared  in  the  papers 
which  he  held,  laid  down  the  papers  and  with  a  solemn  face  and  tones  of  deep 
regret  and  warning  said :  "What  a  loss  the  world  has  sustained  in  the  deaths  of 
these  men!  Cut  off  in  the  very  prime  and  vigor  of  their  manhood  and  sent  to 
untimely  graves.  If  they  had  not  been  drinking  men,  the  probability  is  they  would 
have  lived  to  be  loo  years  old.  All  these  years  of  usefulness  and  labor  have  been 
lost  to  the  world  simply  by  the  habit  of  drinking  ardent  spirits."  The  crowd 
laughed  loud  and  long,  while  Colonel  Anderson  commented :  "Confound  Pratt ! 
He  never  had  any  common  sense  in  his  life." 

Liquor  Selling  on  Sunday. 

Mayor  O.  D.  Filley  was  elected  by  the  free  soil  party  shortly  before  the  war. 
In  August.  1859,  the  people  of  St.  Louis  voted,  7.544  to  5.543,  against  the  sale 
of  intoxicating  liquors  on  Sunday.  The  Missouri  Republican,  commenting  on 
the  result,  said : 

The  triumphant  vote  by  which  the  people  of  St.  Louis  declared  their  opposition  to  the 
sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  on  Sunday  is  a  matter  of  sincere  congratulation  to  all  our 
best  citizens.  It  was  not  a  party  vote ;  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  party,  but  was  the  free 
declaration  of  mind  of  all  parties  and  nationalities  against  the  excesses  which  have  been 
superinduced  by  a  special  law  of  the  legislature  passed  two  years  ago  in  effect  giving 
unlimited  license  in  the  absence  of  a  proper  police  to  these  houses  being  kept  open  on 
Sunday.  *  *  ♦  *  Not  only  the  beer  gardens  in  the  suburbs,  to  which  men  retire  as 
a  place  of  pleasure  and  relaxation — on  Sunday,  but  all  the  beer  saloons  and  dancehouses 
and  five  or  six  theaters  have  been  opened  on  Sunday  night  on  every  prominent  street  in 
the  city.    This  is  the  evil  that  is  mainly  complained  of  by  our  citizens. 

In  defiance  of  the  vote  against  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  on  Sunday,  the 
common  council  passed  an  ordinance  legalizing  the  keeping  open  of  saloons  on 
Sunday  until  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  after  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  This 
action  was  severely  condemned  by  the  newspapers.  It  was  rebuked  in  a  ringing 
message  by  Mayor  Filley. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  1007 

Narrow  Escape  from  a  Religious  Riot. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  religious  riot  in  St.  Louis  occurred  in  1844,  at  Ninth 
street  and  \\'ashington  avenue.  The  Native  American  movement  had  reached 
large  proportions.  It  had  in  some  parts  of  the  country  taken  the  form  of  mob 
violence  against  Catholic  institutions.  It  gained  considerable  strength  in  St.  Louis, 
but  did  not  assume  the  phase  of  religious  intolerance,  being  directed  against  for- 
eign immigration  on  political  grounds  mainly.  Philadelphia  was  disgraced  by  the 
sacking  of  churches  and  by  bloodshed.  Several  other  American  cities  passed 
through  periods  of  serious  disturbance.  What  occurred  in  this  city  is  given  upon 
high  Catholic  authority,  the  language  being  that  of  a  member  of  the  clergy  who 
was  in  St.  Louis  at  the  time : 

It  so  happened  that  the  Jesuits  had  already  built  a  fine  church  of  St.  Xavier,  and 
near  it  was  their  house  of  residence  and  a  splendid  college  then  chartered  as  a  state 
university,  to  which  a  college  of  medicine  had  been  annexed.  To  the  latter  was  attached 
a  dissecting  house,  and  owing  to  some  shameful  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  professors  or 
students  of  medicine,  human  remains  were  left  exposed  in  the  yard  adjoining  and  seen 
through  interstices  of  the  wooden  partition  separating  it  from  the  public  street.  Soon  a 
crowd  collected,  and  then  imaginations  or  passions  became  strongly  excited.  Wild  rumors 
spread  abroad  that  all  the  horrors  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  were  being  renewed  in  St. 
Louis  by  the  Jesuits,  that  men  and  women  had  been  tortured  and  put  to  death.  Cries 
were  raised  in  the  streets  and  the  mob  began  to  arm  for  an  onslaught  on  the  college. 
At  this  moment  the  brave  Judge  Bryan  Mullanphy,  and  another  brave  Irishman  named 
John  Conran  collected  a  posse  of  Catholics  and  friendly  Protestant  citizens  armed  with 
rifles.  The  American,  Irish  and  German  Catholics  assembled  in  great  force  around  the 
Jesuits'  college,  prepared  to  defend  it  if  necessary,  even  to  the  last  extremity.  The  oppos- 
ing bands  met  and  determined  upon  a  desperate  struggle.  However,  Judge  Mullanphy 
went  boldlj-  forward  and  asked  to  be  heard  by  the  opposing  mob.  then  sending  forth  wild 
yells  and  imprecations.  Having  obtained  a  hearing  with  great  difficulty,  and  speaking 
with  the  coolness  and  deliberation  his  true  courage  and  sense  of  duty  inspired,  the  judge 
gave  a  correct  and  brief  explanation  of  the  case,  and  he  declared  that  every  effort  should 
be  made  to  detect  and  punish  the  delinquents,  who  had  offered  such  an  outrage  to  public 
decency  and  to  common  humanity.  The  mob  finally  dispersed,  and  with  them  the  party 
of  defenders.  Terrible  rumors  prevailed  all  that  day  in  St.  Louis,  that  our  Catholic 
churches  and  houses  would  be  burned  or  wrecked.  Some  faithful  and  brave  Irishmen 
had  armed  for  defense  of  our  seminary,  and  contrived  to  let  us  know  through  the  chinks 
of  our  planked  enclosure  that  we  were  in  some  danger  of  attack.  It  was  only  on  the  day 
following,  w-e  learned  all  of  the  particulars  of  excitement  that  had  taken  place  in  the 
city.  When  the  daily  papers  had  published  the  details,  popular  indignation  was  quelled. 
Only  the  natural  expression  of  wounded  feeling  found  vent  in  the  various  journals. 

Moral  Standards  in  Missouri. 

Nearing  the  close  of  half  a  century  in  his  St.  Louis  pastorate.  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel 
J.  Niccolls  said : 

"I  can  only  speak  of  the  morals  of  the  days  in  which  I  have  lived;  and  of  those  I 
can  say  that  I  never  knew  moral  standards,  in  private  or  in  public,  to  be  as  high  as  they 
are  today.  I  know  that  such  facts  as  the  growth  of  divorce  are  cited  to  prove  the  con- 
trary, but  those  unfavorable  signs  do  not  overcome  my  conviction  as  to  the  enlightenment 
and  virtue  of  the  present  at  its  best.  Evil  does  not  become  good.  So  far  as  it  continues 
to  exist,  it  becomes  more  evil.  But  as  a  whole  I  believe  men's  faith  is  stronger  and  their 
deeds  are  better  than  they  have  been.  One  of  the  most  hopeful  things  about  the  present 
time,  as  compared   with   the  days   when   my   ministry   began,   is   the  harmony  between   the 


1008  CENTEXXIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

sects.  One  miglit  well  say  as  he  compares  the  present  with  the  past  that  \vc  are  all  one 
great  church  now.  In  every  great  effort  for  the  spread  of  religion  and  the  good  of  the 
city,  the  churches  of  various  denominations  act  together  as  one  body." 

Sabbath  breaking  is  abhorred  in  the  heart  of  the  Ozarks.  Something  more 
ihan  .suspension  of  work  characterizes  the  Lord's  day.  The  wild  turkey  trots 
through  the  woods,  uttering  the  "tweet,"  "tweet."  Fox  squirrels  go  upon  long 
visits.  The  quails  whir  away.  There  is  no  answering  shot.  For  one  day  of  the 
week,  the  fowling  pieces  hang  from  the  hook.s  in  the  wide  galleries  of  the  houses 
and  are  hot  taken  down  whatever  the  temptation.  It  is  even  an  offense  to  do 
unnecessary  traveling.  And  the  inan  of  haste,  journeying  through  this  Sabbath 
keeping  country  without  regard  to  the  day  of  the  week,  is  likely  to  encounter 
looks  of  disapproval  if  nothing  more  serious.  He  will  have  the  road  to  himself 
for  miles  at  a  time.  The  rumble  and  clatter  of  the  wheels  of  his  own  vehicle  will 
be  the  only  sound  disturbing  a  quietude  profound.  On  the  wall  of  the  dining 
room  of  an  Ozark  hotel  appeared  in  illutninated  text  above  the  window  through 
which  the  waiter  girls  repeated  the  orders  to  the  kitchen,  the  selection :  "Christ 
is  the  head  of  this  household." 

\\'hen  the  chiefs  of  police  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  were  organizing 
their  international  association  at  Washington  about  1893  they  voted  that  their 
officers  should  include  a  chaplain  and  that  the  convention  should  be  opened  with 
prayer.  One  of  them  who  was  emphatic  in  this  was  Lawrence  Harrigan,  the  St. 
Louis  chief.  He  declared:  "A  man  who  doesn't  believe  in  God  ought  not  to  be 
on  the  police  force." 


VISIONS  OF  MISSOURI 


"Missouri  possesses  the  resources  and  capacities  of  a  nation  within  the  boun- 
daries' of  a  state."— Horace  Greeley,  Founder  of  the  New  York  Tribune. 


"1  have  said  for  years  that  everybody  in  Missouri  comes  nearer  having  three 
square  meals  a  day  and  a  bed  to  sleep  on  than  the  people  in  any  other  state  in 
the  Union.  We  haven't  very  many  rich  people  and  scarcely  any  poor  ones.  It  is 
a  rare  thing  in  the  country  districts  of  Missouri  to  hear  of  anybody  needing 
financial  assistance." — C.  M.  Shartel,  Former  Congressman  from   Missouri. 


"Missouri  is  proud  of  her  immeasurable  physical  resources,  which  will  one 
day  make  her  facile  princeps  among  her  sisters ;  but  there  is  something  else  of 
which  she  is  prouder  still,  and  that  is  her  splendid  citizenship,  consisting  at  this 
day  of  nearly  4,000,000  industrious,  intelligent,  patriotic,  progressive,  law-abid- 
ing, God-fearing  people." — Champ  Clark,  Former  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives. 


"The  spirit  of  Missouri  is  the  spirit  of  progress,  tempered  by  conservatism. 
It  rejects  not  the  old  because  of  its  age,  nor  refuses  the  new  because  it  is  not 
old.  It  is  the  spirit  of  a  community,  conscious  of  its  own  secure  jxisition,  some- 
what too  careless  at  times  of  the  world's  opinion,  hospitable,  generous,  brave. 
The  dream  of  the  greatest  statesman  is  a  nation  of  useful  citizens  dwelling  in 
happy  homes.  In  Missouri  the  dream  finds  realization.  The  noble  Latin  motto 
of  the  state  has  ever  expressed — and  does — the  spirit  of  the  united  citizenship: 
'Let  the  welfare  of  the  people  be  the  supreme  law.'  " — U^alter  Williams,  Dean 
of  the  College  of  Journalism,  University  of  Missouri. 


"The  breadth  of  land  from  the  Red  River  country  of  the  far  North,  stretch- 
ing to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  including  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Mis- 
souri, Kansas,  Texas,  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  agricultural  spectacles  of  the 
globe!  It  is  one  of  the  few  facts  that  are  unthinkable!  In  this  ocean  of  land, 
and  at  nearly  its  center,  stands  the  imperial  State  of  Missouri.  Even  a  Kansas 
man  admits  that  in  natural  qualifications  it  leads  all  the  rest,  and  is  the  crown 
and  glory  of  the  Union !  It  has  boundless  treasures  of  coal,  iron,  lead  and  other 
minerals;  lands  richer  there  cannot  be,  nor  finer  streams;  its  forests  are  more 

Vol,  1-64  1009 


1010  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 

equally  distributed  all  over  the  state  than  in  any  other;  its  climate,  wholfesome 
and  delightful,  blends  the  temperature  of  the  northern  lakes  and  the  great  south- 
ern gulf." — Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


"I  see  here  one  state  that  is  capable  of  assuming  the  great  trust  of  being 
the  middle  main,  the  mediator,  the  common  center  between  the  Pacific  and  the 
Atlantic — a  state  of  vast  extent,  of  unsurpassed  fertility,  of  commercial  facili- 
ties that  are  given  to  no  other  railroad  state  on  the  continent,  a  state  that  grapples 
hold  upon  Mexico  and  Central  America  on  the  south  and  upon  Russia  and 
British  America  on  the  north;  and  through  which  is  the  only  thoroughfare  to 
the  Golden  Gate  of  the  Pacific.  It  is  your  interest  to  bind  to  Missouri  the  young 
states  of  the  Pacific  of  this  Continent,  while  they  are  yet  green  and  tender,  and 
hold  them  fast  to  you.  When  you  have  done  this  and  secured  the  Pacific  states 
firmly,  you  will  have  bound  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  have  guar- 
anteed an  empire  such  as  Alexander  failed  to  conquer,  and  Bonaparte  tried  in 
vain  to  reduce  under  one  common  scepter,  as  his  predecessor,  Charlemagne,  had 
done.  And  it  will  be  the  glory  of  Missouri  to  see  established  firmly  the  empire 
of  the  Republican  Government  of  America  over  the  entire  continent  of  North 
America.  And  in  saying  what  I  do,  I  do  not  exclude  the  region  which  lies 
between  us  and  the  North  Pole.  And  I  dare  not  say  where  I  would  draw  the 
line  on  the  south." — William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  1861-9,  with  Lin- 
coln and  Johnson,  in  an  Address  at  St.  Louis. 


"I  have  said  that  I  am  glad  to  be  here  in  your  great  state,  and  I  am  not 
impolite  when  I  say  that  you  are  unappreciative  of  your  powers  here  at  this 
place.  I  have  considered  your  natural  resources ;  with  you  nature  has  been 
more  than  lavish,  she  has  been  profligate.  Dear  precious  dame!  Take  your 
southern  line  of  counties ;  there  you  grow  as  beautiful  cotton  as  any  section  of 
this  world;  traverse  your  southeastern  counties  and  you  meet  that  prodigy  in 
the  world  of  mineralogy — the  Iron  Mountain  married  to  the  Pilot  Knob,  about 
the  base  of  which  may  be  grown  any  cereal  of  the  states  of  the  great  Northwest, 
or  any  one  of  our  broad,  outspread  western  territories.  In  your  central  coun- 
ties you  produce  hemp  and  tobacco  with  these  same  cereals.  Along  your  eastern 
border  traverses  the  great  Father  of  Waters  like  a  silver  belt  about  a  maiden's 
waist.  From  west  to  east  through  your  northern  half  the  great  Missouri  pushes 
her  way.  In  every  section  of  your  state  you  have  coal,  iron,  lead  and  various 
minerals  of  the  finest  quality.  Indeed,  fellow  citizens,  your  resources  are  such 
that  Missourians  might  arm  a  half  million  of  men  and  wall  themselves  within 
the  borders  of  their  own  state  and  withstand  the  siege  of  all  the  armies  of  this 
present  world,  in  gradations  of  three  years  each  between  armistices,  and  never 
a  Missouri  soldier  stretch  his  hand  across  that  wall  for  a  drink  of  water." — 
Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas  of  Illinois,  in  an  Address  at  St.  Loins,  sixty  years 
ago. 


Inde 


THIS   INDEX   IS  TOPICAL,  NOT   PERSONAL 


Page 

Al)ernathy,    J.    R.,    Defeat    of    Wrieht    by 235 

Able,     Barton    and    Daniel 355 

Abolitionists     Sent     to    the     Penitentiary 6t>5 

Aboriginal    Missourians,    W.    B.    Douglas    on..   457 
Aboriginal    Missourians,    Broadhead    on 447 


Page 

Audubon  on   Cost  of  Living  in   Missouri 122 

Aus  Arcs,  Ozarks  of  the  French 518 


Absurd     Solemn     Act 57 

Adair    County,    Dividing    Ridge    of 8<J 

Adams,    John,    Jefferson's     Letter    to 39 

Adams,   Wash.,  John   F.    Philip?   on 943 

Address  of  Seventy  Radical  I'nion  ^len....  825 
Admission  of  States,  National  Policy  of. ...  31 
Admission    to    Union.    Monroe's    Proclamation     29 

Admission     of     Missouri     Celebrated 5 

Admission  Declared  "Complete"  Aug.  10,  1821  51 
Admission    to    the    Bar,    John    F.    Philips    on..   259 

Advice   of   Two    Missouri    Governors 7(t2 

Advertisement    of    Tavern,    1821 113 

".Vgainst  the  Peace  and   Dignity   of  the   State"  212 

Age    of    the    Ozarks 546 

A    Good    Samaritan    of    1820 10 

Agricultural     Wheel     in     Missouri,     1888 647 

.\gricultural    Pathfinder    of    the    Plains 416 

Agricultural     Society     in     1822 439 

A  La  Carte  on   Boone's  Lick   Road 119 

.Mexander,   King   of    Missouri    Voodoos 564 

Allen,  Thomas,   on   First    Railroad    Co** 393 

Allen,   Thomas,    Sale   of    Iron    Mountain    R.    R.  412 

Allen,    Rev.    John    W..     Editor 974 

Allen,    D.    C.,    on    Bonnet    Show    Sunday 171 

Alton,     Riot     over     Lovejoy's     Presses 660 

.Vmateur   Scientists  on    ^Iissouri   Caves 506 

.\mateur    Surgery    on    the    Trail 382 

Amateur    War    Preparations    in    1861 758 

\merica.    Libels    on    the    Town    of 96 

American  Bar  Association,  Presidents  of.  .  . .  269 
American    Colonization    Society    in    Missouri..   665 

Americanization     of     St.     Louis 433 

.\nierican    Taverns,    Melish    on 140 

Amnesty    of    Confederates.    Movement^  for.  ..  .   206 

Anderson,     Rill,     Death     of 806 

Anderson,   Thomas  L.,   on   End   Iloney  War...      64 

Ankeney,    J.    S.,    Artist    of    the    Missouri 368 

Ansel,    Thomas    R.,    .-Vctor    in    Politics 615 

.\ntiquities,     Beckwith's     Collection     of 560 

Antiquities   of    Missouri,    Peterson    on 456 

.\nti-Slavcry     Missourians     of     1819 5 

Appeal    to    Richmond    by    State    Government..   845 

Archaeological    Collections    in    Missouri 448 

Archdiocese    of    Missouri    Created .-. .  .   976 

.\rgus    and    Crisis,    Deacon    Tucker,    Editor.  . .   849 

Arkansas,  Creation  of  Territory  of 31 

,\rkan?as    Traveler,    The    Original 591 

"Armed    Neutrality,"    Missouri    Slncan    in    1861  701 

Armorial    Achievement    of    Missouri '. . .  .    195 

.\rmour,    P.    D.,    Reminiscence    of 899 

-\rmy    of   Liberation,    General    Polk's 763 

Arrow     Rock     Traditions 78 

.\rrow     Rock    Tavern 146 

Arsenal     Issue    of    1861 T04 

Artist    of    the    Missouri,    J.    S.    Ankeney 368 

Ashby,  Major  Daniel,  Indian  Adventures  of  495 
Ashby,   Major  Daniel,   Hunting  Exploits  of....   871 

-Xssessment    Methods   of    Kansas    City 909 

Assessments    of    Sympathizers,    Lincoln    on .   821 

Assessment    of    Southern    Sympathizers 791 

Atchison,    D.    R.,   on   Kansas    Elections 624 

Attorneys.    Twentj'-seven    in    St.    Louis,    1821..        7 

Audrain     County's     Esau 867 

Audrain  County,  Old  Settlers'  .\ssociation.  . .  .  86 
Audrain,    James    H.,    Tavern    of 116 


Bacon,   Captain   H.   D.,   Sabbath   Keeping  of.  .  355 

Church     Builder 975 

Bald     Knobs,     Orchards    on 345 

Bald    Knobs    of    Missouri 374 

Ball.    Hampton,    Recollections    of 131 

Stage    Driving    Days    of 383 

Ballad    of    the    Missouri 335 

Ball,   Samuel.    Shot   by   John    Smith  T 120 

Banquet   at    Franklin,    1819 338 

Baptist    Church    Building 972 

Baptist   Delegates   Protest   to   Congress 33 

Baptists,    First    in    Nf issouri 158 

Barnum    Stew,    Famous    Ragout 128 

Bar    Association,    History    of 252 

Barclay,    Shcpard,    on    Early    Conferences 239 

Bartlett    Farm    and    School    for    Negroes 683 

Bamett,   G.    W.,   on   Admission   to   the    Bar....  259 

Barton,    David,    Joshua    and    Isaac,    Brothers..  184 

Letter   on    the    Rectors 281 

Barton,   Joshua,   on    Lucas-Benton   Duel 274 

Barton-Hempstead     Duel     270 

Bates,    Edward,   John    F.    Philips*    Tribute    to..  944 

Bates,    Frederick   and    Edward,    Careers    of....  189 

Bates,    Governor    Frederick,    on    Dueling 289 

Bates,   Moses   D.,    Letter  of   Sluldrow    to 89 

Battle  of   Lexington,   Stores  Captured 768 

Battle   of   the    Hemp    Bales 767 

Battle    of    Wilson's    Creek 7«3 

Battle    of    Carthage     759 

Battle  Won  by  2.000  Unarmed   Men 760 

Battle  of   Boonville,   Significance  of 7o5 

Baxter,    First    Campmeeting    at 180 

Bear    Hunt    by    Small    Boy 863 

Beecher.    Henry    Ward,    on    Imperial    Missouri. 1009 

Becltwith,  .Amos,  50,000  Indian  Relics  of 448 

Bees  and    Bears  along  Turpin*s   Branch 875 

Beeswax     Exports    from     Grand    River '  879 

Beggs,  Rev.   S.  R.,  Account  of  Campmeeting..  180 

In    Brush    College 155 

Bek.    W.    G.,    Story   of    Hermann    by 309 

Translation     of    Duden 302 

Benton,   Thomas    H.,    Visit    to    Kansas   City...  138 

Guest    at    WTiig    Taverns...^ 129 

At    Campmeeting    ( 172 

In    Convention    of    1849 391 

On    Internal    Improvements 380 

Relations    to    Dueling '. 265 

On    Edward    Hempstead 222 

In     1849    Campaign 616 

Whig    Insult    to ,  612 

Not    Constitution    Maker 190 

On    Republic    of    Missouri 5 

Resolutions    on    Statehood 4 

On   .Arid   Plains  of  Missouri 25 

On    Missouri's    Admission 29 

Benton's    Most    Bitter    Campaign    Speech 621 

Benton's   Tavern    Experience    at    Auburn 125 

Benton's    Change    of    Mind    on    Statehood 50 

Benson,   Dr.    J.    H.,  on    Missouri's   Degradation  32 

Berger.    Rev.    J.    S.,    Story    of 155 

Bethel    Baptist    Church    Organized    1806 158 

Bethel    Colony    in    Shelby    County 323 

Beverrdge.    Comments   on    Marshall 198 

Biddle    Alarket    Sunday    School.    Influence    of.. 1004 

Big    Bill    Woods    of    the    Ozarks 519 

Big    Elk.    Oration    of.    at    Portage    Council 493 

Bigigs,  Judge,   Spelling   Controversv   with 251 

1011 


101:2 


INDEX 


lliK    Mouiui    Park    I'roposcd 4G3 

Bin    Xci"k,    Kcacier    of    the    lovvas 5t>r> 

BiR    Woman's    Tavcni,    Kansas    City 121) 

Bill    Anderson's    War    Proclamation H02 

Binaham's    County    Mlection,    Key    of tf  14 

Birch,    James    IT.,    on    I'lattc    Purchase 68 

Birthplace   of    the   Slate   of    Misrtoun 114 

Bittinjier,   T.    I^.,  on    I'irst    Railway   Mail 402 

Bixhv.  W.K.,   Lincoln  Collection   of 830 

Black.    Francis    M..    on    Official    l.ifc 24(> 

Black     Cown.     the     Indians'     l-^icnd 512 

Blackhawk.    Keokuk's    Plea    for    Kreedom    of..  470 

Blackhawk's  Treachery   to    >fissourians 47ft 

Blacksn.ike    Hills.   Court    Day   at 131 

Blair.    V.    P..    Slaves    Freed    by 674 

On    Price-  Harney    Agreement 74S 

On    Kvils    of    Permit    System 83S 

Blair's    First     Speech    after    the    War 639 

Blair's    Xircat    ( )pport  unity 724 

Blair-.PickcrintJ     Challenge 26*5 

Blair-IVirc    Feud.    Keynolds'    Memoir    on 21J7 

Blind    nri.ile    Story    and    Sequel 649 

Bledsoe's     Ferry,    Historic    CrossinK SRt 

Blickensderfer,    Jacfdi.     Kngineer 401 

Bloody    Island,   Historic   DuelinR  (iroimd 26(J 

Bloominston.    S'luirc    Ahsolom    Lewis,    of 142 

Blow,    H.    T..    Visit    to    Marvel    Cave 575 

Bluff  ion  Townsitc  a   Wheat    Field 93 

Bonlware,      Rev.      Theodoric,      on      Hen      Kgg 

Revival 173 

Boatahle    Waters    of    Mississippi    Valley 321) 

Bodily     Agitations     at     Campmeetings 150 

Boernstein.    Henry,    l-'ditor    and    Authm- <J31 

Boggs.    Ciovernor,    Course    in    Honey    War 64 

Boone's   Lick    Country,   X'ictims  of    Indians.  .  .  .  489 

Boonville    City    Hotel.    Historic    Register   of....  128 

Boonville.    Five    Bears    Killed    on    Site    of 8<»lt 

Boonville    and    Columhia.    Rival    Census    of....  25 

Boone,    Daniel,   Cause   of   Fatal    Illness 24 

Boone's    Lick    Country.    Prosperity   of    1817....  13 

Boonville's     Last     Day  .  .  .' 176 

Bo(»ne    ("ounty's    First    Church    Covenant 158 

Bonnet    Show    .Sunday    at    Big    Shoal 171 

Bonhomme.    Origin    of,    According    to    Primm..  105 

Border    States    Policy    of    Lincoln 676 

Bosley,     John,     Stal.hed     by     Mnhlrr)w 664 

Bruce.    .V.    C.,    Head   of    Hartlett    School HKi 

P.oundaries    Propose<!    for   State   of    Missouri....  31 

Boundaries    of    Howard    County,    by    Switzler. .  74 

Boundaries    of    Missouri,    Changes    in 63 

Boundaries  of  St.    Louis  at  Different   Periods..  I'H 

Boundary    War    with     Iowa 64 

Bowling    Creen,    Benton's    Meeting    at 618 

Bownia)i(ilovcr      Challenge ■ 298 

Boyle.    Rev.    Dr.   Joseph.    Pasljoratcs  of 981 

Brackenridgc,    H.    M.,   on   Curious  Court   Deci- 
sion       222 

On    Social    Conditions 16 

Bradbnrv.    Tohn.  on   Discovery   of  Coal 558 

Brave     Sally     (Iregg 492 

Breckenricige,    S.    M.    Circuit   Judge 249 

Breckenridge,    William    Clark,    Study    of    Slav- 
ery        G85 

Brewer,  David  J.,  on  Work  of  the   Lawyer....  221 

British     Intrigues    Thwarted    in    1812 467 

British    Intluence    in    Indian    Affairs 494 

Broadhead,    James    O.,    on    Camp   Jackson 747 

Story    of    Draper    Tavern 125 

Committee    of^    Safety 700 

Brookes.    Rev.    Dr.    James    H.,    Fdilor 981 

Broun,    Uev.    Fcli.\,    F.ccentricity    of 170 

Brown.    B.    Gratz,    Fditorial    Facility    of 687 

Fnos    Clarke    on 699 

Campaign     of      1870 642 

Letter    nn    Politics 644 

Browning.    O.    IL,    Lincoln    Letter   to 774 

Brown,    Joseph,    on    Pioneer    Sicamboating.  .  . .  342 

BrowneSmitli     Fatal     Duel 269 

Brush    Kxpedition  in   Western   Missouri 810 

Buchanan    County,    ICarly    Court    of 255 

Buchanan    Tavern,    in    I'lorida,    Missouri 140 

Buckskin    Clothing,    Drawback    of 25 

Bullard.    Rev.    Artemas.   Church   of 982 

Bull     Boats.    Construction    of 330 

Burckhartt,   Judge    George    H 23t> 

In     Kring     Case 255 

Burch.    Jud^c    Thomas    C,    Calf    Case    before..  229 

Burdine.    Amos,     .Missouri    Munchausen 881 

Burke,   Father  Tom,   on   Bishop  Ryan 995 

Burleson.    Xed.,   Vice-President  Texas  Republic  83 

Burnes,   James   N.,    on    Railway    .Slail    Origin..  401 


Page 
Burnett's    Ride    with    News   of    PUttc    Purchase     71 

Burton,    John.    Decision    against    Brother 255 

Busch,    ,\doIphus,   and    Provident    Associaticm.  .   436 

Bushwhackers,    ICxtermination    Ordered 799 

Bush    Arbors    for    Pioneer    Worship 150 

Business    Methods    of    1820 13 

Business   Houses  in   St.   Louis,  1821 7 

Uutterfield,   John.  Overland    Mail    by 398 

Byrnes,    Samuel,    Member    of   Congress 81 

"By   the   Wars,"   Colonel  John   M.    Bell's 872 

C 

Cabell.    C.    J.,    on    Days    (.f    Ohl    Cliariton 83 

On     ."Statehood    Celebration 0 

Cabell.     1*'.     C,    Jackson's    Commissioner 845 

Cabin    by    the    Winding    Way 525 

Cabin>  of  the  White   Folks 505 

Calf    Case    Before    Judge    Burckhartt 256 

(  alhoun,    J.    C.,    Letter    to    Samuel    Treat 391 

Callaway    County's    Courthouse 75 

Calhiway    County's    Low    Salary    Party 48 

Callaway,    Captain    James.    Death    of 484 

Callaway    Treaty    of    Henderson    and    Jones.  ...      76 

Callaway,     Forced    Con|rit)uti(»ns    in 815 

Call    to    Arms   in    iKf.l,    Reynolds'    Draft    of 844 

Camel    Transportation    on    the    Plains 138 

Camp    Life    in    1819 13 

Campbell,    Rev.   J.    W.,    Pioneer   Preacher 150 

("ampmeeting     Hymns 154 

Campmeeting      Programs 153 

Campmeeting,    One    of    First 147 

Campaign     Stories,     Walter    Williams' 626 

Camp     Jackson 723 

Cape    Girardeau,    Benton's    Meeting    at 616 

("ape   (iirardeau  Teachers'  College   Museum....  448 

Capture  of  Big  Neck  by  General  Hughes 508 

Capture   of    Camp   Jackson,   Champ   Clark   on.  .   745 

Carondelel,    Settlement    of,    1707 420 

Carthage,      IHttle     of 759 

Cartoon   of   One    Hundred   Years  Ago 5 

Cartonn,    I-'irst    in    Missouri   Journalism 43 

Carr,    William    C,   Circuit   Judge 224 

Carl  Junction.   Remains  of  Mammoths  at 550 

Cascades  and   Shut    In   of   Iron   County 568 

Cass    County's    Courthouse    Architecture 82 

("ass    Countv,    Name   Changed   for   Politics 73 

Cathedral.    'The     New 998 

Catholic     Missionary     Activities 975 

Catliolic    Beginnings    in    Kansas    Citv 988 

Cave    Fxploration    by    Truman    S.    Powell 576 

(.'avc    M  an    in    M  issouri 608 

Cave    Sensations 595 

Cedar   Pyramid  in  St.  Charles  County 568 

Census    of    Buildings    in    St.    Louis,    1821 7 

Census  of  St.    Louis  from   Incorporation 428 

Center     State     and    Tributary     ( Ountry 109 

Chapin,   .Mrs.  J.   W.,  Artist  of  Tower  Rock 567 

(  halybeate  Spring,  Campmeeting  Discipline.  .  .  157 
Chamber   of   Commerce,   St.    Louis,   Origin  of.  .   429 

Chambers,    Colonel     William ^ 294 

Chambers,    Colonel    Benjamin,    Stories   of 224 

Charcoals    and    Claybanks    of    1803 681 

Clayljanks    and    Charcoals    of    1803 823 

Chariton    Coimty,    F-arliest    Records    of 84 

Charless,    luseph,    ICditorial    Valedictory 44 

Attack    of    I.    N.    Henry -, 191 

Tavern     Announcement     of 113 

Chased    l>y    Deer 870 

"Chicken   I'ixins"  on   Boone's  Lick   Road 119' 

("hillicothe    Cannon    Captured    by    Brookfield.  .   742 

Chillicothe.    "Big   Town    Where    We    Live" 100 

Chiles,    IL    W..    Landlord   of   Gillis    House 138 

Chillicothe,  John   Graves'  Tavern    House  at....   121 

Church   Architecture   before   Civil    War 975 

Church    of    the    Messiah 975 

Christ     (  burch     in     1S49 977 

Chouteau.  Madame,  Treatment  of  Slaves  by.  .  661 
Chouteau,  DeMun  and  McKnight  ICxpcdition. .  20 
Chouteau,  Pierre,  Notice  r>f  Town  Illumination  43 
Chouteau,  .\ugustc.   Leader  of   First  Thirty....   419 

At    I  ndian    Council    475 

Chouteau   Springs,  (iift  of 463 

Chouteau's    Castle    in    1K18    - 19 

Chouteau,     August  e,     Chairman     of     Statehood 

Meeting      3 

Chouteau   Madame,  Importation  of  Bees  by 878 

Christian    Church,    Constituting    of 181 

Church   and    State.    First   Constitution  on 189 

Churches  of  St.    Louis,   Dr.   Niccolls  on 959 

Church    Building  and  (Jood  Citizenship 064 


INDEX 


1013 


Page 

Citizenship.    Missouri,   Test   of 445 

City    Plan   of  Chambers,   Christy   and    Wright..   424 

Circuit    Courts,    The    Early. . . .- 222 

Clark.    Champ,    Maiden    Speech    of 174 

Political     Philosophy    of 6- 

iK-ft-nsc  of   David   Ball   by 2o\ 

(^n    CouraKc    of    Hlair w9 

Blind    Bridle    Story    of gnO 

On    Armed    Neutrality    of    18G1 TdO 

On    Missouri    Citizenship    - 1009 

Clark   County,   Muldrow's  Investments  in 90 

Clark-Taekson     Challenge 295 

Clark.    Kev.  John,    Ministrations  in   Missouri..      0(K) 

Clark.   John    B.,   on    Indian   Troubles 404 

As  John   F.    Philips  Knew   Him 945 

War    Reminiscences    by 859 

On    Reynolds'    Charges    857 

In    Campaign    of   IftW 636 

Clark,    fudge    lames,  on    Sheriff's   First    Duty..      85 

Clark.    Major    Christopher,    Pioneer    Settler 23 

"Big     Hands"     476 

Clark,    William,    British    Plans    Thwarted    by..   466 

Clark,    (".uvcrnor    William,    Position    of 56 

Clarke,    Knos,    Recollections   by 824 

Clay,    Henry,    Appeal    of,    for    Statehood 40 

On    Missouri    Bethesda    118 

Story    of   Tavetnkeeper 141 

Clay    I'^ormula    for    Miss()uri's    Admission 56 

Clayton  ax,   Gerard  Fowke  on 560 

Clemens,  John  M.,   Father   of   Mark  Twain. —   140 

Clinton    County,   County   Seats   of 82 

Coal    Measures   of   Adair,    Kstimate   of 86 

Coal,    Discovery    of 558 

Cockrell,  F.  M.,  Statehood  Researches  of .  .  .  .  52 
Cockrell,    F.    M.,   Narrow    Fscape   in   Civil  War  857 

Code     Duello     Condemned 282 

Cole  County  Court,   First  Judgment  of 74 

Cole   County,    Stalwart   First   Families   of 74 

Cole.    Samuel.    Mighty     Hunter 869 

Collins,    Judge    John    C.    on    Honey    Exports.  .     67 

Colonization     Agents     Expelled 665 

Colman,    Norman    J.,    on    Missouri    Sport 882 

Coming    of    the    Bees    to    Missouri 878 

Committee   of    Public    Safety,   1861 705 

Commissioner    from    Mississippi,    1861 713 

Committee    of    Public     Safety,    Lincoln    to.  .  .  .   732 

Common    Law   Unions  in   Missouri 60 

Community    Experiments    in    Missouri 324 

Commercial     Review    before    Statehood 18 

Commonwealth.    The,   on    First    Stage   Line.  .  . .   380 

Compromise,   The   Missouri 41 

Jefferson    on 42 

Concordia    (.'ollege,    Cencsis    of 316 

Conferences    of    Judges 239 

Confederate    Losses   at   Wilson's   Creek 705 

Confederate    Senators    and    Representatives.  .  .  .    847 

Confidential    Letter   of  Governor  Jackson 731 

Congregationalism    in     Missouri 986 

Congress,   ( )fficial    Records  on    Statehood 52 

Congress.      Warning     to 4 

Constitution.   The   First.  July   19,   1820 47 

Constitution    of    1S75.    Analysis    of 211 

Constitution,    New,    Provisional    Vote    on 217 

Constitution    Makers    of    1875 210 

Constitution   Convention  of   1S75 835 

Controversy.  The  Great,  in  Globe- Democrat. .  .  995 
Controversy  over  Missouri's  Electoral  Vote.  .  51 
Conway,   Capfain   Joseph,    Boys'    Hero.   1820...   513 

Cooper,    Colonel,    Defied    by    Duff    Green 16 

Cooperative    Stores    in    Missouri 648 

Cooke,    General    Philip    St.    George 860 

Cooley,   L.   K.,  on  Mississippi   Power  Sites 362 

Coon    Hunting   along   the    Wyaconda 867 

Cooper    Colony    in     Howard    County 486 

Cooper,    Sarshall.    Letter    to    Governor    Howard  489 

Cooper,    Stephen.    Thrilling    Escape    of 491 

Corner    Stone    Ceremonies,    New    Cathedral.  .  .  .   998 

Corn     Rows    a    Mile    Long 9 

Corn    Fields    Determine    Place   of   Battle 760 

Cost    of    Living    in    1S21 116 

Cote  .Sans   Dessein,   Lots  "Cash   or   Negroes"..     94 

Coues,    IClliut,    on   Name   of   Arrow    Rock 78 

County    Lines    Controversy 74 

County    Seat    Contest,    Paris   and    Florida 140 

County    Seat    Changes 77 

County    Maps   of   Missouri,   Changes  of 72 

County    Names    Favoring   W'ar    Heroes 73 

Council    at    Portage    des    Sioux 493 

Craig,     General     James 250 

"Crazy    Sherman"    Controversy 794 

Cremation    by    Cave    Ammonia 574 


Page 

Creve    Coeur,    Origin    of    Name 106 

Crisp,   John    T.,    Story    of   the    (Jzarks 527 

Cunningham,    Rev.    J.    W.,   on    Campmectings.  .  147 

<)rt     Thomas     Drummond 982 

Cupples,    Samuel,    and    Provident    Association.  436 

( )n     ( "olored     Teachers 682 

Curran,    John    H..    on    Ozark    Products 546 

Current    Events  One   Hundred  Years   Ago 24 

D 

Dallas    County,    Mammoth    Spring    of 362 

Darby.   John    F..    .Story   of    Hung   Jury 222 

Railroad    Argument     with     Benton 389 

On     fohn    .Smith    T 120 

Darnes,    William    P..    Trial    of 2:i0 

Davis,    Tcfiferson.    Letter    to  Jackson 728 

Davis,   W.  A.,  Father  of  Railway   Mail 401 

Daviess    County,    Historical    Landmarks 7(> 

Davis,    Jefferson.    Policy    Toward    .Missouri.  .  .  .  860 

Quarrel      with      Price 849 

Dawson,     Lafayette,    Judge    in     Alaska 250 

Days  of  Pilots'   Glory  on  the  Missouri 34T 

Days   of   the    Hand    Picked    Lawyer,    Philips.  ..  .  95T 

Dead  Animal  Chamber  in   Marvel  Cave 584 

"Deadheads"    on    Santa    Fe    Trail 378 

Deadlock     on     Missouri     Statehood 5 

Dean,    Henry   Clay,   Rebel's   Cove. 174 

Decline   of    River   Traffic    355 

Defiance   of    Congress.    Resolutions   of 3 

Delassus,    Address    to    Indians 465 

Instructions    on     Slavery     to 661 

Delegates   to    Convention    of    1801 714 

DeMun,    Jules,    Imprisoned   by    Mexicans 20 

DeMotte,    M.    L.,    Defective    Indictments    by..  241 

Depopulation    and    Devastation    Policy 807 

DeSmet,    Father    P.   J.,    Influence  of 511 

Desperate    Nature    of    War    in    Missouri 792 

1  )eyirs     Tollgate 569 

Devil's    Campground,    Judge    Fagg    on 150 

Devil's    Den    and    Roark    Peak 573 

Diary    of    .Mrs.   Jacob    Matthews,   1820 23 

Diary    of   an    Ozark    Winter   Journey 520 

Dickens,    Charles.    Tribute    to    Planters 122 

Die    Lutheraner,    Organ   of    Lutherans 316 

"Dinner  and  Whiskey"  at   Potosi  Tavern 129 

Diocese   of    St.    Louis    ("reated 965 

Directory,   First   St.    Louis,   1821 7 

Dobyns,    Edward,    on    Pettis-Biddle    Duel 292 

Docke.ry,   A.    M.,   Seat   in   Congress   saved   by.  .  650 

"Doughfaces,"    F.   W.    Lehmann   on   Origin   of.  40 

Douglas,    Stephen    A.,    on    Missouri    Resources.  1010 

Douglas,    Walter    B.,    on    Indian    Population.  .  ,  456 

Dowling,    Richard,    on    Lucas- Benton    Duel.  ,  .  .  271 

Dozler,    L    L,    Announcement    of 116 

Drafl^en.'r.    W..    John    F.    Philips'    Story   of 954 

Draper,   Daniel,  Tavernkeeper  at   Auburn ,125 

Drake,  Charles   D..  as  Schurz   Knew    Him 205 

Drake     Constitution.     Provisions    of 203 

Dred    Scott  and    His   Case 671 

Drummond,    Rev.    Thomas,    Died    at    His    Post.  981 

Drydcn,    David,    to    Rev.    Andrew     Xfonroc.  .  .  .  119 

Dubourg.    Bishop    L.    W.    V.,    Coming   of 965 

Duden.     Gottfried,     Letters    of 301 

Duel   Settled  at   Bar  of  Mann's  Tavern 126 

Duel    Law.    .\itenipt    to    Dodge 293 

Duel    of    Brown    and    Reynolds 693 

Duel.    The    Last    on    Bloody    Island 298 

Dueling     in      Missouri 265 

Dunn,    George   W..   the    Poet  Judge 252 

Dunklin    County,    without    Hill    or    Stone 86 

Dunklin   County   Cbunh,   Guerrillas  at 983 

Durkee.    Koswell,    \ictim    of    Blackhawk 480 

Dyer,   D.   P.,  Advice  to   Bethel   Colony 324 

(Quotation     from     Song 612 

Campaign    Story    on    Lamm 853 

Dysart,    B.    R.,  on   Constitution   of  1875 214 

E 

Lads.   Jamev    iJ.,   Iron   Clads   Built   by 775 

Early    Life  and   Times  of   Major   Elijah   lies...  9 

Earliest     Railroa<l      Projects 387 

Early,   John    and    William,   Tavernkeepers 141 

Eastun.    Rufus.    Reply    to   Scott's   Challenge....  271 

Edna,    Steamer,    Burning    of 343 

Edson,  C.   L.,   Epic  of  Kansas  City  by 931 

Edwards,   lohn  N.,  on   Brown- Reynolds  DueL .  694 

Edwards- Foster    Duel     298 

l'"gg  Shell   Lamps  for  Church   Services 150 

Election    Riot    of    1854 631 


1014 


INDEX 


.  i'agc 

RIephas     Americanus    of    the    Ozarks 640 

Elevated   Railroads   Checked   liy    Constitution..   214 

Eleven    Episodes   of    Kansas    City^ 930 

Eliot,   Rev.    W.    C...   Protest  against   Dueling...   204 

Emancipation     Prayer     by 203 

On     War    Assessments 792 

Eliot.    Henry    W.,    Historical    Sketch    by 985 

Elliott.    R.    S.,    Agricultural    Experiments    by.  .  416 
Ely,    Rev.    Dr.,    Unfortunate   Investments    by..     89 

Emancipation    Movement    in    Missouri 674 

Emancipation,   Failure  of   First   Plan 200 

Embassy    of   Six    Nations,    Shepard   on 447 

EmcfKcncy     Hospitals    of    18*11 78.S 

Emigrant  Aid  Society  of   Massachusetts 138 

Emmerson.  Judge  Rurr.  of  the  Osage 952 

Emmons,    Benjamin,    Popularity    of 116 

Engelmann,  G.  J.,   Foremost  Scientist 360 

Enquirer,  St.   Louis,  on   New   Boundaries 34 

Enrolled   Militia,  SchofieM's  Relations  to 821 

Ensign    Tavern    at     Mcdill 142 

E    Pluribus   ITnum.    Missouri   Translation   of...   350 

Erin    Benevolent    Society    in    1820 20 

Ethics  of   the  Shyster,   John    F.   Philips  on....  953 

Evaporators,    Homemade,    in    the    Ozarks 543 

Eversmann,    Louis,    German    Slaveholder 308 

Evolution    of   the    Missouri    Factions 820 

Ewing  Brothers  on  Opposing  Tickets 625 

Rev.    Finis   Ewing,   Story   of   Ear    Bells 170 

Expeditions    from    St.     Louis 428 

Explorations    of    Marvel    Cave 575 

Exposition.    St.     Louis.    1883 .'. 440 

Extermination    of    the    Missouris 459 

F 

Fabius    River,    Origin    of    Name 87 

Fagg,  J.  T.   M.,  on  Meeting   Houses!... 162 

On    Campaign    of    1849 616 

Story    of    Abernathy * 235 

On    Blair-Price    Feud 207 

Fanatical    Pilgrims 176 

Farewell   to   My   Harp,   by   George  W.   Dunn.  .   252 

Farmer,s    in    Constitutional    Convention 200 

Farmers'   Alliance   in    Missouri,    1887 648 

Farmers'   Hotel,  Kansas   City 138 

Farrar,    B.    G.,    on    Fremont's    Delay 766 

/Recollections    of   1861 ;...;....  709 

On     Camp    Jackson -, 700 

Farrar-Graham     Ruel 260 

Fast   Stage  Line  in    1840 38ft 

Fathers  of  the   State,    Shoemaker  on 191 

Fayette,    Famous    Tavern    at 117 

Climax    of    Benton's    Campaign    at 621 

Featherbeds  Needed  in   Missouri 306 

Federal   Relations.    Report   on,   in    1861... 718 

Federal   Farm   Loan   Bank  Given   St.   Louis.  .  .  .   434 

Fenwick-Crittenden     Duel 260 

Ferry  Tolls  When  Missouri  Became  a  State.  .  .      10 
Fcnton,   on    the   Meramec.    Early   Times   of.  ...     94 

Field,    Eugene,    Campaigning   with    Schurz 62S 

Fife.   Rev.    Robert   B..    Bible   Student 975 

Filley,   O.    D..   Committee  of  Public   Safety 700 

On     Sabbath     Observance 1006 

Filley,    Chauncey    I.,    Elected    Mayor 681 

l''inancial    Honor    of    St.    Louis 420 

Finkclnburg,   G.   A.,  on   Power  to   Fix   Charges  25.'t 

First    Catholic    Church    in     Missouri 91 

First    Cathedral,   Comer    Stone    Laid 968 

First    Constitution,   Framers   of    1^^ 

Features     of 192 

Tucker's   Idea   of    14 

First    Methodist    Church   in   St.    Louis 06 

First    Methodist    Sacrament   in   Missouri 173 

First    Missouri    Railroad..... 302 

First     Missouri     Campmeeting 147 

First    Presbyterian    Church    Steeple 985 

First    Steamboat    on    the    Missouri 337 

First    Steamboat    to    Reach    St.    Louis 3.36 

First     ITnitarian     Church 985 

"First  Thirty"   in    Building  of   St.   Louis 419 

Fiske,  John,  on    Camp  Jackson 723 

Flagg,    Edmund,    on    Steamboat    Salute 342 

On    Indian    Mounds    4.50 

On   Prehistoric   Footprints 557 

Flag    Presentation    to   Gentry's    Rangers 120 

Flatheads,    Plea    for    Missionaries 511 

Fletcher.    Governor    T.    C.,    Messages    of 407 

Flint.    Rev.    Timothy,    on    Duels 282 

Florida.    Historic    Tavern    at 121 

Folk,   Governor  Joseph    W.,  on   Missouri 109 

Folklore    of    Missouri 560 


Page 

Follenius,    Paul,    Gjcsscn    Society    Leader 305 

Footc,  J.  D.,  on  Railroad  Building 31*8 

Fordyce,    S.    C,    Railroad    Problem    Solved    by.  401 

Fort  Charles.  Planned  Rival  of  St.   Louis 423 

Fort  Osage,  as   Brackcnridgc  Saw    It 331 

Fort    Osage    in    1820   10 

Forts  of  Settlers  along  the   Missouri 481? 

Fourth  of  July,  1822,  at    Murphy's  Settlement.  17 

Fourth  of  July  Toasts,  1820 47 

Fourteen    Wild    Turkeys   at    One  ,Shot 867 

Fowke.    Gerard,   on    Name  of   Arrow    Rock.  ...  78 

Francis,    D.    R.,    on    World's    Fair    Motive 419 

Frank,  Nathan,   Authority  on   Bankruptcy    Law  245 

Franklin  at   Its   Best 13 

Franklin,    Arrival    of    First    Steamboat 337 

Value   of    Lots   in 8 

Freaks    of    Cave    Temperature 588 

Fredericktown,    Battle    of 767 

Freedmen.   War    Problem   of 780 

Free   State   Hotel.    Kansas  City 138 

I-'ree    Soilers    of    Smilhville 187 

Fremont    and     the     Blairs 773 

French.    Charles,    Dueling    Experience   of 127 

Fremont's    Failure   to    Support    Lyon 766 

Fremont,   John    C,    Experiment    with    Camels..  138 

Frost,  General  D.   M..    Report  to  Governor.  .  .  .  705 

Frost,   D.    M.,  on   Confederate    Missouri    Policy  860 

Fruitville,    Experiment    of  J.    L.    Torrey 537 

Fulton,   Robert,   Memorial  to   Legislature 335 

Fusion    Success    in    1852 625 


Gamble.  H.  R.,  John  F.   Philips  Tribute  to 820 

Gantt.   T.    T.,    Classical    Learning   of 240 

Sued   for   Carrying   Challenge 296 

Gardner.    Rev,   J,    E.,    Persecution   of 990 

Gardenhire,  J.    B.,  John    F.    Philips  on 043 

Garrett,   Rev.    Dr.    D.   C.,   Centennial   Sermon .  .  076 

Ciarraghan,    Rev.    G.    J.,    Catholic    Beginnings.  .  088 

Garrison,  C.    K..   Missouri   Pacific  Sold  by 411 

Garrison,    D.    R.,   Railroad    Builder 388 

Gassaway,    Rev.    S.    S.,   Killed   by    Explosion...  981 

Ciasconade    River,    Prehistoric    City    on 455 

Ga7ette,    Missouri,    on    Dueling 270 

On    Statehood    Celebration    44 

Comments    on    Benton 191 

Motto     of 113 

Gentry.   General    Richard.    P'irst   House   of 120 

Gentry,  North  Todd.  Stories  of  Burckhartt 256 

Gentry,  General   Richard,  Amateur  Surgery  of.  382 

Gentry  Tavern.   Rangers  Start  for  Florida 120 

Geology    of    Marvel    Cave 598 

Goode,    George    W.,    Friend    of    Reynolds 601 

German   Influertce.    Editor   Cobb  on 302 

German     Loyalty     .318 

fiermination    of    Kansas    City 880 

German  State  in   Missouri,  Vision  of 301 

German     Settlement    Society 309 

Gcyer,   Henry   S.,   Cross-examination   by 242 

Ghost    Pond   on   Old    W^ilderness   Road 374 

Gibson.   Rev.  J.   C,  Church    Trial  of 172 

flibson,    Charles,   on    Montesquieus 135 

fJiddings.   Rev.   Salmon.   1200  Miles  Ride  of...  063 

Giessen     Society.    Coming    of 305 

Gijlis    House,    Kansas    City ■ 138 

Glenn    House.    Paris    127 

Glennon.    Archbishop,    John    J 998 

Glohe-De^mocrat,    Genesis   of 296 

The    Great   Controversy    in 996 

r.lover,    Samuel   T.,    Fin^d    for   Contempt 245 

Committee   of   Public   Safety 709 

Gold,    Story   of    Missourians'    Hunt   for 53.'! 

Gould,   Jay,   Purchase  of   Missouri    Pacific 414 

"Gourd    Head"    Prescott    119 

Gonter.   Charles   G.,  Turkey    Story   of 883 

Government  Recognition  of  Statehood  in  1820.  58 

Giiadaloupe.    Emigres    of 319 

Guibor's    Battery,    Organization    of 757 

Gundlach,  J.    H.,    Manuscript   Collection   of....  41 

Gunpowder,   Manufacture  of,  in   Pulaski 100 

Gwin,  Rev.  James,  on  Pioneer  Campmeeting...  148 

Gradual    Emancipation,    Lincoln    on 681 

Graham,   Major   Richard,   on   Cholera  Times...  663 

*Trand    Gulf    in    Oregon    County 605 

Grand    River    Navigation     .348 

Grand    River   Country,   First   Campmeeting....  154- 

Grand  Jury   Warning  on   Indian  Troubles 482 

Granfte   Potato   Patch    -r 568 

Grant's  Application  to  be  County  Engineer....  779 


INDEX 


1015 


Page 

Grant,  U.  S.,  in  Know  Nothing  Lodge 660 

Discovered    by    Lincoln    777 

Grape   Culture   in    Missouri R18 

"Gratifications"    Maintained    Peace     4H4 

Gray,  Alexander,   CirciMt  Judge 222 

Greer    Spring,    Flow   of 301 

Great   American   Desert,   Discovery  of 108 

Great    Seal    of    M  issouri 195 

Greeley,  C.  S.,  Western  Sanitary  Commission..   784 

Greeley,     Horace,    on     Missouri 1000 

Greenback    Party   of   Missouri,   1S78 047 

Green,    Duff,    Fight    with    McGirk 115 

Green    Head   Flies,   Pest   of   the    Pioneers 80 

Greenwood,  P.  F.,  Pioneer  in   Keligious  Life...   172 

Greer    .Spring   Canyon,    Grandeur   of -.599 

Grimsley,  Thornton,  for  Ten-hour  Day 427 

Ground   Breaking  Ceremonies,   I'irst   Railroad..   'V.iZ 

H 

Haff,   D.    J.,  on    Kansas   City's   Park    Law f'O.T 

Ha-Ha-Tonka,    Wonders    of    0(16 

Haley,    Rev.    Thomas    P..    Evangelist 975 

Hall,    lames,   Letter  of   Audubon   to... 122 

Hall,  Willard  P.,  and  U.  S.  Supreme  Bench...   203 

Loyal    Address    of    818 

Hall,    William    A.,    on    Secession 718 

Halleck,    General    W.    H.,   on    Sherman 797 

Halstead,  J.   S.,   Missouri  Centenarian 141 

Hamlin,   C.   W.,   Member  of  Congress 81 

Hamilton,    First    House    in 100 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  in  Dred   Scott  Case 246 

Ham.   Rev.  Jabez,   Militant   Spirit   of 169 

Hambach,    Dr.,    on    Elephas    Americanus .549 

Hammer,    Dr.    Adam,    Controversialist 320 

Hannibal   Cave   Mystery 604 

Hannibal  at  the  Mouth  of  Bear  Creek 94 

Hannibal,    Blair's    Emancipation    Speech   at....   641 

Hannibal  and  St.  Toseph,   Beginning  of 400 

"Hards"   and   "Softs"   Campaign   of  1844 613 

Harmony    Mission    in    Bate§    County lOO 

Harney,  General  W.  S.,  Description  of 723 

Removal    of 744 

Harrigan,    Lawrence,   on    Belief    in    God..- ]008 

Harrison,  J.  A.,  Debate  with   E.    S.   Scarritt...   252 

Haswell,  A.  M.,  on  Ozark  Water  Power 361 

On    Fruit   in    Ozarks 54 

Hawks,    Bishop,    Lynching   Averted   by 136 

Hawks,    Cicero    Stephen,    Bishop   of    Missouri..   974 
Hayden,    Peyton    R.,    Dueling    Experience    of.  .   127 

John    F.    Philips    on 946 

Individuality    of     241 

Hearst,   George,  Senator  from   California 81 

Heathcrly    War     511 

Hemp  Growing,  Platte  County's  Distinction...      68 

Hempstead,  Edward,  Advice  to  Brother 221 

Henderson,  J.    B.,  on   Liberal   Movement 644 

Reminiscences    by     677 

Invasion   of  Callaway   by...., 76 

Hen    Egg    Revival 173 

Henry   County^  Originally   Rives 73 

Henry   County,   Order  of  County   Court 85 

Henry,  Judge  John   W.,   Pioneering  of 233 

Herculaneum's    Commercial     Hopes 94 

Herd    of  Two    Hundred    Elks 872 

Hermann,    Founded    by    German    Society iiOQ 

Hickory    Nut    Cargoes   by    River 348 

Hickory    Grove    Camp    Meeting ,....    180 

Hicks,    Russell,    Eccentricities    of 950 

Hillis,  Rev.  N.  D.,  on  Mississippi  Valley 109 

Hillgaertner,    George,    German    Journalist 313 

Hill,   Walker,    Farm   Loan   Committee 434 

Hill,   Britlon   A.,  Champion  of  the   People 246 

Hill,   David    B.,   on    Perpetual    Motion 242 

Hinchey,   Allen,    on    Beckwith    Collection 449 

On    Louis    Houck's    Experience 132 

Legend   of   Mina   Sauk   by 556 

Hinkson   Creek,    E.   W.   Stephens'   Story   of 128 

Hitchcock,    Henry,    and    Supreme    Bench 263 

Hodden    Gray,   Cloth   from   Nettles 24 

Hodges,  W.  R.,  West-em  Sanitary  Commission,   787 
Hodgen,    John   T.,    Western   Sanitary    Commis- 
sion    78J 

Hog   Backs  of   the   Ozarks 529 

Hog    Creek,    Immersions    in ; 172 

Holcombe,   R.   I.,   Accounts  of  Indian  Wars...  482 

Civil    War    in    Missouri 792 

On    Pioneer    Preachers    163* 

Holding    the    Wire,    1870 673 

Holland,   John,   First   Settler  in   Linneus 6611 

Holman,  M.  L.,  on  Missouri  Water  Power. . . .  361 
Holmes,  W.    H.,  on   Mastodon   Graveyard 555 


Page 

Holweck,    Rev.    F.   G.,   Scholarship  of 1002 

Home  Guards  Mustered  into  U.  S.  Service 724 

Home  Made  City,   Distinction  of  Sf.   Louis 4.35 

Home  Rule  Taken  from  St.   Louis 720 

Honey    Hunting,    .Secret   of 880 

Honey   Harvests   of   the   Pioneers 67 

Honey    War.    in    Rhyme ,   65 

Houck,    Louis,   on    Great    Seal .: 197 

Tavern     Experience    of »....    132 

On    Beckwith    Collection ,  448 

How,  John,  Committee  of  Public  Safety 709 

Howard,    Mother    of    Counties 76 

Howell    County,    Fruit    Culture    in 544 

Hudgins,    Prince   L.   Amnesty   to 823 

Hughes,    Bela   M.,  of  Platte,  Bar 2.10 

Hughes,  General   A,    S.,  on   Platte   Purchase...     68 

Hunters  of   Missouri    863 

Hunting    Match    in    Callaway 868 

Huntsville,    Bush    Fighting    Near 814 

Hunt,   Judge    Ezra,   Handwriting  of 255 

Hutchinson,  Rev.   Dr.   E.  C,  on  David 981 

Hus,    Henry,  on   Origin   of   Mounds 454 

Hyde,  William,   on    Polk,  Rollin.s  and  Stewart.  632 

Narrative  of  l.Sfif) 634 

On     Emancipation     Movement 674 

Hydro-Electric    Opport-unities    in    Missouri 361 

Hyde  Park,  Object  Lesson  to  Kansas  City....  900 

I 

Icarians,    Cabet's    Followers    in    Missouri 322 

Ice    Bridges    of    1874 107 

lies.   Major   Elijah,   Explorations  by 8 

Illinois    Given    Precedence    in    Statehood 31 

Illumination    of   St.    Louis    for   Statehood 43 

Immigration,   The   Rising  Tide  of,   in   1817 13 

Immigration,    A    Torrent    of,    in    1816 .30 

Immersion     Incidents     155 

Inauguration   of    First    State   Government 114 

Independence,   First  Steamboat  on  the  Missouri  3.37 

Indians,    Annual    Visits   to   St.    Louis 468 

Indian    Campmeeting    ' 5-12 

Indian    Battle    near    Waynesville 100 

Indian    Creek,    Traditions    of 104 

Indians'    Hunt   for    Bargains   at    Liberty.  ...!!. '130 

Indian    Mounds,    Long's    Description    of 450 

Indian    Treaty   of   1812 467 

Individual    vs.    Corporation    in    Constitution 214 

Industrial    District    of   St.    Louis 434 

"Infamous"   Test   Oath,    Legal  Test   of 204 

Injunction,  Remedy  by.  Judge  Sherwood  on...   2.52 

Iowa    Line,    Controversy    over 64 

Irop   Clads,  First  in   Naval   History 775 

Irving,  Washington,  Charmed  at  Loutre  Lick..   118 

Itinerating  in  Missouri,  Rev.  R.   R.   Witten 161 

Intelligencer,  Franklin,  on  Most  Popular  Sport     24 

J 

Jackson,    Governor,    Proclamation    of   Secession  7.53 

Message    in    1861    702 

Jackson     Resolutions    of     1849 !!.!!!   615 

Jackson,    Benton's    Vitriolic    Speech    at....!..!   617 

Jackson,  C.   F.,   Campaign   of  1860 634 

Jackson   County's   Distinguished    Bar 256 

January,   D.   A.   and   T.    T.,   Coming  of 384 

Jennings,    Edmund.    Pioneer    518 

Jefferson  County,  Grand  Jury  to  Congress....  33 
Jefferson,  Thomas,   Apprehensions  of 39 

On    Action    of    Congress 4 

Jeffrey,  A.  C,   Historian   of  the  Ozarks 519 

Jenkins,  Hunter  Ben,   Reminiscences  by 348 

"Jerks,"   Bodily  Agitations  at   Campmeetings. .   156 

Jerusalem,     Missouri      95 

"Jigger  Boss"  on  the  Railroad  Grade..!...!!  399 
Jog    into   Arkansas,    Stypes    Explanation    of . .  . .     71 

Johnson  County's   Reign   of  Terror   Ended 611 

Johnson,   Horace   B..   in   Test   Oath   Case 167 

Johnson,  President  Andrew,  in  St.   Louis 137 

Johnson,   Waldo  P.,  John   F.   Philips  on 953 

Tones,  J.  F.,  Home  Made  Cannon  of 76 

Journalism    of    Civil    War   Times 710 

Journalism,  Missouri,  The  First  Cartoon  in....     44 

The    First    Extra    in 43 

Judson,    F.    N.,    Legal    Literature   of 245 

Liberal    Republican    Movement 644 

Just    Compensation,    Constitution    on 214 

K 

Kahoka's    Experience    with    Muldrow 90 

Kain,  .-\rchbishop.   Promoter  of  Cathedral 1002 


lOlG 


INDEX 


Page 

Kansas    City,    First    Impressions 890 

Boulevard    Policy    of    002 

(lencsis    of    S87 

I*optil.ition     Increases    of 924 

rionccr    Church    of 988 

I'ncle     Fohn    Mimms'    Hotel 125 

Kansas    City    Court   of   Appeals 250 

Kansas   Crty    in    Eleven    Episodes 928 

Kansas  City  in   1S55  and  1859 889 

Kansas  City,    Mo.,   and    Kansas   City,   Kan 87 

Kansas    City    Slill    in    the    Making 927 

Kansas     City's     Hoom     Period 894 

Kansas    City's    Model    Park    Law... 905 

Kansas,    When    Missourians   Voted   in 624 

Kavanagh,   W.   K.,   Clayton    Ax   Presented  by..  560 

Kavser,   Alexander   and    Henry,    Coming   of....  318 

Keil.   William,   Head   of   Bethel    Colony 323 

Keithley,    Parson,    Mysterious    Hoard   of 536 

Kemper,  Bishop,  on   Invitation  to  Lutherans...  315 

Kennartl,   S.   M.,   Head  of  St.   Louis   Exposition  44<) 

Kcnnett,    Ftrd.,    in    Brown-Reynolds    Duel 694 

Kcnner    of    Paudingville    131 

Kennonsville's     Bad     Name 95 

Kenrick,  Archbishop,  Appeal  for  Peace,  1861..  706 

Activities    of     976 

Kentuckians    Distinguished    from    Tennesseans.  25 

Keokuk   and    Blackhawk   at   St.    Louis 470 

Kessler.    Cieorge    E.,    Genius    of 907 

On    Ideal    City    Plan 925 

Kickapoo,     My     Beautiful     98 

Kimmswick,   Mastodon   Graveyard  at 555 

Kinderhook   County   Changed   to   Camden 73 

Kindly   Traditions   of   Slave   Days 663 

Kingdom    of   Callaway,    Distinction    of 75 

King  Frederick  William  in   Missouri   Court....  258 

Kingston,    Name   Day   Celebration  of 99 

Kitchen.    Thomas,    Dry    Land    Baptist 170 

Kirksville,   Named   by   a  Turkey   Dinner 86 

Klein,    Jacob,   on    Mandatory    Injunction 255 

Knob    Noster,    Topographical    Freak 568 

Knous    Ax    of    the    Pioneers 14 

Know    Nothings,   Rise  and   Decline   of 629 

Know    Nothing   Troubles    in    Missouri 317 

Koch,    Dr.,    Discovery   of   Mastodons   by 551 

Kossuth,    Visit    of 302 

Krekel,   Arnold,  Definition  of  Law  by 259 

Krum.  John  M.,  Mayor  of  Alton 660 

Krum,    John    M.    ''Missouri    Justice"    by 246 

Kruni,   Chester   H..   Circuit  Judge 246 

"Kucklebur      Oath"      990 

L 

Lal)badie's    Cave    in    Franklin    County 605 

LaBeaume.  L.  T.,  Timely  Act  for  Montesquieus  136 

Labor   Problem,    First    in    St.    Louis 427 

Lucifer   Matches    Made    in    Hannibal 439 

Lackland,  J.    R.,    Schoolmaster  and  Judge 249 

Laclede.    Pierre,    Early    Life    of 420 

Laclede's    Indian    Policy    457 

Lafayette   County,    Bond    Issues  of 410 

Lafayette,   Visit  to    St.    Louis.   1825 120 

Lafayette  County,  Why  Changed  from  Lillard.  72 

Land    Sales    in    1819 8 

Landm.^rks    and    Legends    549 

Land   of    Bee   Trails,    Forks   of   Grand   River...  878 

Landscape  Theory  of  George   E.   Kessler 907 

Land    Speculations    in    Missouri.    1819 9 

Lane,   William   Carr,   on    St.    Louis.   1821 8 

Larrimore,    H.,    Keynote    Speech    of 648 

Latin   Settlenie,nt    in   Warren    County 305 

Latrobe,   C.  J.,  on   Missouri  Tavern 122 

Laureal.   Edward   de,   Guadaloupe   Movement. . .  320 

I-aw  and  Order  Movement  to  Suppress  Rioting  631 

Law_  Along  the   Osage,  John   F.   Philips  on. 952 

Law's    Delay,    Henry    Lamm    on    Remedies.  .  . .  242 

I^awless.    Luke    E.,    Experiences    of 223 

Laws    of    the    lowas 496 

Ivawrence.    Ouantrell    Raid    on 851 

Low    Salary    Party,   Supreme    Court   on 648 

Lee.    Rev.    Dr.    James    W..    Author 974 

Lee,    Robert    E..    River    Improvement    by 367 

Legal    Classics    of    Missouri 352 

Legal    Literature   of   Missouri 245 

Lehmann,  F.   W.,   Lawyers  of  Roman  Republic  255 

On    Mpnroe    Cabinet    Problem 41 

On    Missouri    Compromise    40 

American    Bar    Association    264 

On     Solemn     Public    Act 57 

Lcighton,   Rev.    Dr..   Impressions,   1837 965 

Lemp,  W.    T..  and   Provident  Association 436 

Learned,  Rev.   J.   C.   Unity   Club 974 


Page 

Leonard,   Abiel,  John    F.    Philips   on 942 

Leonard-Berry    Duel    289 

Legislation    .\gainst    Dueling 286 

Legislature    of   1861,    Personnel    of 704 

Lewis,    S(|uire    Absalom,    of    Bloomington 142 

Lewis,   E.  A.,   on  the  Voice,  of  Law 241 

Lexington,    Mulligan's    Surrender    at 768 

Liberal    Republican     Movement 642 

Liberty    Arsenal,    Seizure    of 727 

Liberty,    Celebration    of    First    Railroad 399 

Liberal     Community    Experiment     324 

Liberty,    Greatest     Revival    at 171 

Lilliput    on    the    Meramec 558 

Lincoln's    Farewell    Message   to   Missourians...  841 

LirK-oln    on    Removal   of   Harney 743 

Lincoln's     Missouri     Problems 822 

Lincoln,   Call   of   Seventy   Missourians  on 825 

,  Lincoln    and    Blair   on    Reconstruction 837 

Lincoln's  Letter  of  Caution   to  Fremont 773 

Lincoln    on    the    Blairs 775 

Lincoln   and    St.    Louis   Whigs 614 

Lincoln    on    Slavery    in    Missouri fV>5 

Lincoln's    Appeal    to    Missourians 678 

Lincoln    County,    Creation    of . .  .  1 23 

First    Tavern    in 122 

Lincoln   Institute,  Samuel  Cupples,  Trustee 682 

Lincoln    County    Forts 476 

Lindley,   Judge  J.   J 2.39 

Link-horn    County,    Clark's   Speech    for 24 

Linn,    The    Road    to 529 

Linn  County,  Court  Day  at  Holland's 85 

Linn,   Senator    L.    F..   for   Platte   Purchase. 67 

On    Dueling    290 

Liquor    Selling,    Sunday    Issue    of 1006 

Lorimier.    Louis.   Indian    Policy   of 464 

Lisa,    Manuel,     Frontier    Diplomat 466 

Lisa,    Manuel.    Methods    of 331 

Litsinger.   Rev.    W.    R.,  Test   Oath   Case 083 

"Little    Red,"    Nickname   of    David    Barton....  187 

Locomotive    .Made   in    St.    Louis 397 

Lockwood,    R.    J.,    Benevolences    of 354 

Long    Expedition,   Great    Expectations   of 107 

Long    Expedition   at    Franklin,   1819 13 

Loutre    I.e;land,    Indian    Attack    on 482 

Lard,   Elder  Moses   E.,  on  Pioneer  Ways 164 

Lost    Treasure   in   the   Missouri    River 344 

Lost    Rivers    of    Missouri 603 

Lost     Treasure     Traditions 571 

Lottery     Enterprises,     Patee    House 128 

Louisiana    Purchase,    First    News    of 35 

Loutre    Lick,   Startling   Phenomena   at 117 

Lovejoy     Tragedy     656 

Love,    Robertus.    on    Tower    Rock HQS 

r.ucas-Benton     Duel     272 

Lucas,  J.  B.  C,   Lament  for  Son's  Death 279 

Lucas    Collection    of    Archaeology 448 

Livingston    Circuit   Court,   First   Term  of 74 

Lutherans.    Coming    of,    1839 315 

Welcome    of,    by    Bishop    Kemper 979 

Lyon's   Plan   of  Campaign 754 

Lyon's    L^ltimatum    to    State    Government 749 

Lyon,    General   N.,   Killed   at    Wilson's   Creek..  765 

Lyon's  Visit  in    Disguise  to  Camp  Jackson....  734 

Lykins.    Mrs.    Johnston,    on    Benton 138 

M 

McAnally,    Rev.    Dr.    D.    R.,    Editor 974 

McCarty  House,  Tohn  N.  Edwards  on 1.39 

McCullagh.   Joseph    B.,   The   Great   Controversy  996 

McDearmont,  W.  S.,  on  Constitution  of  1875.  .  216 

McDougal,  H.  C.  on  Platte  Purchase  Bar 249 

On   Jackson    County    Bar 256 

McDowell.   Dr.    T.    N.,   Cave   Experiment  of 604 

McElroy.  John,  on   General   W.   S.   Harne.y 723 

On    Price's    Leadership     846 

McGirk,    Andrew.    Fight    with    DufT    Green. .  .  .  115 

McHufih,    Tragedy    on    Sandv    Creek 476 

Mclntire,  D.   H..  on   Grand  Jury  Incident 85 

McKendree,    Bishop,    on    Jesse    Walker 149 

McKendree  Chapel,  near  Cape  Girardeau 960 

McKnights  and  Bradys,  Power  in  St.   Louis...  20 

McMenamy.   Rev.    B.   P.,   War   Experience  of...  989 

McNair.    Lilburn   G.,  Boyhood   Job  of 415 

Mcpherson's    Historic   Hotel    Register 128 

McPheeters.    Rev.    Dr.,    Charges    Against 822 

McOuillin.     Eugene,    Author 246 

Maine.    Statehood    Bill    for 40 

Majors,    Russell    and    Waddell 377 

Mamelles,  Landmarks  in  St.  Charles  County.  .  .  566 

.Mammoths    Found    at    Carl   Junction 550 


INDEX 


1017 


Page 

Mansion    House,    Where   Constitution   Was 

Framed    • JJS 

Mann's    Tavern,    in    Bowling    Green l^H 

Marion  City  Resolutions  on  Slavery 606 

Mark   Twain's    Baby    Wardrobe 1^1 

Mark   Twain's  Cave,   Mystery  of 604 

Marriage  Ceremony  by   Judge   Barton 187 

Martin,    Isaac,    Campaign    Speech    of «lrf 

Marmaduke,  John  S.   Advice  of  Father 74^ 

Marshall,   John,    on    Powers    of    Congress 198 

Mastodon    Reds    at    Kimmswick 549 

Marion   City,   Original   of   Dickens'   Eden 87 

Mason,  W.  T.,  on  Slavery  in  St.  Louis 666 

Material    Benefits    of    World's    Fair.    1904 442 

Meyer,    August    R.,    on    Kansas    City 901 

Medicinal    Waters    of    Missouri 305 

Mechanics    Fair,    l.«41    439 

Meeting    Houses   of   Pioneer   Missourians 162 

Memoir  of  Thomas  C.   Reynolds 842 

Memorial    for    Statehood,    A    Masterly 30 

Mennonites,    Prosperity    of 325 

Meramec   .Spring,   Flow  of 362 

Merchants'    Exchange,    Record   of   Giving iSS 

Marvel    or    Marble    Cave J^5 

Martin,   Zadock,    Baron    of    Platte l-iO 

Marvin,   Bishop  E.   M.,  First  Sermon  of 167 

Marvin.   Bishop   E.   M.   Dr.   Caples  on lo4 

Methodism,   Beginning  in   St.   Louis 6 

Methodist    Ministers    Proscribed 666 

Meramec,    Alias    Catfish IW 

Mexican    Trade   in   1817 20 

Miamis,    Campaign    Against 490 

Millerites    in     Missouri 176 

Mifitary    Bill    before    Legislature,.... 713 

Mills,  Mayor,   Solonronic  Decision  of 255 

Mimms,  Uncle  John,  Border  Peacemaker 125 

Mina  Sauk,   I-egend  of 556 

Mineola,    Celebration    in    1012 119 

Ministry   of    Religion    in    St.    Louis 321 

Minute   Men,   Surprise   Planned   by 716 

Minute    Men    of    1861 709 

Mission   Institute   Burned   by   Missourians 666 

Missouri   a    State   in   1820 44 

Missouri   and   U.   S.   Supreme   Bench Mi 

Missouri  and  the  Confederacy,  Reynolds  on....   843 

Missouri   Bar  .\ssociation    Organized 257 

Missouri    Belle    and    Buttermilk 348 

Missouri    Compromise    5 

Missouri    Compromise,   Test    Case   of 671 

Missouri   Campaign  Song  of  1840 611 

Missouri    Climate.   John    Bradbury    on 106 

Missouri   Commodores,   Some  Notable 354 

Missouri    Campaigns    oil 

Missouri    Geography    63 

Missouri     Hotel     114 

Missouri  Historical  Society  Collections 447 

Missouri    Indian    Wars 475 

Missouri    in    1861 701 

Missouri   in   Civil  War  Records 798 

Missouri   Judicial    System,    History    of 235 

Missouri    Lutherans,   Growth   of 316 

Missouri,    Land    of    Religious    Freedom .315 

Missouri    Movement    of    186.'? 824 

Missouri    Nomenclature     103 

Missouri     Oratory,    Neal     Gilliam's 68 

Missouri     River    'Traditions 350 

Missouri   Senators,  Salaries  before  Admission..     56 

Missouri    .Shibboleth    126 

Missouri    Slaves,    Treatment    of 661 

Missouri    State  Guard,   Organized   in   1861 741 

Missouri,    Typical    .American    State 110 

Missouri,    the    Civil    War   Kindergarten 780 

Missouri    Warfare,  John    F.    Philips   on 801 

Missourians    and    Transcontinental    R.    R 41.t 

Missouris,  The,  at  Founding  of  St.  Louis 437 

Missouri's   Bethesdas   365 

Missouri's     Big     Four 938 

Missouri's    First    Extra 43 

Missouri's    First    Electoral    Vote 50 

Missouri's    Mineral    Waters.    Future   of 366 

\fissouri's    Odd    Case    in    Court 236 

"Missouri's    Struggle    for   Statehood,"    Shoe- 
maker        191 

Missouri's    Topographical    Freaks 568 

Missouri's     Underworld 573 

Missouriopolis.    Suggested   for  Capital 192 

Missourium    Teristocolodon,    Dr.    Koch's 551 

Mob    at    Boone's    Lick ^..   189 

Mob  Thwarted  in  Montesquieu  Case 135 

Moody.   J.   G.,  against  Test   Oath 249 

Monegaw's    Mausoleum     599 


Page 

Montesano,  Indian  Town  at 457 

.Mt.ntcsquicu   Tragedy    t 135 

Montgomery,  Three  County  Seats  of...... 82 

Montgomery    t'ounty,    Indian   Tragedies   of....  483 
Montgomery  County  Grand  Jury  on  Statehood.     33 

-Nlonroe,   James,    Missouri's  Vot'e   for 51 

Proclamation    of    Admission _ 29 

Monroe    Cabinet    on    Missouri    Compromise.....     41 

.Monroe,  Rev.   .Andrew,  Tavern  of 119 

Moral    Standards  of   Missouri,   Dr.   Niccolls. .  .  .1007 

Morals    of    St.    Louis,    1S21 8 

Morgan    County's    \'aried    Caves 606 

Morrison,    Thomas,    Life    Work   of 1004 

.Mount    Xebo.   "The    Big   Meeting"  at 173 

Mounds,    Geological    Theory    of 454 

Mountain    Trade,   Attempted    Revival   of 356 

.Moving   Days   of    County    Seats 77 

.Mysterious    Tomb    in    Pettis    County 486 

Mysterious    Cave    Noises    582 

Musick,   J.    R.,   Tavern    Story   of 127 

.Municipal    Problems   and    Boulevards 918 

Museum   of   Governor   William   Clark 468 

Murder    Rocks    on    Pine    Mountain 568 

Mullanphy.  Judge  Bryan,  on   Court   Etiquette..   233 

.Muldrow,    William,    Pioneer   Promoter 87 

Muldrow,    William,    Slavery    Troubles    with 664 

\Uiench,    Friedrich,    Leader   of    Latiniers 305 

.Mulberry    .Sellers,    .Missouri    Prototype   of 88 

.Murphy's    Settlement,    Later    Farmington 17 

.Muster   Day  at    Franklin,  in   1817 ». .      15 

N 

Napton,  W.  B.,  Instructions  to  Carpenter 241 

Napton.    W.    B.,  John    F.    Philips  on 950 

Nashville,    Philanthropic    Prospectus   of 93 

Nash,  Ira  P..  Challenge  to  G.   S.  Tuttle 293 

Nat-wye-thiums,    Marvelous    Conception    of. .  . .   330 

Native   American    Movement,    1844 1007 

National    Capital    Removal   .Agitated   in   1845...    199 

Nature's  Tavern   in    St.   Charles   County 117 

National    Hotel,    Bill   of   Fare   in   1860 139 

Navigation  on  the  Missouri,  1811 331 

Navigation  of  White  River 359 

Neal   Gilliam's  Map 68 

Negotiations    to    Enter    Confederacy 847 

Negro    Farmers   of    Missouri 683 

Negroes,    Number   of,   in    1821 24 

Negro  "Taxpayers  in    Pioneer   Days *....  662 

Nelson,   Rev.    Dr.    David,   Anti-Slavery  Acts...  665 

Neosho.    Clear,    Cold    Water 98 

Neosho,  Meeting  of  Legislature  at &47 

Ne   Plus  ritra.  Town   Boom  of _  90 

New   Constitution   Movement,  1920 215 

Newsletter,    .\rchbishop    Kenrick's    Lectures...   994 

New    Madrid   Titles 233 

New    Madrid    County,    Prehistoric    City    in 455 

New   Party   Movements  in   Mj_ssouri 647 

Newspaper    Enterprise    in    1870 843 

Newspaper  Career  of  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy 656 

Newton   CTounty,    First   Circuit   Court  of 241 

Neville,   H.  Clay,  on   Poole  Expedition 634 

Niangua    Dropped    for    Dallas 73 

Niccolls,  Rev.    Dr..   Centennial   Sermon 974 

On   German   Churches    321 

Tribute    to   Catholics    997 

Niles  Register,  Statehood  Conditions 49 

Nitre  in   Missouri  Caves ^8 

.\orthwest     Confederacy     Proposed 848 

Norton  Elijah  H.,  Sketch  of 249 

Compensated   .■\bolishment    680 

In   1S49   Campaign 622 

On    Constitution    of   1875 212 

North    River,   First   Wagon   to   Cross 23 

North    St.    Louis,    Plans  of    Founders   of 424 

Northwest    Pivot    Man,   Daniel   Ashby 495 

Nudarches,  Former  Name  of  the  Missouris 458 

Nunc   Pro  Tunc  before  Judge  Emmerson 953 

O 

Oath    of    Loyalty    in    1865 2^ 

Observer,   St.    Louis,  Attacks  on   Slavery 6.'>9 

O'Fallon,    Benjamin,    on    British    Intrigues 494 

O'Fallon,   John,   on   Railroad    Investment 894 

Office   Holding,   Isaac   H.   Sturgeon  on 132 

O'Hanlon,   Father,    Editor   of   Newsletter 994 

Ohio  and   Mississippi,  Subscription  to 387 

"Old    Alexie"    Bellissime J21 

Old    ,'\ntioch,    CumberK-ind    Presbyterian 150 

Old  Chariton,  C.    I.   Cabell's  Recollections 83 

Oldest    Commercial    Trading   Body 429 


1018 


INDEX 


Page 

Old  Frf edom  Baptist  Church 153 

Old  Ncbo,  First   Baptism  at ,171 

"OM  Reliable"  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph 400 

Old   Wilderness   Road 874 

"Old    Sanitary,"   James    E.    Yeatman 787 

One-Eyed    Sioux,    Friend   of   Missourians 464 

On    'Change,    Genesis   of 429 

One  Thousand   Caves   in    Missouri C18 

One  Thousand   Offices  Vacated 835 

Original   Charters  of   Missouri    Railroads 404 

Origin  of  Platte  Purchase,  Switzler 67 

Orr,   Sample,   Amazing   Campaign  of 634 

Osage   County's    Missourium   Tcristocolodon. . ..  551 

Osage   County,  Thrift   of 530 

Osages.   Deed  of  Chouteau  Springs  by 463 

Osage  Navigation,  Tradition  of J 3^ 

Osage,   One  of   Vanished  Towns 83 

Osage  War,  Joseph   C.   McCoy  on 506 

Ousting  Ordinance,   Armed    Enforcement   of...  834 

Overland  Mail  by  Stage  and  Rail 398 

Owen,  C.    B.,   on   Poole   Expedition 533 

Owen,    General,    Tavernkeeper    at    Fayette 122 

Owens,  General  P.,  Affair  with  lowas 507 

Owen,   I.uella  Agnes,  Greer  Spring  Canyon....  5d9 

Owen,  Mary  Alicia,  on  Missouri  Folklore 5«3 

Owen,  Mrs.   Rush  C,,  Springfield's  Beginning..  97 

Ozarks,   Old   and    New   of 518 

Ozark   Uplift,   W.  Albert   Chapman  on 528 

P 

Parliamentary   Practice   in   Pioneer   Days 115 

Palmer,   "Ringtail   Painter,"   in    Legislature. . . .  115 

Palmyra   Courier   on    Execution 854 

Palmyra   Execution,  Letter  of  Jefferson  Davis.  853 

Panic  Following  Camp  Jackson  Tragedy 740 

Panic   of   1855 4.'?0 

Pants'  Leg  Reservation,  Objection  to 473 

Paris,   Old    Glenn    House   at 127 

Party  Loyalty  in  Missouri  Illustrated 650 

Partridge,    George,   Western    Sanitary    Commis- 
sion       787 

Paschall,  N.,  Ultimatum  to  Claib.  Jackson &34 

Pastorates  in  St.  Louis,  Notable 981 

Patee  House  Lottery 128 

Patton,  N..  Jr.,  on  Independent  Missourians...  32 

Paw  Paw  Militia,  General  C.  B.  Fisk  on 809 

Policy    toward    799 

Paxton,  J.  R.,  First  Missouri  Directory 7 

Paxton,   W.    H.,  at   Robidoux  Tavern 131 

Peaches   and   Apples   in    the   Ozarks 541 

Peavy,   Uncle   Davy,  Tavernkeeper 127 

Peck,  Judge  J.   H.,  Impeachment  Trial  of 223 

Ecoentricities  of    14 

Peck,  Rev.  John  Mason,  on  New  Comers 30 

Peculiar,    Mx).,    Origin    of    Name 100 

Pemiscot   County  Attached   to   Missouri 71 

People's    Party   of   Missouri,   1874 647 

Perils    of    River    Navigation 343 

Perry   County's  Subterranean   World 605 

Perry,  John   D.,  Organizer,  Kansas   PaciBc...  415 

Persimmon   Gap   in   the   Ozarks 605 

Petersburg,  Birthplace  of  Mrs.  John  A.  Logan  95 

Pettis,    Three    County    Seats    of 81 

Pettibone,  Judge,  on  Stokes  Scandal 229 

Pettis-Biddle   Duel    291 

Petitions  for  Statehood,  1817 ' 29 

Pictured    Rocks   of    Boone    County 566 

Pike  County  Pioneer  Religious  Service 174 

Pike  County   Practice,   David   Ball  on 2.51 

Pike,  Zcbulon   M.,  First  Steamboat 3.36 

Pinnacles    of    Saline    County 568 

Pinnacle    Rock,    Montgomery    County 568 

Pioneer    River    Improvement 367 

Pioneer  Railroad   Building 3S>8 

Pioneer    Methodism    in    Missouri 161 

Pioneer    Missouri    Home 91 

Pioneer  Morals,  Problem  of 988 

Pioneer   Presbyterianism,  John   F.   Philips  on..  988 

Pirogue,    Brackenridge's   Journey   by 331 

Philips,  John  F.,  on  Admission  to  the  Bar 259 

On    Convention   of   1861 715 

On    Provisional    Government 818 

Reminiscences  by    941 

Philips,   Tohn  F.   Grand  Old  Man  of  Missouri.  937 

Phelps,  J.    S.,  John   F.   Phihps'   Opinion  of 952 

Phelps  County,  Prairie  Hollows  of 86 

Philosophy  of  Voodooism,   Miss  Owen  on 515 

Plans  to   Seize   St.   Louis  Arsenal 724 

Platform    of    Agricultural    Wheel,    1886 647 

Platforms,  Liberal  and  Radical,  1870 642 

Plat  of  St.   Louis  in  1804 79 


Page 

Platte    Bar    Abroad 250 

Platte  City,   Benton's   Meeting,   1849 622 

Platte   Purchase   Bench  and   Bar 2SiO 

Platte  Purchase  Counties,  Names  Changed 73 

I'latte  Purchase,  Rush  of  Settlers  to 67 

Playground    Policy   of    Kansas    City 909 

Polecat    Creek,    Naming    of 86 

Polar  Star,  Record  Breaking  Trip  of 350 

Police    Commissioners    Created '721 

Policy  of   Armed    Neutrality   in    1861 729 

Policy  of  No  Quarter,    Fisk   on 799 

J'olish    Exiles   in    Missouri 819 

Political    Philosophy   of  Champ  Clark 651 

Polk.   Trusten,   Hyde's  Description  of 6,32 

Pontiac's   Funeral    in    St.    Louis 460 

Pony    Express,    Postal    Charges   on 382 

Poole   Expedition  for   Mythical   Gold 533 

Population  of  Missouri,  August  1,  1820 7 

Pottawatomie   War   in   Shelby * 504 

Park   Boards  of  Kansas  City 902 

Parker,  Isaac  C,  "The  Hanging  Judge" 250 

Park  Law  of  Kansas  City,  Unique   Experiment  923 

Posegate,  F.   M..  on  Boonville's  "Last  Day"..  176 

Post,  Rev.   Dr.  T.  M.,  Coming  of 9S6 

Possum    Policy    in    Missouri 643 

Powell.  Truman   S.,   Shepherd  of   the   Hills 575 

Powers,    Hosea.    Founder   of    Cole's   Camp 104 

Pratt,   E.   G.,   Fined  for  Striking  Glover 245 

Prayer    Book    Church,   The    First 976 

Preamble  of  Solemn   Public  Act 57 

Prehistoric    City    in    Missouri 455 

Prehistoric    Footprints    at    St.    Louis 5,56 

Presidential    Electors,    Missouri's    First 48 

Presbyterianism    in    Missouri 963 

Premium  for  Highest  Yield  of  Corn  to  Negro.  683 

Presidential    Vote   of    Missouri,    I860 702 

Press   and    Dueling   Code 270 

Price-Harney    Agreement,    1861 742 

Price   and    Fremont    Solemn    Agreement 769 

Price's    Army    in    1861 758 

Price,   Sterling,   Quality   of   Leadership 846 

Price,  Judge  John  C,   Newton  County   Court..  241 

Price,   Sterling,   Veto  of   Railroad    Rill   by 408 

Price's    Missouri    Expedition   of  1864 850 

Price,  Sterling,   Blair's  Bitter  Attack  on 297 

Elected   Governor    625 

Primm,   Wilson   on    Meramec   River 105 

Primitive  and    Missionary   Baptists 169 

Prince    of    Wales,    Visit    of 440 

Proclamation    of    Secession,    August,    1861 841 

Provident    Association,    Origin    of 1003 

Property  Rights  of  Married  Women 252 

Provisional    State    Government,    1801 818 

Public   Schools,  German  Support  of 321 

Putnam   and    Dodge    Counties   Consolidated....  72 

Putnam,  Three  County  Seats  of 82 

Q 

OuantreH's    Band,    Captain    Gregg    on 8J>2 

Ouarle.s.  Judge,  Tavernkeeper  in   Paris 122 

Quills  for  Pens,    Ink   from   Bark 25 

R 

"Rackoon."    Possum    &    Co.^ 83 

Radical   Control    in    Missouri,   1864 833 

Radical  Union  Men  in  Washington 834 

Railroad   Convention    of   1830 387 

Railroad    Convention   of   1»49 390 

Railroad   Bonds  Sold  Below   Par 397 

Railroad   Subsidies  by   the   State 408 

Railroad    Rate    Regulation,    Fletcher   on 373 

Railroad   Dispatching   in   Early   Days 411 

Railway   Mail   Service,  Origin  of 401 

Raincy,  T.  C,  on  Name  of  Arrow  Rock 81 

Randolph.  G.   W.,  Retort  to  Judge   Price 241 

Randolph  and  Clay  Duel 41 

Rapp,   George,  on   Prehistoric   Footprints 557 

Rassieur,  Leo,  on  Camp  Jackson  Affair 746 

Rattlesnakes,    Prayer    for 175 

Reckless    Railroad    Bond    Issues.* 410 

Reconciliation    Policy,    Major    Warner's 861 

Reconstruction   in   Nfissouri 817 

Rector,    Surveyor   General,   Mansion   of 115 

Rector,    Stephen.   Threat   about    Statehood 32 

Rector-Barton    Duel     2»0 

"Red    Head,"   the   Indian's   Friend 467 

Reed,   Governor  A.   H.,   Escape  of 138 

Religious  Influence  of  the  Pioneers 167 

Reminiscences  by  Judge  T.  J.  C.  Fagg 126 

Religious    Riot.    1844 1007 


INDEX 


1019 


Page 

Removal    of    Fremont 767 

Rental  of  Slaves  in    Missouri 602 

Republican,    Missouri,    on    Neutrality 730 

Restoration,    Lincoln's    Plan    of ^*~ 

Reynolds-Brown    Challenges    087 

Reynolds,   T.    C,    on    Blair-Price    Feud 207 

Reynolds,   George   D.,  on   Great   Seal 196 

Reynolds,  John   R.,   on   Stuart-Bennett   Duel...  283 

Reynolds,  Matt.  G.,  Campaign  Speech  of 652 

Reynolds,   Thomas    C,    Fate   of 698 

Memoir   of    842 

Address    to    the    Public 703 

Rickey,  Joseph   K.,   on    Low   Salary   Party 640 

Rice.  William  G.,  Tavern  Rates  of. 110 

Richardson,  A.  D.,  Kansas  City  in  1857 888 

Ridpe   Roads   of  the   Ozarks 528 

Riddle,    Rev.    John,    Pioneer    Preacher 162 

"Ridiculous    Blunder"    of   1845 100 

Rights  of  Congress  on  Missouri   Statehood....  lOS 

Right    to    Instruct    Senators 616 

Riot    of   18.53    317 

River  Traffic,   Decline  of 4:i3 

River   Improvement  by   Robert   E.    Lee 307 

River  des  Peres,  Origin  of  Name 105 

Robidoux   Tavern    at    Blacksnake    Hills 131 

Robertson,    George,    Missouri's    Classics 252 

Robbins,   Iie,nry,   on    Bishop   Mclntire 607 

Roark   Peak   and   Marvel   Cave 576 

Rocks  and   Orchards  in   the  Ozarks 544 

Rochdale    Plan    in    Missouri 648 

Rollins,   John    S.,    and   John    Smith  T 120 

Hyde's    Description    of 632 

Rollins-Henderson    Campaign   in    1860 626 

Rosati,  Bishop  Joseph,   Coming  of 967 

Rountree    Family,   Diary  of  the 520 

Rural   School  Tax,   Criticism  of 216 

Ryan,  Bishop  P.  J.,   Stories  of 095 

Ryland,   Judge  John    F.,   Classics  of 949 

Royal.    W.    B.,    Tavern    Sign   of 129 

Rozier,  F.   A.,  on  John   Smith  T 120 

On   John    Smith   T 271 

V 

S 

Sabbath    Keeping    in    the    Ozarks 10f)8 

Sac  and   Fox   Indians,   Platte  Purchase 67 

Saline   County   Court    Days 224 

Salt    River    Tigers.    Audrain    Pioneers 85 

Salt    River,    Tradition    of.* 367 

Salt   Makers,   Perils   of 491 

Sander,    Enno,   on    Engelmann    311 

Sandbars,    Pione.er  Treatment   of 367 

Sanitary    Fair  at   St.    Louis   in   1864 790 

Santa   Fe   Trail,   Customs  of 379 

Santa  Fe  Trail  in  1828 377 

Sarcoxie,    Rising    Sun : 100 

Sayers-Frost    Duel    ." . .    298 

St.  Andrews,  Larger  than  St.  Louis 90 

St.    Charles,    Temfvorary    Capital 116 

St.    Charles   County  Jury   Manifesto .34 

St.    Clair   County,    First   Judges   of 84 

St.  Ferdinand,  Sentiment  on  Statehood 4 

St.   Joseph,    Patee    House   Lottery 128 

St.  Joseph,  First  Train  to  Easton 399 

St.    Louis,    American    City 320 

St.  Louis,  as  John  F.   Darby  Found' It 18 

St.    Louis   Capital   in   Transcontinental    R.    R. . .   415 

St.    Louis,    Census   from    Incorporation 428 

St.  Louis  of  1821,  Character  of 7 

St.    Louis   Crises 4.30 

St.    Louis   County,   First    Bounds   of 71 

St,    Louis   Directory   and   Register,   1821. .  .  .^. .  .        7 

St.    Louis   Fair,   Early  Premiums  of 439 

St.    Louis,    Future    Forecasted    in    1821 8 

Religious     Condition     in 971 

Reputation    in    the    East,    1824 8 

The    Conscience    of 446 

"The    Rome    of    America" 972 

St.    Louis    Under   the   Hill    429 

St.    Louis    University    Archaeology 448 

St.    Michael,    Madison's    Lost   Town 93 

St.   Patrick's  Day  at   Missouri   Hotel 114 

Scarritt,   E.   S.,  Debate   with  J.  A.   Harrison...    2.52 

Scientist,    Foremost    Missouri    311 

Scott.   John,   Five  Duel   Challenges  of 271 

Letter    on    Governor    Clark 56 

Schnlte,    Rev.    F.,    Archaeologist 448 

Schurz,    Cari.    Elected    Senator 200 

Schuyler,    Rev.    Dr.    M.,   Versatile   Career   of...   980 

Siloam   Church,   Battle  of  the  Factions 169 

Second    Baptist   Church,   St.    Louis 972 

Second    Constitutional    Convention 199 


Page 

Senatorial    Election    of    1857 625 

Secret    Conference    on    Slavery    156 

Secret  Correspondence  of  Governor  Jackson...   746 

Secret   Shipment  of   Guns  to  Illinois 728 

See   of    St.    Louis   in    1825 968 

Sedalia,    Beginning   of 99 

"Semper    Paratus,"    Lampton's   Translation 129 

Separation,  St.  Louis  City  and  County 10.3 

Sequel    to   the   Honey    War 66 

Seward,    W.    H.,   on    Missouri    Influence 1010 

Shackelford,  Thomas,  on   Slavery  in  Missouri..   668 

On    Campaigns    614 

Shartel.   C.   M..  on    Missourians lOOl 

Shaw,  Colonel  John,  on  Sink   Hole  Battle 480 

Shelby,   I.   O.,   United   States  Marshal 861 

Shelby    County,    Bethel    Colony    in 322 

Sheridan,    General    Phil,    in    Missouri 780 

Sherman,  W.  T..  Mental  Condition  of 794 

Shields-Lincoln    Duel     284 

Shiloh    Valley    Latin    Settlement 309 

"Shining  Their   Eyes,"   Deer   Hunting 864 

Shoemaker,  Floyd   C,  Struggle  for  Statehood..     30 

On    Benton    at    Taverns 129 

Shooting    Matches   100   Years   Ago 24 

Sigel,     Franz,     Revolutionist 312 

Sigel,   General    Franz,    St.    Louis  Teacher 780 

Silver    Mines.    Traditions    of 571 

Sinking    Creek    in    Shannon    County 605 

Sink   Hole,  Indian   Battle  of 4gO 

"Six    Bulls,"    Country   of Slff 

Skinker,  T.   K.,   on   Ousting  Ordinance 834 

Slave   Auctions   Made   Odious   in    St.    Louis 675 

Slavery    and    After 655 

Slavery,    Power    of    Congress 169 

German    Viewpoint    on 308 

Slavery  in   St.    Louis.   H.    M.   Post  on 666 

Slavery    Issue    in    Illinois 655 

Slavery  in   Missouri,    Economic   Mistake 684 

Slavery    Provisions   in    First    Constitution 190 

Slave   Population.   Rapid   Growth   of,   1819 .39 

Smith,   Abner,    Hunting   Stories   of 868 

Smith,  Cajvin.  Gambling  on  the  Missouri 353 

Smith,  George  R.,  Founder  of  Sedalia 99 

Smith.    Humphrey.    Anti-Slavery    Troubles 188 

Smugglers,   War  on    814 

Snagboat    Williams     171 

Sneed,  T.   L.,  on   Minute   Men 711 

On    Lyon's   Advance 7.56 

Sni    Grove    Campmeeting 153 

Social    Conditions    before    Statehood 16 

Soldan.    F.    L..   Tower  of   Strength 321 

Solemn    Public    Act    Demanded.' 56 

Southern.   W.    E.,   Constitution  of  1875 215 

Spirit    of    St.    Louis 419 

Splitlog.    Colonel,    Rise    of 473 

Springfield's    Beginning    97 

Spring  Houses  in  the  Ozarks 522 

Spurgin.   Rev.   Isaiah,  Bible  Knowledge  of 170 

Starkloff,   Dr.,   on   German    Immigration 367 

States,  Aaron   D.,  on   the  Ozarks 525 

State   Government   Sept.    19.   1820 48 

State   Guard    Mobilized   in    1861 '.   753 

Statehood  Petitions  Presented,  Jan.  8,  1818 30 

State   of    Pike,    Expanse   of 74 

State    Ticket    of    18G0 633 

Steamboating    in    Pioneer    Days 341 

Steamboat    Disasters    343 

Steelville's    Famous    People 81 

Steines.    Hermann.    Diary    of 306 

Stephens,   E.  W.,  Story  of  Hinkson  Creek 128 

( )n    Rev.    David    Doyle 158 

Stephens,    J.    L.,    Friendships   of 245 

Stevenson.  John   D.,  in   Legislature,   1861 713 

Stokes,    Congressman,    on    Compromise 41 

Stokes    Scandal    228 

Stone,    W.    J.,    Iowa    Boundary    Dispute 66 

Stones   and    Strawberries,    Haswell    on 545 

Stories  of  Animals,  John  Bradbury 559 

Stories  of  Fish  and  "Game.  Walter  Williams...   870 

Stribling.   Rev.  W.   C,  Gift  of  Words 179 

Stuart-Bennett    Duel    283 

Sturgeon,   Isaac   H.,   Appeal   for  Troops 711 

Rescue    of    Montesqnieus 132 

Sturgis,  J.   A.,  on   Life  in  the  Ozarks 520 

Stewart,   R.   M..   William  Hyde  on 632 

Sulphur   Spring    in    St.    Louis 559 

Sunday   School   Started  in  St.   Louis.  1820 6 

Supreme    Court    Ousted    by    Military 834 

Supreme   Court   Judges  by    Election 199 

Surrender  of  Camp   Jackson 737 

Sweetlick,    Indian    Battle    of 475 


1020 


INDEX 


Page 

Swilzler.  W.  F..  on  RIair  at  Mexico »i4l 

On   Civil    War   Conditions 800 

Switzerland   of   America,   the  Ozarks 525 

Sutton,   R.   n.,  on   Sunday  School  of  1820 fi 

Sweeny,   Captain.   T.   W.,  at   Arsenal 712 

Swope  Park,  James  Brice  on 923 


Tadpole   Parly,   Explanation   of   Name :...   647 

Tallmadge,  Free  State  Resolution 31 

Tallow    Fork    of    Heeswax 879 

Tanner,   Rev.    Rucker,   Sold   in   Slavery 158 

Taverns,    Reginnings  of   Towns 130 

Tavern   Etiquette  of  John  Graves 121 

Tavern    Creek    117 

Tavern,   Sign  of  t-he  Green   Tree 116 

Taylor.    Daniel    G..    Elected    Mayor 721 

Telegraph,    Alton,    Shields-Lincoln    Duel 286 

Temperance  Reform  in   the  Forties 1005 

Temptation   of    "Jimps"    Dysart 882 

Ten    Hours   Enough    for  Working   Day 427 

Terms  of   Land   Sales.  1819-20 9 

Territorial   (lovernmcnt    Suspended   1820 56 

Test    Oath    Declared    Unconstitutional 206 

Tewanaye,    Execution    of    464 

Text   Books  in   Schools  of  1820 24 

Text    of    Petitions   for    Statehood 30 

The   Center  State 63 

Third     Constitutional    Convention 200 

"The."  Omission  of,  in  Indictments 213 

Thrift    in    the    Ozarks 530 

Tichenor,   C.   O.,  on  "Law   in  Greece" 255 

Toasts  of   Pioneer   Days,   Indorsement   of 3 

Todd,  Judge   David,   on   Court   Dignity 233 

Tompkins,  Judge,  Dignity  of,  in  Court 241 

Torrcy,  J.   L..   Evolution  of  Judicial  System...   235 

Fruitville    Experiment    of     538 

Tower  Rock   and   Tower  Hill 56" 

Townsite    Booms   about    1820 82 

Town    Rivalry    in    1820 25 

Tragedy  of  Camp  Jackson 737 

Traditions    of    Spanish    Treasure 501 

Traditions  of  the  Missouris 458 

Tragedies   of   the   Trail 381 

Trail   Transportation.   Magnitude   of 377 

Transmigration  of  Souls,  Van   Bibber  on 117 

Treat,  Samuel,  Railroad  Convention,   1849 390 

Correspondence    with     Lincoln 778 

Tucker,    Judge    Nathaniel    Beverly 14 

Tucker,    fudge,    on    Great    Seal 195 

Tucker  W.    B..  T-ow  Salary   Platform  of 648 

Turley.  John    D..  Trail    Recollections  of 380 

Turner,    T.   Milton,  on   Negro   Education 682 

Tuttlc.    Bishop    D.    S.,   Coming   of 998 


U 


Ugliest     Man     of    the    Ozarks 527 

LTnaltered    Augsberg    Confession.  .' 315 

Union    League,    Secret    Lodges    of 294 

L'nion    Losses   at    Wilson's    Creek 765 

United    States    Bank,    PettisBiddle    Duel 291 

Universal    Exposition.    1904,    Results    of 441 

''Universal    Yankee    Nation,"   Judge   Tucker   on  14 

L^niversal    Training   Davs,    Rules   of   War 503 

I'npreparedness    of    1861 783 


Van    Bibber's    Philosophy 117 

Vernon    County,    Naming  of 75 

V'est,   G.   G..   on   Convention   of  1801 720 

On    I>rake    Constitution 206 

On    the    Dueling    Code 299 

On    Capture    of    Camp    Jackson 745 

On    Party    Loyalty    in    Missouri 650 

As    j;ohn    F.    Philips    Knew    Him 949 

Political    Barometer    of     653 

And    Captain    Kidd    145 

Veto,     ^rc^'ai^,    on     Salary     Bill 48 

Visions    of    Missouri 1009 

Vernon,   J.    H.,    on    Trail   Tragedy 381 

Vories,    Judge    Supreme    Court 249 

Vote    on    Constitution    of    1875 211 

Voting    on    String    in    Missouri 642 


Page 

\'oodooism     in     Missouri 564 

Voyageurs    of   the    Missouri,    Cooke 332 

W 

Wabash     Railroad,    Original     Plan    of 400 

Waddcll,    Waller    B.,    Santa    Fc    Trail 379 

Wagner,    Judge.     Writings    of 240 

Walker.   John    Hardeman.    Influence   of 71 

Walker.    Jesse,    Pioneer   "Preacher 149 

Walker,    Isaac.    Suit    About    Hotel    Butter 115 

Walkln-Rain,    Model    Letter    of 513 

Walser,  George   IL,    Founder  of  Liberal 324 

Walther.    Otto    U.    and    C.    F.    W 316 

Washburne.    Elihu    B.,    Lucas-Benton    Duel 272 

Washington's    Biriliday,    First    Celebration 20 

WasbinKton     Lewis    Place .^ 125 

Waters     of     Missouri • * 329 

Watchful   Waiting   for  Admission  to  Union....      50 

Water     Sources     in     Neosho 98 

Watson,    Rev.   J.    V.,    Experiences   of 161 

Watson's     Tavern,     Tricks     of 131 

War    Records.     Missouri     in 799 

War    Time   .Speech    of   General    Cockrell 858 

War    Between    Missourians    Declared 750 

War   in    Kansas,    Lafayette   County's    Part 634 

Warreiisburg,     Riot     Over    Blair 641 

Warren    County's   -Caves    598 

Warren    County,    Latin    Settlement   in 305' 

Weather    Record.    1819-20-21     23 

Webb.    J.    R.,    Supreme    Judge   in   California...      81 

Webster,    Daniel,    Reference   to   Meramec 105 

Wedding    Supper   of   Hard    Boiled    Eggs 24 

Welsh,   Rev.   J.    E.,   on   "Jerks" 156 

Weller.    Charles    E..    Reminiscences   by 210 

Westjichc    Post,    Gert    Goebel    in 306 

Westphalia.    A    Missouri    Revelation 533 

Western    Engineer,    Marvelous    Plan   of 108 

Western     Sanitary    Commission    Organized 783 

Weston,    Once   Second    City    of    Missouri 68 

West    Plains,    Center    of    Big    Orchards 544 

West    Plains    Hotel.    Bill    of    Fare 142 

What    Cost    Missourians    $15,000.000 679 

What  Slavery   Meant   in   St.    Louis 666 

Wheelers  of  Missouri.  Membership  of    648 

Wbelpley,    H.    M.,    Archaeologist 448 

Whig    Insult    to    Benton 612 

Whig  Judtres   Legislated  Out   of  Office 227 

Wliig,    Palmyra,    on    the    Honey    War 65 

W'biskey    Barre<l    from    Charless    Tavern 114 

Whitccappers,    Honor    Among    527 

White.    Morgan    B..    at    TeflFerson    City 127 

White     River     Power     Plant 361 

White    River    and    Its    Caves 366 

White    Sulphur    on    the    Osage 366 

Whittier,    John    G.,    Tribute    to    Fremont 770 

Whittlesey.    C.    C.    Standard    Works    of 245 

Wiggins*     Ferry.    Genesis    of 20 

Wilbur.    I.    X..    Railroad   Experiences  of 411 

Wild     Products    of    the    Ozarks 546 

Williams.     Waller,     Trail     Recollections 380 

Campaign      Stories      of 626 

Steamboat    Celebration    338 

On     Missouri's    Wonders     607 

Williams.    Philip.    Will    Case    of 239 

Williamson,    Tudce,    on    Omission    of    "the". . .  .   213 

Wilson.    R.    P.    C,    Conditions   of   1875 212 

Benton     at     Platte    City 622 

On    E.    H.    Norton 249 

Wilson's    Creek.     Battle    of 763 

Wilson.    Robert,    United    States    Senator 250 

Wilson. '  John,    on    Secret    Conference 656 

Winston,    James.    Catnpaign    for    Governor 612 

Winter    of    the    Big    Freeze.    ISoG 101 

Witten.    Rev.    R.    R.,    Experiences   of 161 

Wi^lizenus.    Adolpb.    Adventures    of 312 

Witzig.  J.  J.,  Committee  of  Public  Safety 709 

Wolf    Chasing    in    Northeast    Missouri SiU 

Woodard.    W.    S.,    Experience   in   Baptizing.  .  . .    155 

Woody     Cave,     Tradition     of .571 

Word    Paintings   of    Missouri   by   Duden 307 

Woodson,    A.    M.,    Constitution   of   1875 212 

Wood.    William   T.,    Platte   Memorial 67 

Woods,   Zadock,    Lincoln   County  Tavern 122 

Woodward,   Calvin   M.,  on   Colored  Teachers..   682 
Work       of       Western       Sanitary       Commission, 

1 1  od  gcs     787 

World's    Fair    Expenditures    and    Receipts 440 

Wright.    L'riel,    Anti-Secession    Speech    of 717 

On      Camp     Jackson 738 

Wright,    Rev.    Johnson.    Eccentricities    of 169 


n 


INDEX 


1021 


Page 

Wvandotte    Cave,    Bishop    Mclntire    on SOT 

Wyatt.    John,    Deer    Hunt    of , 598 

Wyeth,    Captain    Nathaniel    Jarvis 330 

Wyman's    Sluscuni     55',i 

Y 

V.    M.    C.   A.,    Evolution   of 1003 

"Yankee"     Smith's     Epitaph 188 

Years    of    the    Ferry 1» 


Page 
Yeatman,    J.     E.,    Western    Sanitary    Commis- 
sion       784 

Yeats  of   the   Whereas    o»3 

Z 

Zinc,     Curious    Theory     of 55^ 

Zuglodon,    Ur.    Koch's     Discovery    of 352 

Zumwalt,   .\dam,    Blackhawk  at    Home  of 479 

Zumwalr.      hicoli.      Hospitality     of 173 


^ 


\ 


1 


"'-wini!ifim«ifffil 


'  "  b   000  975  308 


K 


^. 


V 


m 


\ 


r' 


.^ 


&•*«« 


I 


>■..-. 


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